Man, I've missed a lot of culture since I've gotten old. I don't regret it, exactly, but it sounds like there's some fun experiences that I've missed out on.
How old am I? Well, let's just say that I played (and loved) Earthbound, but I've never heard of any of the other people or games referenced.
It was a lot of fun, but in the same way that Philip K. Dick described the drug-fueled counter-culture scene of California in the 60's - "This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but they continued to play anyhow. We really all were very happy for a while, sitting around not toiling but just bullshitting and playing, but it was for such a terrible brief time, and then the punishment was beyond belief: even when we could see it, we could not believe it."
Definitely expect to see that quote crop up in a future article. Life does indeed come upon you like a speeding car.
You opened with MatPat and I was like ... Huh. Then you segued into Five nights at Freddy's and I was like ... Okay? Then you hit Undertale and I began to see the connection. I look forward to seeing your Homestuck deep dive. Meanwhile, I am now also haunted by the question ... Did the Pope choose the Genocide route ... Or the Pacifist route? And would anyone tell him about True Neutral?
Yes, it's a bit of a trip but, at the end of the day, they're all connected in a very bizarre way. You'll see what I mean when I say that a lot of internet culture of the 2010's was downstream of Homestuck in ways that just... don't make sense without a lot of cultural cartography.
That being said - I'd like to think the Pope took the Pacifist route, but I think he probably merc'd one or two monsters along the way.
Bit late to the party, I know, but still: unlike many of the other things you cover, I was familiar with most of this already, at least in passing. Still, solid summary, and it took me a while to realize the person in the beginning was the Game Theory guy. I had no idea he had such an accomplished background, especially considering how lame and lowest common denominator his vids tend to be (IMO anyway). Better than MrBeast/Donaldson, I guess...
The idea of giving the Pope a copy of Undertale, and the the Pope having a Steam account, makes me smile too. One thing I expected you to mention, though: couldn't you say Undertale is a very appropriate game to give him, in the sense that it's about the very Christian idea of humans being in a sort of middle place between good and evil (or violence and mercy) and having the free will to choose? At least that's how I interpret it from the outside, but I'm not a Christian.
As for Undertale itself, I'm one of those who's very, very meh on it. I played it a few years after it came out and never really saw what the big deal was. It's a perfectly fine game for something made on a shoestring budget by an amateur, but I don't know...I always found it kind of obnoxiously try-hard and manipulative in a sort of "look at me, look how clever and meta and subversive I'm being! Aren't I quirky? So quirky! way." While I've never been a huge fan of Earthbound/Mother either, at least it has a much more charming art style and production values, and the quirkiness doesn't come across as so forced. Probably because I suspect Itoi is a much better writer than Fox. (That said, Mother 3 has some really dumb scenes that are extremely brute-force sadness, even if the game as a whole is ambitious.)
Still, while UT doesn't do much for me personally, I can sort of see it why it became a phenomenon too, in the sense that I think it reflects a desperate desire for sincerity. Or: this thing could never, ever have been made by a megacorp, or designed by committee. Much like Dark Souls, I agree that it's healthy for the medium that something like UT exists, even if I'm not a fan myself. The music is good, I'll give it that.
UT also feels like the quintessential Zoomer game to me, and like a real generational moment. It was one of the first times I felt I just didn't understand something (at least in video games) because you had to be the right age and experience it at the right time, but to me as a Millennial it was just another thing, if that makes sense at all.
I'm not the biggest fan of MatPat or his content but the guy isn't stupid, that's for damn sure. His videos did, I think, contribute a lot to the kind of loud, rapid-fire style so much of the YouTube landscape is today that I don't like, but again - I respect the hustle.
As for Undertale, I get what you mean. Obviously, I don't entirely agree, but I do see how the game could off as that kind of... how can I put it? "Wholesome le epic chungus" kind of forced quirkiness. But, in that way, it is aligned with Homestuck and Earthbound/Mother (and yes, I would argue that Itoi is a better writer than Fox myself). I talked about this with PJ's Revenge on an upcoming podcast, but Itoi's schtick that made Mother the success it was is kind of like Joss Whedon - he really isn't a problem, but it's everyone who came after him who tried to do what he did and did it worse until it got annoying. Again, I like these properties, but they are very much derivative of Itoi's work, albeit on the better side of the quality spectrum (in my opinion). There's a reason "Quirky Earthbound-inspired Indie RPG about Depression" became a pejorative used to describe games like Omori, Lisa, Cave Story, so on and so forth (though I do think those are all good too so... you can see I might be biased since apparently I like a lot of Quirky Earthbound-inspired Indie RPGs about Depression).
