Delilah
Culture Wars Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

And she walks
On everyone she knows
Blame it on Delilah
And she wants
Anything she wants she gets
Blame it on Delilah
And she calls
My name whenever she wants

Blame it on Delilah
I’m obsessed
As she drives me into debt
Blame it on Delilah
Tear me away
Tear me away, I’m on my hands and knees
Tear me away
Tear me away, I’m on my hands and knees
And she walks
On ground God hasn’t touched
Blame it on Delilah
And she flaunts
Everything she’s got she flaunts
Blame it on Delilah
And it’s hard
Everything not being enough
Blame it on Delilah
I’m obsessed
Inconsequential mess
Blame it on Delilah
Tear me away
Tear me away, I’m on my hands and knees

Tear me away
Tear me away, I’m on my hands and knees

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of "Delilah" by Culture Wars convey a story of a woman named Delilah who has a powerful and manipulative presence over the singer's life. The song suggests that Delilah has a way of walking over everyone she knows, implying that she has a dominant and controlling nature. The phrase "blame it on Delilah" indicates that the singer attributes their struggles and hardships to her influence.

Delilah seems to have a strong sense of entitlement, as she gets everything she wants. This could indicate a sense of greed or selfishness on her part. The repetition of her name throughout the song adds weight to her impact on the singer's life. The line "she drives me into debt" suggests that Delilah's influence goes beyond emotional control and extends to financial ruin.

The lyrics also portray Delilah as someone who flaunts her possessions and achievements. The line "on ground God hasn't touched" suggests that she behaves in a way that is above moral or spiritual values. The singer acknowledges that everything is not enough for Delilah, indicating she has an insatiable desire for more.

The repeated phrase "tear me away, I'm on my hands and knees" conveys the desperation the singer feels to escape from Delilah's grasp. It signifies their realization that they have become obsessed with her and are willing to be freed from the oppressive hold she has over them, even if it requires pleading or begging.

Overall, "Delilah" portrays a toxic and destructive relationship dynamic where Delilah exercises power and control over the singer, leading them to feel trapped and desperate for escape.

Line by Line Meaning

And she walks
She confidently moves through life

On everyone she knows
She manipulates and takes advantage of the people around her

Blame it on Delilah
She is the root cause of her actions and their consequences

And she wants
She desires

Anything she wants she gets
She always manages to obtain what she desires

Blame it on Delilah
Her ability to fulfill her desires is attributed to her actions

And she calls
She beckons

My name whenever she wants
She only acknowledges me when she needs something

Blame it on Delilah
Her actions and their impact on our relationship are caused by her

I’m obsessed
I am consumed

As she drives me into debt
Her influence leads me to financial burden

Blame it on Delilah
The responsibility for my financial struggles is placed upon her

Tear me away
Remove me forcefully

Tear me away, I’m on my hands and knees
I am desperate to escape the situation at any cost

And she walks
She confidently moves through life

On ground God hasn’t touched
She treads upon uncharted territory

Blame it on Delilah
Her audacity and disregard for traditional boundaries contribute to her actions

And she flaunts
She proudly displays

Everything she’s got she flaunts
She showcases all her possessions and attributes

Blame it on Delilah
Her need for attention and validation is the cause of her behavior

And it’s hard
It is difficult

Everything not being enough
No matter what she has, it does not satisfy her

Blame it on Delilah
Her insatiable appetite and dissatisfaction stem from her actions

I’m obsessed
I am consumed

Inconsequential mess
I am a mere insignificant presence to her

Blame it on Delilah
My own preoccupation with her is what causes my diminished value

Tear me away
Remove me forcefully

Tear me away, I’m on my hands and knees
I am desperate to escape the situation at any cost

Lyrics © O/B/O DistroKid
Written by: Alex Dugan

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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01Lies3:22

02Bones3:24

03Money (Gimmie, Gimmie)3:10

04Hideaway2:51

05Delilah (Tear Me Away)3:04

PT3M4S

Culture Wars

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Most interesting comments from YouTube:

@varkesh456

4y↑2

A lot to digest in this video and your core premise is strong the gaming culture has been shifted from escapism to perma crisis.

As for how the companies, media and communities are dealing with it is often summed up by a favorite quote, lies, dam lies and statistics.
This seems to reflect both that fear aspect you described and the reaction side both trying to avoid input that has value by lumping all critique with one group and giving them a bad name.

You now have me wondering will we ever be able to return to the world of pure escapism or will there always now be a sub set of the fandoms during my lifetime that will always assume the worst and attack each other rather than discuss.

I am hopeful that cd projekt red could be the big champions of producing games for your audience and non customer exploitation, but they are already moving in on some of the larger companies in terms of profit margins with only a few game franchises under there belt, but i don't think they are willing to be the leaders just lead by example which is still good.
Ubi soft with there big shake ups if they go along that same kind of model would be great there is a part of my mind that doubts it will happen, but i see the potential behind there choice helping to influence the industry one way or the other.

But i don't know that really we have anyone the industry looks to in that way anymore that would be willing to be that face person especially with the instant threat of cancel culture trying to hit you if a group of people do not like what you are saying.

