Week round-up: Jan 12
Haven't done one of these in a while because I've been traveling and also too tired!!
You do not gotta hand it to MiHoYo - Bruno Dias
Bruno's article about why we should not be using nationality or class-based critiques to defend gacha mechanics in videogames is a good one. We live in a world full of these games not only because gambling addictions exist and are easy to exploit, but because playerbases are characterized by extreme, eyewatering inequality. These games are funded by gacha mechanics rather than low-cost subscriptions because there is inequality present in the playerbase that the operator can exploit. If we lived in a more equal world with a flatter distribution of purchasing power, these whale-targeting mechanics would not be as profitable and you would not see as many games resorting to extreme versions of them.
Here's a section I loved:
So when I see people strenuously making the argument that it's wrong to critique these games for their predatory business model -- or to apply any kind of critique at all -- on grounds that "well, this is what people in the Global South can play, they can't afford $60 games or $400 consoles," I just roll my eyes.
You might as well be telling me that payday lenders are "banking the unbanked."
Rabbit Rabbit - Graham
Graham's story about the "rabbit rabbit" tradition is fascinating to me. A few years ago, I'd never heard of the "lemon pig" thing, either. My family had no new years' superstitions or traditions so I'm learning about all of them late, I guess!
Your own private Rose Parade. Here's the details - for next year - Julia Paskin
I was completely unaware of this, but if you miss the Rose Parade in LA or are uninterested in battling the crowds, you can see all the floats traveling to and from the rose parade in the middle of the night through the San Gabriel valley. Another LA Secret for you!! Sorry, people who do not know or care about this!
Fire stuff
It's fire week, everyone. That's all we're doing: watching livestreams about horrible fucking fires.
- Asking rents skyrocket as LA fires destroy homes - note, this is not about regular-person rents, but about rich-person rents. I'm curious to see how the fire affects the kind of rentals that more ordinary people can afford. (It will - not everyone whose home burned down was living in a Palisades mansion.)
- The case for letting Malibu burn - an excerpt from the 1998 book "Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster" about how common these massive fires are in the Malibu region specifically. They happen constantly - this is just the most expensive one ever. Reading it has definitely made me hyper-aware of how often people in on TV or in the press are saying "this hasn't happened before" when, in fact, it happens routinely, and is a completely typical part of the local ecology, including many historical events at a similar intensity and scale. Did you know that one acre of 50-year-unburned chaparral burns with the energy of 75 barrels of crude oil? This is the local reality we're stuck with. We'd be stuck with it even if the climate crisis were not happening. The Tongva dealt with it by doing preventative burns yearly.
People's lists
Finally, here are some 2024 lists I liked. I haven't played or watched most of the stuff these folks recommend but I did put a lot of stuff on various to-check-out after reading them:
- Aurahack: movies of the year
- Jae Kaplan: of the year
- Cania: Cania's Game Awards
- Nic Tringali: Games From The Year 2024