The ironic thing is that, yes, the unabashed sincerity and distinctly unique, not-corporate-product vibe is a massive selling point for Undertale, and yet, it spawned from Homestuck, which is wrapped up in so many layers of irony and sarcasm that it's almost impossible to tell what is and isn't supposed to be sincere. I never really connected Undertale to Zoomers since I'm a Millennial and I liked it, but I think you're onto something; Zoomers are a generation suffering from irony poisoning, so it makes sense a lot of them would gravitate towards something that isn't ironic at all. It's also funny that you say that Undertale was a generational moment - and it was. Keep that in mind as we talk about Homestuck. It's a phrase you're going to be seeing a lot... that "moment in time".
That's a good way to put it re. Whedon. And again, don't get me wrong, I agree that there's a decent level of baseline quality to Undertale (and even more so EB). They just never really connected with me on a deeper level, which they apparently did for a lot of people. Of all the games in this subgenre, I think Tim Schafer's works land better for me, for some reason (ie. Psychonauts and Costume Quest). Maybe because they're slightly edgier and more cynical, to balance out the sugar? Then again, you could make a case Mother 3 is extremely cynical too (it's more the naked, brute-force manipulative pathos there that annoys me).
Also looking forward to the Homestuck essay when you get there. It's one of those things I've been vaguely aware of, but seems so complicated it's hard to know where to begin.
As for the generational angle, you're right on the border between the two, aren't you? Going by bits and pieces in your writing I think you're about ten years younger than me (born in '86), so if the Zoomers begin at around '95 you're pretty much straddling the line.
Oh, Tim Schafer had some real bangers back in the day. I always liked Brutal Legend. Not a perfect game but very unique. It's a shame he went a little... crazy, to say the least, but I have a soft spot for a lot of his older work.
Also, if it tells you anything about how complicated and deep the well of Homestuck goes, know that I have six articles in the hopper about various aspects of it and I'm probably not even half-way through the series over all. The story of the author alone is shaping up to be a two-parter and it's incredibly difficult to tell his story without telling the story of Homestuck, but... you can't really understand Homestuck without understanding the author, just like you can't understand the fandom until you understand Homestuck, which makes laying out a neat, comprehensive study of the timeline and events surrounding them all extremely difficult. It's been a challenge.
I'm closer to the zoomers than not but I was born before 1995. I consider myself a millennial, albeit a late one, because I do remember the analogue, pre-internet era pretty well. It puts me in a weird liminal space between the two where, age-wise, I may be close to zoomers, but culturally I feel like a millennial. It also put me in a position where I was several years older than the average Homestuck fan at the series' zenith, which is probably why I was detached and watching the strangest elements of it from a distance. But, as I say in the next part of the series... I was still there to see it all unfold in real time.
I can definitely appreciate the challenge. Homestuck seems like a poster child for the "and at this point I'm afraid to ask" meme, haha.
Remembering the pre-internet era seems like a reasonable marker for the Millennial/Zoomer divide too. That and remembering 9/11 for the American ones, I guess. Of course these lines are always fluid in practice, and there will always be awkward edge cases. Didn't they even come up with a term for "Xennials" for those caught on the earlier one?
(Also, just wanted to say thank you for the shout-out and the very kind words, so might as well do it here. Just one quick clarification, though: absolutely no offense taken, but I'm a guy. I know "Kim(berly)" tends to be a girl's name in the US, but it's the other way around over here. One of those things. Still, I really do appreciate it!)
I probably should have put somewhere that his online handle is MatPat, but I'm not at all surprised that your daughter knew who he was. Like I said, the guy was (is?) insanely popular on YouTube.
A suitably wild ride for the start of a wild ride of what turned out to be among other things a cognitive hazard. See you next year for the continuation.
