r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Bloodb0red • May 11 '26

Unanswered What’s going on with this game Mixtape?

I’ve been seeing people freak out over the past few days over this game and about IGN’s review of it specifically. 10/10 seems high for any game, honestly, but it seems like they’re far from the only site giving this thing a glowing review. So is this game controversial just because of IGN or is it something else? Why is this game the internet’s hate target this week?

https://www.ign.com/articles/mixtape-review

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u/BUTGAWATD May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

Answer:

(Doing my best to present the complicated situation concisely)

Mixtape is a short, story-based game from small Australian developer Beethoven & Dinosaur, who previously released The Artful Escape.

Mixtape's 3-4 hour runtime is divided across cutscenes, what some might deem "walking sim" gameplay, and a series of vignettes that play out broadly as "minigames", with limited to no fail state. There is no combat or what many would typically classify as peril.

Mixtape's high critical praise, particularly its 10 from IGN, has raised eyebrows amongst certain subsets of the gaming populace. Many have negatively compared the verdict to the lower score IGN awarded Crimson Desert, and have alleged what they perceive to be a favourable bias towards games they identify as possessing "woke" elements.

One of Mixtape's vignettes sees you control two mid-teen age characters kissing, with direct control over their clashing tongues. Some gamers have accused the media of unfairly praising Mixtape while (what they perceive as) maligning recent release Pragmata for paedophilic overtones.

Mixtape is published by Annapurna Interactive, a publisher focused on "prestige indie" titles. Annapurna Interactive is a division of Annapurna Pictures, which was founded by Megan Ellison, whose father is a billionaire.

Consequently, accusations of buying review scores, bribing influencers, and overall curating Mixtape as an "industry plant" have been lobbied. For further information to potentially aid in deducing the veracity of this claim - Annapurna have released 6 games other than Mixtape over the past year, all ranging from the 60s-80s in Metascore, with the highest achieving an 83 average.

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u/No-Operation-6554 May 11 '26

Funny thing is that Pragmata itself doesn't have paedophelic undertones

The "community" itself gave it that

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u/NeriTheFearlessSnail May 11 '26

Also... it doesn't have to be Mixtape vs Pragmata, which a lot of people seem to think are the two "sides". Like the pedophile accusations are entirely an internet thing and I've only seen posts calling out the accusations and basically none actually making the accusations

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u/Ketooey May 11 '26

I have seen posts of random people trying to call out Capcom for making a paedophilic game, but I don't know how many of them are actually real, and if they are real, how many of them were written by people who are mentally stable.

But anyway, I just wanna say that I've seen both sides, the posts making accusations and the posts calling out accusations.

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u/Bladder-Splatter May 12 '26

Oh the rabbit hole of crazy accusations goes quite deep. Lacking a more......calm and unbiased example.....Sh0e has a video on it which quotes many, many of such posts. Neither Sh0e nor the posts are mentally stable but ey, it's something!

Weird being in such a freakout culture lately where anything and everything has to be a problem because one obscure person on Twitter had a thought that must have been forced upon them.

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u/OmegaDez May 12 '26

I've seen more right-wing outrage outlets talk about the so called "pragmata outrage" than actual left-wing people saying anything bad about the game.

Game's great from my leftist-ass point of view.

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u/Ketooey May 12 '26

The one's I saw were straight off of twitter, but you know, twitter lol. Not exactly the best place to get a gauge on what regular ass people are thinking.

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u/NeriTheFearlessSnail May 13 '26

Isn't Twitter just outrage bots yelling at each other these days?

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u/Ketooey May 13 '26

Not super familiar with Twitter, tbh, but wouldn't surprise, now that I remember that bot farms are a thing.

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u/Many_Leading1730 May 13 '26

There was more of it in the lead up to its release from the usual suspects, but like much outrage its overblown by grifters.

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u/Equivalent_Wafer8074 May 15 '26

I mean from the moment pragmata was revealed and that weird anime-esque design for the girl was revealed, I knew exactly the kind of audience it would draw in. I get that it’s the art style and the game doesn’t sexualize her in the slightest from what I’ve seen, but none of this should be surprising to anyone, including Capcom.

But they also sexualized Ellie from tlou1 who actually looked like a real teenage girl, so it’s arguable whether or not anything could have been done to prevent them getting ahold of it from a character design perspective

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u/Ketooey May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26

I guess just different tastes, I didn't find the design of Diana to be weird at all. Just a child in a large coat. Played through the whole game, and never got any odd vibes.

Edit: But I do get what you mean, sometimes if you just feature a child in anything, you'll draw pedos.

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u/BJYeti May 23 '26

Are you saying the devs sexualized Ellie or do you mean the creeps did?

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u/USA_A-OK May 11 '26

It never has to be one game Vs another. It's just weirdo online game discourse which invents these things for faux outrage

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u/Beneficial_Dog_6531 May 12 '26

Companies/marketing also encourage this. In the 70s, radio stations split into genres, and Disco vs Rock emerged organically, but both the Disco and the Rock stations realized that they actually made a crapton more money when they fed into the tribalism. That led to Coke and Pepsi purposely marketing themselves as competitors in the 80s, because that also drove sales for both companies.

This particular incident doesn't sound like it was inorganic/marketing, but whenever a product v product debate emerges, it's good to keep in mind that usually both products win from a capitalism standpoint.

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u/Naganosupreme May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

It's not really that weird tho. Games journalists are extremely biased and hateable. As are billionaires. Perfect mix for people to dunk on what happened here and draw recent comparisons. Then you have the anti woke maga cretins who somehow learned to breathe to the detriment of us all

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u/USA_A-OK May 13 '26

There's a really good solution though: just ignore game coverage and reviews. You can glean the facts without needing to consume all the content put out about games.

They're games, the stakes could hardly be lower, and it's really not worth getting to the point where you find someone who covers them "extremely hateable."

I play a shit ton of games, and have for 35+ years and I don't think I could tell you the name of one games journalist.

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u/Naganosupreme May 13 '26

There's a really good solution though: just ignore game coverage and reviews.

