"Hey, should we maybe enable subtitles for the spoken dialogue?"
"No, it'll detract from the atmosphere if the player is focused on text at the bottom of the screen. The VO is really good, so people should be listening to that anyway."
I really wish you hadn't decided to close out on the discussion of game-ness. Most of the discussions of whether or not certain games are Actually Games are coded attempts at contesting an experience's legitimacy, and forcing yourself to address them to justify having enjoyed something lends them undue credence. It's entirely possible to discuss a game's place in the greater ecosystem without having to draw hard lines of what is or is not within a certain canon, and doing so usually only serves to discount the effects other media have on gaming and constrain what "games" are and can be.
The questions that "controversial" games like Depression Quest face have almost nothing to do with any property they possess or lack, but with the audiences they attract, the questions they try to ask and the people that make them. "Is this a game" is not a question Depression Quest is trying to ask, and in my view, it devalues what it is trying to say somewhat to attach that conflict to it, even if the outcome is ultimately "favorable". To lean on a potentially cliched but hopefully relatable analogy, even people who are rubber-stamped into Arstotzka and the inspectors who let them in suffer from the unfairness of the process.
Steam is ultimately a marketplace and distribution platform; there is no way to "deserve" a store page, only to work out a sales deal with Valve. The experience you've had with this game was worthwhile, and you stand no risk of losing it because of the rumblings of exclusionist gatekeeper types. Be they your own hangups or those of the naysayers you worry you'll face, I advise you to let them go.
I've always said that the main reason Capcom didn't hit Comcept with a C&D was because the process of completing and shipping this game would shut Inafune down more effectively than any legal action. Doesn't look like I was wrong.
@rustedtin: I remember having a lot of stupid arguments about this on 4Chan back in the day. I might be remembering wrong, but I'm pretty sure the first Gundam series and the first Star Wars movie were in development at the same time and came out less than a year apart. Something like that would have had to have been jammed in at the last minute if it were a ripoff.
@eternalgamer2: What good is a preacher that only ever speaks to the choir? He came here to speak to a different audience than the academics and students he previously dealt with, and that much was clear early on. What you're advocating is not necessarily that he stick to his comrades, but that he teach the same lessons to the same class over and over.
What's more, Giant Bomb was literally built by people who left what at the time were considered "dream jobs" by many. It seems that they of all people would want to launch their staff to new and better opportunities. Brad, Alex, Vinny, and all the others who left Gamespot, as well as Patrick, Alexis, Dave and anyone else who has ever left Giant bomb- all defectors who left their comrades to chase greener pastures, I presume? I'm not even gonna make the argument that "this is business" or what have you, because I have much the same point of view as you in regards to loyalty, but not everyone can follow the same dream forever, and it's not always money or prestige that guides them in those choices. It's a special kind of greed that wants people to just be satisfied with where they are and grow disdainful of those that aren't to the extent that you begin theorycrafting and monologuing about the ills of modern capitalism.
There's room for respectful dissent, but it doesn't seem particularly respectful to accuse Austin of disloyalty, especially in speculating on his personal and business life as a casual observer.
Funny, just yesterday I was thinking about how nonsensically overqualified Austin was for this gig, but I never actually entertained the idea of him leaving. Waking up to this made me think I was still asleep.
Austin, you're one of the best things to ever happen to Giant Bomb, and in a lot of ways, to me. It's probably weird for someone pushing 30 to have a role model their own age, but for the past year you've been an example for me, and I'm sure a lot of other duders would say the same. Your insight and eloquence has changed the way I approach difficult topics, both in articulating them to others and in trying to understand them myself. You gave a platform to marginalized voices, but were willing to entertain all ideas, even those presented in bad faith- and when you did, you even brought that same care and detail to dunking on some poor instigator. You look at and interact with things in a way that few people do, and I can tell that you've left a lot of people in your wake that are now working to see their world with that same clarity. I can only hope that even a tiny fragment of what you've taught us sticks with us.
Giant Bomb is something new now because of you, and I can't wait to see where both ends in this split in the path take us all. You brought joy to a lot of lives, and in many more ways than just making us laugh.
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