Rundown (6/29/2025) The Video Game Canon!

This Week’s Topics:

• Rundown Preamble Ramble: The Video Game Canon!
• So, I Played Tokimeki Memorial (And I Didn’t Like It, As Expected)
• Viral Misfit Multiplayer Mayhem (Natalie Continues To Not Understand The Children…)

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Rundown Preamble Ramble:
The Video Game Canon!

Over the past few weeks, maybe even months, I have been making allusions to what I have called the Video Game Canon, and I should probably define what exactly I mean by that. Firstly, by defining what I mean by Canon.

A more common contemporary definition of canon refers to media franchises or intellectual properties where storytelling is shared across works. Certain works are considered as having ‘actually happened’ with respect to sequel, prequel, or works that take place within a continuous fictional world. While others are not, being relegated to alternate universes or legends or what if scenarios. Which is vaguely like, but also distinctly different from what I am talking about.

The canon I am referring to is derived from the literary canon, a term used to refer to a group of historic, traditional, and important works as dictated by… traditionally scholars and historians and the like. Basically if a story or work of art has existed and persisted in popularity for several hundred years, or perhaps decades, it is considered to be part of a specific canon.

Here in the Anglosphere, there has been a persistent push to reinforce and establish a Western Literary Canon, or rather Western Canon, highlighting the greatest and most significant works in the Western world. Spanning from the Greek philosophers to Shakespeare to foundational European physicists and scientists to early 20th century American fiction. However, out of ignorance, malice, or general cultural racism— probably a mix of all three— the overwhelming majority of Western Canon primarily consists of the works of wealthy White men.

In this canon, there are maybe a few White women who were deemed exceptional, maybe a token Black man who chose to conform to the ideals of his people’s former legal owners, not getting too uppity. But seldom any others. Furthermore, the intention and goal of Western Canon is not wholly meant to be a basis for the broadly defined Western world’s contributions to humanity’s literature, sciences, arts, and academia. It is partially, arguably primarily, meant to project onto those living within the West which works are important, what defines an important work, and what types of people create important works. Children in the West are also typically taught examples of Western Canon in school, and if you ask students to name history’s ‘great thinkers,’ they will typically name members of the Western Canon.

A charitable reading would say that canons are a focused body of work, meant to compass the best of the best within their field or scope. While a less charitable reading would say that they exist to obscure and manufacture narratives, that history is made and dictated by a chosen few who are responsible for all is good in the world. That canons are a tool of soft power meant to evoke biases within academia and the general public for the betterment of people who benefit from this categorization. With this benefit typically spanning some mix of political, financial, or ideological benefits.

I use Western Canon as the main example, as it is probably the most notable example of canon in the Anglosphere. But it is also a great example of how the use of an established canon can smooth over history and give someone a skewed perspective if viewed as comprehensive. And, for most westerners, it is the literary canon. However, canon is also a more nebulous thing that can be assigned to any group of something sufficiently vast or numerous. Every artistic medium has its own shape or form of canon. Film canon is something projected across any films studies or history course held in college, with different nations focusing on their own bespoke canon and placing biases towards their own work. However, it is tempting, romantic, satisfying, and overtly erotic, to believe in this idea of a singular, objective, definitive canon for a given medium.

Many American or western-aligned movie-likers or film-enjoyers will have their own views and understanding of Film Canon, but their perspective would be heavily skewed toward the works of America’s soft power juggernaut, Hollywood, and view their contributions as the most important on a global scale. Partially due to how America has maintained a strong film industry. But more due to how American culture is designed and manufactured to insulate Americans into believing they are inherently exceptional. A narrative that really kicked off after WWII that aimed to present America as the dominant nation, the global superpower, the One True Culture, and The Place where human advancement happens. Christ’s Number One Pick for Best Country Evuh!

I would agree that there is some truth to the idea that America was the most significant and influential nation of the 20th century, just in general, not just pertaining to the arts. However, I am an American who has been fed a biased perspective, with a global understanding that has been restricted by limitations of language and shit-giving-ness. I could feel bad about that, at how much of my sense of self and broader understanding was formed by listening to White people gush about things they loved as kids. But I believe that being willing to accept that you know little, that your pre-conceived notions may be wrong, and wanting to broaden your understanding is… sufficient. Anything’s better than being a confident moron who wants to believe that White people are divinely superior, because the vibes make my gooning moist, dude

ANYWAY! What does any of this have to do with video games?