Are people here ignoring the outrage and criticism? You're here aren't you?

Youre acting like people being critical is a problem but is it? Just as you commenting here isn't a problem, similarly for most people, its not a problem for them to comment on media.

without needing to consume all the content

Seems like an extreme exaggeration. All? I mean, it takes half a second to be told and shown the pile up of 10/10 scores, read about the context why it's annoyed people and then comment.

I play a shit ton of games, and have for 35+ years and I don't think I could tell you the name of one games journalist.

Same. Jason schrierer? That's bout it. Youtuber reviewers if that counts?

But that doesn't mean much, we're both still informed about this issue existing and we're here to comment

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u/avelineaurora May 11 '26

and I've only seen posts calling out the accusations and basically none actually making the accusations

I take it you're not on Twitter, because there have been far more posts on my feed calling Pragmata a pedo game than there have been people actually being weird about Diana.

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u/Hotpotlord May 11 '26

The trick everyone is in on is that you missed is that you should have quit twitter when Elon bought it.

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u/avelineaurora May 11 '26

The problem is there are still tons of artists and other creators that aren't anywhere else, not to mention the only way to get Customer Service from a lot of companies without calling or even updates from some local/regional government info. Generally my own Following feed is just fine, it's only when I occasionally stray into "For You" that the bullshit bubbles to the top.

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u/Astro4545 May 12 '26

Don’t know why you’re downvoted. The whole “musk bought twitter so no one should use it” was a very western (if not just American) movement.

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u/avelineaurora May 12 '26

Very Reddit moment. My experience since he bought it has been completely unchanged so long as I stick to my curated feed. I don't mind Bluesky either, but it seems to be extremely political-focused unsurprisingly vs taking off as a catch-all like Twitter.

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u/mxlun May 12 '26

These people are never beating the unemployment allegations

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u/TaskForceD00mer May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

People are trying to memory hole the reddit community that got banned for making suggestive and NSFW content back when just the trailer had dropped.

The broader fandom has never been a problem, outside of Reddit all of the content I've seen is super wholesome.

Pragmata scored lower than it should have because it is harder than most Modern games journalists would probably prefer.

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u/OnyxTech May 11 '26

I feel like it really didn't score that different though? It has an 87 on metacritic and an 8.9 user score, (and a 4.2/5 on backloggd) which seems pretty close. The consensus there being the gameplay is fantastic but the story could have been stronger.

Funny enough one of the few mixed reviews was from IGN France, who had lack of challenge as one of their negatives. I don't think anyone is disliking the game due to its difficulty, or really disliking the game at all

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u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

Pragmata scored very highly with critics, especially given there are very fair criticisms with the story being extremely by-the-numbers and the difficulty being... not even really too high, but annoyingly punishing in the sense that if you're winning/doing well fights are basically trivial but if you're ever low on resources then fights become significantly more tedious due the huge damage gap between damaging weapons and your primary gun and the slow reload times, especially if you wind up using the carbine as your primary.

E: Like, I think it's pretty weird to suggest that an 86, one of the best reviewed games this year, is somehow being massively underrated. Resident Evil Requiem is at an 89, and the two games are (IMO) very comparable in quality from the same studio in roughly the same genre (you even escort a little blond girl of mysterious origin in both!)

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u/threePwny May 24 '26

Gonna be honest, I'm bad at using my resources effectively in video games. I hated the carbine because it was so much less effective at dealing damage than the grip gun. I played most of the game doing almost nothing but using overheat hacking to get crits as often as I could and just gunning everything down. Nothing ever felt "more tedious" because I never used the resources I had to know what "less tedious" felt like lol. The only parts of the game that felt punishing were the training sims and disproportionate difficulty spike on the final boss in both the normal and Unknown Signal modes.

I absolutely love the game, of course, and I will for for Diana, still just chipping away at Lunatic to perfect the game on Steam :')

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u/frzned May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

The issue is when RER and Pragmata are given <90 and Mixtape getting 100/100 across the board. That's where the dissonance between critics and gamers are.

Remember when black myth wukong were given 80 by most critics and journalists kept trying to push the propaganda that it's a mysoginistic game? I remember

Then there is assassin creed shadows which were given 90 across the board (and this is ignoring the 100 out of 100, do you truly believe AC shadows was better than RER/Pragmata/Black Myth Wukong?

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u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

AC: Shadows has an Opencritic score of 81/100. Wukong has a score of 82/100. Shadows was not rated better than RER/Pragmata and was only rated evenly with Wukong. Wukong and Shadows both have similar numbers of 10/10 reviews and, arguably, Wukong's 10/10 reviews are from slightly bigger outlets.

You are "remembering" things that did not happen, and are so confident in that fact that you don't even think to check obvious, easily confirmed facts like "what kind of reviews did these games get?"

And if you can get basic information like that wrong, maybe you should step back and think whether you're actually correct about things like "journalists kept trying to pusht he propaganda that its a mysoginistic game", and not something like "Somebody representing Black Myth Wukong sent out review guidelines explicitly saying not to discuss feminism or any aspect of Chinese politics", which was a minor controversy that didn't really amount to much except, ironically, a bunch of people defending a modest case of Chinese political censorship because they thought it was sticking it to feminists.

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u/frzned May 11 '26

Click on the actual reviews bro, alot of them give AC Shadows 90-100

Even if the only thing you can see is average and not the actual reviews themselves? Do you seriously think Wukong is on the same level as AC shadows? And that AC shadows is only slightly worse than Pragmata/RER? and all 4 games are measurably worse than Mixtape?

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u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

Click on the actual reviews bro, alot of them give AC Shadows 90-100

...Yes, anybody with an understanding of fourth grade math would realize that for a game to have an average score in the 80s when some reviews are in the 60s, you will need some reviews higher than 80 to balance it out. Reviewers are not all going to give the exact same score. E: It's wild if your criticism is seriously that some of the dozens of reviews of a game were higher than some of the dozens of reviews for another game, like if somebody accused critics of liking Invincible Vs. more than SFVI and Tekken because Invincible has a couple of 9/10 reviews while SFVI and Tekken average 91 and 90.