@sectkills

4y↑14

Part of the cause for the drama is the you dont get an opinion stance.

Americans hold our right to have an opinion as almost holy. Its that whole first amendment.

When people use, and are using it more, the you dont get to talk attack, it sets people off.

This is part of why your cultural appropriation video set people off.

Im just trying to answer why the drama

All comments from YouTube:

@chrisw207

4y↑26

I think you're behind on things. This was where the culture war started. All the pundants said "no one wants to take your boobie games" until someone did. Then they had a choice of stand up for those values, or continue to play to their social causes, and then went on to push like they were happy to see Senran Kagura's creator put the series on hold because it's too hard to sell in the current climate. For people that read way too much Harry Potter, you'd think they'd remember it takes a great deal more courage to stand up to your friends.

Today the fight over ownership of the hobby is real. I'm convinced far too many don't even want the hobby, they just saw a male dominated space that needed to be "fixed". Comic book sales alone should prove there's a lot of people complaining for things just to have them, not for personal enjoyment once they're made available. Movies have blamed males for the failure of female led films. You speak of an idealized concept, and it's one I'd like to see, but it isn't one I have faith in seeing because it isn't about enjoying the hobby. It's about controlling the hobby, if not society at large.

If pressed, I'll be honest and admit there's issues here. We have a high sense of individualism in a culture largely expecting conformity, and demanding it under various circumstances. We hid to be ourselves, and found friends also hiding that we could relate to. Now that reality we ran from found us and won't leave us be. I can't pretend there isn't issues there, but I also find it an area of concern. Far too often I find the attitude of people online is "will you just change your mind and give me everything I want at all risk and cost to yourself already because you are a horrible person if you don't". I'm smart enough to see the dehumanization in that, and it leaves me jumpy that even a kind hand is trying to coax me into the bad deal I'm otherwise fighting. That there is no concern for me in their actions, just concern that a difficult person is keeping them from their desires, and treating them like a human would mean sacrificing those, so try and change them. This has been a large part of how many people have treated me in life and work. I didn't need it here.

Sorry for the unloading. Therapy isn't covered under Alberta Health so I don't have many other outlets. Still, I think it's good context. A lot of the world is trying to change it into what they want, but can't or won't treat the people they want to change with respect in the process. As long as it seems like those favorites are being played, we're going to default to distrust, or even cling to it as the life raft keeping us from forced conformity under those that can't have things not their way in the world. I know it's difficult, and have had little luck on it myself, but sometimes we do have to stand up to our own side if they (to quote an old EDitorial from your husband's MUCH days) are doing the opposition's spin doctor work for them. It might not change the activist's mind, but it shows you have true empathy for those you are asking to bear the brunt of the risk and effort, making them less inclined to dig in.

@jeangentry6656

4y↑2

this is a GREAT Comment! :-)

@k96man

4y↑5

This comment hit really close to home for me. I've been sitting here for like 10 minutes trying add to this comment thread in a meaningful way. But I just can't get my thoughts into words

@chrisw207

4y↑3

@Jean Gentry Just want to thank you back for the praise you tend to give me on my better comments. It probably doesn't seem like much, but I've been down lately, so it means a lot to me.

@jeangentry6656

@Chris W You're very welcome :-)

@cathygrandstaff1957

4y↑1

Hildegard von Bingen Yeah, I don’t like the hypocrisy of video game or anime softcore porn is bad, but don’t you dare take my nudie mags and hardcore porn sites. It’s like either porn is universally bad and we should be banning a hell of a lot of movies for having sexual situations or we should be OK with what video games include. Or attractive females are bad in comics and video games and need to be replaced with realistic representations but girl’s magazines still feature slim attractive women selling tips on how you too can be gorgeous and mainstream Hollywood movies still feature girls that are unnaturally skinny.

1 More Replies...

@Gansimus

4y↑34

I think you missed highlighting The Witcher 3.

A game that treats its audience like adults, touching hard subjects, presenting a world full of grey areas. Developed by a company that respects their audience and their money. So separated from US Politics that they seem almost immune to it.

But what else would you expect from a company like CD Projekt Red? They were funded when Poland was under Soviet influence. These guys had to literally smuggle Console dev kits past customs into Poland . They grew up pirating video games using Radio and Cassette tapes.

What first world drama could touch these guys when they were forged like they were? CDPR has a vision, they stick to it, they nail the execution, and they get rewarded for it.

@effexon

this promotes the idea in one video, that to keep industry healthy, it has to be in area/city as far as possible from BOTH financial hub like NYC and power hub like Washington DC. in china it was like this also.

@form4li7y

4y↑9

4:40 Hobbies never needed "community leaders" and I don't want them start using them now. If gaming had such things going into this culture war it would have been a over for us before it started. After seeing who went against gamers in GamerGate, it's clear that gaming would have went fully SJW immediately and gamers would have got kicked out. From the start, those with power and influence in the industry coordinated attacks against us, labeled us vile things, and said that the time of gamers were over. If there had been community leaders with power they most likely would have side with those that preach about "the right side of history" out of fear and we would have zero recourse. Just look at what happened in comics. SJWS took over, told the fans to get lost because they were biggots, and now the big two are in shambles.