The history of video games is pretty well understood at this point. It has been routinely documented, recited, and trekked through by thousands upon thousands of people, myself included. This history positions a handful of games released each year as being major milestones in the industry, as being important, and through the recitation of this history, a Video Game Canon was born.

Now, this is a very informal canon, lacking the prestige or structure of academic tomes or volumes, and is more driven by lived experiences, vibes, and cultural narratives. However, I view this as a mere evolution of what canon is and means within the context of the 21st century and digital communication. Nobody but old White dudes with PhDs in fake subjects, like English, care about having shelves upon shelves of books belonging to literary collections.

Every recitation of Video Game Canon is going to be different, but they will consistently follow a few important milestones and mention a couple dozen important games. Pong (1972), Space Invaders (1978), Pac-Man (1980), Super Mario Bros. (1985), The Legend of Zelda (1986), Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), Super Mario 64 (1996), Halo: Combat Evolved (2001), Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), Minecraft (2011), Grand Theft Auto V (2013)— I am just listing the least controversial picks I can think of.

Amongst dedicated and broadly defined gaming enthusiasts— dorks and dumbasses who love gaming history and trivia— there is a widely understood sense of what games are essential, which ones mattered, and which ones had the biggest impact. Based on this sense of importance, relevance, and prestige, you get the Video Game Canon.

…Or I should say a Video Game Canon, as the views of what games were important, which ones mattered for the medium, will change depending on the culture of those deciding them. Significant games, as understood from a Japanese perspective, will be remarkably different from a French perspective, which will in turn differ from a Chinese perspective.

Nearly every nation has their own video game industry, people all around the world make games, and due to how games came into their own during the 80s, games were routinely imported, exported, and localized. However, not all games were localized, and even to this day, not all games are presented as global products, as there are simply too many languages in the world to manage that. Because of this, there can be no one canon for anything.

The silent specifier when I use Video Game Canon is that I am referring to the Video Game Canon as understood and perpetuated by White suburban American men. A memetic narrative that persists throughout the internet and gaming publications, picked up and reinforced by major publications and eventually crystallized into a canonical understanding of history. Though, it is one that is often wrong. The White American Video Game Canon (WAVGC) focuses only on a narrow perspective, glosses over many key details of artistic growth, the medium’s broader development, and over-emphasizes the American and console sides of the industry.

I don’t think there is a better example of this than the 1983 video game crash. A mythologized canonical event that shaped gaming history forever… except it kinda didn’t. The crash lasted maybe two years, mostly affected the North American console market.

The Famicom had hit Japan and was doing very well during its first two years, despite software droughts. Computer games around the world were booming in sales as home computers continued to rise in popularity, especially in Europe, where home computers defined 80s gaming. And while arcade revenue also went down, I have to ask how much of that was arcade owners just not buying new cabinets. Yes, yes, I have seen the charts, but charts do not tell the full story.

This is an important event, yes. But the insistence that the whole industry crashed represents a very American perspective and glosses over how video games were a fad for a lot of people. Like any fad, gaming experienced an unsustainable spike in demand, before the bubble burst and people started getting into new hotness. Like video tape rentals! I’m sorry, but there is no reality where the line went up from 1982 all the way through 1990.

Another, more pertinent example, is how entire genres developed in certain regions, yet failed to hit Western markets, thus leading these games and these genres to be omitted from the WAVGC. The obvious one is the lineage of Japanese adventure games, dating sims, and other narrative and conversation driven games. They represent a rich history that warrants robust exploration, yet language barriers have blocked them off from broader understanding for decades. However, there is no region in the world that has been disrespected by the White American Video Game Canon as much as China.

You, reading this article, name five Chinese games that came out before 2000. …Can you do it? Well, if you are part of my non-trivial Chinese and Indonesian audiences, you probably can. But put a gun to my head, and I would not be able to name one. Hell, if you ask me to name one game made entirely in India or the Middle East, released at any point in history, I wouldn’t be able to name one.