Mildly more seriously, both in positive and absolutely negative, the bloodline vibe really has carved a deep mark in internet culture, an impressive feat given the speed and mutation of the memetic horrors.
Many of course just go with the flow, not knowing from whence the blood comes.
Oh, it'll be coming sooner than a year... I hope. The next part, I mean. The conclusion? Probably not. Cognitive hazard is a good word for it, though.
It's funny you mention the bloodline because just the other day I saw someone say "Homestuck is the West's Touhou", referring to the massively memetically popular Japanese indie game series that seems to be the flashpoint and origin for so, so many Japanese creators. A non-insignificant amount of very popular mangakas working today got their start drawing Touhou fan comics, and it makes you realize just how impactful these relatively obscure series spearheaded by one person can really make on the cultural fabric of the internet. Fascinating stuff.
Excellent article. Reminds me of a friend from high school who went through the Homestuck > Earthbound > Undertale pipeline. I never played the game as my friends obsession disquieted my interest; but when I was a young, gaming addicted youth I had a similar relationship with Cave Story.
Cave Story is very much in the same vein as Homestuck, Undertale, and the whole "Quirky Earthbound-inspired Indie RPG about Depression" genre, so that tracks. Great game, though. I like it a lot.
For what it's worth, too, my preoccupation with Homestuck always put off my friends from reading it, so that's not uncommon. I'm pretty sure they thought I went insane when I started to rock the Vriska drip; not because I acted different but because I'd willingly signal to the con-going public I liked Homestuck.
I am quite sure this is the first article I have ever read by you, and my goodness this is excellent. I can't believe I was a child on youtube seeing that matpat gave the pope undertale and thought "huh, that's neat". Being in elementary at the beginning of the FNAF era was certainly a time for "children's culture"
I'm glad you enjoyed it, and hopefully you stick around for more in the future. It makes me realize how old I'm getting when I look back at FnaF and realizing I was in college when it first came out. I watched it all unfold second hand and I was more of an intrigued spectator than an active participant. One day, I'd like to do a deeper dive into it, but... I've got a lot on my plate right now. Again, though, thank you for reading and the kind words.
This was... fascinating. As I was reaching the age that I was vaguely aware of a lot of this, but moving away from it too so this was one of the times I most remember being outside looking in on something.
I will neither confirm nor deny that when I say Homestuck got me into writing earnestly it was because I was writing fanfiction. But you can probably read between the lines. Glad you enjoyed the read, though.
Also, I will admit that when I read "Apple Kid" it took me a moment to realize what you were referring too because there's a character in Homestuck who's intrinsically tied to apples and... you know what? We'll get there.
I remember Problem Sleuth was mind-blowing for me, all the way through. As for Homestuck, I hit my peak of emotional engagement with it early on, when the troll kids started their big adventures, and I never quite reached it again. Eventually Homestuck just became exhausting for me to deal with.
But then, I was going through a major life change, and didn't have the spare capacity to process Hussie's nonsense.
As for Undertale, I swore off video games in October of 2015, so I missed that whole boat. I'm pretty sure I would never be able to go the genocide route, though.
I think it's an overly millennial-with-no-taste thing to call Undertale's soundtrack, or any video game soundtrack generally that wasn't licensed to actual bands, real super good. Like most soundtracks, it's built to accentuate moments rather than to be listened to for its own sake. If you do listen to it outside of the context of the game, you'll probably find a lot of it is just jingles or becomes grating. Like the regular battle theme. Fuck those chiptunes.
What Undertale does well with the music is something it shares with Half Life 2, another game where the sound/music designer person had a big role in development. With that level of control in making the game, Toby Fox and Kelly Bailey had the opportunity to make sure every musical beat was better matched to each event that was happening on screen. Try this for yourself: first, sit through the Half Life 2 ost on youtube. You probably won't be that impressed. Then play Half Life 2, and see how much better each song seems to fit in.
I'm also late to this party, but I was always interested in what Homestuck was really about. I missed out on the hype and it seemed too underwhelming to get to know what's up with it.
Also, I wouldn't have read this if you weren't mentioned it at another place what it is about. I was also instantly rolled my eyes and turned it off after seeing MatPat.