Instead of hoping for some leader that would POSSIBLY be neutral, fans of whatever hobbies are just going to have to keep pushing back, voting with our wallets, and drive these political opportunists that never cared about these things out. We are making some strides but it's going to take time. Eventually companies have to make movie and there is enough past entertainment to keep us occupied until that happens.

If we were to go the way Liana is suggesting, where there are these leaders that would have some kind of guiding power, it would be worse. The position would become political and fans would have even less power because all the one who want to make things political would have to do is point at those leaders and say "See, you're wrong. We're right. Now shut up."

@Vienticus

4y↑17

When it comes to American behavior, it's a very deep topic. There are quite a few things going on here. One of the easiest things to point to is the general method of advertising. Many years ago, at least some advertising focused more on a person being a part of something. Now, the only advertising I ever really see is all egocentric and self-indulgent.

Many people also want a single point of failure. They want a single person to be the one responsible for everything going right or everything going wrong. (If you want I can talk more deeply on this, but I'll leave it there for now) With the two party system that the world is lead to believe exists in America, the blame gets to be simplified by othering. You'll hear a general "oh, it's the Republicans" or "oh, it's the Democrats" as a blanket catch-all. The mainstream media will also push this narrative saying that those that are liberal can only be one way and conservatives can be another. They'll never let you hear about a liberal who's a gun advocate or a conservative who is pro-choice. Americans get inundated constantly, and from all directions, in this notion that people have to be shoehorned into one of two categories that it brings out the most militant followers.

In the lines of the false dichotomy of our "two party" system, another big part was pushed into overdrive with George Bush's "No Child Left Behind". Since then you've seen a real destruction of anything that was left of actual education in this country and a full throttle push towards the Wilsonian doctrine of education. It's why i refuse to be a teacher, and if I do any educational work, it'll be strictly tutoring. I've already experienced the nightmare and I know people that still do. One person explained to me that he can never tell a child where to look for the answer, he must always give them answers. This is behavioral training. The child is being taught to get their answers from someone they view in authority rather than looking them up for themselves. On top of that, you have all these tests that have been instituted which only ever measure a child's ability to follow procedure, not to be able to understand what they're doing. Teachers jobs hinge on whether or not children pass these tests. This is the enactment of Woodrow Wilson's beliefs: that the masses should only be taught enough so that they can follow instructions to work in factories.

What you're seeing happen in America is the result of all of this culminating into a society that is ripping itself apart. It's been coming for a good three decades now. Thankfully, there are those of us who can see what's really going on, but people like myself have given up trying to talk sense into people. All I can do now is watch.

@Ahzathoth

4y↑3

Not all of us have just sidelined ourselves. I try to catch the ones who have capacity to see beyond the illusion, and to help them regain that element of self learning that seems to be stamped out. It is all I can do it doesn't always hold but here and there I get to occasionally see a spark ignite. I teach my own kids that if someone gets mad when you ask why, you are asking the right questions.

@christopherthibeault7502

Gee, thanks for writing up a lengthy diatribe about what is going on and how it's all going to crumble, and then offer no means of doing fuck-all. PEOPLE GO TO WORK AND DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS SHIT.

@Vienticus

4y↑1

@Ahzathoth I always tell my students to let people punch holes in their own arguments. All you have to do is ask one of two questions: why and how. At the same time I tell them that they have to ask the same things to themselves and why they do the things that they do. One important lesson that I've learned in my life that I always make sure to pass on is this: the thing that a single person should fear the most is the things that they believe in, because the more a person believes in something, the less they question it.

Another thing that I point out to them is that a person who doesn't argue all sides tends to reduce themselves to a puppet or a mouthpiece.

@Vienticus

4y↑2

@Christopher Thibeault I don't understand your reaction. Your post implies that a problem should not be presented unless there is a proposed solution to go along with it. If this is the case, then why would anyone ever point out any problems? If this is not the case, then I don't know what you are trying to say.

@tremorwolfgang8403

>One person explained to me that he can never tell a child where to look for the answer, he must always give them answers.

Can you explain or give an example what you mean by this? I generally consider this normal if I ask my math teacher to re-explain something I didn't understand the first time. Or are you referring to topics that the teacher does usually not cover so he doesn't know what to answer in this case?

3 More Replies...

@Aurondarklord

4y↑16

See here's the thing to me, that separates the two sides and that I think is one of the core problems that has to get fixed to resolve the culture war: if, say, Ubisoft, just came straight out and said "we're splitting our games down the middle and catering equally to both sides with alternating releases", and then actually did that in good faith, I would be fine with it. I would play what's for me, ignore what's not, and leave the people who like it to enjoy it in peace. And I think by and large, my broader side would be content to do the same...at least after a period of suspicion and mistrust that somehow the deal wouldn't be held up. But SJWs WOULD NOT. They would still constantly be trying to threaten the existence of games for my side and take the whole pie, insisting that anything for people like me existing is harmful and has to stop. And as long as that is the case, my side would never get out of its siege mentality, because we would be constantly afraid, with good reason, that if we let our guards down for one second, they'll pounce and take everything from us.

