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[MiguelItUp]

Hey GAF, I was just curious about your take on all this. Scrolling through Twitter this AM, this tweet was thrown in my face...



I don't follow Gene at all, but because I follow video game related material, his tweets come up occasionally. I honestly don't even know his general views or opinions on things either, so forgive me if this is really a "not surprised" moment. I'm fairly certain I remember him having a few of those in the past. But this was the first time I saw someone basically say that The Medium's story is "too much" essentially.

Did any of you feel that way? I feel like the biggest take away I got from The Medium was that the story wasn't great, and the gameplay was even weaker. But I'm curious to know if any of you here had a similar take away to Gene, or something even moderately similar. He even went as far as to labeling Xbox's tweet as "toxic positivity" when they were just responding to Greg Miller saying "The Medium > RE Village."



Which, to me, feels extremely excessive.

It makes me wonder if we're going to get into a future where folks that share an opinion similar to his will attempt to cancel games (or bash them with negative press) based on their story. Something that we haven't really seen aside from games that contained extremely violent or sexual visuals.

As a huge Silent Hill fan I'm remaining hopeful for the future of its series, while also being hesitant on all fronts. Though I know a lot of people are already jumping to conclusions because of Bloober's previous titles that didn't contain any homeruns. But I feel it's a shame that something like this could get them some new bad press, especially if the whole Silent Hill thing is true, because that'd be huge for them. Well, and especially since a ton of people love to flock to blue checkmarks.

 

[Pakoe]

Stopped reading at 'some games can be mean'.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Stopped reading at 'some games can be mean'.

I don't blame you. It just made me curious, so I read about the story. I figured while it contains some heavy themes, I felt like this was beyond overreactive. Which, I guess probably isn't abnormal from this dude's behavior. But hey, if there were many more that I missed, pardon my ignorance, lol.

 

[tommib]

There’s absolutely nothing shocking in the medium. This is a false controversy generated at Era that slipped into Twitter. Gene Park being the PC saint that he is is just mimicking what he read before.

 

[anthony2690]

I'm starting to think these people are mentally unwell and shouldn't play video games.

That being said, my other half loved the medium, I got bored just watching her play it though.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

The medium = This is not a Silent hill

 

[smart_brazileiro]

I found it to be too vague at times and too much on the nose at the same time. But to answer your question.
. No... It didn't go too far.
I also have yet to play a game that was actually harmful in a literaral way. It's just games. We know the fleshbags who write these quotes.

 

[Dick Jones]

Greg Miller should not be ostracised for hanging his friend out to dry, he should be ostracised for saying The Medium > Resident Evil: Village. This is his worst take by far.

 

[DeepEnigma]

As someone with mental illness, the medium is a violently and ugly portrayal of how to live. We need to stop hyping all games as “we games.” Some games can be trash and mean and harmful.

ProTip: Not all mental illnesses are the same.

 

[reksveks]

I don't believe The Medium is mean or trash, can see it being harmful.

Alot of things can be accidentally harmful, there is a group of users who find calorie data harmful (those will mental health issues about their weight)

PS the pros generally outweigh the cons for my example.

 

[meernakh]

Some people take issue with the ending instead of simply dismissing it as a mediocre game.

Spoiler: spoilers without going into specifics

The story main theme is abuse/trauma can create more abuse/trauma in the victims. In the story of the medium an abuse victim turns abuser and is beyond saving. It ends with a black screen/gunshot implying the person got killed. Offcourse in media these days this means bloober team states that EVERY abuse victim in the real world is beyond saving and should not exist. Because offcourse this is what that means. It's not a great game, but i did somewhat enjoy it. But people get so outraged and take this very specific narrative and extrapolate it to the real world.

But hey, outrage generates clicks

 

[Guilty_AI]

 

[MiguelItUp]

The medium = This is not a Silent hill

I'm well aware, but with Bloober rumored to be working on a Silent Hill title, I'd just hope stuff like this doesn't go out of control for them. Especially since them doing anything Silent Hill related would be huge for their studio.