Again, I try to not repeat that was said here before, but I also have to say that I agree with what Kim said.
I'm a 94 liner and sometimes I wonder whether I'm a really late millenial or a very early zoomer. Back in the past, where things were simpler it was always said that we are 5-10 years behind the west so that would put me into the zoomers but this somehow pulled me back into the millenials.
In a way, I agree. Undertale was good, but...(insert graph here about how nothing can be ever truly good for Eastern Europeans)
I did play it around the time it came out and I (really)enjoyed it, but with every thing added it missed the mark for me. Let's just say that in a way MatPat giving it to the pope somewhat symbolises for me my problems with it. Especially his reasoning.
Now I'm not claiming to be a theologian but it reminds me the original edgy atheists, 'you think there's an old guy in the sky?', etc.. It's a really reductionist view of christianity and while the medium obviously has its limits(and I don't think that Fox wanted to make a religious point), in the end it is a far more simple than many claim it to be. Like Inception. It is a great movie and I love it, but it's not that deep. At least for me.
In the end, it's milquetoast in the way Matpat is. Nothing wrong with that. Most people are and will be gravitating towards things like that. Other times, it is me who is milquetoast...
But it did make a great showing how much more this genre can be. If anything, it's a great proof of concept against the current state of affairs. And I agree that maybe everyone else should write these things and not dedicated programmers.
It is surprising for me though that you're such a big Homestuck fan. The most of them I had the fortune to...are different if you get what I mean.
I never could get into it, just as I could never get into One Piece...ain't nobody got time for that.
(This is were the path with MLP also diverges. While bronies went into the lowest common denominator many times where you basically could claim to be one where you knew that...ponies and the main characters, other places were more and more restrictive.)
I'm excited about these though. Still love the style.
I knew exactly where this was going when I saw the [S]
I'm glad someone got the reference.
Man, I've missed a lot of culture since I've gotten old. I don't regret it, exactly, but it sounds like there's some fun experiences that I've missed out on.
How old am I? Well, let's just say that I played (and loved) Earthbound, but I've never heard of any of the other people or games referenced.
Life comes at you fast.
Thanks for another fun and educational piece!
It was a lot of fun, but in the same way that Philip K. Dick described the drug-fueled counter-culture scene of California in the 60's - "This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but they continued to play anyhow. We really all were very happy for a while, sitting around not toiling but just bullshitting and playing, but it was for such a terrible brief time, and then the punishment was beyond belief: even when we could see it, we could not believe it."
Definitely expect to see that quote crop up in a future article. Life does indeed come upon you like a speeding car.
I'm glad you enjoyed the read.
You opened with MatPat and I was like ... Huh. Then you segued into Five nights at Freddy's and I was like ... Okay? Then you hit Undertale and I began to see the connection. I look forward to seeing your Homestuck deep dive. Meanwhile, I am now also haunted by the question ... Did the Pope choose the Genocide route ... Or the Pacifist route? And would anyone tell him about True Neutral?
Yes, it's a bit of a trip but, at the end of the day, they're all connected in a very bizarre way. You'll see what I mean when I say that a lot of internet culture of the 2010's was downstream of Homestuck in ways that just... don't make sense without a lot of cultural cartography.
That being said - I'd like to think the Pope took the Pacifist route, but I think he probably merc'd one or two monsters along the way.
Bit late to the party, I know, but still: unlike many of the other things you cover, I was familiar with most of this already, at least in passing. Still, solid summary, and it took me a while to realize the person in the beginning was the Game Theory guy. I had no idea he had such an accomplished background, especially considering how lame and lowest common denominator his vids tend to be (IMO anyway). Better than MrBeast/Donaldson, I guess...
The idea of giving the Pope a copy of Undertale, and the the Pope having a Steam account, makes me smile too. One thing I expected you to mention, though: couldn't you say Undertale is a very appropriate game to give him, in the sense that it's about the very Christian idea of humans being in a sort of middle place between good and evil (or violence and mercy) and having the free will to choose? At least that's how I interpret it from the outside, but I'm not a Christian.