@GTADriver1

4y↑6

Exactly, it's not just an 'I disagree with you, but will defend your right to say/make it' type of situation which the former would want, those that are authoritarian want an "I disagree with you and no forms of opposing viewpoints can exist" situation.

@Karmakin

4y↑9

Just to add on to this, because I think it's broadly true. I don't think this is a problem limited to gaming. That's the thing, I'm actually very much reminded...or at least it's very parallel to something in the news right now, and that's Trump wanting to do a crackdown on CRT in US Governmental structures. Now, I don't agree with his method at all, but at the same time, I do think there's something there that needs to be addressed, if not institutionally, but socially and culturally. The fact that CRT, or just Critical Theory, more broadly, is presented at such an intensity that in no way shape or form can it be questioned, and have one maintain any sense of moral standing, is a huge problem.

To me, this is actually the issue in gaming as well. It's that the Critical Theory-based attitudes and concepts simply can't be questioned. That's why there's no leadership on anything presenting any sort of alternative..it's broadly, among that sub-culture, not even recognized as legitimate. There's no legitimate moral or ethical value given to it. And understanding, as ADL mentions above, that frankly, as long as this is the case, such a split is basically impossible, because it misses the point. They want to resocialize gamers, who they see (incorrectly) as being super gender-conforming, out of what they see as toxic and harmful personality traits, and they want to use games to do so. Now, I think this fails at SO many levels. I don't think gamers are particularly gender-conforming, and I think that such resocialization actually threatens to push gamers to other unhealthy extremes. And that's what people recognize, and IMO that's what they're reacting to.

But until the woke moral scolds can be reacted to with criticisms about their sexism (including misogyny), racism and other various forms of bigotry, and have that, even if not agreed with, be accepted as a legitimate, good faith criticism, none of this is possible.

@Vienticus

4y↑7

Don't forget that only a couple decades ago, it was the religious right wings that were doing the same thing. In the aspect that you're talking about, be careful of limiting the behavior to one group of people. This behavior stems from the same notion of "there must be something wrong with you because you listen to this type of music". Part of it is narcissistic othering.

When hobbies are small or under the radar, they tend to only have inclusive people in their groups. It's more than a common interest that binds the people, it's also a general personality type of acceptance. When groups start to become more known to the public, you start attracting all kinds of people who want to co-opt and make whatever an extension of them rather than being a part of the hobby. There are just some people in the world who want to yell and scream and make everything they can get their hands on cater to them, and they'll co-opt any group name to accomplish that: Christian, SJW, Incel, etc.

Part of what hurts all of us in this discussion (and i'm guilty of it too) is going after people by what they call themselves rather than by what their actions are. I have to applaud Kerzner in this respect because that's how she mostly speaks and we can all take a lesson.

@dx-ek4vr

4y↑2

@Stirgid Lanathiel Personally, the frustrating difference between the religious right and the woke brigade is how much media support the latter has. That's not to say the religious right didn't have any support, but still.

Maybe the media dropped the religious right because they stopped being a useful pawn in their crusade against video games (remember, MSM views video games as their competitors, especially since they're a dying institution).

@Vienticus

4y↑1

@Stirgid Lanathiel I believe that Sarkeesian believes that she meant well. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. However, the reality is that there are no good intentions. What people call good intentions are actions that are still based on the actors personal beliefs, and therefore are ultimately self-serving. It was (and still is) the same thing with some members of the religious right. Even if the loudest voices of the religious right were only motivated by political gain: again, be careful that you don't let the loudest voices drown out all of the others.

13 More Replies...

@gregorywillett8584

4y↑3

I appreciate the follow up on just getting things a little more balanced on the political level. I would love to see a system where every side is shown and offered to gamers and the general public, and we have a little more faith that people will choose for themselves. I also see how harmful a one-sided narrative can be towards making huge portions of a community feel ostracized.

@dekdenfor9770

4y↑2

"There's jank in them" I honestly find the jank appealing. I've discovered that good games that let themselves be jank are usually super focused on where they put their polish (aformentioned Beyonetta comes to mind) and the jank is polished enough to be practical like the very video gamey but still on theme "Supplies" as Tsushima's base currency.

@james.deffix

4y↑1

I agree with a lot on this video; More than entertaining. It does feel good to have those idea's I have floating around in the air to be grounded with relevant concepts and topics. I question much in life; It's always nice to hear something familiar.

@F1rsttimer

4y↑4

In today's climate, you CAN'T push someone to be strong and you certainly CAN'T stop someone from being a victim. We've developed this world where being a victim of anything somehow makes you strong. How did we get here?

@dx-ek4vr

4y↑7

The most ridiculous example to me is still the woman who complained on international TV on how sexist air conditioning is. Meanwhile, when my workplace overcranks the AC, the people at my workplace (INCLUDING THE WOMEN) just throw on a sweatshirt. You can't have a "strong independent woman" who's so fragile that she suffers an emotional breakdown at the very concept of air conditioning.

