Demoralization

The Pop Cult Demoralization Trap

  For years I've been charting the decline of all pop culture media while urging people to stop consuming content by companies that hate them. Recent days have provided a plethora of case studies illustrating why. Take this exchange on X from just yesterday: Related: Mark Kern – Calling All…
Joker It's Not About the Money

Mark Kern: Calling All Gamers

Get get FREE books and first looks at my exciting new projects monthly! Join my elite neopatrons to read my new dark fantasy novel The Burned Book as I write it! Join on Patreon or SubscribeStar now. Just weeks after helping to kick off what some are now calling GamerGate 2, legendary game dev and CEO…
Retro Stream

Years Ago and in Another Country

A common saying has it that the past is another country. It's taken as a figure of speech, but pay a visit to almost any mid-American shopping mall these days, and the prevailing vibe resembles an archaeological site. What was the hub of American commerce in the previous era is…
Matt Walsh Parade

Walsh Tries to Jump the GamerGate Parade

The Grift Right's paymasters must be desperate to distract normies from some brewing enormity. Because they've got their controlled opposition mouthpieces out in force stirring up controversy. First it was Hollywood creature Ben Shapiro arguing for people to work till they drop dead. Now his Gen Y crony Matt Walsh…
Toriyama Goku Goodbye

Beloved Cartoonist Akira Toriyama Dead at 68

Akira Toriyama, the legendary creator of global phenomenon Dragon Ball, has passed away at age 68. Akira Toriyama suffered an acute subdural hematoma, a type of bleeding near the brain, his studio said Friday. Dragon Ball is hugely popular around the world and the comic series has also spawned cartoon…
Rooster Teeth Logo

Rooster Teeth Bites the Dust

Earlier reports of geek culture cartoon studio Rooster Teeth Productions' demise turned out to have been premature. But now, the Time-Warner subsidiary's general manager has issued a statement confirming that the animation company has indeed given up the ghost. Dear Rooster Teeth, Since our founders created and uploaded their first…
SBI Detected

SBI BTFO by Brazilian Vidya Curator

Controversy erupted on X over the weekend when professional Woke Cult purity assurance coven Sweet Baby Inc. issued a fatwa against a scrappy Brazilian vidya curator. The curator, Sweet Baby Inc Detected, describes itself simply as "A tracker for games involved with Sweet Baby Inc." The About page from SBI's…
Nintendo vs Sony

The Riddle of the Pop Cult

Author JD Cowan wrote a post yesterday that shed new light on elements of Cultural Ground Zero and the Pop Cult and showed how they're interrelated. So it was of course fitting that he prominently featured this now-ubiquitous image by retro artist Rachid Lotf. We've been plumbing the riddle of…
Final Fantasy VII Test 0

FF7: The 1st Unfinished AAA Game?

One of the stranger zombie memes still circulating in this year of Our Lord 2023 - a time rife with zombie memes - lazily holds that video games are just toys and gaming a mere hobby. A quick look around the cultural landscape soon reveals that notion as reductive. Vdya…
SoulBlazer

Soul Blazer

From time to time, I like to give the public at large a glimpse of the fun material my cherished Neopatrons get to enjoy weekly. In that vein, here is a game review previously posted to my Patreon and SubscribeStar. Soul Blazer is a classic Super Nintendo game that has…