I'm sure it's just a silly one off contained situation, but people love them blue checkmarks.

Some people take issue with the ending instead of simply dismissing it as a mediocre game.

Spoiler: spoilers without going into specifics

The story main theme is abuse/trauma can create more abuse/trauma in the victims. In the story of the medium an abuse victim turns abuser and is beyond saving. It ends with a black screen/gunshot implying the person got killed. Offcourse in media these days this means bloober team states that EVERY abuse victim in the real world is beyond saving and should not exist. Because offcourse this is what that means. It's not a great game, but i did somewhat enjoy it. But people get so outraged and take this very specific narrative and extrapolate it to the real world.

But hey, outrage generates clicks

Yeah, I wish we could just eject blue checkmarks into their own platform that the public doesn't see so that this kind of nonsense doesn't spread.

 

[CatLady]

ProTip: Not all mental illnesses are the same.

Yeah, Park's tweet looks like he suffers from REE Asylum Outrage mental illness.

OP - I quite liked The Medium and especially the story. NO it didn't go too far nor was it "mean". This is just some typical woke jackass looking for something to be outraged about.

 

[Tarnpanzer]

You actually don´t "see" any unpleasant stuff regarding this in the game. Just hearing about it, which is of course quite unsettling.

 

[Three]

I haven't played it but now I'm intrigued. Can somebody explain what the controversy is in spoiler tags?

 

[MiguelItUp]

Yeah, Park's tweet looks like he suffers from REE Asylum Outrage mental illness.

OP - I quite liked The Medium and especially the story. NO it didn't go too far nor was it "mean". This is just some typical woke jackass looking for something to be outraged about.

Yeah, and honestly I figured that much about him. Fortunately, a lot of the tweets that were thrown in my face in the past all revolved around new game details, info, etc.

I was always curious for obvious reasons, I mean, them getting Akira to do the OST was something that peaked my interests to the maximum. But then I heard the gameplay was "meh" and never bothered. I figured this could be a situation where the story is its stronger point, but its a shame to see it get this kind of reaction from a goober online, lol.

Basically my assumptions were correct, but I thought I'd ask if anyone here felt remotely similar in any possible way. Even though deep down I knew that the answer would be, "Nah, we're not sick like those people" or similar, lmao.

 

[Punished Miku]

No. I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Stupid tweets.

The game was made in Poland, and has some interesting references to communist era atrocities and other dark serial killer-ish content. Nothing out of place for a horror game. You would never guess it in a million years but Troy Baker was the voice of the main villain, and he's great.

The gameplay has no combat, just puzzles and exploration. And you get to explore light / dark dimensions simultaneously at times with a literal split screen, which is something I've never seen in a game before. People hating on the game probably haven't even tried it or just got triggered because it was timed exclusive on Xbox. It's a good AA survival horror game.

 

[Represent.]

I havent played it but i honestly cant take most gaming opinions on writing, story, intent, theme, etc seriously after the whole TLOU 2 backlash. So i dont know what to think. Will play it for myself

 

[Captain Toad]

Stop feeding these yahoos. The Medium offended me by being a mediocre game. It didn't offend me as a SJW who insists on being offended by anything and everything.

 

[ParaSeoul]

I vaguely remember it,apparently the game outright says if you've experienced a traumatic event you should just die and you're not worth getting better. Bloober team at its best. Didn't help the game is fucking boring as shit.

 

[Aion002]

I am trying to remember this game story but I just can't. I played at launch and the only thing I remember is that I was bored to tears... I really like survival horror games so I tried really hard to get in to this game, but I couldn't.


This and that Blair Witch game that are/were available on Gamepass are just the perfect example to me of boring games.