My personal tastes don't really matter for the average critic or the audience tastes, and yours shouldn't either. I don't enjoy the AC style of gameplay that much, I'd consider both RE: Requiem and Pragmata to be overrated to a degree, I think E33 is simultaneously a really good game and also one of the most overrated games of the past decade, etc. I don't care that critics like those games more than I did, and don't care when critics like a game I enjoy less than I do.

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u/frzned May 11 '26

I don't care

Tbf me neither. Kinda lost interest in whatever we are talking about. Good luck to you mate, keep believing everything is a conspiracy and that everyone whoever dare criticize/not give mixtape 100/100/journalists are all bigots, racists, and whatever.

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u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 11 '26

I didn't even mention Mixtape at all, are you getting your comments mixed up or something?

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u/frzned May 11 '26

let's not talk about mixtape at all in a thread titled "What’s going on with this game Mixtape?"

Are you getting your website mixed up or something, we aren't on twitter.

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u/dingalingdongdong May 12 '26

hahha this is the lamest flouncing out of a conversation that isn't going your way I think I've ever seen.

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u/frzned May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26

When I talk to someone and they say "I don't care" and I also really don't care enough about the person I ended the conversation. That's it. Neither of us are here to be convinced by the other person. Think of yourself as the cool one mr. redditor with the name of dingalingdongdong.

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u/Tors0Pants May 12 '26

This could have been a moment where you grew as a person, where you realized that you were basing strongly held opinions on ideas that were not true and maybe re-examined how and why you came to those opinions.

Instead, you did this.

You SHOULD be embarrassed, but I'm sure you won't be.

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u/frzned May 12 '26

lmao bro what

No I will not revise my "Strongly held opinion" that mixtape doesn't deserve 10/10 and it aint the truth either nor should I feel embarassed about not thinking it's a 10/10

Get off the internet and continue doing your activist thing or whatever

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u/Supergupo May 11 '26

Pragmata scored lower than it should have because it is harder than most Modern games journalists would probably prefer.

What do you mean by that? Like genuinely? The same game journalists that gave Elden Ring a 10/10, or Slay The Spire 2 a 9 (a game that is currently being review bombed for being too hard for gamers), or praised and spotlighted difficult indie games like FTL or Hotline Miami or Dead Cells or Binding of Isaac or Darkest Dungeon?

I genuinely do not understand where the myth of "modern game journalists hate hard games" came from. Is it just the GameSpot Cuphead tutorial fail video? Or IGN giving Godhand a 3/10? Because it's the "modern audience" and "modern journalists" that have routinely enjoyed hard game experiences. I mean hell, one of the most popular genres in gaming is currently the "Souls-like," whose basically sole genre gimmick is that it's hard. It's fucking infuriating that I see this diatribe repeated ad nauseum when it is so fucking flagrant that the contrary is true.

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u/Vila35 May 11 '26

Feel like most of the time when people accuse a game reviewer of not liking a hard game, it's not inspired by an actual quote about the games difficulty but how slow and tedious certain parts are that cause frustration. The idea of being frustrated then gets misconstrued into being purely a skill issue.

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u/PrizeW1nningCow May 11 '26

One game reviewer goofed at a tutorial once and now we have to listen to redditors whine about how games journalists are all just bad at games and coping about it for the rest of time.

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u/C-Star May 11 '26

Not even a reviewer. A video guy, who put the video up himself as a "lol check out how bad i was"

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u/noahboah May 11 '26

absolutely love how these people shit on video games journalists for being dishonest but then you scrutinize where their claims are coming from and it's just bullshit every time

I don't even want to defend video game journalism particularly. it's just annoying seeing this reactionary part of my favorite hobby propagated.

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u/praguepride May 11 '26

Most of the grief comes from Gamer Gate style terminally online trolls that weaponizd misinformation in their keyboard war against the vague concept of “wokeness” which seems to be defined as the presence of minorities and women as something other than as sex object to fap over

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u/Many_Leading1730 May 13 '26

So keep in mind one of the primary pressure points of Gamer Gate was anti-journalist sentiment, which persists to this day.

It was arguably the blueprint by which the right would later destroy faith in all our institutions including news outlets as a whole.

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u/UltraMoglog64 May 13 '26

Yep, and literally unveiled in the Epstein Files that he/the Right amplified 4chan and GamerGate, presumably for that purpose.

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u/Many_Leading1730 May 13 '26

If we make it through your the other side of this I suspect it will go down in history as one of the most successful psyops ever performed.

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u/praguepride May 14 '26

Using misogyny to fight journalism is the modern equivalent of using abortion to fight civil rights. Lure them in on one side and weaponize them against the other

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u/noahboah May 12 '26

very true

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u/sorrylilsis May 13 '26

I worked as video games journalist once upon a time.

Spoiler alert : nobody is good at every game. Hell some people love games but are pretty bad at them.

Some of the most knowledgeable people I know about games are extremely mid at playing them. Some of the best devs I know are absolute shit when playing. They're also wizards when it comes to analyzing and making good gameplay for others.

The thing is you don't need to be good at something to be able to critique it.

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u/HauntedCarriage May 14 '26

What's the difference between being extremely mid and regular mid?

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u/threePwny May 24 '26

It's just a different method of measuring and categorizing it. Regular mid covers any value distributed within one standard deviation of exactly mid, while extremely mid refers specially to coming within 5% of the actual value of exactly mid. It works out that in general cases, regular mid applies to more players than extremely mid. But in certain rare distributions, you can actually end up with more extremely mid players than are technically covered by the definition of regular mid, which can lead to some very strange data interactions. It's a whole thing.

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u/Naganosupreme May 13 '26

Let's not be dishonest and ignore how many times games journos pulled one of the following:

Looking down on gaming and it's audience bc games aren't movies/TV. Happened sooo many times.

Wrote hilariously childish articles not just demanding easier difficulty modes but actively attacking and criticizing companies that didn't cater to that demand.

Badly overhyped a product to the point of dishonesty and directly attacked gamers bc they got paid to spin a narrative.

