Screaming In The Applebee's: On Negativity Towards Indie Games

Let's analyze some negative comments towards my game's announcement trailer!

It’s announcement season for me again - last week, we revealed our next game, Angeline Era, a 3D action game with visuals partially inspired by older generations of 3D games. The reception was very positive! But there were also some interesting negative comments and patterns (hence this post.) First, the trailer, if you haven’t seen it.

So the way we revealed the game was a little different than usual. Instead of merely sending out a press release, we announced the game through a digital showcase (Future of Play), which is essentially a long video with our trailer edited in. It’s livestreamed so people can commentate in real-time while it premiers.

What’s unique about announcing a game this way is that people’s real-time responses were recorded in the form of livestream VOD (i.e. a recording)’s chat logs. Quite often we only hear the positive responses from our fans on Twitter, YouTube, etc, but this time I could see people’s responses down to the second to the trailer.

So I spent an hour or so watching through these videos and noticed a few patterns in comments. Here’s a graph I made that is one way of categorizing the responses I saw to the trailer.

The axis of ‘love or hate’ is fairly straightforward to explain: people usually either really like the trailer or have a neutral response (not for them/no comment). In some cases people express stronger dislike - maybe they think the action looks bad, etc.

The retro axis represents if people’s comments were in relation to to the game looking like a certain era, or ‘nostalgia.’ Of course, “retro” can also be a negative or positive for people. Someone might think the graphics look like “cheap PS1” art, others might think it’s a beautiful and effective use of 3D.

Here’s examples of comments from each quadrant. Messages are chat unless otherwise indicated. Just to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with negative criticism or dislike of games - no one game should be liked by everyone - but there are reasonable and unreasonable ways to express this.

Top-right (Love, Retro)

• It's good because I feel like it has an intention - it doesn't look like a typical retro game - Streamer

• Another N64 game, I love it! - Streamer

• This looks like a game that would be played on GI super replay

• It's like an action game that came out on the N64

• It doesn't look like it plays well - and that's kind of what's appealing about it - Streamer

• I like this - it looks like a budget PS2 launch title - in a good way

• repicates early Dreamcast/PS2 pretyty well

• real time final fantasy??

Bottom-right (Love, non-retro)

• I'm super hyped about this game! - Streamer

• I'm into it! That guy was hot! - Streamer

• wait a minute this looks like a banger tbh

• seem fun though ngl

• WAS THAT A BAE?

• I'm glad it looks interesting, like it looks original, which is nice - Streamer

• ayo Analgesic 5 let's go! - Cool Fan

• laser fish tho

• looks dope

Top-left (Dislike, retro)

I call this the ‘strange phenomenon’ because of all there is to unpack amongst these comments.

• I see this and i'm like it's cool, but, you know I feel like it's boomer bait and not a stylistic choice, they do this because old people are like "Whoa!" - Streamer

• This is like Runescape boomer bait - Streamer

• "Future" games show

• are they going to annoucne the sega dreamcast next?

• how can this one release in 2023

• PS5 SSD EXclusive

• AAA gotyyyy

• ps1 graphics in 2023 (sarcastic smiley)

Bottom-left (Dislike, non-retro)

• It's pretty, but there's a whole lot of fighting - Streamer

• "revolutionary"

• piss

• I think it's very avant-garde to use the word revolutionary in this context (laughs) - Streamer

• Marketing team working overtime - Streamer

• “That was a very strange trailer, I don't know what was going on there” - Games Journalist

• looks like worse zelda

• the ammount of low effort in most of these is absurd

• I'VE SEEN BETTER GAMES ON ROBLOX

• gamign is dead next year lol

Let’s analyze a few of the negative statements.

“I think it’s very avant-garde to use the word revolutionary in this context”.

In the trailer, we describe the game’s combat as “Revolutionary Bumpslash Combat,” mostly as a hyperbolic shorthand to convey that what’s going on in the trailer is uncommon - you automatically attack when walking into enemies.

