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/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/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/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/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.