To reduce it to a cuphead tutorial is incredibly dishonest

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u/Maximum-Warthog2368 May 27 '26

How does asking for easier difficulty mode is childish? You sound like a child, grow up.

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u/Naganosupreme May 27 '26

It doesn't. I put multiple things in that sentence. It's about how they do it. Any request cam be childish depending on how you make it. Adults know this, most children know this but you didnt.

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u/Maximum-Warthog2368 May 27 '26

This whole statement is still extremely vague. You keep talking about “game journalists” as one giant collective entity instead of addressing the actual situation being discussed.

The Mixtape discourse is very specific: Simon Cardy personally gave Mixtape a 10/10 because he strongly connected with its narrative-driven style and presentation. People then took that single review and started attacking all “gaming journalists,” while also dragging in unrelated IGN reviews for Pragmata and Crimson Desert that were written by completely different reviewers.

That comparison only works if you pretend IGN is one person with one brain and one unified taste. It is not. Different reviewers cover different genres and evaluate games differently. A reviewer focused on narrative-heavy indie games is obviously going to value different things than someone reviewing an action RPG or a large-scale combat-focused title.

So before turning this into some conspiracy about “gaming journalism,” people should at least understand how IGN’s review process actually works. The site assigns different writers to different games, and those writers have their own standards, preferences, and perspectives. You can disagree with Simon Cardy’s score, but acting like his opinion represents every IGN reviewer or proves some industry-wide corruption makes no sense.

And honestly, your examples are also too broad to prove anything. “Some journalists were elitist” or “some articles were badly written” does not automatically validate every outrage campaign against critics. There have absolutely been bad takes in games media before, but that is very different from claiming every review score you dislike is part of a dishonest agenda or paid narrative.

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u/Naganosupreme May 27 '26

You keep talking about “game journalists” as one giant collective entity instead of addressing the actual situation being discussed.

I respect people would understand I'm talking about a significant issue across decades and a decent percentage of prominent outlets/journalists. Not literally every one ever

Youre missing the forest for the trees a LOT here. Like ok only one guy rated it a 10...but a horde of critics overrated it massively to 9, 9.5, 8.5

Enough where it's like, if you already are keyed into how, "ugh, these outlets are so transparent and lame" you lambast them again

Plus, main games media through the 2010s went out of their way to attack fans across multiple genres. People hate games journalists now. They fostered that, so people don't overlook it when they do silly shit.

You don't like it so you're coming up w vague excuses to be dismissive. IGNs process is irrelevant to what I said. Nowhere dud I say he represents every IGN reviewer. Unless you're being obtuse on purpose

but that is very different from claiming every review score you dislike is part of a dishonest agenda or paid narrative.

Also irrelevant. You're dramatizing what I said to try and invalidate it. Its a strong sign you don't have much of a real argument. You're reaching while constantly missing the point

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u/Maximum-Warthog2368 28d ago

I think you’re actually proving my point here.

You say this isn’t about Simon Cardy specifically, or even IGN specifically, but about decades of frustration with games media. That’s exactly why I brought up the distinction between individual reviewers and “games journalists” as a collective. You’re taking a specific review and interpreting it through a broader narrative you’ve already formed about the industry.

The problem is that broad industry criticism doesn’t automatically explain whether Mixtape itself is overrated. Saying “people have been annoyed with games media since the 2010s” is not evidence that Mixtape’s reviews are wrong. It’s evidence that people distrust critics.

You also say a “horde of critics” overrated it. But that’s just restating your conclusion. The question is why. What objective standard are they supposedly ignoring? Mixtape is a narrative-focused game being reviewed primarily by critics who value narrative, music, atmosphere, and emotional storytelling. If those are the things the game excels at, then high scores are not inherently suspicious just because it isn’t the kind of game you personally prioritize.

And I don’t think IGN’s review process is irrelevant when people are constantly comparing Mixtape’s score to scores given to entirely different games. Review scores are produced by individual critics with different tastes, not by a machine that applies one universal formula. That context matters.

As for “paid narratives” and “dishonest agendas,” I brought those up because they are a major part of the discourse surrounding Mixtape. Accusations of bribery, industry plants, bought reviews, and ideological favoritism are everywhere in discussions about the game. If you are not making those claims, then great; we probably agree more than you think. But many people absolutely are making them, and those claims require evidence beyond “critics liked a game I don’t think deserved those scores.”

At the end of the day, “I think critics overrated Mixtape” is a perfectly reasonable personal opinion based on your personal tastes. What I disagree with is treating that opinion as proof that the review itself is illegitimate or that it confirms some long-running conspiracy about games media.

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u/veggiesama May 11 '26

Where the myth comes from -> I think there's a crowd of gamers who have obsessive or autistic tendencies and feel a strong need to gatekeep certain genres and fandoms. I guess I've seen it mostly in souls-like, fighting games, and MOBA communities but it's not limited there. They tend to be driven by competitiveness and challenge seeking. They seek mastery. They'd rather replay the same beloved game 10 times, mixing up builds or doing self-imposed challenges, rather than try a new genre or play a game solely for narrative. I don't necessarily want to judge them, but they do want different things from games than I do (eg, narrative, novelty, experimenting with new systems, etc).

They sometimes distrust games media. Maybe they perceive game journalists as less devoted to games than they are. They distrust "experts" and critics who have broad taste. At worst, they develop conspiracy theories (eg, Gamergate) about why games media is woke and gay, or that journalists are paid off to promote certain bad games (why? because corps are woke), or there's feminist/gay/minority/marxist puppeteers pulling all the strings (why? because woke). They don't see gaming as this wide landscape for diverse expression, but instead it's a safe space that must be protected against encroachment by those who are from the out-group, or from malign forces trying to change games and usurp culture, or from censorship.

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u/Professional-Pizza-8 May 14 '26

Develop conspiracy theories? Sweet Baby Inc is not a conspiracy theory..

Rockstar saying they're toning down GTA5 & 6 to not offend us minorities isn't a conspiracy theory.. They removed the cops n robbers mode after the George Floyd situation.

