But no matter how much I love Austin and his opinions, I can't stop enjoying South Park. I'll just have to love them both and keep them separated by some glass dividers or something.
Nobody is saying you can't like things that are profoundly problematic. Emphatically no one. Austin has said that he totally likes traaaash on occasion and I think everybody else on Waypoint Radio has copped to the same. But it is very much worth understanding why they are problematic. Understanding this stuff is important. It does often change how you view that stuff. There is a personal challenge to it; I find that I really just drift away from problematic media most of the time once I understand why it has and presents those problems. I wrote off South Park when I went through that. You might not, and that's cool too--but then you understand, yeah?
But at the same time, here's a Problematic Fave I can't shake: there's my favorite game of all time, which is a simulation about European colonization of the New World that never mentions the words "Africa" or "slave". YIKES. There is something valuable, from a games perspective, in there, but the game actively misrepresents and does violence to history--and now, twenty years after playing it, I feel challenged to square a really fun game that respects the really awful history, and really awful lived experiences, of the people at the bottom of the social pyramid of that era. Which is why there is a half-finished turn-based strategy game sitting on my laptop right now, you know?
Also, and this is for-reals serious, I have learned that it is extremely important not to hinge whether you are a "bad person" or not on what you like or don't like. Obsessing over the fear of being judged leads to really gross places. Innuendo Studios has a really good video series (I've highlighted a later episode, but the whole thing is worth a watch) that maybe you'd find interesting.
- Jammit also came out on the PC, as a CD version. It is noticeable only for the boss dude saying "MOMMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT" with a CD-quality voice. The music is still eighty percent fake bass by volume.
So Zyrinx, the devs of Subterrania, were indeed Amiga demoscene kids. You might recognize the composer of those hot beats, Jesper Kyd, who was mentioned up thread--but you might also recognize the company they went on to make later, IO Interactive (by way of Reto-Moto).
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