The most immediate example I can think of was called "Subverse," which was directly advertised as some sort of anti-SJW (I think it was called that at the time because woke/DEI weren't quite in common use yet) awooga pandering game where you played some boring ego insert that had a space harem that marked as many safe dopamine boxes for boring nerds as possible to pander to freeze-gamer gaters and cater to their cooming needs.

The game was boring. Full stop. It was boring. The gameplay itself was shallow and uninspired, and even the le sexy sex scenes were boring according to the general assessment of the very same treat hogs it was targeted to pander toward.

"Yandere Simulator" would count if that steaming pile of irradiated shit ever actually got completed. It was like Star Citizen for kiddie creeping weeb gooners, but less profitable.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    15 days ago

    It was pretty successful, so I wouldn't count it as a "go fash no cash" failure.

    Besides, its fandom is so malignant that I run the risk of heated-gamer-moment experiences here if I talk too harshly about that oh so "historically accurate 2 week jail sentences for murdering a lord's guards" treat.

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        15 days ago

        Almost all "historical accuracy" involves us-foreign-policy and ignoring Moorish Spain as thoroughly as possible, as well as Mansa Munsa and for that matter the legend of Prester John. It was all a big ye olde flashbang for everyone.

        • TechnoUnionTypeBeat [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          15 days ago

          To me, people doing flashbang in their fantasy betrays a complete and utter lack of creativity

          The hogs that love this shit will ho wild over centuries of fake lore about every random dipshit, but borders are still hard and immutable so that even world spanning empires had zero internal movement

          Like fuck I remember reading somewhere once that Romans specifically sent their auxiliary troops as far from their homeland as possible to avoid desertion/refusal to fight their countrymen. You're telling me with how many fantasy Romes exist, they were all fully cracker except for a single token "exotic" character? I basically have stopped reading the vast majority of white male fantasy authors and I say this as a white guy, this shit boring as hell

          • Landsharkgun@midwest.social
            ·
            15 days ago

            My tidbit to add is that when the Mongols got to Europe and encountered stone castles that were harder to siege, they solved the problem by bringing in seige engineers....from China.

            They were doing that stuff on the reg. One of their demanded tributes was, essentially, skilled workers as slaves. They were very aware that they had a very particular skillset that didn't translate well to everything. So they took what they needed to run their empire and put it wherever it was needed - even if it was someone who knew how to e.g. do algebra.

        • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]
          ·
          15 days ago

          I love how the Letter from Prester John was basically the original viral hoax. Part-way between a scam letter and spam, and it got turned into basically a chain letter for 500 years.

          Incredible trolling.

          • UlyssesT [he/him]
            hexagon
            ·
            15 days ago

            Prester John needs to move a lot of gold very quickly but needs the key to your granary to make it happen bait