That is sad, pathetic, and shameful, a true testament to how sheltered and ignorant I am. But I know there are millions of motherfuckers just like me! People who adore and love video games, but as far as they are concerned, video games come from Japan, America, Canada (America: The Better Version), Europe, Australia, China, and South Korea, period. And it makes some sense. Most in the Anglosphere only fuck with media from those parts of the world.

However, this means that any analysis of the Video Game Canon— hell, the artistic medium in general— is going to be inherently limited due to its narrowness and gaps. If one wants to gain a true understanding… well, you better learn Chinese and Japanese, bud! Because there are vast worlds beyond your comprehension out there, things that have never been translated, nor will they be translated, or maybe they were just forgotten over time. Who knows! If you go through a bunch of Chinese DOS games and might find one that’s as good as Chrono Trigger. (Though definitely not 50, I know we are in The Chinese Century, but don’t be fucking racist and assume that dominance is divinity. That’s some Christian Caucasoid Crusader shit!)

It is hard to stress the importance of a game to someone if they have never heard of it before, have never touched the system it released for, and was only released in a language they don’t understand. This is why it is hard, maybe even impossible, to create a global video game canon. Why there needs to be regional specifics based on people with narrow perspectives. Why there is a need and a desire to maintain a White American Video Game Canon. Because otherwise, it becomes too vast, it becomes incomprehensible, it becomes shitty, slapdash, ugly, and is full of shit those the canon was made by and for do not care about. While the occasional title might slip through and get added retroactively as enough groundswell develops, these are rarities, exceptions.

The White American Video Game Canon is a flawed, racist, and heavily biased measurement for gauging the global gaming medium. …But it’s not useless. It describes historical events, tells a compelling narrative that is mostly based in accuracy, and reflects the lived experiences of millions of dorks. It takes something vast, cuts out the crap that might not appeal to a general audience, and delivers it in a clean package. This thing has a purpose, the WAVGC is not a wholly bad or wrongheaded thing. I am just saying that is just important to recognize that this is merely one perspective of the endlessly vast history. That the omissions do not mean nothing of substance happened, but that this is partitioned away in its own topic.

Not everybody can be an expert. Nobody can know everything. And most people are into gaming because it’s fun, not because they enjoy recounting a vast history. If they wanted that, they would just become a grifter who lies about the past in exchange for desperate people’s dochy. But it is important to be aware of the futility of trying to make grand sweeping understandings of a medium, when you only understand a fraction of what people have done with it.

Akumako: “Uh, okay, but what even is the White American Video Game Canon? Can you give us a list or something?”

…Uh, that is a matter of exact perspective. If someone views early 80s PC games as important video games. If they view PC as only having come into its own with Windows 95. If they consider Atari to be the birth of video games, or the Famicom to be the birth of the real video games. But, generally, you can point at any gaming publication written by White Americans— primarily straight White American men aged 25 to 50— in the past20-ish years look at their top 100 lists, and aggregate them. If you do that, you will get a starter list of Canon video games. (Also, maybe include the Wikipedia list.)

Akumako: “…You gonna do that?”

Oh, GOD NO! That would take so much time and would require so much Excel data entry! Just making this header image took long enough!

Akumako: “You just grabbed 65 images from SteamDB while tabbing between an IGN list.”

Yeah, but I had to look up the right ones, name ’em, come up with a list, and then assemble them in Draw.io!

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So, I Played Tokimeki Memorial
(And I Didn’t Like It, As Expected)

Following a topic I launched into last week, I did some light research on Tokimeki Memorial (1994) and other dating sims. I pretty quickly found the robust and focused resource from dating sim enthusiast and analyst Bapsago, who is quite possibly the best English language video-based resource on the genre. Most of what she said in her overview of the game was not news to me, but I was perplexed by how she claimed Tokimeki Memorial only took two to three hours to clear in a single playthrough.

Based on this and peripheral knowledge from Tim Rogers’s excellent review of the game, I set off on a journey to understand the dating sim genre with its quintessential masterpiece. …Or at least its inferior Super Famicom version, Tokimeki Memorial: Beneath the Tree of Legend. It took me nine hours to finish a playthrough, and I… did not enjoy my time with it.