As for Undertale itself, I'm one of those who's very, very meh on it. I played it a few years after it came out and never really saw what the big deal was. It's a perfectly fine game for something made on a shoestring budget by an amateur, but I don't know...I always found it kind of obnoxiously try-hard and manipulative in a sort of "look at me, look how clever and meta and subversive I'm being! Aren't I quirky? So quirky! way." While I've never been a huge fan of Earthbound/Mother either, at least it has a much more charming art style and production values, and the quirkiness doesn't come across as so forced. Probably because I suspect Itoi is a much better writer than Fox. (That said, Mother 3 has some really dumb scenes that are extremely brute-force sadness, even if the game as a whole is ambitious.)
Still, while UT doesn't do much for me personally, I can sort of see it why it became a phenomenon too, in the sense that I think it reflects a desperate desire for sincerity. Or: this thing could never, ever have been made by a megacorp, or designed by committee. Much like Dark Souls, I agree that it's healthy for the medium that something like UT exists, even if I'm not a fan myself. The music is good, I'll give it that.
UT also feels like the quintessential Zoomer game to me, and like a real generational moment. It was one of the first times I felt I just didn't understand something (at least in video games) because you had to be the right age and experience it at the right time, but to me as a Millennial it was just another thing, if that makes sense at all.
I'm not the biggest fan of MatPat or his content but the guy isn't stupid, that's for damn sure. His videos did, I think, contribute a lot to the kind of loud, rapid-fire style so much of the YouTube landscape is today that I don't like, but again - I respect the hustle.
As for Undertale, I get what you mean. Obviously, I don't entirely agree, but I do see how the game could off as that kind of... how can I put it? "Wholesome le epic chungus" kind of forced quirkiness. But, in that way, it is aligned with Homestuck and Earthbound/Mother (and yes, I would argue that Itoi is a better writer than Fox myself). I talked about this with PJ's Revenge on an upcoming podcast, but Itoi's schtick that made Mother the success it was is kind of like Joss Whedon - he really isn't a problem, but it's everyone who came after him who tried to do what he did and did it worse until it got annoying. Again, I like these properties, but they are very much derivative of Itoi's work, albeit on the better side of the quality spectrum (in my opinion). There's a reason "Quirky Earthbound-inspired Indie RPG about Depression" became a pejorative used to describe games like Omori, Lisa, Cave Story, so on and so forth (though I do think those are all good too so... you can see I might be biased since apparently I like a lot of Quirky Earthbound-inspired Indie RPGs about Depression).
The ironic thing is that, yes, the unabashed sincerity and distinctly unique, not-corporate-product vibe is a massive selling point for Undertale, and yet, it spawned from Homestuck, which is wrapped up in so many layers of irony and sarcasm that it's almost impossible to tell what is and isn't supposed to be sincere. I never really connected Undertale to Zoomers since I'm a Millennial and I liked it, but I think you're onto something; Zoomers are a generation suffering from irony poisoning, so it makes sense a lot of them would gravitate towards something that isn't ironic at all. It's also funny that you say that Undertale was a generational moment - and it was. Keep that in mind as we talk about Homestuck. It's a phrase you're going to be seeing a lot... that "moment in time".
That's a good way to put it re. Whedon. And again, don't get me wrong, I agree that there's a decent level of baseline quality to Undertale (and even more so EB). They just never really connected with me on a deeper level, which they apparently did for a lot of people. Of all the games in this subgenre, I think Tim Schafer's works land better for me, for some reason (ie. Psychonauts and Costume Quest). Maybe because they're slightly edgier and more cynical, to balance out the sugar? Then again, you could make a case Mother 3 is extremely cynical too (it's more the naked, brute-force manipulative pathos there that annoys me).
Also looking forward to the Homestuck essay when you get there. It's one of those things I've been vaguely aware of, but seems so complicated it's hard to know where to begin.
As for the generational angle, you're right on the border between the two, aren't you? Going by bits and pieces in your writing I think you're about ten years younger than me (born in '86), so if the Zoomers begin at around '95 you're pretty much straddling the line.
Oh, Tim Schafer had some real bangers back in the day. I always liked Brutal Legend. Not a perfect game but very unique. It's a shame he went a little... crazy, to say the least, but I have a soft spot for a lot of his older work.
