Sometimes we work on projects that aren’t Ithaka. Because Verena’s fingers need time away from crayons. Because I like variety.
And because it’s awesome.
The Bogeymen of the Indie Scene
Human beings have always been susceptible to bogeymen. It’s a lot easier to get angry at people instead of getting angry at systems. We are persons, so we seek to personify the world. Thunderbolts come from Zeus, pestilence comes from Yahweh and your indie game problems come from Jonathan Blow. You can’t block capitalism on Twitter, after all.
Now, to be perfectly honest, I care less and less for the “indie scene” and whatever other ways people have of erecting borders around themselves. I think this focus on scenes and cliques and identities and other increasingly fragmented echo chambers is not helpful to anyone; but I doubt it’s going away anytime soon. Nevertheless, let me invoke the wise words of William Blake – “When I tell any Truth it is not for the sake of Convincing those who do not know it but for the sake of defending those who Do” – and defend some bogeymen.
Let’s begin by saying I’m not putting myself above this. I attacked Raph Koster in Designing for Grace and I was completely wrong to do so. I thought Koster represented that awful reductionist school of thought that cannot see purpose for the medium except some kind of vaguely-defined “gameplay”. These people do exist. Some of them showed up to attack me with utterly nonsensical arguments later on, and I believe I was quite right to ban them. But I was wrong to count Koster among them; in his own words, he “takes grace for read.” Our disagreement, essentially, came down to that most pathetic of controversies, terminology. Joel Goodwin asked whether I basically wouldn’t be OK with Koster if he just used the term “mechanicsblob” instead of “games” – and he was right. Koster’s overly-specific definition of “game”, which he was using solely for his own analytical purposes, was pushing my buttons. But it was hardly a meaningful disagreement.
I was also – naturally – influenced by other indies, especially at a time when I wasn’t quite aware of how prone to turning people into bogeymen and getting upset over thin air the “radical” part of the indie scene was. A lot of people seemed to think Koster was the Antichrist, a man full of condescension and technical jargon, and that influenced my reading of his articles. But that’s not who Raph Koster is. I don’t always agree with him, I may even disagree with many of the fundamental aspects of his approach, but he’s not my enemy, or a bad guy, or anything other than just another person trying to contribute their best to the world.
And Jonathan Blow? If you believe what people have said about Jonathan Blow, he must be the chainsaw-toothed, kitten-eating Jerk King of White Privilege. And really, he’s not. Don’t get me wrong, he and I disagree about a lot of things. Does he have an attitude? Yeah. Do I? Yep. Do a lot of other people, many of them considered great and wonderful indie artists? Definitely. But why do some people get to be as impolite and aggressive as they want to be and are considered “cool” and “awesome” while Blow is the incarnation of evil smugness? Yes, he’s said things which I think are wrong. He’s also been a major champion of Michael Brough’s work, which most of us will agree is a very good thing. Frankly, I’ve never seen anything to suggest he’s anything other than genuinely dedicated to games as a form of art. If he occasionally expresses his dislike for something, is that really a reason to get so upset?
Look, I understand that emotions run high when so many people are trying to make a living off games and not everyone is equally successful. God knows I’m jealous of people whose work gets more attention than mine; we all believe in our work and can’t help but feel that it deserves more than it’s getting. And as I’ve made very clear in the debate about Greenlight, I don’t believe this has anything to do with quality – “just make a good game and you’ll be successful” is delusional bullshit.
But getting angry at individuals about systemic problems isn’t much of a solution, particularly when those individuals simply aren’t the representatives of the system we make them out to be. It’s easy to project all the things that piss us off about how the world is run onto individual people, and to thus distract ourselves from what’s actually wrong. Please note that I’m not saying there aren’t people who are just assholes. Of course there are. And sometimes it’s perfectly fine to speak out against someone instead of just ignoring them. But that’s not what is happening, is it? Because it’s become fashionable to search for bigotry everywhere, to try and find something to be outraged about in every statement. Everyone needs to be the victim and the righteous crusader, because that’s what gets you attention. So let us venture forth and slay the terrible bogeymen, like George Lucas, who ruined your childhood, and Jonathan Blow, who is personally coming to your house every night and oppressing you in your sleep.
Societies create bogeymen to distract themselves from the real problems they face. The world we live in is in pretty serious trouble, and whether people know it or not, every discussion between indie game developers is tinged by the anxieties and contradictions of late-stage capitalism. Money. Healthcare. The immense success of the few paraded before our eyes while so many fail. The desperate desire to succeed, to be able to make a living. The fear of never having that One Big Hit that we all know we’re dreaming about, not necessarily because we want the fame, but because then we might be able to stop worrying about the rent. Combine that with a culture that teaches us to always be on the lookout for the bad guy – and that applies as much to the social justice crowds looking for the next impure sinner as to the gamers looking for the next traitor – and you have a situation in which a lot of people are perpetually angry at trivial nonsense while the massive issues that touch everyone’s lives go ignored.