Now, I will not say that I am intimately familiar with the Japanese simulation game genre, but per a dozen or so hours with Princess Maker 2 (1993) a decade ago, I understand the core appeal. These games are about simulating life and all the chaos inherent to it. The friction between diametrically opposed goals, unpredictability of random events, and good/bad rolls on routine tasks are core parts of a Japanese simulation game experience.

There are generally advised practices depending on the system, but this uncertainty, this randomness, this gooey math, is part of the fun. It is the game aspect. The forces you fight against are probability, resources, money, stat atrophy/inflation. Time is limited, and you must make the right choices at the right time to achieve the desired outcome. And if you fail… well, there is fun in watching the chaos unfold! Or you could save scum your way to whatever you want. I’m guessing most players do that to some extent.

Tokimeki Memorial very much adheres to these principles, as you play as a high school boy who needs to manage his academics, health, and stress while also managing romantic relationships. With the ultimate goal being to earn the favor of a specified heroine and have them confess to the protagonist upon their high school graduation, becoming lifelong lovers as ordained by a magical tree! (Insert Leavathea reverence for Cassie.)

This, as a core mechanic, should be familiar to anybody who has played a game with a romance system, and most of the core elements are superficially comparable. Give them gifts, invite them on outings, choose dialogue options they like, et cetera. However, what makes Tokimemo unique is how it imposes relationships upon you, and tells you to work things out. Throughout a run and upon reaching certain stat thresholds, the protagonist will be introduced to a growing roster of female classmates. These classmates then start to expect some attention and acknowledgement from the protagonist. They are not just optional characters one can pursue a relationship with, the protagonist has a relationship with them from moment one.

How does one maintain this relationship? Why, by taking them out on dates, walking home with them, giving them birthday presents, and being kind to them during random events. What happens if one does not maintain a relationship? The girls become bombs! Not literally, but… not strictly figuratively either. If the protagonist is rude to them, rejects their offers to go on outings, replies with a mean comment, or says that he would be embarrassed to be seen walking home with her, they will rightfully get upset with him. And when girls in Tokimemo get pissed, they threaten to ruin your entire run.

When a bomb goes off, it weakens the protagonist’s relationship with pretty much everyone. And if one bomb goes off, another girl’s probably about to set you up with her own bomb. Failure to be kind leads to a cascade effect, and if the player is not diligent about disarming bombs by going on dates with girls, the protagonist is probably going to end up alone with an undignified bad ending.

This establishes a strangely hostile game scenario. The player is supposed to build a relationship with one specific character, to achieve their ending, while also swatting away the other girls, appeasing them so they don’t ruin their run. It very quickly turns the other girls into nuisances, obstacles, or even enemies. Because dealing with these girls, diffusing their bombs, is a time-consuming process, and you don’t get anything for it. Well, maybe you get a unique scene or interaction, some new sprites, but that’s about it.

If the player wants to schedule a date, they will need to wait until a Sunday or holiday and call one of the girls’ home phone. Then they can ask them to go on a date on a specific day and a specified place. If the girl agrees, the date is scheduled. If they claim to be busy— something easily manipulated via save states— then you are out of luck, and the whole day is wasted.

Yes, it takes a day just to make a phone call and, to compound matters, the game restricts when the player can save. Only on Sunday evenings and before selecting their side activity for the school week. Also, if the player wants to view their relationship status with girls, get their phone number, or check to view any bombs, then they need to call up some creep named Yoshio. A process that also wastes a Sunday or holiday on that. This means that most dates take up two Sundays or holidays, days that represent excellent opportunities to raise the protagonist’s stats. Especially the protagonist’s academics, because it helps him get better grades, and he won’t be penalized with another burden.

At the start of any Sunday, holiday, or school week, the player has the opportunity to train the protagonist in humanities, sciences, arts, athletics, socialization, or looks. Along with the options of joining/attending a club and resting to recover health and reduce stress. Sundays and holidays offer better and more consistent stat boosts, and prevent the player from running into any new girls, as they are not at school.

At school, once the player’s stats reach a threshold, the humanities, sciences, arts, and athletics activities become triggers to be introduced to new characters. Mio, Yuina, Ayako, Yukari, and Nozomi. While just having good stats for fitness and looks will cause the protagonist to run into Saki and Mira respectively. Though, I think new girls stop appearing once the player reaches the third and final school year.

