(Spoilers for The Last of Us ahead)

In many of my recent posts about Doom, I have included several different quotes involving Hell. Today I include one from Churchill: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”


The man obviously had Doom speedrunning in mind

Speaking of which, I was delighted when I finished Doom: The Dark Ages earlier today, as I had been raging through hell since launch day, being an ardent fan of the series for a good three decades at this point, which is insane to me to think I’ve been a fan of a video game series for almost a third of a century. Since I’ve been playing since 95′, and considering I’m a dude in his thirties, some pearl clutching alarmists may think to themselves “Does a seven year old really have any business playing Doom?”, which, in the grand scheme of things these days, I would simply have to point out that while all kids have different levels of media literacy across the board, there are far more highly problematic ways in which a child may, in a probable sense, be exposed to greater harms of psychological damage then playing a video game early on, and some of which may be totally taken for granted in this day and age.


E.g.: I’m guessing Youtube’s algorithms could radicalize a kid within the hour without them even having pressed a button in the same time they’d have given up on beating a single level in the original Doom.

Kind of a queer argument, I’m aware, and this isn’t even a fuck social media post mind you, though fuck social media, in all of it’s ridiculously damaging glory. Again, that whole point of reference is merely an absurdist aside, showcasing people can often get worked up over the most trivial of matters while becoming armchair activists with aimless abandon, up in arms with angry admonishment and outrage over much ado about nothing. Being outraged is a hobbyist endeavor, after all, and some even make a whole career out of it.


I guess I should use the past tense *made in the case of Jack Thompson, as the man gave up on being Rockstar’s best unintentional advertiser a long time ago

This post wasn’t even intentionally suppose to be about video game controversy, but I’m now thinking to myself: do video games even really register on a culture wide scale of being controversial enough these days? Admittedly, I don’t watch the evening news, so I can’t be sure what passes as scandalous these days, but I feel like the bar has really been ratcheted up in terms of what passes for luster to gain the ire of mainstream press in reference to gaming media these days, more so in tandem with the elements surrounding the medium itself rather than the content that games has on offer.

Feels like these days, in order to generate a backlash and have people react revolted with a ghastly terror, one nas to focus more on the media surrounding the gameplay and content, the deliverers and hype people of the online space in order to find the real shock and awe of the moment to rile people up, which makes my mention of social media less of a saving throw citation, as we seem to be more attracted to the outrage machine that interacts with the games then the games themselves.


PewDiePie even getting a NYT interview amidst a huge press push in response to alleged behavior involving white nationalism. Wasn’t this the guy I watched play Goat Simulator that one time?

Though it’s worth it to say that the online space has become far more insular, so with one more mention of algorithms in tow, one would assume that everyone’s own form of outrage is now kind of a custom tailored version of their very own version of hell with which to be outraged by. Kind of poetic, in a sense, as we continue to contribute, create, moderate, and perfect our own sense of suffering and torture.

Like, for example, I do know that the recent adaptation of “The Last of Us’, show on HBO Max is getting shit for it’s recent season, in terms of portraying the events of the games themselves involving the death of Joel, which ironically, the original game got shit for upon it’s initial release at the time as well, something far too long winded of a gaming conversation for me to go into here, but feel free to take a trip down that hellish rabbit hole at your own leisure. More to my point is simply this: I don’t even watch The Last of Us show, due to the notion that as much as I have played through both games, and simultaneously acknowledge and respect the quality and importance they have on the gaming landscape, wasn’t the biggest fan by stories end, and yet due to algorithms, I’m now continuing to be engaged by a show I don’t even watch, from a game series I wasn’t even all that invested in, yet here we are.

Much like the cycles of violence, algorithms cyclical sense of feeding into aggressive perpetuation of our most basic desires helps to enhance the monsters in us all.


Pictured: Abby and Ellie, having a minor squabble about ethical standards

The irony of all of this is that I am still interested in writing an article involving Neil Druckmann’s recent relevatory reveal involving the show, Neil also being the writer for The Last of Us games and a consultant on the show, addressing and succinctly ruining the ambiguity surrounding the first games finale, in whether or not a vaccine could have been successfully harvested through engineering Ellie’s immunity, but would have required her to undergo a lethal surgery, one which she willingly consented to, and a vaccine that would have given a chance to effectively save the whole human race, and one that Joel intervenes on (I.E: by straight up murdering a group of then allies to prevent), which now we as an audience learn, according to Druckmann, the vaccine developed from Ellie’s willing sacrifice would have actually worked.

Further irony involving the premise that I’m not even that big of a fan of the game series and dont event watch he show, but do enjoy the ramifications of the new information, as I enjoy discussing philosophy in media in general, and Druckmann’s confirmation makes the whole thing more of a trolley problem then a deeper moral quandary than initially considered.


The quick battle plan Joel drafted up entitled Operation: Not My Baby Girl at the end of The Last of Us

I digress entirely to my original point, which was to address my upcoming article involving my Doom: The Dark Ages wrap-up.

Mission accomplished.

~Pashford

(Legacy ATE)