Damn... Now I am bored from just remembering them.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Games are mean

 

[elliot5]

Haven't played The Medium but Gene gets a bit of an eye roll from me with his toxic positivity comment thing. He can have and share his own opinion though, whatever. Feels like he targeted the Xbox account with a quote RT (a social media person just making an off the cuff tweet for engagement) and not Greg Miller because it's easier to soapbox towards a BRAND than to Greg himself.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Stop feeding these yahoos. The Medium offended me by being a mediocre game. It didn't offend me as a SJW who insists on being offended by anything and everything.

Didn't intend to of course, I was just curious to know how anyone HERE felt about it, really. All I heard most was the game was mediocre, boring, etc. Never this. Again, figured it was blown out of proportion but thought I'd ask.

Damn... Now I am bored from just remembering them.

My apologies.

Haven't played The Medium but Gene gets a bit of an eye roll from me with his toxic positivity comment thing. He can have and share his own opinion though, whatever. Feels like he targeted the Xbox account with a quote RT (a social media person just making an off the cuff tweet for engagement) and not Greg Miller because it's easier to soapbox towards a BRAND than to Greg himself.

Right? It felt overreactive and shitty to me, honestly. But I guess that kind of goes hand and hand with the kind of person that would say this kind of stuff. Also while trying to get more attention.

 

[Bernd Lauert]

I haven't played it but now I'm intrigued. Can somebody explain what the controversy is in spoiler tags?

Spoiler: yeah

The main character's sister is also a medium. She got raped as a child and as a result manifested an evil spirit called The Maw which massacred all the people in the worker's resort where most of the game takes place. In the end, the sister wants you to kill her so that The Maw disappears.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

If "Greg Miller" says one thing I gotta say the opposite. Traitors don't deserve my respect.

 

[M1chl]

Well Polish writing tends to be more direct, I think the portrayal of everything was fine there. Like in Layers of Fear 1 they went way farther to Schizophrenic portrayal.

 

[Hugare]

I'm starting to think these people are mentally unwell and shouldn't play video games.

That being said, my other half loved the medium, I got bored just watching her play it though.

Maybe they are, and I dont mean it in bad way

If you are an alcoholic, consuming media that tackles this subject may trigger something inside you? I dont know

Same thing may happen with someone with mental issues such as depression and etc.

Tricky subject, honestly

 

[Punished Miku]

There's literally nothing wrong with the story or the way it's framed or presented. They even go well out of their way to contextualize the motivations of the villain, and other family members with substantial history even tying to WWII.

These people shouldn't even play M rated games. It's a complete non-issue.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Well Polish writing tends to be more direct, I think the portrayal of everything was fine there. Like in Layers of Fear 1 they went way farther to Schizophrenic portrayal.

Oh yeah, most definitely. That was something I caught on to.

There's literally nothing wrong with the story or the way it's framed or presented. They even go well out of their way to contextualize the motivations of the villain, and other family members with substantial history even tying to WWII.

These people shouldn't even play M rated games. It's a complete non-issue.

That was something I was confused by, because when I saw breakdowns about the story multiple times in the past I didn't see it go into anything like that. So I figured it was either done poorly, or just wasn't really on the forefront.

I couldn't agree more. These are clearly folks that need to read the rating and why it's been given that rating. If it contains stuff you don't want, then don't touch it, lol. Spare us all.

 

[Kssio_Aug]

I didn't play the game enough, as it didn't grab my attention in the first 1 or 2 hours. But Twitter and Resetera are two places where you can expect stupid drama all the time.

And even though I didn't play it enough, I doubt it's more "problematic" than many other popular games out there. Specially since it's an horror title, you should expect some sort of shocking factor.

 

[nikolino840]

There's no rape scenes so....

 

[hangdang69]

As someone with mental illness...I hate when people do this. It doesn't mean your opinion carries more weight, especially with something as broad as mental illness. Don't like it? Don't play it and move on. What a baby.

 

[fatmarco]

I thought the story was really good and I thought the game was decent. It's biggest issues were technical failings that almost ruined the game for me e.g. had around 15-20 hard crashes where it turned off my xbox.

