Have you every been driving down the road, and then you see a car crash?
Everyone on the road slows down and is eager to see what’s going on.
It’s bizarre because intuition would dictate that most would try to avoid such a sight,
but as is normal for homo-sapiens, we tend to behave in quite counter-intuitive ways.
Usually this is attributed to a morbid fascination with the macabre and grotesque.
Or perhaps it is due to the reality that people love to look at things that are abnormal,
in the literal sense of the word.
If something is antithetical to our normal day-to-day experience it is inevitably attention
hogging.
This is no doubt due to humans’ ability to tune out the mundane and preserve the exceptional,
which is why you remember that funny story from high school (sophomore year) but don’t
remember driving to work last Thursday.
In summary, people love to be fascinated with the exceptional and abnormal.
Why this is the case is a subject for another video, but we can apply this to many different
events and subjects across the human experience in the modern age.
Whether it be a fascination with serial killers (a subject I plan to tackle in an upcoming
video), or an obsession with a company that seemingly specializes in failing.
We can’t get enough.
This brings us to Bethesda Game Studios.
Over the last few years they have repeatedly shot themselves in the metaphorical foot with
mistake after mistake and the gaming community can’t get enough of it.
It’s become so bad that I’ve grown convinced that the only thing that gamers love more
than an in-depth, expansive, pro-consumer, BGS RPG, is a game like Fallout 76 that crashes
and burns brighter than a comet into the Sun.
This topic was actually brought to mind as I was watching American Dad highlights on
YouTube while I was on vacation recently.
I noticed that YouTube kept pushing videos to me that were made by highly opportunistic
(and need I say highly talented) YouTubers that were capitalizing on our love of Bethesda’s
failures.
Video after video was recommended that told the same story: “The Huge Problem with Fallout
76,” “Bethesda didn’t just die, it was murdered,” and “The BIG HUGE GIANT Problem
with Bethesda” come to mind as examples of titles that graced my phone’s screen.
Now, the point of this video isn’t to diss on anyone or criticize another creator; in
my view, such content is lazy and even morally reprehensible.
Rather, after witnessing all of these videos, with millions and millions of combined views,
I became fascinated with our bizarre fascination.
Seriously, why are we so obsessed with Bethesda Game Studios and their butchering of a once
beloved franchise, or with Blizzard’s incomprehensible mobile game strategies, or with EA’s ignominious
handling of the Battlefield V release?
Intuition tells me, perhaps in opposition to the general populace, that EA, Blizzard,
and Bethesda should lose our respect as a result of these actions and the topic should
die out quite quickly.
Clearly, this isn’t completely the case.
Obviously, these companies have lost our respect, but the latter still remains.
We still discuss them and keep them in the spotlight.
We’re still bringing up Mass Effect: Andromeda, Fallout 4, Sonic 2006, The Order 1886, and
their ilk.
And it is after much consideration that I believe this is because of the same human
mechanism that draws fascination from car wrecks, pulverized tibias, and celebrity breakdowns.
Perhaps it makes us feel better about ourselves or the things that we like and enjoy; perhaps
it is an evolutionary defense mechanism buried deep within our subconscious to weed out the
weak to leave nothing but the strongest; or perhaps it simply an example of herd mentality
overcoming common sense and reason.
Or, it is much more tactical than that.
You see, some of the aforementioned content creators are simply making Bethesda videos
ad nauseum because they get clicks and so who cares if they say the same thing 16 times
in a row to hit the 16-minute mark.
Viewers get what the want, and the creator gets what they want.
However, some of them are making videos in a much more tactical manner.
I’ve spoken with several who all told me the same thing, which is simply that they
are “actively keeping the issue alive so that these companies don’t get away with
these abuses.”
And this made sense to me.
Of course it’s a double whammy because the creator also gets all the clicks (which need
I say is NOT an inherently bad thing as long as the content is not being sold out in the
process), but they also get to take a stand against huge corporations that would seek
to take advantage of their customer bases and would get away with it if it were not
for content creators holding their feet to the fire in an unrelenting barrage of videos
creating a metaphorical blizzard (ha, see what I did there), of bad PR.
All of this to say that I think this is a double-edged sword.
On the one edge you have the viewer, the one that is clicking on the content and justifying
the unending parade of Fallout 76 drama videos; and on the other edge you have the content
creator who is creating content to fill the desire that the viewer establishes, but also
to keep the issue alive in order to ensure accountability is assigned unto the offending
parties.
It’s a cycle that eventually winds down, but is also important.
Bethesda isn’t going to get away with Fallout 76 the way that they’ve gotten away with
buggy and lazy releases for years.
Blizzard isn’t going to forget Diablo Immortal any time soon.
And EA is still reeling from the horrendous year that 2018 ended up being.
And so, while it may be frustrating that every YouTuber and their mother are creating videos
bashing Bethesda and EA and Blizzard, just remember that it is an important part of the
special community we have as gamers.
A system that is capable of holding these companies accountable.
And as always, if you grow tired of the content, just don’t click.
Creators will take the hint.
Trust me.