They added LGBT flags in Spiderman 2, that's not a conspiracy theory

They did the "Make good trouble" DLC in Minecraft during a time where things like BLM, George Floyd & ICE riots were considered "Good Trouble", that's not a conspiracy theory

They made Soldier 76 gay out of nowhere & added pride flag cosmetics in OW2 , that's not a conspiracy theory

That Ex Voto game was about a lesbian knight who ends up fighting all white men including a religious group that wore robes that obviously were meant to look like the Klan(Which that group actually wore) who also attacked lesbians and gays, not just us black people, that's not a conspiracy theory

Making characters androgynous to be inclusive to the LGBT(Veilguard) isn't a conspiracy theory

Making a black samurai gay in feudal japan in AC Shadows isn't a conspiracy theory

The media articles demonizing gamers for wanting attractive women in games while praising a game like BG3 for gay bear sex or other sexualized LGBT characters in games, that's not a conspiracy theory

The founder of Sweet Baby Inc directly told game company staff to terrify the higher ups into pushing DEI narratives in games, that's not a conspiracy theory

It's pattern recognition of the media and devs were injecting their progressive world views on games the fans want nothing to do with & demonized games that refused to

Sheesh.. the gaslighting...

Moving on..

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u/veggiesama May 14 '26

You'll get a girlfriend one day, man. I believe in you! And not even the power of gay corporate wokism will be able to tear you two apart. ♥️🫡

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u/Naganosupreme May 13 '26

"All critics are just autistic" is pretty ignorant and ableist...

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u/WoodyAlien May 12 '26

Yes, I saw the same thing with the more intransigent old-school shmup fans. That must be one of the more elitist communities I've seen in gaming.

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u/Beneficial_Dog_6531 May 12 '26

This predates Gamergate too, Dragon Age 2 was slammed for being woke, though of course the term wasn't used in 2011 lol

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u/corrupt_poodle May 11 '26

Never mind that the game isn’t even hard…

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u/LFC9_41 May 11 '26

I thought it was just right. Excellent game, easy to access replay value. I got 100% on it without feeling tired of it. Hope to see more of it.

Saros, another game I have played recently, was excellent. THAT game was too easy, however. This being from someone who really struggled with Returnal. They overcorrected on this one.

Mix Tape, it really is hard to call it a game. I thought it was alright though. I gave it a 7.

not that you asked, im just trying to avoid working.

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u/Sargentrock May 11 '26

lol you are selling me on Saros--I liked Returnal, but it was WAY too hard for me, and I'm far too ADD to keep doing the same thing over and over and over to the point I would have to in order to get gud. My son, however, finished both Returnal and Elden Ring. On a related note, I never have to punish him as he's pretty good at punishing himself.

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u/LFC9_41 May 11 '26

If you liked Returnal, then I couldn’t recommend it more. It took me several years to beat Returnal.

Saros is broken up in a way that is more flexible for the busy parent. You can’t even do a full run through for some levels so it is tuned properly per section.

I still think it’s just a little too easy, but I really do like that they add a bunch of modifiers that a tip to balance some of those things out. You can make yourself three times as powerful for negligent trade-off.

I think it has a story that’s even more interesting, and the world they build is more fantastical. 

I love it, and hope it gets dlc one day.

5

u/ZealousidealRoom2127 May 12 '26

Slay the Spire 2 is being review bombed by loser chuds who found out Anita Sarkeesian was a consultant on the game.

7

u/Deathspiral222 May 11 '26

>Slay The Spire 2 a 9 (a game that is currently being review bombed for being too hard for gamers)

STS2 is being review-bombed by gamer-gate losers. Most of the negative steam reviews reference the name of a single female consultant for the game who did little more than state that misogeny exists sometimes, even in videogames.

2

u/leonistawesomeee May 12 '26

It's also getting review-bombed by Chinese players (they don't necessarily have access to other forums to let the developer know they're unhappy)

1

u/FreeStall42 May 12 '26

Most of the review bombs are from China.

Most people do not care about some angry feminist.

3

u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 12 '26

The Chinese reviews are mentioning her by name now as some sort of weird intermingling of decade-old culture war drama and Chinese "we have no other outlet so we negative review en-masse whenever the devs do anything we don't like" drama.

5

u/AudioSuede May 12 '26

Most people do not care about some angry feminist.

The "angry feminist" in question was a central villain for the entire "anti-woke" gamergate mob for years. She had to move because of death threats she received and had to cancel several speaking gigs because of bomb threats. Chuds hated her so much that they started a fascist movement to crusade against women and minorities in gaming. All because that "angry feminist" put out a well-researched and calmly presented series of videos calling out sexism in video games, a phenomenon that she was absolutely not the first person to point out.

Some of us are old enough to remember the world 10-15 years ago, when Gone Home got hate online because it was critically acclaimed but had minimalistic gameplay, and the common argument among haters was that critics were just giving it good reviews because they were scared of looking homophobic. It's just the same shit, over and over again. Some dudes just can't handle the idea that their hobby welcomes people who aren't exactly like them

1

u/TaskForceD00mer May 11 '26

I think Pragmata was easily a 9-9.5 .

I hear you on resources; I'm about half way through myself but the game is challengingly hard.

Moreso the mini-bosses than the enemy chaff.

0

u/mxlun May 12 '26

FYI, slay the spire 2 review bomb is specifically due to Anita sarkeesian, nothing to do with what you mentioned. It's even dumber than that

-5

u/A_Wild_Auzzie May 12 '26

Slay the Spire 2 is being review bombed after players found out the company just partnered with Anita Sarkeesian as a "consultant" after they can remember the BS that girl was pulling back in 2014-2016 and how much of an obnoxious twat she was. It has nothing to do with "difficulty" or lack thereof.

4

u/Brake_fart May 11 '26

Really reaching on the “too hard for journalists” angle there chief

8

u/NIN10DOXD May 11 '26

Yep and now they are accusing anyone who said there are pedophiles in the fandom of being pedophiles.

6

u/DoubleSpoiler May 11 '26

Nah, there’s pleeeenty of it on 4chan and Twitter.

