Additionally...

[andr0meda]

This video by D'Angelo Wallace about the "irony epidemic" or "toxic unseriousness" or what have you is everything to me now because it has perfectly articulated something I have been thinking about for months.

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[kossai]

yeah . see this with even beautiful works of art - if there is some element of horror , some " funny " quirk , that is what people comment about . and know that comments hard , especially because of actual struggles with language , but like ... even simple comments like " this is beautiful - totally speechless " will almost always make artist feel better than something which make light of topic .

not long ago watch lover legion play mouthwashing , which , reaction " holy fucker of fuck " was simple but very real - so much at play here , so much which this game ask player to think about , so much which is very real .
… and unfortunately , out on horizons , too many people who make light of themes , just for moment of fun - avoidance after confront , then move on and forget .

[andr0meda]

Exactly, a lot of artists just want to hear that someone liked their work! Obviously if the art is intended to be funny, its cool to joke around, but most artists don't expect you to try to be funny in their comments. They just want to know that people enjoy what they make.

I've had this happen to me with Gundam 00 many times. The protagonist, Setsuna, says he wants to "become a Gundam" because he views Gundams as saviors that will bring world peace. He wants to be that savior figure for other people. It's frustrating when people only make memes about his "I am Gundam" bits and then say he's a boring character. Memes are funny, but I get more out of stories and characters when I engage with them more seriously.

I'll have to add Mouthwashing to my Steam wishlist. I loved the first-person perspective and psychological horror that P.T. had, so this will probably be something I enjoy.

[kossai]

yeah ... there is even trend of turn artworks into simple memes , to point of people not even know who original artist was at all . that just hurt artist , not show appreciation - but to ask for more serious engagement and appreciation is " buzzkill " .

oh , mouthwashing is hard to get through sometimes , downright nauseous . hard to call enjoyable in sense of fun , even for horror fans , but most certainly poignant . dreadful , but wonderful .
... and yet some people really voice jokey conclusions about curly , for example . would not take very much look at game to understand how cruel that is , and even worse with full knowledge .

[andr0meda]

Oh, I remember that. Art theft for memes was a problem on Tumblr in the 196 tag. People would just steal art from Pixiv and put their own jokes in impact font all over it. They were rarely even funny jokes, either.

I appreciate it when horror games make my skin crawl, and Steam says reviews are overwhelmingly positive... perhaps I'll try Mouthwashing sometime and let you know my thoughts :)