I can't stand rage bait

 I've already lost, I know

I'm so darn tired of rage bait, I really am. Of course, that total exhaustion could be itself a reflection of my general emotional tiredness- which stuff like that only exacerbates, but that does not mean I hold 'rage baiters' as innocents in my situation. To clarify, by 'Rage Bait', I am referring to those who conjure up 'stories' simply for the attention they know they will bring by covering a topic in a bad faith or purposefully contentious manner. Not those who simply have their own opinion on a topic and will fight for it. I don't have a problem with someone's essay on why Fallout 4 is a better game than New Vegas, even if all the presented arguments are hilariously flimsy and ill-conceived, because there's a genuine passion behind the conceiver. (That's a genuine topic I've read by the way. Poor misguided soul- I know) It's those that know better, but know if they push the right buttons simply to infuriate and draw in those all important 'rage clicks', then that's all you need for that short term success.

Before I really got into writing myself I always tried to play a devil's advocate position in situations like that, reasoning that it's probably a situation of quotas and deadlines forcing people to write beyond their ability to conjure up good-faith ideas or at least genuine criticism. Today I'm sure that plays a role, but with over 1300 blogs under my belt, not one shooting under the belt for a quick rage click on a day when I just wasn't feeling it; I'm feeling a lot less charitable in my perceptions. I'm evolved from finding those sorts of articles annoying, to losing all intellectual respect I might have otherwise had for the writer- because clearly they lack the fortitude and resourcefulness to maintain any sort of professional standard with their work. Hell, I'm an unpaid independent and I have higher work ethics than them; that's crazy to think about!

Which is why I personally, just give no props whatsoever to the larger gaming industry; because all but a couple of their number fall into that mire of rage baiting out of desperation, and the couple that have integrity don't even write for any of the big industry sites anymore. At least I can kind of forgive the skewered review scores that slaps 9/10 to such trash as the Resident Evil Netflix show, because we all see the not-too-quiet corruptive elements of 'those who are too critical in the entertainment industry get blocked from entertainment events'. It is by no means a right or just situation; but I can't blame the 'journalists' themselves. Crawling around in the filth, slinging mud and trying to draw in anyone for the sake of watching the ticker on their site go up- that's just pathetic and desperate. I equate that much to internet gutter journalism.

Now typically I'm happy to avoid that sort of world, knowing how annoyed it makes me both for the state of gaming journalism and in the topic they're besmirching themselves; but damn it, I am not a strong man. The years have taken their toil on my willpower and sometimes I've just got to see what the pigs are cooking up in their sty to see how bad things have gotten- of course then I immediately recoil in disgust and go back to avoiding them- for about a week until I fall into the same trap again. See, that's the insidious thing about rage bait. It presents no integrity, talent or intelligence, but by god is it effective. It's the equivalent of taking the easy path to success by stepping on the heads of others instead of working diligently for your own self improvement. It's morally reprehensible I say; and because I have some small integrity that is a stance I'll actually stand up for.

Fitting in with my recent experience, given that I've finally gotten around to playing Spiderman Remastered on PC, (Fantastic game so far) I want to rewind back to an article posted when Spiderman first re-released onto the Steam store. A certain site decided to review the game, the original versions of which they had already gone on record reviewing, and so this time decided to get a bit creative with their article. Rather than judge the game for the game it was, considering it was the review process and that is what you would expect, they made the first mistake of reviewing and compared it against something it wasn't and never was. Yes, I'm talking about the PC Spiderman review in which the game was critiqued for being 'Cop-a-ganda' because the narrative doesn't explore the corruption/systemic racial prejudice of the police department. It's a Spiderman game, based on the Spiderman comics- police corruption isn't typically that character's MO. Do I really need to break down the obvious flaws in that stance? Spiderman is a vigilante, doing the police's job for them throughout the entire game. There actually is a small plot point with corrupt police members working for Fisk in the literal first mission of the game, albeit it's a tiny part of the mission that is easily forgotten. And the Sable Task Force from Act 2 are quite literally designed to represent heavy handed and unjust law enforcement. Even by the narrow definitions the author wrote, their point falls apart like a CV dangling in a rain storm. Yet still, the very fact we have to unravel such trite is infuriating. 

Then there's the classics, like the general character complaints around design choices for video game protagonists like Cal Kestis and... whoever the main character was of Days Gone- that game just can't stay in my head for the life of me. Now this is a really insidious little stance, as it routes itself in a genuine game's industry foil; the lack of main character diversity. I ain't never see a protagonist with the same skin tone as myself, but that's because no one really thinks about Mixed-races, now do they? But there's a difference between noticing that problem and criticising Cal from Jedi: Fallen Order and Deacon from Days Gone (Literally had to look it up) for being "too white." First off, Deacon is an American Biker... duh. And secondly... they're both designed to look like the performing actor! I'll admit, I laughed a little when I saw how generic Cal looked, before becoming increadibly embarrassed when I realised that was Cameron Monaghan's real face pretty faithfully reconstructed for the game. If you're issue is with casting, aim at the causes of fewer actors of colour and diversity making it into the professional world- not the actors for failing to alter their own faces for acting and Mo-cap work they've been cast in. But games journalists don't want to do anything like that, because those topics take time to research.

A popular whipping boy of recent months has been Hogwarts Legacy, and this rage train actually has some visible real world consequences displaying the actual dangers of Rage Bait run rampant! Those who had their issues with the Harry Potter game due to it's link with J.K. Rowling were always there ready to pounce on the game, but their cause didn't become a movement until they got signal boosted by the only people who don't care about the consequences of their pot stirring: games journalists. By feeding into the vague rage of a people upset for reasons that seem clearer in their head before they start trying to voice them, and giving those people moral vindication, we reached a summit of outrage where so-called 'activists' were gathering up the names of people who played the game on Twitch to conduct a virtual witch hunt against them. Essentially turning a movement that was started in good faith into a degenerate rat fest no better than your average 4-Chan thread.

Lastly, and I'm sure I've at least mentioned this in another blog but it drove me to the depths of my sanity so I need to mention it- that Persona 4 article. You know the one; where someone who will remain anonymous coined their displeasure with the game due to it's 'apparent sexism' throughout the narrative. Yes, by their reckoning all female character's in the game exist only to be viewed and judged by the male characters and I can't go on because as I'm sure you'll be aware if you have any familiarity with Persona 4; the content writer rather obviously did not play the game. Or they did and for some reason decided to take a beloved game and pen a objectively untrue hit piece for rage clicks. He got mine, so kudos for that small victory; but it astounds me that a person that low and professionally inept is allowed to call themselves a 'journalist' with chops like that. Makes you wonder where the actual decent standards and integrity the games journalist craft get shipped off to. Forbes, I guess.

Rage bait is about as trashy as it gets within the Industry, fuelled by a faux-veneer of moral superiority and a hair-trigger victim complex that rears up everytime their braying picks up a crowd. Needless to say, I have very little respect for a decent number of the games journalists of today. Things have denigrated so far that I was actually somewhat impressed when I saw that IGN actually reviewed Hogwarts Legacy as the game it was, rather than waste their platform shooting for some fangless statement for publicity clicks. Doing one's bare basic job should not be a point for praise. (Heck, they're even calling that 'quiet quitting' over in America these days.) Let this be my weekly release of disgust at the rage bait culture we call 'modern gaming journalism' and have that cleanse be my excuse not to slap on the very next rage bait- wait, what is that site saying about the Last of Us TV show? Gimme a sec- I've got to click on this one...