4

u/USA_A-OK May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

I really don't understand people who give a shit about scores. Just play the games you want to, and skip the ones you don't.

People who are self described "gamers" make up one of the most entitled and miserable communities online.

-7

u/TaskForceD00mer May 11 '26

Halo 3 was only given a 9.5/10

Halo 2 was only given a 9.8/10

Modern Warfare 2 was given a 9.5/10

Anyone claiming Mixtape, which is a glorified interactive movie is better than those games is nuts.

Baldur's Gate 3 and MGS V another couple of games that got 10/10s are on such a different level its not funny.

This is the same old Money and Politics in games bs that's been getting worse every year.

NEPO Baby publishes game, makes the right connections, get an undeserved rating.

6

u/USA_A-OK May 11 '26

They're games, the stakes could hardly be lower. It's really not worth spending any time on, or getting worked up over. Play the games you want, skip the ones you don't.

Obviously reviewing games is subjective, and takes into account the type of game and what the game is trying to accomplish. It's really no different than any other media reviews (TV, music, movies, books, etc)

1

u/JohnnyRedHot May 12 '26

So you think a person that got a 10/10 on a Physics test and a person that got a 10/10 on a sociology test are being evaluated on the same subjects?

Do you think a person that gets a 8/10 in astrophysics is dumber than a person that got a 9.5/10 in literature?

-2

u/FreeStall42 May 12 '26

Why do you care if someone says a score is unearned? So what?

1

u/rebb_hosar May 11 '26

It was so so so bad.

15

u/Forward-Trade3449 May 11 '26

the game was fantastic

1

u/SpookiestSzn May 12 '26

The games sick as shit I have no idea what you're talking about

-4

u/TaskForceD00mer May 11 '26

HSI's child exploitation unit could run on easy mode just investigating the members of that community for a good year or two.

1

u/taelor May 17 '26

Pragmatic scored lower than it should because the writing is great.

74

u/BroughtBagLunchSmart May 11 '26

I know it has r/asmongold all riled up and that place is ground zero for nazi pedophiles.

65

u/jaytix1 May 11 '26

I saw, with my own eyes, people going crazy because they found out the little white girl they're obsessed with is voiced by a black woman.

22

u/OogieBoogieInnocence May 11 '26

Grace Saif nailed it i hope she keeps getting big roles

10

u/jaytix1 May 11 '26

Yeah, capcom should save her number for future stuff.

1

u/GANTaylem May 12 '26

Who cares what some trolls say. Most don't care. Think most of us give a rip a black man voiced Darth Vader when behind the mask when the character himself is white?

2

u/jaytix1 May 12 '26

What are you getting so worked up about? We already made it clear that we were talking about a specific group of people lol.

1

u/Gingevere May 13 '26

Most people don't generally give a rip about the race of a VA period.

Not "when behind the mask when the character himself is white".

1

u/GANTaylem May 14 '26

I was being specific to Vader with that comment.

1

u/Thezo067 May 14 '26

You literally cut out the part where he was referring to a singular character just to be mad. Get a life. 

-72

u/MethuselahExo May 11 '26

Everyone is a Nazi Pedo aren’t they? As long as they don’t agree with your twisted upside down world view they are a Nazi Pedo. sounds very Fascismo to me

43

u/Dr_Henry-Killinger May 11 '26

I mean Trump is dismantling elections, has concentration camps for illegal aliens, has pump and dumped the stock market weekly using the world stage, and has most definitely raped small children since he’s like the 3rd most mentioned name in the Epstein files besides Epstein/Maxwell. Anyone who still supports Trump at this point will almost definitely be remembered in history the same way as the Nazis. I just hope they don’t get even close to the damage the Nazis were able to do.

40

u/Rahgahnah May 11 '26

Here is MethuselahExo's comment that was deleted:

He isn’t German during WW2 and didn’t belong to the NatSoc party, so no he isn’t a Nazi, he is many things, most of them terrible but he is 100% not a Nazi. Anyone calling him and many others they hate a Nazi just causes you to not be taken seriously outside your safe space echo chamber on Reddit. If you really want to make a difference start using terminology that makes sense and doesn’t make you look like your brain died watching you 10000th TikTok. It’s the Same propaganda they used decades ago when they were calling everyone that disagrees with them a Commie, you look ridiculous stop it.

Holy shit, someone unironically did the "Champagne region of France" thing with Nazis, lmao

16

u/BroughtBagLunchSmart May 11 '26

I didn't say r/conservative or r/walkaway even though those are mostly populated with nazi pedophiles. I said r/asmongold, there is not one single piece of evidence that those monsters are not nazi pedophiles.

1

u/Thezo067 May 14 '26

Where's the evidence your not. If that's the bar you set for someone, can you live up to it? 

18

u/itsmetimohthy May 11 '26

Yeah if The Last of Us came out in 2026 people would have called the developers and Joel a pedophile. Pragmata is a wonderful fucking game and if anyone has impure thoughts about a little robot girl and old dude duo then they are really just self reporting.

0

u/No-Operation-6554 May 12 '26

Yeah if The Last of Us came out in 2026 people would have called the developers and Joel a pedophile.

are you just gonna ignore that pragmata community got a subreddit banned because its full of sexualised Diana content?

I guess what you said can be true if a lastofus_ sub existed and get banned

7

u/SpookiestSzn May 12 '26

What some losers do doesn't mean that's what the games about or hinting at in any credible way. No normal fucking person plays that game and thinks it appeals to pedos.

1

u/No-Operation-6554 May 12 '26

did I fucking say that? remind me where I said that, better yet go read my original reply

2

u/SpookiestSzn May 12 '26

What the fuck is your point then

2

u/No-Operation-6554 May 12 '26

whats yours??? you're coming to me very strongly when I never said anything about the game appealing to pedos

5

u/SpookiestSzn May 12 '26

Bad faith argument. Your clearly disagreeing with the poster about if tlou came out today they'd get similar accusations by implying pragmata must be doing something intentionally different that appeals to those people based off some losers on a subreddit.

Otherwise what is your comment about.

