Apologies, (e/2)^-(x/10)^(e/2) should be within 10%. That's from simulating it and playing around to find a line of best fit.

I think about how Roblox which has similarly evaded coverage, and how much culture is falling between the cracks. I love deep essays about games. Games like Mouthwashing and 1000xRESIST are deep, literary works which deserve love, but I fear what the Lazer focus of pro level critique is missing.

There's a real divide here. Games can become wildly successful without ever gracing a Kinda Funny, Second Wind, or Minnmax. This isn't just one or two games, but an emergent genre that could use some good ol fashioned games critique, but seemingly will be missed until it's impossible to ignore.

I'm not just listing these because I spent a ton of time playing some games none of the cool games crit people have heard of (though that's part of it) but because these games are all fairly successful by Steam standards (12k, 2k, and 200 reviews), but also largely ignored.

Finally, lumberjacked. An okay game about cutting trees down. A decent little game with some serious polish issues in the back half. That said, I don't regret rolling credits considering how addictive the core loop is. store.steampowered.com/app/3593780/...

Scrolling through my discovery queue, I found a couple more games with a super similar vibe. Ultra low budget podcast games with a tight incremental upgrade loop. Next is Aviassembly, which is Kerbal space program for planes, but actually fun to fly. store.steampowered.com/app/2660460/...

I'll give some examples of what I'll dub the "Incremental simulation genre", which has found success on the back of Steam's discoverability algorithms alone. The big exception is "A Game About Digging A Hole" who got some press due to the devs other titles store.steampowered.com/app/3244220/...

I can see the apple in my head but only in the form of sick 80s wireframes.

As an indie dev and a viewer, I'd rather you focused on what you're excited to write about over everything else. If someone wrote a negative but thoughtful piece about my work I'd be ecstatic. And thoughtful negativity usually makes for compelling critique as a viewer/reader.

Antivax isn't new, and it isn't surprising. Most people are scared of needles. But the right wing embellishes, it isn't just a natural fear, it's got reasons and "alternative facts" but it's bullshit. It's just adults scared of a little prick who need someone to convince them it isn't pathetic.

I think fascists are good listeners, they figure out what people want to here and use that to trick people into thinking they are why people want to hear it.

Physical media?

It's interesting because it isn't (usually) Marxist. Where Marxism is all about the primacy of material conditions, tech bro optimization culture mixes systemic analysis with hyperindividualism. Systemic analysis as a philosophy of control, as a means of asserting dominance over the material.

I haven't seen the shooter stuff, but optimization culture has a pathological obsession with control. That weird tech dude who stole his kids blood is in the same zone, it's a refusal to see any problem as human. Struggles (even extremely personal ones) are always process/technological.