The only four (generally) inevitabilities are Shiori, the main girl, Yuko, a wild card who literally runs into the protagonist until she becomes an acquaintance. Megumi, the extra demure and quiet best friend of Shiori. And Yumi, Yoshio’s younger sister, who starts with a crush on the protagonist. …Oh, and there’s also, Miharu a stalker who exists to give players a consolation prize. You might not have gotten the cover girl, but at least you got this koala-looking girl.

All of this is to say that Tokimeki Memorial is a game of numbers and planning, and if you pursue enough numbers fast enough, you will be punished by more burdens to manage, and that truly is what these characters feel like. They appear unannounced, make themselves the player’s problems, and if you have a full squad of 12, more like 11, in the rolodex, the protagonist needs to go on a lot more dates to prevent them from bombing out. Through my suboptimal play, and not knowing the triggers, I accumulated seven relationships. Only one of whom I was particularly interested in, Yuina, as she is a mad scientist with aspirations of world domination, and I like women with goals!

Despite this goal, I spent the clear majority of my dating time placating other girls, earning their favor, and making them like, if not love, my protagonist. Not because I wanted to go the harem route, but because the game does not make it easy to maintain amicable relationships. If the player rejects an offer to walk home with a girl, the protagonist says he did something “horrible.”

While you can choose a poor or middling reaction to a prompt while on a date with a girl, doing so always feels rude. In Tokimeki Memorial, you can either roleplay a kind boy who makes all the girls swoon over him, or you can be a jackass who makes girls upset for twisted reasons. I think the ideal is to be bipolar to keep the girls guessing and urge them to maintain a distance from the protagonist. But the roleplaying ramifications of that are… shit.

I was compelled to be nice to everyone, without ever actually caring about them. Part of this is due to how little meaningful dialogue or interactions there are for each character and how stingy it is with these scenes. Tokimeki Memorial is a game with a lot of unique and bespoke interactions, often with their own sprites and CG, but the game does not throw these in the player’s face. It typically treats them as a reward. Either for reaching a holiday or the like, or for stumbling upon a scenario that the developers felt deserved a CG. The protagonist can take any girl out ice skating, but not all of them have their own ice skating scene beyond a line or three of dialogue. Oh, and don’t get me started on date-specific date encounters with specific girls. That shit’s designed to sell strategy guides!

When compared to a girthy 50 hour long romance visual novel, this is pretty anemic, and makes it harder to get attached to these characters, to want to get to know them as people, as you are not able to learn as much about them. Instead, you are more encouraged to trace the vibe, listen to the voice work (that’s absent from the Super Famicom release), and fill in the gaps, as any two bit anime-enjoyer knows these archetypes.

I can forgive the game for this more scattershot and shallow characterization, relegating most depth to specific scenes and feeling robotic during the routine interactions. Because this was 1994, and the game was breaking ground in other ways, leaving areas for successors to improve upon things. But I don’t want to forgive the game for how it handled the two most prominent characters in my playthrough, Yuina and Shiori.

As a lover of crazy determined ladies, I was actually pretty excited whenever I happened across a new scene with Yuina. Watching her go from an experiment loving girl to someone who makes genuine robots and has aspirations of not only conquering the world, but claiming every star in the sky as her own. She is a fun, zealous character who even makes a super robot that the protagonist needs to destroy in one of the game’s famous fake Final Fantasy battle sequences.

…But when I got to her ending, she did a complete 180 of her personality. The overzealous and confident mad scientist just became another teenage girl filled with love who was hiding from her own emotions by pursuing science over what she really wanted— nay, needed. A man who could fuck her straight!

Piss off with that! This girl made a giant robot! She made a prototype Metal Gear! She should be profiting off of the military industrial complex while having my protagonist— who I made handsome as shit, buff as hell, and smart as fuck, help her achieve her goals. Probably have him become a politician to help funnel some money her way, keeping their relationship off the record. Or anything other than this! I have never felt so betrayed by Igarashi!

