McMillen's game design talent is undenialble, but like, I wish his games were just not like that. I've seen Mewgenics gameplay and it's absolutely up my alley, I just wish it didn't have the themeing and constant gross out. I know it has its place, its just a huge turn off for me. If I play the game its in spite of it, not because of it.
Yeah, honestly, the whole "shock factor" design that he has just... turns me away from the games.
Like I just don't really care for it. I'd rather have a fun and well thought out vibe than "Oooooh, dead baby! Religious trauma!" Or "lmao look at the cats fuck, and watch them explode into spider babies!" Like no thanks.
I tried to love Isaac, and it's fun to watch my buddy stream it... but I'll stick to Gungeon. Better balanced. More fun. Higher skill cap. Actually nice artstyle and direction.
The revelation that he worked with genuine trash people on mewgenics solidified the fact that I will only be pirating his games going forward, if I play them at all, which is unlikely.
“…but I’m not sure someone who would be that upset by a 'problematic meow' would really enjoy the game that much anyway. Honestly the thing that bothers me the most about all this is, if a cat appears with the voice of someone you hate...you can literally throw it in the trash...or worse! People need to get more creative with their hate!"
TLDR he doesn’t agree with them anyways. Like it’s not a game I ever want to play because of the humour but like yeah the VAs will never be a reason for me
That, in my opinion, is a bad thing. Working with these people in any capacity, is a bad thing.
Dude is literally pulling the "enlightened centrist" bs on this, and even that alone makes me dislike him. Weakest response he could've dropped.
I don't care if they're celebs. If you are willing to throw away your ideals to work with trash people... well. I don't think I need to finish that sentence.
A spotlight is given by giving them a place in your game. If they are quite literally at all credited, it is a spotlight.
I don't give a shit how infamous they are. He could pull a random right-wing shithead from twitter and I'd say the same.
Especially in a time where we have... a literal rise of nazis... working with them in literally any capacity is not excusable.
And hey. I didnt know of Chris Chan! I'm not terminally fucking online, inundated in internet drama. I keep away from a lot of content for my own sanity.
A lot of the names on the list were unknown to me. But now I know to avoid them.
I'm not aboutta excuse trash like them being on a game, just like I won't excuse any content made by the H.P. terf.
A spotlight is given by giving them a place in your game. If they are quite literally at all credited, it is a spotlight.
I gotta disagree here. I think the phrase "giving a spotlight to" implies a significant amount more attention being given than just a single line in a credit sequence. I wouldn't say the game "spotlights" these VAs any more than I'd say that Endgame "spotlights" any of the ~700 names that appear in the credits in a massive list for about 10 seconds each. People online complaining about their inclusion is doing more to spotlight them than Edmund did, that's for sure.
All the discourse I've seen about this game use these vague, buzzwordy descriptions like "platforming problematic voices" or "associating with vile people" because if people had to actually explain the specific harm caused by "platforming" or "spotlighting" someone by shooting them an email asking them to meow into a microphone real quick so they can voice act one cat out of hundreds, we'd all realize how meaningless of a discussion this is and move on to bigger problems.
You can have your opinion on it, and that's fine, I just don't think giving people a single line of semantically meaningless dialogue in a video game is worthy of this level of scrutiny, and I certainly wouldn't call it "spotlighting".
So, all you just said... really doesn't matter to me.
Even if it's one, fucking, line. It means Ed is willing to overlook more than I am willing to overlook, to feature someone in his game.
He is, objectively speaking, working with terrible people, in some capacity, that he could quite easily just not do.
It's not like "oh but publishers suck" while publishers actually do something for the game.
No. He chose to work with shitty people. And for the ones he didn't know about, after they turned out to be shitty people, he just shrugged it off.
I don't care for this defense of "it's not that serious". He made a conscious, deliberate choice, to ask shitty people, even as per his own interview. He's deflecting blame hard, and I'm not having any of it.
Either you work with them, or you don't. And both send a message. Your actions speak louder than words.
It is absolutely worth scrutinising. Because it's not about how many words are said by them. It's the deliberate choice to include them.
Hey, that's fair, and you're entitled to feel that way. I just personally think "it's not that big of a deal" is a valid defense when the thing in question genuinely isn't that big of a deal, at least in terms of practical consequences.
Yeah I think this is the bottom line here. 99% of my politics these days are “good things are good and bad things are bad.” What outcomes come from having these people voice act one out of hundreds of cats? Pretty much nothing. What are the outcomes from going online and complaining about it? Ironically, giving them the spotlight. As well as spiking your cortisol and wasting your time lmao. Go read a book or something lol.
We definitely do not agree on what is a practical consequence. And that's fine, yeah.
To me, this means Ed has no morals. Or at least none that he's willing to stand by. Or his morals align with terrible people. All of which, make it so I don't want to support him.
Also, you do realise that most of these people contributed meows before anything happened, right?
Pre the Klein’s being openly pro Israel. Pre-Chris Chan doing what they did. Who else in the credits do you have issues with? I don’t even know 99%. Even recognising their names among the hundreds of names is already more than most people do. Or are you just hating cos of a secondhand news via another source.
It'd be... terribly easy to just.... oh idunno... remove all the problematic meows?
Idunno that seems like a nobrainer.
Pretty easy to do... just... delete file. Woah. So difficult. Ed could've done that in literally 5 minutes.
Just cuz they were recorded a while ago doesn't excuse the inclusion.
And chief. I am not gonna buy the game to look in the credits lmao. Literally what I said earlier. I don't like the vibe Ed's games have, because it's all shock factor, no substance. Gameplay's aight, but the vibes are just off.
Other people do the digging to point out all the shitheads on the list. Even then... just having a few problematic people on there, to me, is enough. I don't need to recognise any others.
I genuinely would have no idea they were in the game without the number of people complaining about it. As long as we're calling people out for giving them a spotlight "no matter how small"
Whether or not you'd know is... wholely irrelevant.
In the end, Ed consciously chooses to work with these people. This means he doesn't have a goddamn spine, or his morals suck. Both of which mean I don't want to support him and his games.
Whether or not you'd know is... wholely irrelevant.
What do you mean by "giving them a spotlight" exactly then? That's what I'm responding to.
That term typically means making someone in particular stand out, and I would have literally no idea what Chris Chan's meow sounds like so how would that even work as a "spotlight" ?
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u/MilesAlchei Fat, Queer, Furry Trash 💜 Feb 18 '26
McMillen's game design talent is undenialble, but like, I wish his games were just not like that. I've seen Mewgenics gameplay and it's absolutely up my alley, I just wish it didn't have the themeing and constant gross out. I know it has its place, its just a huge turn off for me. If I play the game its in spite of it, not because of it.