Vent: The bigoted backlash to R*looted genuinely depresses me

Censoring the "e" because I don't want those chuds coming to this post.

This is not about defending the game, I haven't played it and ultimately the quality never mattered. What I'm speaking about here is how this game has become just another culture war talking point, and how frustrating that is.

I'm a South African aspiring game dev, and the gaming industry here from personal experience is quite small. When I heard one of our bigger studios was doing a new game obviously I was excited. But that excitement was quickly tempered by the attention the game started receiving from reactionary western audiences. Before the game even had anything to show, there was all of this vitriol thrown at it. I had hoped that they would forget about the game and Nyamakop could just focus on doing their own thing. But lo and behold, I searched for the game now and the top results are from the subreddit full of fans of a man who sleeps in filth, and another from the subreddit full of misogynists who proudly harassed women off the internet.

It hits quite close to home both physically and emotionally to see bad faith critics becoming the loudest voices speaking on this game. I think R*looted is a very interesting idea by a local studio I respect quite a bit but instead of the game being judged on it's own merits, it will be remembered as the topic of the month for culture war grifters who's only stake in this game was their hatred of people like me. It is actively disencouraging: what's the point of even trying to do something unique and interesting if people are just going to reject it? What's even the point of making art, especially as a non-white African, when everything will just be consumed and viewed through the lens of western culture war bullshit?

And I know those people are a loud and entitled minority, it's just hard not to feel like we don't have enough good people in this world anymore. Especially good people within nerd fandoms, since so many of them got invaded by bigots.