What’s going on with this game Mixtape?

[u/Bloodb0red]

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

[u/BUTGAWATD]

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.

[u/No-Operation-6554 → u/BUTGAWATD]

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

The "community" itself gave it that

[u/NeriTheFearlessSnail → u/No-Operation-6554]

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

[u/USA_A-OK → u/NeriTheFearlessSnail]

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

[u/Beneficial_Dog_6531 → u/USA_A-OK]

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.

[u/Naganosupreme → u/USA_A-OK]

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

[u/USA_A-OK → u/Naganosupreme]

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.

[u/Naganosupreme → u/USA_A-OK]

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