As for Shiori… she’s a bitch! Starting out, the protagonist is below average in every way, while Shiori is presented as this perfect, platonic ideal, of a high school girl. She is meant to motivate the player to grow their protagonist in a certain way to earn her favor, but her standards are so high they’re makin’ mochi on the moon! She wants a man who is smarter than her, who is remarkably handsome, athletic, insightful, favored by other girls— but not too much— and spiritually astute. She wants the best guy ever, and she wants the protagonist to become the best guy ever, for she is the best girl ever.

Starting out, she does not view the protagonist with kindness or openly encourage him. Despite living right next to him, she refuses to walk home with him until he meets certain stat requirements. She spends much of any given playthrough looking at the protagonist of the eyes of a woman consumed by regret and disappointment, not with love, kindness, or even the neutral familiar glance she shared earlier. It’s as if she is judging the player’s pitiful progress to winning her heart.

Even if you do nearly almost everything right, get into a top rate university, and triumph in everything you set out on doing, never letting a bomb go off, that is not enough for her to love the protagonist. She has impossibly high standards, and even if I went back to manipulate her love for my protagonist, I know it would feel hollow. Because, despite her mantle of best girl ever, she is not a kind person. She does not value personality. She values work ethic and performance above all else.

…That covers the big points I have, but I still need to stress how this mechanical friction makes me view the characters in this game as enemies rather than something I want to engage with. I did not get to know most of these characters. I did not feel like I was seeing bonds or social links being made. I placated them just so that I could make my little guy better at school. Interactions with the heroines are transactional by design, and they feel like just that. Transactions.

It paints a truly dire picture towards social interactions, and despite being a game all about girls, this friction, antagonism, and mathematical abstraction at times feels like it was designed to reinforce misogynous views. I know it wasn’t— there are way too many women in the credits for that— but you could make an incel flavored Tokimemo without changing a darn thing about the mechanics.

The girls in this game have high expectations of the protagonist’s looks and will reject him if he is not sufficiently looksmaxxed. They are obstacles that prevent the protagonist from studying and focusing on school life, while only accepting him if he meets certain criterion. They eat up the protagonist’s weekends and holidays with soulless dates meant to prevent an emotional outburst (bomb). And they get antsy if they see the protagonist gallivanting with other girls. Girls who do not give the protagonist any middle ground in his interactions. He can either be kind or be rude, with precious little middle ground or nuance. Which is before getting into how their randomized nature can be read as reminiscent of feminine moon logic.

In the process of going through a nine hour run of Tokimeki Memorial, I don’t feel that I’ve gained anything. I feel like I’ve had to have made a mistake with my approach, somehow, and that this was my fault. Because I know the game is good, that people like it for good reasons, and that it warrants its legacy. But after playing it through once… I realize I should have played a 90s VN instead. Like Desire (1994), or Eve: Burst Error (1995), or YU-NO (1996). However, now that I have gone this far into the dating sim hole, I feel that I need to search for something more my speed.

Which is why I’m going to give Dokyusei: Bangin’ Summer a try before summer’s over! And if I don’t like that game, then… I guess I’ve found an incurable blind spot in my analytical lens!

Akumako: “…Why isn’t Tokimeki Memorial part of the Video Game Canon header?”

…One, I whipped that up in 45 minutes. Don’t overthink it or else you’ll just be stuck in a world where everyone wears all their glasses for a reason! I made that clear in the header itself! Two, it was not a known video game in the West until Tim Rogers’s excellent review of the title.

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Viral Misfit Multiplayer Mayhem
(Natalie Continues To Not Understand The Children…)

One of the thought worms that has infiltrated my mind palace with its exotic wiggling is the topic of video games from relatively small studios that have managed to amass over a million sales very quickly. Titles that saw a flavor of success beyond what most independent devs could even imagine, and most larger devs would envy. This is something that has been happening for years and years, basically with the advent of anything that could be considered a viral game where people wound up paying money for something. This year alone has been populated with examples like R.E.P.O. and most recently Peak. Despite being an observable trend of games made to appeal to younger friend groups and streamers, there is not a proper name for this cluster of titles beyond something more vague like calling them all viral games.

Well, beyond friendslop, but the fact that name gained any traction speaks negatively on the broader community of game-players.