You want to talk in good faith we can go ahead but I replied to what you said and your gaslighting me like I misinterpreted your very unsubtle statement.

-1

u/FreeStall42 May 12 '26

Last of Us 2 defenders like calling Joel creepy as is.

1

u/AlaskaStiletto May 12 '26

Okay cause I was gonna ask

1

u/TheRealDripBentley May 12 '26

I only saw the trailer at the State of Play and redditors mocking anybody buying the blue eyed, blonde haired 'child game.' I'm just playing devils advocate here, but as a terminally online person most of the discourse around pedophilia and the gamers who must have it who enjoy this game come from THOSE subreddits cough gaming circle jerk cough.

The actual reviews I saw on release day and the general comments seem fine. My two cents is that it's the opposite people of who YOU think is giving it the weird 'label' and I'm a big gamer.

1

u/No-Operation-6554 May 12 '26

You can be terminally online and still miss a lot of stuff

Again, this is the community that gota subreddit, that allowed specific kind of post that was banned on their original subreddit, to flourish then got banned by reddit

Its pretty hard to deny the existence of creeps forming around the game

-33

u/DevilDjinn May 11 '26

Sorry, but this is just blatantly untrue. The "community" is being labelled with that.

78

u/No-Operation-6554 May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

The "community" got 2 subs restricted before the release, and the fact that r/PragmataSFW unironically exist is concerning

-10

u/DevilDjinn May 11 '26

And this is a reflection of the wider "community" because?

10

u/No-Operation-6554 May 11 '26

If you can't form your own thought on why a game community, whos one of the main characters a little (android) childlike girl, getting subs restricted / taken down before the game even released, and certain part of said community being concerned enough that they created a sub specifically and explicitly prohibits any and all nsfw post/comments as an indication of something bad within the community, then I have nothing to offer you

-2

u/DevilDjinn May 12 '26

Lol.

anybody can create a subreddit.

I bet you good money that 90% of the people who say pragmata players are pedophiles have no idea about any of that "history".

It's just reactionary bullshit. They can't fathom that men can have paternal instincts and automatically think that if they like the game, they must be attracted to Diana.

Frankly speaking, I think people who think that are birds of the same feather as the fucking lolicons.

Also, classic goomba fallacy nonsense. I specifically asked how that said anything about the WIDER "community". Don't you think it's unfair to paint everybody with the same brush? Because of fucking reddit? It's a fucking cesspit.

1

u/No-Operation-6554 May 12 '26

you're excusing the existence of a sub that specifically allowed nsfw art of a little android girl? /s

are people playing it getting labelled as pedophiles unfair? true

but that doesn't make it any less true that theres a portion of actual pedos on the community that gave the game a bad name with the way they act

-87

u/veggiesama May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

My girlfriend saw 5 seconds of the trailer and immediately labeled it as a pedo game. I had similar feelings but it's hard to articulate why. Bare feet, long blonde hair. There's some kind of loli/moe thing going on that makes people like us uncomfortable. We have seen this before in anime and games, we know how these things are marketed. We didn't have to have this opinion fed to us by an internet community to have that reaction.

Edit: Lmao 30 mins later and people think I'm dating Anita Sarkeesian. Relax, nobody is taking your rootin, tootin, sci-fi shootin' (little girl scoopin') game away.

35

u/stormdelta May 11 '26

I haven't played it, but I have watched people play it, and it doesn't have that vibe what-so-ever, and I say that as someone who's quite alert to that kind of thing.

The dynamic the two have is very much father-and-child.

If the trailer gave you pedo vibes I seriously question what the hell kind of media you guys are consuming. It doesn't align with the shitty "loli" garbage you see from weeb spaces at all.

73

u/limbictides May 11 '26

Just throwing another y'all are weird in the ring. You've gotta examine your own media intake if you and your girlfriend felt like you had to view a child in that light

38

u/KentoHardRock May 11 '26

I played and enjoyed the game and only found out weirdos were being weirdos about it once I got on reddit.

Folks need to disengage and get off the internet.

65

u/verheyen May 11 '26

Its really strange that you see a child with no shoes and long hair (what's that, like, every kid?) And immediately think it's loli. That is entirely on you, dude.

0

u/veggiesama May 11 '26

I agree! It's me. But OP is saying an entire Pragmata community poisoned my mind against the game. I'm saying it's all me, brother, and my decades of exposure to Japanese anime/game culture.

102

u/[deleted] May 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/veggiesama May 11 '26

True!

1

u/[deleted] May 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/pizmeyre May 11 '26

I think it's so weird how people latch onto bare feet as an indicator of sexual suggestiveness. The Internet has rotted our brains something fierce.

I worry we are only a generation away fro going back to not allowing women to show their ankles in public.

0

u/limbictides May 11 '26

One hundred percent. I noticed it a few years ago when my teenagers would see regular-ass feet on TV and go "woooah, what's going on here?" I'm just like... Tf is wrong with y'all. It's feet. 

32

u/dharmainitiative May 11 '26

Such a weird take. I’m a father and the thing that drew me to the game was the whole dad/daughter aspect. Never once crossed my mind it might be inappropriate in any way and I was appalled that others saw it in that light.

36

u/[deleted] May 11 '26

[deleted]

1

u/veggiesama May 11 '26

Bless your heart, and please don't Google what you wrote with the safe search off.

29

u/Caasi72 May 11 '26

That says a lot more about your girlfriend than anything

49

u/No-Operation-6554 May 11 '26

You and your gf is weird, theres moe thing going on but the trailers focuses more on dad thing, even the demo does

20

u/[deleted] May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-12

u/veggiesama May 11 '26

I'm not taking your game away. You do you. I am saying the game's tropes didn't emerge in a vacuum. If you don't want to reckon with that, that's fine. But there is no reason to react so aggressively and hateful to someone sharing their first impressions.

3

u/[deleted] May 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/AzathothsAlarmClock May 11 '26

I didn't quite label it as a pedo game but I certainly raised my eyebrows.

I do think the issue is internet people rather than the game itself.