@F1rsttimer

4y↑1

@dx1403 lol. I remember that.

@RollingDodge

4y↑1

@dx1403 , I agree, that's what gets me about Anita Sarkeesian or other folks like her. She criticized the female "damsel in distress" troupe and attacked it or gamers, but ironically she can't take harassment. Then people where white knighting for her. I thought that Anita liked tough strong female characters then why do they defend her? I thought that she was a strong female like her characters.

@Retrostar619

Because certain ideologies propell people (without their knowledge) towards the drama triangle. And those people end up stuck in the triangle, and receive social credit points for acting out the role of victim, or rescuer, or persecutor. The triangle is a cage they grow to love, even as it destroys their mental wellbeing. This has been going on (with gradually increasing intensity) for 20 years, both in gaming and the wider world.

@RollingDodge

4y↑1

@Retrosta , that's true it reminds me of Noelle Stevenson (DreamWorks She-Ra, SPOP reboot show runner). She repeated a joke that was said BTS, that could be seen as racist during a live stream.
Covered by #ClownfishTv, https://youtu.be/9leTJvogKWs.

She then apologized but she kinda overdid it, https://youtu.be/1TpthkQx4Wg.

1 More Replies...

@GameShark9000

4y↑5

I argue that Nintendo has been doing good with the Switch. They focus on gameplay over story most of the time, so they don't have the lofty exceptions from the audience that want political subject matter.

@varkesh456

4y↑2

@christopherthibeault7502

Catastrophizing is associated with depression, anxiety, and constant physical pain. The constant insults and abuse from the media claimed to serve gaming just twist this stuff.

@seaoffallingstars7790

4y↑7

"Fears bad PR"

Then they need bad PR so they cannot escape it and thus no longer can rely on that

@James-ep2bx

4y↑5

Oh the culture war has been going on for decades, perhaps even centuries, it just ebs and flows based on how influential the new hotness may be on the current cultural primacy, and to what extent those in power perceive they can safely tip the scales, from Socrates opposing writing, or the church opposing [insert choosen haracy], to Tipper gore and her many crusades, or the current rash of cultural authoritarianism, it's all the same fight, just different people on different battlegrounds

@Lyceaos

4y↑8

honestly i track it to tropes vs, cause that id say was the opening slavo of the culture war really, while gamergate was more like one of the first battlefields if that makes sense. and yeah we do need comunity leaders in gaming but....i mean its hare when its a freaking hobby or even lifestyle of introverts for a start, and we really are still seen as giant children and looked down on by most boomers who control the levers of power in the media and politics

@Lyceaos

4y↑3

and thats not even to mention the stuff back in the 90's with that prick tombson and all the yelping about violence and how many boomers baught that shit. anecdotal but my step dad has said "all these school shootings, its cause of all the damn violent videogames, we didnt have all these shootings before that crap and its rotting your generation's brains" by your generation he was talking to me so meaning malenials

@dx-ek4vr

4y↑7

@Lyceaos The funny thing is, peer reviewed papers debunked the idea of video games making children violent. And now, science is on the way to proving that video games don't make you sexist either.

But like antivaxxers, flat earthers, climate change deniers, and covid-19 conspiracy theorists, these people won't let pesky scientific facts get in the way. The media will still trot out the same bullshit either way.

@Lyceaos

4y↑2

@dx1403 exactly and he denies the evience on it. perspective this is a person who denies we actually went to the moon too so....yeah. i mean i dont even need those papers i can just point to other countires, look at a lot of european countries or japan, none of that violence there and japan has more people playing videogames per capita then the US last i checked, and yeah he is totally the boomer meme

@cathygrandstaff1957

I’m not sure community leaders suit gamers, gamers are more like cats in that we’re all basically loners who want to maintain a territory (usually a genre of game we like) and will fight anyone who tries to take it.

@Lyceaos

4y↑1

@Cathy Grandstaff ok thats an interesting analogy actually. but at the same time ive noticed in that territory games seem to form packs like dogs or wolves, mind thats been my experiences and observations with this. we gamers are strange creatures. maybe split the baby and call us lions? lol. but yeah so it often seems to piss a lot of gamers off when other gamers are attacked unjustly from what ive seen

@sandy34740

4y↑1

I just ate lunch and you gave me a lot of food for thought. I'd say that part of the problem with this culture war stuff is the fact that we (the western world) live in a society that commodifies everything to the point that we judge an individual's moral character from their consumer choices. Buying X instead of Y is the difference between being an -ist or a -phobe, or being on the "Right side of history." While completely ignoring said individual's personal preferences. Maybe a person just plays that game or reads that book or watches that movie because they like it. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with bigotry.

The biggest example outside of the culture war that I can think of is the environmental movement. Single use plastics do a lot of harm to the environment, and yet a lot of burden is thrust on the individuals who buy the plastic bottles instead of the companies who make them. Factory farms do way more damage than a single family ever could, but so much is placed on the feet of individuals and their families to reduce their carbon footprint instead of these corporations. Im not saying individuals shouldn't change at all, its just that too much is asked of them. It should be 75% systems and 25% individuals, not the other way around.