 

[Fredrik]

The Maw scared me good but otherwise I had no issues with The Medium. People react differently to different things.
My issue with modern gaming in general is that the violence is too gruesome for how realistic the games look, I used to be desentizised as a kid but today I think most games are too violent. And it annoys me when I want to play games for the kids but can’t because it’s like every dev think they’re making Mortal Kombat.

 

[DeepEnigma]

After reading some people's impressions in here, and seeing the typical self centered NPD "mental illness" twittard derps manufacture fake outrage...

This will now be added to my backlog for this year.

Besides, need to get used to their style for Silent Hill, amirite?

 

[CatLady]

After reading some people's impressions in here, and seeing the typical self centered NPD "mental illness" twittard derps manufacture fake outrage...

This will now be added to my backlog for this year.

Besides, need to get used to their style for Silent Hill, amirite?

Narcissistic Personality Disorder perfectly describes these attention-seeking idiots' mental illnesses or as I said earlier REE Asylum Outrage Disorder. Of course they're pretty much the same thing.

 

[ManaByte]

Yeah, Park's tweet looks like he suffers from REE Asylum Outrage mental illness.

Not at all. He's one of the most level-headed games journalists, and really one of the few I pay attention to.

 

[CatLady]

Not at all. He's one of the most level-headed games journalists, and really one of the few I pay attention to.

His ridiculous, self-absorbed tweet says otherwise.

 

[Relique]

His tweet left me wondering how someone that can't put together a sentence is writing for the Washington Post. "Violently portrayal" okay bro..

I am so glad that gaming journalism is slowly giving way to independent content creators. They seem to only be able to hire idiot snowflake journos with a shitload of personal issues. Every other day it's some dumb shit about "sexual awakenings" and "mean portrayals on how to live" by games. These mother fuckers can't grasp the concept that video games are made up shit to entertain, not to tell you how to live or determine your development as a human being. The Medium of all things? If it's somehow triggering something in your alcoholic degenerate brain doesn't mean that the game is "insidious" or that the rest of us should give a shit. You are just a fucking loon.

 

[Garibaldi]

The meanest thing The Medium did was letting people play it. Such a terrible game.

 

[Punished Miku]

The meanest thing The Medium did was letting people play it. Such a terrible game.

It's a AA game. It has no combat and only story, lots of exploration and light puzzles. But it's not terrible. I think it's just not for you.

 

[Calling 911 Melts Beams]

they are triggered because they cant fit into medium sized clothing

 

[DeepEnigma]

It's a AA game. It has no combat and only story, lots of exploration and light puzzles. But it's not terrible. I think it's just not for you.

I enjoyed What Remains of Edith Finch, The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter, Dear Esther, Virginia, Firewatch, etc..

Guess I will give it a go.

 

[Punished Miku]

I enjoyed What Remains of Edith Finch, The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter, Dear Esther, Virginia, Firewatch, etc..

Guess I will give it a go.

Get it on sale and you'll probably have fun with it. I played it on GP and played it until the end. I'd play a sequel if they made one. It's a solid 7.5/8 out of 10.

 

[poodaddy]

I don't know who Gene is, but based on their statements here and that avatar, I'm gonna wager they're a colossal fucking pussy with either green, purple, or blue hair who says shit like "allies" and "problematic" a lot. Probably bitches about Dave Chapelle a lot and says dumb shit like "silence is violence" as well.

In short; could make some great fertilizer.

 

[Pakoe]

I don't blame you. It just made me curious, so I read about the story. I figured while it contains some heavy themes, I felt like this was beyond overreactive. Which, I guess probably isn't abnormal from this dude's behavior. But hey, if there were many more that I missed, pardon my ignorance, lol.

Oh no, you are completely good bruh. Just not gonna give that dude my time.

 

[cormack12]

When did the response to anyone who started with 'as someone with mental illness...'

Become anything other than '...you should continue to get proper help'

 

[Sleepwalker]

NPCs cant have mental illnesses