House of Ashes: The Kotaku Review
kotaku.com
The latest entry in the Dark Pictures Anthology loses its way among messy Iraq War themes

What does it say about the artistic decadence in anglo societies that they are still doing the whole "poor war criminals" theme in 2021, complete with made-up Iraqis supporting the war criminals lmao?

Like, even from a profit based angle, this is just pathetic to see.

Decline and decadence do not spare anything after all, including art. It's the ultimate price barbaric societies are fated to pay. Even artistically speaking, anglo societies are entering an even darker age.

A western-watcher would say that the collapse of western art is intrinsically related to their adherence to the most extreme forms of Christianity (that's what "western liberal values" ultimately are), where the world is divided between "saviors" (people with the same exact worldview of white american boomers) and "evil-doers" who are reduced to caricatures, no in between, no subtlety, no understanding of culture or history, no curiosity. Occasionally one of the "evil doers" is given "development" only to merely give emotional support to the "saviors", like western propaganda quoting some fascists in other countries to support american barbarism.

These are the same people who think they are culturally diverse societies but can't produce and are materially forbidden from producing anything that deviates from the most extreme forms of western imperialist "liberalism".

The obsession of anglo societies with atrocity porn in fiction is also a manifestation of such psychological rot. For example, some anglos praise games like "Last of Us" for its story, but it is yet another atrocity porn story with some makeup to make it seem deeper than what it actually is. It's bottom-tier art, complete with "white middle age man" saves girl from evil world. It's like a caricature of the worldview of white conservatives lmao, this is basically why they hate anything remotely "foreign". How can even self proclaimed "progressive" anglos praise such turd is beyond me.

A perfect encapsulation of how late-stage western imperialist decline is intrinsically related to their artistic decadence was given by western regimes literally concealing the Guernica in powell's presentation at the UN: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/02/guer-f08.html

    • Ovuan [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Sorry for not liking the crappy "art" produced by a settle regime that tries to validate the worldview of the settler regime: "the world is bad, and misanthropic violence is the de facto state of humanity, we need rugged white middle aged dudes to save us". Do you realize how off putting this crap is for people not in anglo regimes? people in non-fascist, non-war mongering regimes do not find such lazy depictions of humanity appealing at all, because they are not regularly shoved war propaganda down their throats. Cartoonish levels of caricature, there is no depth here at all.

      I don't think anglos realize how much their shitty excuse for "art" tells about the fascist nature of their society. Do people like you even know how fascist friendly the whole "zombie apocalypse" genre is in american society? have you asked yourself why that is?

      In "world war z" you literally mass murder "zombies" trying to get into occupied Palestine.

      The "zombies" in general are stand-ins for the people these repulsive societies murder on the regular.

        • Ovuan [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Not really, someone below confirmed the underlying reason for my criticism: https://archive.vn/qd5oy

          • LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Sorry, but the themes just don't fit the reality. Maybe that inspired the initial idea, but getting upset over an incredibly generic "cycle of violence" storyline because it reminds you of a liberals' POV of Isreal is dumb, and I'm not interested in pretending a clearly not-applicable opinion on reality ruin a game that wasn't just fun, but brilliantly acted.

            • LeninWeave [none/use name]
              ·
              3 years ago

              The game's co-director and co-writer Neil Druckmann, an Israeli who was born and raised in the West Bank before his family moved to the U.S., told the Washington Post that the game's themes of revenge can be traced back to the 2000 killing of two Israeli soldiers by a mob in Ramallah. Some of the gruesome details of the incident were captured on video, which Druckmann viewed. In his interview, he recounted the anger and desire for vengeance he felt when he saw the video—and how he later reconsidered and regretted those impulses, saying they made him feel “gross and guilty.” But it gave him the kernel of a story.

              “I landed on this emotional idea of, can we, over the course of the game, make you feel this intense hate that is universal in the same way that unconditional love is universal?” Druckmann told the Post. “This hate that people feel has the same kind of universality. You hate someone so much that you want them to suffer in the way they’ve made someone you love suffer.”

              This seems to pretty blatantly indicate that it's based on the occupation of Palestine.

              • LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA [he/him]
                ·
                3 years ago

                Right, and if you read what I stated, you'd understand that it's so obviously not applicable because it isn't the reality of the situation in Palestine. I'm genuinely amazed that anyone that didn't read a very specific interview could possibly walk away with the idea "omg this is just like Isreal" because it's so far removed.

                Stop listening to liberals and enjoy some things

                • LeninWeave [none/use name]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  I can see it was obviously inspired by Israel (because the co-director and co-writer said so) and obviously all media produced by a society is influenced by that society in some way. I don't know much more than that because I haven't played the game, and I probably never will, so that's kind of where my involvement in this discussion starts and ends. No one's stopping you from enjoying the game, though.

                    • LeninWeave [none/use name]
                      ·
                      3 years ago

                      Your first comment in this thread was "The last of us is great and you’re dumb", and all you've really done here is deny that the story is a liberal's POV of Israel even though that liberal said in an interview that it was based on his POV of Israel. This whole thread of comments, in my opinion, has been a waste of time.

                      Like I said, you can enjoy the game just fine if you want to, but the guy who helped write and direct it is pretty clear it was based on Israel, so I don't think it's useful to deny that angle for media criticism/analysis of it.

                      • LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA [he/him]
                        ·
                        3 years ago

                        No, I said that their dumb fuck opinion is clearly not applicable to reality, and the idea that the game represents the Palestine occupation to anyone but terminally online dipshits that read every thought of one game dev is hilariously stupid and as such shouldn't influence anyone's opinion on an excellent game, but okay. Keep on keeping on, comrade.

                        • LeninWeave [none/use name]
                          ·
                          3 years ago

                          I'm sure the game is good, honestly. I'm also sure that it was inspired by the occupation of Palestine because the co-writer said it was. Like I said, you go ahead and enjoy it.

                          • LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA [he/him]
                            ·
                            3 years ago

                            So it is good, and you are dumb for pretending a liberal fully articulated himself In that game, and I was right?

                            Cool. Bye

                            • LeninWeave [none/use name]
                              ·
                              3 years ago

                              :jesse-wtf: What does this even mean? All I'm saying is that if you think the game isn't at all based on the Palestinian conflict, you're clearly sticking your head in the sand because the co-writer has outright said it's inspired by it. The rest of what you're arguing with is OP's opinion of the game, not mine.

                              • LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA [he/him]
                                ·
                                3 years ago

                                If I said i based my next book on WW2 but literally didn't align with any facts of WW2, does that mean it's based on WW2 or not?

                                You're out here literally saying you have no idea what is contained in the piece itself and just repeating horse shit. Please, for the love of God, shut the fuck up

                                • LeninWeave [none/use name]
                                  ·
                                  3 years ago

                                  Dude, if you want to convince people reading this, maybe explain why the comparison is incorrect instead of calling them "dumb" and telling them to "shut the fuck up".

                                  I was only trying to add to the discussion by quoting in this thread the specific section where the writer said he was inspired by the conflict. You're the one who immediately got very hostile with me.

      • ElGosso [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Wasn't there an article that came out when TLOU2 was big explaining how it was just a metaphor for the occupation of Palestine?

        EDIT: Apparently there were several and it wasn't any kind of secret

        • Ovuan [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Wow, you are right, it's super blatant: https://archive.vn/qd5oy

          Only reinforces my idea that the game sucked. Now I see why more clearly: "...begins from a place that accepts "intense hate that is universal" as a fact of life". Petit settlers will never be capable of writing good stories.