@Poldovico

4y↑1

I kinda get why you want to convince individuals over corporations in the US. Corporations will robotically do what gets them more money, with no ethical considerations in the decision making process. You ask individuals to make their buying decisions based on a cause because that's the only way the corporations will care. You're trying to work the hyper-free market for a purpose. The corporation robotically stops making single use plastics because they don't sell.
Elsewhere that would be the purview of legislators. The corporation stops making single use plastics because they are legally forbidden from doing so, end of story.

At some point, though, the logic of this approach has been forgotten, so now you just have masses of people screaming at each other out of a vague, misremembered notion that they're the enemy.

@taterospud

Yeah i would seriously love it if the games industry was way more balanced but there are issues with why that doesn’t happen. The Japanese industry seems more healthy (other than dev crunch but thats a whole other can of worms) in that there is a place for everything, gotcha games, AAA narrative games, smaller niche games. Part of that is a more thriving mobile gaming scene, also a denser population that has allowed arcades to continue to exist and the nature of the business that a lot of game publishers in Japan are part of diversified companies that don’t rely just on the games to be profitable, as well as the Japanese stock market being more focused on sustainability and continued success as opposed to growth year over year. The problem in western development is growth is expected so it has become a zero sum game, the business just want to continue growth, so annual franchises, recurrent spending platforms, and services are the norm. They are always chasing the trends that maximize profit and minimize cost. You can hear it in the words the execs speak, as well as the constant narrative about nice genres and narrative games “dying” thats the future they want. They want easily developed games, that are iterative and not innovative, innovating costs money (look at EA forcing studios to use frostbite an engine they own, instead of licensing unreal, and how thats affected their games). Gamers see this and see gaming as a zero sum game, you’re working on this so that means you can’t work on anything else, so quite literally if someone gets something they want to that set of casptial G gamers, it means they loose. AAA game development is very one track mind, and since that is the most vocal aspect of the industry, thats all that gets elevated and broadcasted. Even if there is a thriving industry of AA and Indy devs that are making the games people want. You’re bang on that this comes back to marketing, they have too much power in the AAA side of the industry to dictate what gets made and how its marketed and monetized, and since they scream the loudest and are the most flashy games, that get the clicks and coverage from “news” sites and the games people might love get missed. You’ve said it many times before, games coverage needs to be better about broadcasting gaming as a whole and less about being a part of the marketing hype machine of AAA publishers. If gaming as an industry was allowed to have more variety again I think a lot less people would be hostile towards specific games or genres. You have to give Sony the credit fort finding the market inefficiency with narrative single player games and exploiting that, the only problem is they are closed of and exclusivity also leads to hostility towards and superiority complex’s form the Sony fan community, hopefully their new strategy of eventually moving exclusives to PC helps with that. Right now it seems to me like the PC is the place to be, because all games can exist there without that kind of reaction, well as long as your not exclusive to the epic store anyway. That seems to be the root of the problem, exclusivity, telling someone they can’t have or don’t deserve something they want, aren’t allowed to like something they like, or have their “freedom” infringed upon in anyway makes people very angry and hostile.

@DunnoWhatHandleToUse

4y↑7

I'm not sure how you can say Far Cry "resists cancellation" when the last one had barely the skeleton of a plot and characterization to avoid "being political".

@effexon

same was said of latest Deus ex and Detroit game.it looks to be "pandemic" in AAA games.

@hatoru17

A while back a spokesperson for Sony was celebrating female demons in Doom eternal before it came out when they didn't really need to. Sony didn't enforce their censorship policy to avoid controversy or to make better quality Story games, they did it because they wanted to. I feel this way because pointing out something so particular out like that is mostly trying to get attention to a certain group of people to prove that you're on their side. Same thing with the sex scenes in TLOU 2. I would never trust Sony ever again if they felt they have to give special treatment to certain Developers to allow them to do whatever the hell they want, just as long as it has a message they like.

@ArveEriksson

Internet-random reflection on the 'you disagree with my sensibilities and are thus evil and must be destroyed and/or cancelled' thing:
In western games (and other media, I suppose) the most common conflict is that between good and evil, while in japanese games it is most common to see order against chaos (and occasionally presenting a compromise, as in Shin Megami Tensei). Is that why this insanity is only seen in the west? (Or one factor?)

@joejoejohnson8310

4y↑2

You forgot to mention Nintendo, which keeps pumping out gameplay focused titles and generally avoids the entire video game culture debate altogether.

@TNTITAN

That’s only very recently. Before Nintendo was very pro censorship, religious symbolism was is issue for games (Binding of Issac the most recent case I remember).

@joejoejohnson8310

TNTITAN True, although the religious stuff didn’t bother me too much. I’m just glad that they’re moving in the right direction.