Looking at this from an outsider, there are definitely recurring themes in titles like the aforementioned two, Content Warning, Lethal Company, and a bunch more. They are largely casual co-operative multiplayer titles where players are expected to bumble and fumble around as they behave like a bunch of misfits trying to do a job of some sort. Something like ‘multiplayer misfit simulator’ is not terrible, but it lacks the rotten hamburgerian (brain is hamburger) flavor of 2020s online communal naming schemes.

Arguably, the fact these games are good for streamers should also be reflected in their name, as I think that is truly a key part of their success. It is how these games are shared, promoted, and spread across a wider audience as influencers influence their largely younger demographics to check out the low priced multiplayer hotness of the week so they can goof around with their friends. Because that’s something I’ve noticed becoming more common or popular over the past few years, particularly following 2020. People viewing games as a way to hang out with their friends and people wanting co-op modes and the like so they can play more games with friends.

This makes complete sense given the endgame capitalism we’re living through, the isolation engendered by a society traumatized by a pandemic, low wages, rising expenses, and so many people being poor, or in effective poverty. Sure, there are still third places, and anybody who says otherwise should subscribe to their village’s newsletter, but they require some material commitment of time or money. Which is a harder sell when someone could… just jerk off to TikTok while getting Nazi-pilled by BBC cuckoldry, or whatever White teens do these days. …And compared to that, just goofing off with someone’s buddies in the latest multiplayer hotness seems pretty mild.

Akumako: “You always sound a decade older when you talk about stuff like this.”

What do you expect from me? I’ve always been a little out of touch, and I have remained most un-privy to certain cultural shifts and conversations during the past five years in particular. New platforms grew in prominence, and I did not flock to there as I did not see the point. People I followed who discussed gaming culture either faded away or I just moved on past them, not gelling with the direction they were going in. Times change, you get older, burrow away from general interests into more dedicated niches, and focus more on economics or politics— the real news.

I am part of a microgeneration who experienced who saw the rise in online gaming and streaming throughout my adolescence. I went from playing Mario Kart 64 (1997) with friends to getting an Xbox 360 to see couch co-op become something that needed to be specified, rather than be the default form of co-op. Online became the de facto way to play, and friendships shifted further into the realm of the digital.

I was there for when online video streaming was first taking off in the early days. Back in the days of Justin.TV and UStream, where people like Jacob Hope Chapman used to host anime nights, illegally streaming anime to a couple dozen people. …Stuff like Digimon Tamers or Jyu-Oh-Sei, a mid anime series that I promised myself would be the last review ever posted on Natalie.TF. …Or where Channel Awesome would host holiday livestreams, previewing the next week’s worth of videos while taking on calls from people like… goldarn AkuOreo. I did not believe that happened back then in 2009-ish, and I believe that happened even less in 2025.

I might be misremembering that, but I don’t think so. Hell, all of my memories could be manufactured. Ever since I bought that Jade Cat Statue, my mind has been most ethereal…

However, I was just not interested in what these platforms offered. My social skills as a child were pretty poor, due to a variety of reasons. Check some of my old Rambles for the deets (especially you, discriminatory AI data scrapers). So I only had a small handful of friends to help me stay with it. I experienced large chunks of gaming via Let’s Plays and longplays I consumed like they were TV shows, so you’d think I would be into game streaming. However, I never liked their lack of a structured format, the lack of an editing pass, the reliance on ‘Chat’, people’s ugly mugs, and how the whole darn field was sullied by people overreacting. I still think the standard format and structure of a livestreamed gaming video is ugly and filled with noise. …No shade on streamers though. Some of my best friends are streamers!

Akumako: “You done reminiscing about the olden times, Grams?”

Yeah, I guess so. …Also, despite their popularity, none of these games are part of the White American Video Game Canon. Because these are games for the lesser, the casual, and not the real enjoyers of true art, good art, art for the sophisticated and more humanly humans. Again, I don’t make these rules, I just observe what I have been taught over the past… almost 20 years at this point. Dorks are racist, sexist, classist, and believe in gate-keeping, even when trying to celebrate or praise art. Even when they love something, they are just as prone to dismissing what they don’t understand. And I’m not saying I’m much better.

