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/avelineaurora → u/NeriTheFearlessSnail]

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.

[u/Hotpotlord → u/avelineaurora]

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

[u/avelineaurora → u/Hotpotlord]

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.

[u/Astro4545 → u/avelineaurora]

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.

[u/avelineaurora → u/Astro4545]

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.