@cathygrandstaff1957

I think to some degree gamers reacting as if they have PTSD comes with the territory. We do have a hobby that if you’re playing the really difficult games is constantly trying to attack us. I think that’s why gamers tend to click into fight or flight really easily in online conflicts, we’ve been socialized in a virtual environment where you have to react quickly to anything that comes at you. And to some degree it’s fallout from the never-ending culture wars and constant attack on what we perceive as our territory by the outrage warriors.

With innovation I’ve got to disagree with you, I think the most innovative games of the last console generation came from PC and made the jump to console when they proved popular enough, like Cuphead and Don’t Starve. I think that’s down to cost, you don’t need a special dev kit to make PC games like you do console games so there’s less risk, less risk means you can take more chances and produce something that feels original. I also think Sony’s censorship is probably actually the western devs trying to eliminate competition by making Sony’s console unfriendly to Japanese developers. Which is stupid since the J-games are basically why Sony won the console wars* so they’re shooting themselves in the foot. But maybe the idiots at Sony imagine that if they just get rid of the Japanese third party games everyone who was spending money on them would magically spend it on their games.

*Unless you count handheld consoles as consoles in which case Nintendo won.

@sectkills

4y↑14

@Riverlia

4y↑1

If the right to have an opinion is sacred, having the opinion that another opinion is wrong is also sacred.
You have the right to have an opinion. You don't have the right to insist other should have the same opinion or not voice their opinion in opposition of yours.

@sectkills

4y↑3

@Eo Riverlia ya i never suggested otherwise. I was answering in part why the culture war drama. That is part of why it happens. Sure another part is people are hypocrites who dont realize they are speaking out of both sides of their mouth. If everyone were truly principled they probably couldnt function in our society. Its incredibly difficult to not fall into that pit at some point.

@ArdannaL

4y↑1

Pathologic 2, Disco Elysium, Wasteland 3. PC has got some good games just in the last few months

@RollingDodge

4y↑2

EA probably needs the most change, they are probably one the most corrupt videogame company.

@DetectiveBarricade

4y↑2

They and Activision. But most of these huge AAA companies are so corporate that I don't think they're going to change significantly. I doubt even Ubisoft is going to change much despite the shakeup.

@RollingDodge

@DetectiveBarricade, Thumbs up from me, I agree we need more companies like CDPR and Sucker Punch. And we see how corrupt EA is on the outside, only God knows what's going on bts.

@mikemikeson9173

Interesting video as always, but I don't think a dichotomy of """conscious"" story focused" games vs "larger than life (but needs to be "defensible" to (to woke crowd?)" games is going to work. Honestly, the blatant shift in story focused games probably has the non woke side of the cultures wars more upset than the blatant censorship of games wokes won't even pretend to care about.

@masterharpy6260

I'm going to blame marketing and marketers till I'm blue in the face, this idea that we need to slap a neat label on everyone so we can have our nice neat little categories that fit into neat little boxes we can put on our PowerPoint presentation which outlines the masterplan that will allow us to better attract demographics and therefore profit originated with them and has since ruined everything from games, other products, ips and movies to politics and civil discourse. Yeah, I'm oversimplifying a bit but I hate labels with a passion and I absolutely hate people who try to squeeze other people into them for their own personal gain be it monetary or otherwise.

@Poldovico

I must agree. Fuck marketing.

@planersage1117

4y↑4

Welcome to the fight the anime/Otaku community has been waging. Research the censoring of the fairy tail rpg.

@LadyBern

I don't see how anyone outside of the US isn't allowed to have an opinion. We in the US have an opinion about everyone else everywhere else. And will try to enforce that opinion even if it isn't politics. Look at how it was over anime characters lately (I know it's not just us in the US but still).

@planersage1117

4y↑1

Currently playing Farcry 3 and loving it, though I think I murdered Hugh Jackman.

@TheLastSoundNL

4y↑2

I think you're completely wrong about Sony. I really think there is an ideological bent to them. You don't censor the core part of a game. Not even Nintendo is doing this, a company clearly much more targetted towards children. Sony was already getting worse with the all exclusives, and when they switched to California, this nonsense censorship happened that nobody else does with the exact same games... There is a lot of backroom potential in Silicon Valley.
I even suspect they have barriers in place to gatekeep Japanese games to conform to their norms. In the last few years there are these weird excuses from Japanese developed games. Keep in mind Playstation is far more popular in Japan than other platforms. So if you're excluded from that platform you will miss a huuuge market.

And then you had this weird tweet that they'd bail out arrested protesters/rioters. That's not something a company only caring about money does. The same vapid statement sure, but going as far as they did is a bit much.

@joejoejohnson8310

4y↑1

You’re spot on, except that the PlayStation only outsold the other powerful systems (Xbox and PC). Switch has already almost doubled PS4 lifetime sales in Japan. I think Japanese companies are fine without PlayStation as long as they don’t need the most powerful hardware.

@TheLastSoundNL

@Joe Joe Johnson I think PC is also gaining some small steam.
But I think the demographics of the people both buying the games and platform should be taken into account. Of course there will be overlap. Also handhelds are really popular in Japan because people travel a lot on public transit. Many factors at play.