Also, if it tells you anything about how complicated and deep the well of Homestuck goes, know that I have six articles in the hopper about various aspects of it and I'm probably not even half-way through the series over all. The story of the author alone is shaping up to be a two-parter and it's incredibly difficult to tell his story without telling the story of Homestuck, but... you can't really understand Homestuck without understanding the author, just like you can't understand the fandom until you understand Homestuck, which makes laying out a neat, comprehensive study of the timeline and events surrounding them all extremely difficult. It's been a challenge.
I'm closer to the zoomers than not but I was born before 1995. I consider myself a millennial, albeit a late one, because I do remember the analogue, pre-internet era pretty well. It puts me in a weird liminal space between the two where, age-wise, I may be close to zoomers, but culturally I feel like a millennial. It also put me in a position where I was several years older than the average Homestuck fan at the series' zenith, which is probably why I was detached and watching the strangest elements of it from a distance. But, as I say in the next part of the series... I was still there to see it all unfold in real time.
I can definitely appreciate the challenge. Homestuck seems like a poster child for the "and at this point I'm afraid to ask" meme, haha.
Remembering the pre-internet era seems like a reasonable marker for the Millennial/Zoomer divide too. That and remembering 9/11 for the American ones, I guess. Of course these lines are always fluid in practice, and there will always be awkward edge cases. Didn't they even come up with a term for "Xennials" for those caught on the earlier one?
(Also, just wanted to say thank you for the shout-out and the very kind words, so might as well do it here. Just one quick clarification, though: absolutely no offense taken, but I'm a guy. I know "Kim(berly)" tends to be a girl's name in the US, but it's the other way around over here. One of those things. Still, I really do appreciate it!)
I just asked my daughter about underlay and she said,"Sure, of course", then I asked if she knew about Matthew Patrick and she said,"No idea."
Then she looked over my shoulder at the picture and said "You mean Mat Pat?" And laughed genuinely at me for sincerely five minutes.
I probably should have put somewhere that his online handle is MatPat, but I'm not at all surprised that your daughter knew who he was. Like I said, the guy was (is?) insanely popular on YouTube.
Yes, you've educated me! Once she knew the context she knew what i meant immediately. But she was pretty amused by my level of ignorance. Thanks!
A suitably wild ride for the start of a wild ride of what turned out to be among other things a cognitive hazard. See you next year for the continuation.
Mildly more seriously, both in positive and absolutely negative, the bloodline vibe really has carved a deep mark in internet culture, an impressive feat given the speed and mutation of the memetic horrors.
Many of course just go with the flow, not knowing from whence the blood comes.
Oh, it'll be coming sooner than a year... I hope. The next part, I mean. The conclusion? Probably not. Cognitive hazard is a good word for it, though.
It's funny you mention the bloodline because just the other day I saw someone say "Homestuck is the West's Touhou", referring to the massively memetically popular Japanese indie game series that seems to be the flashpoint and origin for so, so many Japanese creators. A non-insignificant amount of very popular mangakas working today got their start drawing Touhou fan comics, and it makes you realize just how impactful these relatively obscure series spearheaded by one person can really make on the cultural fabric of the internet. Fascinating stuff.
Excellent article. Reminds me of a friend from high school who went through the Homestuck > Earthbound > Undertale pipeline. I never played the game as my friends obsession disquieted my interest; but when I was a young, gaming addicted youth I had a similar relationship with Cave Story.
Cave Story is very much in the same vein as Homestuck, Undertale, and the whole "Quirky Earthbound-inspired Indie RPG about Depression" genre, so that tracks. Great game, though. I like it a lot.
For what it's worth, too, my preoccupation with Homestuck always put off my friends from reading it, so that's not uncommon. I'm pretty sure they thought I went insane when I started to rock the Vriska drip; not because I acted different but because I'd willingly signal to the con-going public I liked Homestuck.
I am quite sure this is the first article I have ever read by you, and my goodness this is excellent. I can't believe I was a child on youtube seeing that matpat gave the pope undertale and thought "huh, that's neat". Being in elementary at the beginning of the FNAF era was certainly a time for "children's culture"
I'm glad you enjoyed it, and hopefully you stick around for more in the future. It makes me realize how old I'm getting when I look back at FnaF and realizing I was in college when it first came out. I watched it all unfold second hand and I was more of an intrigued spectator than an active participant. One day, I'd like to do a deeper dive into it, but... I've got a lot on my plate right now. Again, though, thank you for reading and the kind words.
