I’m watching a previous Wholesome Direct and really really can’t fault these folks for trying to slipstream behind the third best-selling game of 2020. They’re not a publisher or any kind of business unto themselves as far as I can tell, just a discord server, steam curator page, and coordinated marketing videos.
They’re not all cloying cat cafe simulators - I think you could unequivocally put Eliza, Night in the Woods, and Outer Wilds under the same banner. Spiritfarer’s in their original video and that game will fuck you up if you play it unawares.
It’s both actually pleasant to watch and informative about things I may not otherwise hear about! At worst I roll my eyes or laugh. If I watch a Nintendo Direct there’s a risk I might resume mailing torn pages of a Hobonichi Techo to Nintendo Power’s P.O. box.
As much as I love guts and swearing, if it’s a legit grassroots thing, props for some likeminded creators for banding together like that. It’s cool that gaming might be in a place to have its own approximation of art movements even if they’re a little hokey.
Looking for other developers who have spent at least half a decade pretending to make “adult” games so we can counter program the wholesome thing
Heck you can make a gross Twine overnight, you don’t need to pay your dues, you just gotta get nasty as you oughta be
Let’s do some real XXX Porno Gaming On the Other Channel shit
Would help if you can find a clip of the time some wrestler cut a promo “the XXX porno wrestling on the other channel”, I’m coming up short somehow, I’d like to feature it in the opening roll
to me “wholesome games” as a marketing label really are the mirror image of the violent empowerment fantasy AAA shooter. they’re both about a feeling of superficial empowerment through escapism. they just have a different surface coat of paint on them. there’s a reason why this idea of being some kind of non-upsetting, non-violent alternative has been Nintendo’s wheelhouse for years… and the popularity of the Switch is really the primary thing that’s helped crystalize it into a greater commercial thing. they’re both marketed more towards adults than kids at this point also. most kids are spending more time grinding on roblox and wiping out tomato town and watching some streamer play Baldi’s Basics or Granny or some shit than they probably have any consciousness of this. “wholesome games” are part of the same ploy a lot of prestige indie games of the past 10-15 years have been - i.e. “look, we’re not as bad as those guys!”
i think what seals why the “wholesome games” label is so grating is how much they’ve tried to present themselves as a kind of space for empowering marginalized voices by being more inclusive and like opposed to the otherwise toxic industry norms, or something. they can’t just be fun, silly, unserious escapist games. they have to have the moral high ground with some kind of shallow “hopepunk” type framing behind them. they have to be respectable. and that’s truly dire.
Nah, pushing back against these omnigame advertising engines is good. Ads suck, and fortnite and roblox are creating entire social spaces defined by being places where you exist as an object to market to, that’s always bad.
Imagining an alternate universe where EA is able to admit that Battlefield 2042 is “political”, but the developers of “Sunshine Bubblegum Attack” adamantly insist that their cutesy versus puzzle game is “not wholesome”
