I’m going through it with video games. “Let me watch some Diablo 4, oh, it’s the exact same thing as Diablo I and Torchlight from respectively 20 and 10 years ago, OK.”
Games bore me to death these days and yes, considering the important things we need to tackle and vote for or on, they are a bit of a waste of time. It is very painful to admit.
This article about Starfield makes me think about it. Yes, spending dozens of hours “exploring” pointless data on a computer, when you already have done it for hundreds of days in your life, is silly. Yes, flying over empty planets designed this way, using your super fancy GPU to display 4K textures, is a waste of energy and time. Yes, doing the exact same thing 40 years ago created the same excitement with a tenth of electric consumption. No, games being more immense than before doesn’t help in any way.
Developing games is insanely hard and being able to make something that works, that is fun and that people love, is a brilliant feeling to feel. It’s incomparable to anything, it’s impossibly joyful. I understand.
The impact of computer games on culture and society? Way fucking darker and questionable.
I struggle with this.