The person’s statement is equivalent to “A game that has 3D graphics that don’t look fancy should not be called revolutionary,” or “A game that has gameplay like this should not be called revolutionary.” In other words, to this person, the core of something being revolutionary to this person is that a game both has to look a certain way, and have a certain kind of gameplay.

“I feel like it's boomer bait and not a stylistic choice”

“Boomer bait” means that they simultaneously think

• The game is lazily using this retro aesthetic to unfairly exploit people’s nostalgia (i.e. baiting)

• There is a more authentic and correct way to utilize “retro graphics,” why would constitute a ‘stylistic choice’

This statement, to me, feels less harsh than the previous one, mainly because this one expresses that the person does like retro graphics in some contexts - just not these ones. Or, maybe they do like it, but for some reason or another they feel like they’re being swindled. One could also take it to mean “the retro games I liked looked better than this!” This statement feels a bit more complicated in my mind, but I’ll leave it at that…

“That was a very strange trailer, I don't know what was going on there”

This statement is perhaps burned into my brain more than it should be, simply because it was stated by someone whose job it is to read and write about games. I feel not so much offended but perhaps disturbed at the level of flippancy in the comment. Why even say such a rude thing in front of thousands of people? Silence is free. Anyways… usually these kinds of statements mean “I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of allowing myself to engage with this game.” It just makes me feel sad.

“wait a minute this looks like a banger tbh”

This one isn’t negative, but it’s worth pointing out as a unique type of statement: the “testing the waters” / “wait i kinda like this maybe.” It’s funny because in livestream chats where you see lots of negative comments, you almost always see someone who makes a statement like this. Sometimes, it’s a hedge for themselves to express liking it. Other times, they feel confident about their taste, and it’s a (much-appreciated!) plea to the extent of “Just try it, you might like it!”

I think this points to the kind of social dynamics at play here - some people look to communities of other gamers for company but maybe don’t agree with all the rhetoric that tends to punch down on ‘smaller’ things. So positive comments often have to be weirdly framed when they’re being interjected into a stream of negativity. Such is our internet…

Why do people act the way they do?

Well, maybe it’s just aesthetic taste, although, I feel like aesthetic tastes are always rooted in some kind of malleable cultural values. What you like and don’t like isn’t fixed in time, it can shift as you experience new things. Other possible reasons people act out negatively in an extreme way:

• Maybe someone is overinvested in ‘games being the future of technology’ and an ‘old looking game’ feels offensive.

• Maybe they’re just a little insecure about their gaming hobby!

• Maybe they’re just bored and fucking around, because there’s no oversight in a chat for a showcase on indie games.

• Maybe they are 12 years old.

Speculation aside, I think that when someone leaves a hateful comment on something unpopular and made by two people (like Angeline Era,) they are not making the statement from a happy place. If anything they probably need some kind of support. The world can be a lonely and confusing place. Occasionally when I think about responding to a negative Steam review, I end up feeling sad.

Imagine watching a stranger sitting alone in an Applebee’s, yelling at a waiter because the ‘Baby Back Ribs Tastes Real Bad’ - it’s that kind of sad. Reading the non-constructive negative reviews of my work sometimes feels like sitting in a giant Applebee’s where it seems like everyone thinks the Baby Back Ribs Taste Real Bad.

What kind of world is this if it pushes people into a situation where they spend their weekend sitting through a livestream of indie game trailers, screaming about how shit everything looks to them? I think decades of games marketing and advertisement has led to thinking patterns that imply a hierarchy of quality amongst games for arbitrary reasons (from realistic graphics to expensive animation to gameplay genre,) and it’s having strange effects on people.

We can partially unlearn these thinking patterns, through practice (as I mention in my essay on Ludoancestry and trying to ‘explore’ your taste in games more thoughtfully.) If you allow yourself to enjoy something that ‘doesn’t look good…,’ if you set aside even 30 minutes to do a little research into something off-the-beaten-path you might like - well, at the very least, maybe it’ll be kind of pleasant, maybe your little happiness could be an example (or a stepping stone) to someone else.