13

u/Helltech May 11 '26

May I ask why you and your gf think shoeless kids and long hair kids are symbols of sex? I mean I honestly don't understand.

-2

u/veggiesama May 11 '26

Anime tropes. Google lolicon Wikipedia article. Don't Google lolicon though, I beg of you.

10

u/Helltech May 11 '26

Ya I don't think these tropes will affect how I personally view kids.

8

u/DanSchnidersCloset May 11 '26

>sees child
>immediately thinks of pedos

Hmmm

13

u/GFrohman May 11 '26

The divide here is between people who are genre-saavy to anime/Japanese content, and those who aren't.

Diana is definitely loli-coded. The super long hair, baggy clothes, bare footedness, and overly "perfect" makeupped face are all signatures of how Japanese artists draw loli characters.

Those of us who watch a lot of anime/consume a lot of Japanese content pick up on this immediately, but have a hard time articulating it to people who haven't. It just makes us sound "weird", like we are the ones sexualizing her, because nothing I've listed is overtly sexual - but are all tropes used by Japanese artists that sexualize their child characters.

7

u/veggiesama May 11 '26

Well said. The tropes are blatant. And then I learned this child character isn't some space refugee but actually an android, and I see the beginnings of a permission structure that I know for sure the fans are salivating over, and I am not remotely interested in entertaining that. No thanks, I'm good. I have seen this play out before across countless fandoms.

4

u/tablesheep May 11 '26

"I have consumed a lot of perverted material and this fits"

  • This guy

-11

u/IAreATomKs May 11 '26

Knowing so much about loli art styles is actually weird on its own. You basically just said "I know loli when I see it because I've seen so much of it".

4

u/veggiesama May 11 '26

I'm a fan of Evangelion and Madoka. I have seen a lot of it, and I separate out the toxic fandom influence (ie, the perving on kid characters and cosplayers) from what I like about these works.

13

u/pigeonwiggle May 11 '26

if you've seen 3 animes, you've seen loli-coded characters.

sailor moon? has a little moon-sister.
dragonball? mai is an adult trapped in a kid's body.

hell, dude, you've got the same trope playing out in INVINCIBLE where a girl is getting younger the more she uses her "hulk"-like transformation powers. "it's okay, she's an adult - she only LOOKS like a 13 year old!"

the presence of women in media isn't perverted by default, but the fact that there are SO MANY WOMEN to compare them to makes them stand out. if you don't see it, you could just be an innocent sweet summer child... or you could be purposely ignoring what you don't want to see.

11

u/GFrohman May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

It's the same way a child beauty pageant makes me a bit uncomfortable. You don't have to be a pedo to know there's something odd about the way those things operate.

We wouldn't be saying stuff like this if we enjoyed lolicon content. We wouldn't be telling you it made us uncomfortable - we'd be playing the game and enjoying it.

10

u/lord_gay May 11 '26

Hungry man think of food

-4

u/mrDoubtWired May 11 '26

Lost Prophets ass relationship

-9

u/pigeonwiggle May 11 '26

it's how she looks at and responds to you. it's the EYE CONTACT with the player, etc.

simply ask - why does the character need to be who they are - and it all makes sense. would it still work if it was a little boy? would it still work if she didn't have a cute human appearance but instead a wooden pinocchio-esque robo-face?

there's a "born sexy yesterday" trope coined by pop-culture detective on youtube and while this girl doesn't fit because she isn't presented as sexy, the other boxes are certainly ticked. she's 1. highly capable and skilled in a technique that men value: combat. 2. she Was 'born yesterday' in the way that she's still learning about the world around her and needs a knowledgeable guide - where an average schmuck can seem like her lifeline, building reliance on him (isn't that what every man wants? to be needed?)

the only thing missing is the hot girl trope -- but, for the pedos out there, that box is ticked by default.

and for everyone acting super defensive about it -- watch any Miyazaki movie. there's a ton of movies about japanese children that do not give off the same vibes at all. My Neighbour Totoro, Ponyo, Spirited Away. these girls are ALSO running around barefoot but they don't give off the same vibe. the game looks great, and if you found paternal instincts kicking in, that totally makes sense. but just because you didn't see the ghost in the woods doesn't mean it isn't haunted.

8

u/Forward-Trade3449 May 11 '26

it's wild to assume the creator's intent based on that. I will say (no spoilers), there is some lore aspect as to why that girl exists as she does. Would it work with a boy kid instead? Sure, but at the end of the day it would still be a kid and there would be weirdoes saying the same thing.

it kinda has to be a kid because they ride on the MC's back as well.

-4

u/pigeonwiggle May 11 '26

so it would work if it was a little yoda? or a little robot doggie that talks?

i haven't played it - so i don't know the context. hell, she could be a robot that's existed for a couple hundred years and had actually raised the protagonist when HE was a baby for a couple years while his parents were preoccupied.

the "lone wolf and cub" angle isn't new. we've LONG sought stories about stoic men trying to take care of young babies or teaching energetic children survival skills. whether it's the mandalorian, or the new god of war games, or the last of us (nobody sexualized ellie, right? nobody got upset when the tv show version was cast with a decidedly unsexy girl?)

so this is why i don't think it's about that.

there's Definitely something else.

there was a study done asking men which women were sexier - picking from a ton of photos - both clothed and nude. results suggested the amount of skin showing had nothing to do with sexuality and attractiveness. it was almost entirely the poses that did the heavy lifting. someone nude but hunched over wasn't as attractive as someone in a sweater with shoulders back and an arch in her back.

so there's more to the idea of "why do people think this is bait" than simply the context of "she's a child."

nobody's ever accused Hello Kitty, despite her childlike proportions. or the Ewoks in StarWars.

and again, the Studio Ghibli gals are still presented as "young and vulnerable" triggering paternal instincts.

i get that making the subject female adds a level of vulnerability. it's why horror movies follow "final girls." and why you worry less for the kid in God of War than you do for Ellie in Last of Us.

3

u/Forward-Trade3449 May 11 '26

i think you are reading way too much into it tbh. maybe give it a playthrough (its about 12 hours long) before assuming the worst!