This was... fascinating. As I was reaching the age that I was vaguely aware of a lot of this, but moving away from it too so this was one of the times I most remember being outside looking in on something.
Fanfic: it’s like Lucca and The Apple Kid had a baby and he grew up and wrote an essay. Brilliant!
I will neither confirm nor deny that when I say Homestuck got me into writing earnestly it was because I was writing fanfiction. But you can probably read between the lines. Glad you enjoyed the read, though.
Also, I will admit that when I read "Apple Kid" it took me a moment to realize what you were referring too because there's a character in Homestuck who's intrinsically tied to apples and... you know what? We'll get there.
I remember Problem Sleuth was mind-blowing for me, all the way through. As for Homestuck, I hit my peak of emotional engagement with it early on, when the troll kids started their big adventures, and I never quite reached it again. Eventually Homestuck just became exhausting for me to deal with.
But then, I was going through a major life change, and didn't have the spare capacity to process Hussie's nonsense.
As for Undertale, I swore off video games in October of 2015, so I missed that whole boat. I'm pretty sure I would never be able to go the genocide route, though.
I think it's an overly millennial-with-no-taste thing to call Undertale's soundtrack, or any video game soundtrack generally that wasn't licensed to actual bands, real super good. Like most soundtracks, it's built to accentuate moments rather than to be listened to for its own sake. If you do listen to it outside of the context of the game, you'll probably find a lot of it is just jingles or becomes grating. Like the regular battle theme. Fuck those chiptunes.
What Undertale does well with the music is something it shares with Half Life 2, another game where the sound/music designer person had a big role in development. With that level of control in making the game, Toby Fox and Kelly Bailey had the opportunity to make sure every musical beat was better matched to each event that was happening on screen. Try this for yourself: first, sit through the Half Life 2 ost on youtube. You probably won't be that impressed. Then play Half Life 2, and see how much better each song seems to fit in.
I'm also late to this party, but I was always interested in what Homestuck was really about. I missed out on the hype and it seemed too underwhelming to get to know what's up with it.
Also, I wouldn't have read this if you weren't mentioned it at another place what it is about. I was also instantly rolled my eyes and turned it off after seeing MatPat.
Again, I try to not repeat that was said here before, but I also have to say that I agree with what Kim said.
I'm a 94 liner and sometimes I wonder whether I'm a really late millenial or a very early zoomer. Back in the past, where things were simpler it was always said that we are 5-10 years behind the west so that would put me into the zoomers but this somehow pulled me back into the millenials.
In a way, I agree. Undertale was good, but...(insert graph here about how nothing can be ever truly good for Eastern Europeans)
I did play it around the time it came out and I (really)enjoyed it, but with every thing added it missed the mark for me. Let's just say that in a way MatPat giving it to the pope somewhat symbolises for me my problems with it. Especially his reasoning.
Now I'm not claiming to be a theologian but it reminds me the original edgy atheists, 'you think there's an old guy in the sky?', etc.. It's a really reductionist view of christianity and while the medium obviously has its limits(and I don't think that Fox wanted to make a religious point), in the end it is a far more simple than many claim it to be. Like Inception. It is a great movie and I love it, but it's not that deep. At least for me.
In the end, it's milquetoast in the way Matpat is. Nothing wrong with that. Most people are and will be gravitating towards things like that. Other times, it is me who is milquetoast...
But it did make a great showing how much more this genre can be. If anything, it's a great proof of concept against the current state of affairs. And I agree that maybe everyone else should write these things and not dedicated programmers.
It is surprising for me though that you're such a big Homestuck fan. The most of them I had the fortune to...are different if you get what I mean.
I never could get into it, just as I could never get into One Piece...ain't nobody got time for that.
(This is were the path with MLP also diverges. While bronies went into the lowest common denominator many times where you basically could claim to be one where you knew that...ponies and the main characters, other places were more and more restrictive.)
I'm excited about these though. Still love the style.