Obviously this is not unique to indie games. From celebrities like M. Night Shyamalan or George Lucas to political actors like Julian Assange to the horror stories of the Daily Mail about the Muslim father of fourteen who lives off the state by stealing the wheelie bins of the NHS with the help of urban foxes, we’re constantly bombarded with people to hate, with supervillains that will require the equivalent superhero to defeat. The actual villains, the ones who bomb and torture and impoverish, well, let’s not talk about politics. Much better to talk about emotions. Emotions sell. Did you hear what so-and-so said about so-and-so on Twitter? Outrageous!
It happened to me twice, with Raph Koster and Jonathan Blow, and in both cases I regret saying what I said. I don’t regret disagreeing and making my disagreement obvious, but I do regret letting myself get distracted from more serious issues by this pettiness. The Sturm und Drang of adolescent emotion is very captivating and may feel radical and revolutionary, but in the end it’s about as useful as acne and schoolyard fights. I think we could all do with a bit less emotion and a bit more intellect, with seeing ourselves in social and historical context instead of acting as if the high school of indie games was the world.
(Shh, Jonathan Blow is under your bed!)
Ithaka Update #2
The time we spent in Greece was great for Ithaka of the Clouds. Verena did a lot of drawing every day and, after some stylistic experiments, finished most of the images for the first part of the game. Yes, the game is divided into parts… but I really don’t want to spoil this stuff for you, so I won’t tell you everything. The first part is not the biggest part of the game, but it is fairly extensive and very important to the story, and being able to engage with it as we did in Greece really helped us to further define and shape what the game will be about.
I don’t know if this makes sense to anyone else, but one of the things that terrifies me about working on a new project is that trying to imagine something that is still just an abstract concept isn’t really possible. I remain quite nervous until the project turns into something specific, until it has characters and places and ideas I can work with, even if they’re flawed and require revision. That’s where we are with Ithaka now: it has people in it. And creatures. I believe I can honestly say that they include some of our daftest ideas yet, and that’s coming from the people who brought you a sentient piece of toast. So, yeah. The valley of the trolls is starting to feel like a real place now.
In other good news, Helen Trevillion, the composer of The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge and The Book of Living Magic and most of The Fabulous Screech will be contributing some music to Ithaka! I’m extremely pleased about this, since Ithaka ties the previous games together on a variety of levels and it would feel wrong not to have some of Helen’s music in there. I still can’t believe how lucky I’ve been with the composers I’ve worked with over the years.
The updated versions of The Book of Living Magic and Desert Bridge are both still scheduled for later this year, and there might even be some other surprises. As for Ithaka itself, it will still take us at least six months. The reason for this is that I think we should not, under any circumstances, rush the game. We’re working on it constantly and we’re not wasting your money, but I think the only way to do the story justice is not to let ourselves be forced into cutting the game down to meet a self-imposed deadline. That’s the freedom crowdfunding has given us, the freedom to make the game right, and we want to embrace that. If you enjoyed our previous games, believe me when I say that the result will be worth it.
(Let me put this another way: a week ago or so Verena drew an image with ninety mushrooms in it. Ninety. God. Damn. Mushrooms. Yes, the images are bigger than those in The Sea Will Claim Everything. No, I have no idea how I’m going to write so many mushroom puns after having already filled several games with them.)
Now I will go back to work, and later Verena and I will celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary. Yay!
Thanks again for your support, everyone.
Statement on Snowden
My statement on Edward Snowden has been added to the WSWS.org’s list:
Once upon a time, before he was president, Barack Obama lauded the importance of whistle-blowers to a democratic society, promising that his administration would be the most transparent in history. Though it sounds like parody now, Mr. Obama is entirely correct, and Edward Snowden has done a great service to democracy by exposing the crimes of the world’s most transparent administration. Anyone who has even the remotest belief in the concept of democracy should defend him, Bradley Manning, and all the other victims of the increasingly panicked policies of the ruling classes.
Jonas Kyratzes, author and game developer
I’d like to encourage everyone to speak out against these anti-democratic policies, on the World Socialist Web Site or elsewhere. The only hope for change comes from people like you and me.
The Internet Will Eat Your Babies
Ah, the internet! It’s democratized the arts, destroyed those evil gatekeepers, and finally made it possible for everyone to be heard! It has allowed people to form communities, to find new friends, to find audiences that they might never have had. Thanks to the internet, all that stands between you and success is yourself. If only you would put the kind of effort you put into a McDonald’s job into promoting yourself, you too could become as successful as the kind of people who tell you these things imagine that they’re going to be.
And if it doesn’t work? Well, then it must be a conspiracy. It’s either the liberal media elite and the nanny state or the institutionalized anti-your-group-ism that has plagued society since the beginning of history. They hate you because you’re the first woman to speak about injustice, or because your radical vision of a society dedicated to free market principles is something that corporate-backed politicians could never accept. It’s the oppressive patriarchal libertarian communist pro-gay anti-trans quasi-brony meta-epistemological sheeple-led brocialist conspiracy of the Federal Reserve, reading your tweets and deciding, based on your dating profile, that you must be kept down.
Or maybe there’s just too much shit.
