The holidays bring many things with them….a sense of gobsmacked incredulity is among the worst qualities involved.

The yuletide horrors persist, but so do I

The continued trek through Expediton 33 (E33) continues, though not quite at an agreeable pace, at the moment. As is the case with any given work week, both exhaustion and scheduling issues create cause for concern, where rapid progress is concerned in the realm of gaming. That being the case, I have barely nudged the needle in terms of furthering the overall narrative of E33 much at all in the past couple of days, though I suppose in another fairness, even aside from an absence of time to spare, I had arrived more or less at a point in my adventure of some slight lackadaisical whimsy of sorts, as there were quite a few nooks and crannies I desired to explore before bee-lining it directly to the next essential area, so I traded forward thinking for exploratory indulgence…a common issues on the world of adventuring.

One of the conversations I’ve seen persist through the discourse of E33’s continued domination of gamers attention spans, no doubt further solidified by E33’s recent win of Game of the Year award at the Game Awards Show, is one that is hilariously based off of what I’d consider just a language barrier issue, at the very least, a dialogue that is rooted in the obstinate problems linguistics normally dregs up in its more inanely prickly moments, though that doesn’t negate the sense of energy behind the people who are vehemently defending their points on the matter, and this particular form of verbal exchange comes to us by way of others arguing on whether or not Expedition 33 is a JRPG, due to its design machinations.

As mentioned, this is one of those weird issue/non-issues, as all involved are really just splitting hairs on the matter, but some feel compelled to argue this point. Just for the sake of radical transparent reiteration, for those of you who are unaware, E33 is developed by Sandfall Interactive, which is based in France, something I brought up recently in regards to the games obvious roots in the matter. To wit; this would make E33, by definition, an FRPG, as it was developed in France. The push back from others on this (non)contentious issue, is that E33 obviously lifts a ton of the tropes and design standards it has directly from classical examples of JRPGs, and being that some gamers are fiercely defensive about their interests and hobbies, lead them in feeling adamant in pointing this reality out. Again, quite the silly semantic issue going on, but those on forums will busy themselves with any argument under the sun to pass the time, and it is not as if Reddit and similarly Reddit-like-people can debate about how to pronounce gif or deliberate on whether a taco is a sandwich for the rest of eternity, so new and fascinatingly pointless subject material must be explored in the name of stagnant progress in the realm of absurdist inanity.

The lead developer from Sandfall, when accepting the game of the year awards for E33, very much gave a shout out to Final Fantasy, and with it, vicarious thanks to Hironobu Sakaguchi, the original project lead on the FF series, who stayed with the games up through the tenth installment, before leaving Square, and eventually going on to do Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. With all of that said, and needless to say after that, the team behind E33 are big fans of those who have come before, and give credit where credit is due, in being inspired by JRPGs of yore, in helping to inspire them in coming up with the new hotness that is the FRPG gamers have come to know and love.

I think the continued fixation on this JRPG vs FRPG, and the debate that rages on behind the unbreaking gaze of interest it has attracted, persists more so due to the notion that, even beyond lazy and outdated language in referring to E33 as such, is the silly point of curiosity that begs the question that if an FRPG does all the same things that a JRPG does, is it really any different? And why do we need to make a distinction for it if not the case? Once again, this does remind one of the meme “it’s only champagne if its made in a certain region in France, otherwise, it’s just sparkling wine,” kind of a dealie here, as I feel as if the folks who are pro-JRPG identity defenders, are likely driven by their own personal brand of ideology on the matter, more so than the specific reasoning behind the entitlement, as I know some are a little annoyed at E33 getting so much spotlight shining on it, as it doesn’t necessarily do anything new as a game, but just remixes a lot of tried and true elements one can and does see in JRPGs year in, year out, so in their mind, this new young buck coming out of nowhere and stealing all the thunder, does not sit well with a certain group of individuals.

The whole thing reminds me of a similar debate that occurred when Silksong was coming out, and a lot of people pointed out that it almost felt disingenuous to refer to Silksong as an “indie game” for some of the obvious reasons one can imagine (notoriety, budget, scope of game etc), with others observing that much like some of the outdated and lazy language surrounding the JRPG vs FRPG debacle, the term “indie” remains a frustratingly vague label, one that encapsulates or references such a wide array of titles, the use of it as a descriptor is beyond maddening and nearly meaningless in its usage, thusly prompting the notion we should forgo the usage of the term all together moving forward.

Looking at the clock, and I realize I am almost out of time. Since I feel as if I still have a surplus of creative energy, I suppose I will quickly wrap this up with a gratutiously dramatic flourish, just to purge this intense sense of dramatic energy out of my being.

With that said…

Ultimately, and as is the case with much of not just consumer language, but much of what everyday society contends with, in reality, the problems that haunt us are related to the simple notion that we are in fact, just victims of capital, slaves to advertising, and shoot marks of the marketing standard persuasion. It is these propositions and related damnations that go into formulating a lot of our everyday language, thoughts, and interactions, all as a knee jerk reaction to the financially focused and media based society of consumption that plagues us. The reality we so often bicker about, is usually the simple difference of a try hard dick measuring competition between soggy bottom brandboys, as a response to their fiercely particular consumeristic posturing being disregarded as immature, while they seethe in rage in response to their feelings getting shat upon, in what they consider an abusively unacknowledged consumer bias getting woefully disrespected, and as victims of a sunk cost fallacy, they must double down and protect their “investment” of self into their product, as their very identity is on the line. This whole line of thinking is something I’ve touched on before, in reference to my Homunculus of Hobbyism theory in full affect, and one that reminds us of the grim reality that our own sense of right and wrong is usually just unknowingly borrowed from corporate overlords, and that ultimately, we infight while they profit.

One day, perhaps, we will finally reach a point of coalescence where we will all come together in a moment where the tedious differences between us will be put aside, in the name of class consciousness…but today is not that day.

-Pashford