I know to shrug it off and say something I’m not into is ‘not for me.’ Yet, there’s a teensy part of me that’s seething at how much popularity these games accrue while more genre-bending and creatively rich experiences get glossed over. But even that fixation, putting importance on works based on a vague sense of ‘meaningfulness,’ is a form of artistic discrimination, insisting that ‘high art’ is superior to ‘low art.’ Even if the high art is created with cynicism while the low art is earnest and rife with passion and fulfills a clear purpose. Social events are valuable and are help people stay human!

…What was the point of this section again?

Akumako: “I think you had like three points bopping around there. …And is that it? We didn’t even address any big news!

What news was there? More Microsoft layoffs? Capcom holding a showcase where they showed off very little? Taisuke Kanasaki of Another Code and Hotel Dusk fame making a new game with the title of Dear Me, I Was… Which is one of the worst titles you could give a game, as it sounds like a sentence fragment. You may as well just use the Japanese title and call it that instead. …Except that is the Japanese title!

Akumako: “Alright, alright, I guess this is good enough. Ship it!”

Haaaiiii~!

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Progress Report 2025-06-29

Gosh, I think it’s so bloody cool that the Video Game History Foundation has scanned and archived so many magazines from days gone, chronicling history that was never made public on the internet, or at least never accessible. It is truly some spectacular work and I hope that they continue being able to pursue valuable ventures like this. I know I helped! …Or at least I tried do. I wanted to avoid PayPal fees so I sent them a check for $500 as a charitable donation— I said I was going to give part of my tax refund to charity didn’t I? However, the check was either lost in the mail or never cashed. (What the hell guys?) So I have to put a stop payment on that and give them $500 plus PayPal fees. Oh well!

Anyway, I would love to dive into gaming history through this, and gain an obsessive knowledge of gaming for the sake of one story I’ve been keeping in my pocket for 7 full years now. However, time is illmatic, and I also need to face the fact that I just do not like reading things that are formatted this way. I do not understand how people, for centuries, read things in these narrow columns, partitions between busy pages, where the actual pertinent information requires flipping between multiple pages just to get a full story. It’s bad enough that the font size is for ants and that it uses a serif font, as that was just better for ink-based printing I guess.

Still, it is worth it to uncover tidbits like how the PS1 and N64 both dropped to $99 on the same day right before the Dreamcast launched on 9/9/99 for $199.99. That there were musings about Microsoft buying out Sega of America as early as September 1999. Or Xbox’s Peter Moore’s big plans for the Dreamcast’s launch and how they planned on reaching five million units by March 31, 2001. Which, globally, it reached, but that’s because they were giving them away with SegaNet, and dudes like former PlayStation spokeperson Anthony Carboni were giving them away for free at Toys R Us to save the system!

…No, I’m not making that up! I’m speaking for real-reals, on the real!

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2025-06-22: Did some more wrap up work for the Press-Switch path, watched anime with friends, and played more Hundred Line.

2025-06-23: Wrapped up the Tokimeki bit with 1,400 more words, more Hundred Line. Game is full of twists and delights! Also, the tactical battles take a long time because I am a bit too analytical for my own good, and then I just drop bombs on everything for an easy win in the end.

2025-06-24: Wrote the 1,200 word multiplayer gaming bit. More Hundred Line. The second scenario is so freaking goooood!

2025-06-25: Edited the Rundown thus far, played a bit of Hundred Line, put about two hours into Persona 5X: The Phantom X.

2025-06-26: 6 hours of Persona 5X: The Phantom X. This game is sensory overload in the worst damn way. It makes me wish I was playing ZZZ again.

2025-06-27: Got off work early, so spent about 8 hours on Persona 5X: The Phantom X. That was about it.

2025-06-28: Did my weekend chores. FINALLY installed the 8 TB HDD I bought months ago. Put in like 9 hours into Persona 5X: The Phantom X (at 25 hours). Wrote 2,000 words for the preamble on the game that I’m going to put out next week. It’s not getting a review though, as I’m dropping the game after I clear the first palace, because fuuuuccckkkk this gacha trash! It is another prime example of how live service elements made games objectively worse. I would have stopped, but I have functionally hit the limit on how much one can achieve in three/four days without paying money.

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