Maybe the internet is just drowning in shit, because removing the gatekeepers is like opening the sewers onto the streets and letting it all flow. Everyone has the freedom to publish, but no-one has an audience. In fact, everyone is encouraged to publish, as if publishing was somehow inherently good, as if you must produce to have value, as if it’s bad to observe and enjoy. A prison in which everyone is locked in separate cells and communicates by screaming is not a society, it’s social media. It’s not that either cream rises to the top or turds do, it’s that we’re swimming in a chunky, frothy cocktail of both. We value identity over ability and profit over quality, but it’s not just that. It’s not just our values, because even when you know what you want, it’s not easy to find it in the flood of incoherent, unfocused babble that is the internet.
Oh, I’m not complaining. I’m luckier than a lot of people.
But dear God, are we bullshitting ourselves. The internet is like a monument to broken dreams. If you put something out there, even something absolutely fucking brilliant, chances are it will just sink. It is, after all, competing against everything else on the net, from the newest piece of geek-targeted marketing disguised as news on some trashy gaming website to the newest porn extravaganza that will be denounced as the end of morality or celebrated as the height of feminist self-fulfilment. The internet under capitalism is not like a bookshop, it’s like a garbage dump, and we’re the semi-cannibalistic seagulls who live there and have never seen the sea.
How many abandoned blogs are out there? How many of them are brilliant, utterly deserving of a large audience? I don’t know, because finding out would mean having to read a billion pages of mind-numbing idiocy. I can barely keep up with the few blogs I do follow, and sometimes I stop reading a blog because I can already see it bleeding readers, because I don’t want to watch it die.
The existence of the dreaded gatekeepers didn’t stop Mary Wollstonecraft or W. E. B. Du Bois from getting published – what would happen to their work today? Maybe it would be successful. Or maybe it would just be an obsessively-read blog that would peter out after a year or so, to become another buried piece of trash in the great garbage dump.
No, things were not brilliant in the past and they’re not hopeless now. But we’ve really got to be a lot more careful about the ideological bullshit we feed ourselves as we waste away in front of our monitors. The internet is certainly not the best thing that has ever happened to art. It’s not freedom and potential and rainbow-coloured fetish gear for unicorns. Well, it might be the latter. But it’s as dominated by the idiotic contradictions of late capitalism as everything else. It can help you, but it can also eat your babies.
Shellshock
What a lot of American liberals (and I include identitarians in this group) don’t seem to be aware of is that their obsession with changing language instead of material conditions is just another version of this. And that the rest of the world, especially what is sometimes called the Global South, is mostly just baffled by it.
Interviews With Silly People
Hi. I’m still on holiday, but you might want to read these.
PC Master published an interview with me online which was previously featured rather splendidly in their print magazine. It’s in Greek. If you don’t read Greek, well, just go look at this hilarious photo of us and the cat on page 9. It’s not the greatest photo ever of me, but the cat’s expression of terror is priceless. Verena looks good, of course, but she has the advantage of not being me and not suddenly getting picked up by giants.
You might also enjoy this interview with Professor R.L. Smith, in which she talks about her work on Ithaka of the Clouds. It’s in English, the human language of commerce.
Away Message
If all goes well, Verena and I will be in Greece for the next month. I won’t be able to respond quickly to emails (I’m still way behind), but we will be working on Ithaka and our novels and stuff, and there will be occasional posts.
Take care.
Live ERT feed (Greek)
The Greek government is trying very hard to silence these journalists, who have finally stopped doing what they’re told and are showing us what real television should be like.
I’ve put the player behind a more tag because it autostarts.
Is this the EU you were looking for?
The authoritarian capitalist regime that rules Greece has begun an unconstitutional and profoundly antidemocratic attack on Greek public broadcasting, yesterday announcing that all public radio and television stations were to be shut down by midnight. To understand what this means, imagine David Cameron sending riot police to shut down the BBC – just like that. Thousands of people have taken to the streets to defend ERT.
In recent years, there was a government-imposed culture of silence at ERT, making it almost impossible for any criticism of austerity to be heard. Nevertheless, ERT was the only source of culturally valuable television in Greece and has played an important part in Greek culture and history over the last four decades. Private television, meanwhile, is owned by a tiny handful of media oligarchs who are highly sympathetic to the neonazis of the Golden Dawn and who broadcast little more than hysterical nationalist propaganda, reality TV and other garbage.
Attempts to stop or reverse this disaster are being met with the usual measures of violence and blackmail that the Greek state deploys against any form of dissent.
This is an important moment in the history of Greece and Europe. Greek democracy is already in tatters, but this particular assault represents a new level of shamelessness, and not only a turning point – or perhaps a tipping point – for Greece but also a sign of things to come for all of Europe. Understand: we’re talking about a complete blackout of public broadcasting, without even parliamentary authorization, simply at the command of a single person. This is happening right now, in a European country, and the European Union knows this and supports this. That’s the same European Union which previously imposed an unconstitutional government on Greece, which for the first time legitimized the previously powerless far right.
That’s the future the European Union envisions. The EU is not the cosmopolitan, progressive force so many people imagined it was. The EU is tear gas and riot police and silenced journalists.
Is this the future you want?