Main point is, PlayStation has a lot of sway in Japan and I'm pretty sure that's still true. Especially when it comes to exclusive games PlayStation has.

@ZombieBarioth

Its not Sony as a whole that's the problem, its their local office. They only moved in the sense that the California headquarters takes the place of SCEA as their North American branch.

They are simply in charge of regional operations and act on behalf of the main branch. If it became clear to the executives in Japan that the NA branch is screwing things up they would likely step in, much like how Nintendo eventually did when they realized people were unhappy with NoA's handling of things.

TLoU2's failure and Ghost of Tsushima's runaway success could serve as a wake-up call in that regard.

@joejoejohnson8310

RobbEJay but then why are their games censored or canceled (in the case of SK 7) in Japan as well as US?

@k96man

@RobbEJay hopefully they don't hit the snooze button

@dankmemer7431

4y↑2

I LOVE Ghost of Tsushima!

@BloodyBulletShellz

P.t. was the highest and lowest moment of this gen for me tbh

@SidheKnight

What's PT?

@BloodyBulletShellz

4y↑1

@SidheKnight the playable teaser for hideo kojimas silent hills. The game never came out because he got fired and P.T. the playable teaser was removed from the play stations store so unless you already have it it's unplayable.

@Pestilencemage

4y↑2

In their defense, last election cycle, they called Russian opinions "election interference". This only applies if your opinion does not match theirs.
The people that have outbursts are the loudest. They will bring their outburst source into their release (game) which is where you encounter them.

@0r3nw4750n

4y↑11

Happy labour day!

@criticaldrive7688

4y↑3

You, too! ^_^

@sindelscat9336

4y↑1

Too you^^

@jdzspace33

4y↑1

In American society, I track the culture war back to prop 8, which was the gay marriage legislation. That was the first time in my lifetime where people resoundingly rejected it, and yet it persisted. Then something shifted, and it went from both sides bearing their views/objections to the media and politicians basically shutting down one side the lift up the other. I remember people being "canceled" just for saying they disagreed with the homosexual lifestyle. That is commonplace now, but back then, it had never happened before. Someone lost their high power job for voting against prop 8. penalizing someone for how they voted is beyond taboo. It should NEVER happen, but it did, and not only was it deemed acceptable, but it was called positive by the media and pundits. THAT is when the split initially formed. When one side was told, "we don't care what you think, we are going to do what we want, and if you don't like it, then we will destroy you," and that sentiment was backed up by or ignored by those in a position to stop it. Once it became socially acceptable to hurt someone because they disagree with you, it spread like cancer into all facets of society. It just took it longer to get into things like gaming and/or geek culture.

It was never about gaming, or gay marriage, or anything like that. It was when it became publically acceptable and cheered to destroy a fellow human being or countrymen whose only crime was not agreeing with the selected narrative. Like so many things in human history, it was about power, and once that power was given to one group, others wanted in on it too, and nobody stopped them either. That's how we got to where we are. Because those "in charge" did nothing to stop the idea that it was ok to impose your beliefs on to other people, and if they disagree, that means they are the enemy and are "othered" and taken out with extreme prejudice. I don't know how we get back to where we were, or even if it is possible after being so far gone for so long.

@Lyceaos

4y↑1

i want blood dragon 2 god damnit far cry. i mean we have PC gaming but that i think we gotta look at on a whole other stage then consoles right?

@Vienticus

4y↑1

10:30 Earnest sells, researched smells. (at least in the long run)

@Vienticus

4y↑1

22:00 You probably could make a good story out of that.

@sindelscat9336

What's your favorite video game?

@jeangentry6656

4y↑2

Youtube, why you remove my comment? sad face

@dx-ek4vr

4y↑3

I think it was because you quoted lyrics to a song in Pocahontas? Maybe something in those lyrics? Because I've tried quoting Fahrenheit 451 before to describe the SJWs before and Youtube ate those comments.

@jeangentry6656

4y↑2

@dx1403 Youtube censored me over a song in a Disney film, because it proved my point.

Youtube, so FREE SPEECH, they Shut your mouth!

@RedLianaK

4y↑5

Buh? Seriously? I didn't know YouTube auto censored comments! Sorry about that!

@jeangentry6656

4y↑3

@Liana K yeah, it happens to a few comments on my channel. Usually I check Youtube Studio to see if Youtube thought the comment was spam. I guess citing Disney songs to make a point about American politics gets you silenced on Youtube.

@wareforcoin5780

4y↑3

I've had a few just disappear too, but I don't know why. I don't ever leave really mean comments, comments that might trip up some kind of anti-spam algorithm (maybe it saw the lyrics and since there's probably thousands of people who posted the exact same lyric at the same time it thought it was spam?), or usually even anything that controversial. I left a comment on the "why you shouldn't use two spirit" video that was basically just "let's all relax," and that was eaten by the YouTube goblins. (Ironically, I retyped it all out and it turned out sightly more mean then the one that disappeared. 🤷) I don't understand why some comments get auto-deleted and some don't. I've just taken to copying what I wrote before posting just in case since then.

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