Death by a Thousand Cuts

Did you hear there's a new Looney Tunes movie in theaters? At least through this weekend?

I hadn’t heard about it, nor could I tell you the plot because I haven’t seen a trailer or clips or heard anybody describe it.

I first heard of it when I saw someone say animation fans have to go see it, to support it especially if you’re upset about Coyote v Acme getting shelved, that it’s important to show support or else studios will keep belittling 2D animation.

Isn't that insane? Animation can cover a whole variety of tone, story, styles, but if one flops it means all of them are bad.

Imagine telling someone if they’re fans of The Godfather they have to go see Mamma Mia!

Even if you think those are both good movies, liking one doesn’t mean someone automatically would like the other because they’re both live action.

I’m not angry at the people saying that stuff. It being annoying and unfair doesn’t make it not true. Online buzz is a good thing, usually.

But I am so tired.

I’m so tired of having to watch every game, movie, or TV show right when it comes out or find out it was cancelled or pulled for streaming or the studio’s been closed.

I don’t know if I'll like something that quickly. I like waiting a few weeks to hear what people say.

But anything that hasn’t made gangbusters the first week is talked about like a failure.

Is that my fault? In a society where the only real way to vote is with your wallet, am I failing someone by not trying to support things I like conceptually?

It is and it isn’t. Death by a thousand tiny cuts.

There are thousands of games I’ll never play, talented people and indie studios who won’t make enough money, not because their game wasn’t good but because it didn’t capture the attention of the right people.

I mean, I’ve talked about my backlog before, and despite making it a goal I've barely had time to play any games recently. I’m just so tired. 

Because the worst thing is, we've seen that even with interest, public outcry, hashtags, voting with our wallets can still amount to nothing.

How many executives at video game companies have tried to push live services despite repeated evidence to the contrary? How many stories are there about Marvel trying to recapture it’s audience through gimmicks like recasting Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther.

We've long passed the point where the market meets the needs of the consumers. Instead, oligarchs decide what they can charge the most for and then make that the norm. It’s what happened with DLC, then microtransactions, and it’s what’s happening with generative AI.

The world has become a restaurant where all they serve you is tripe no matter what you order, and you just have to keep putting up with it because it’s the only place to get food in town.

It’s suffocating, and I don’t know how to make it fair. At least not right now. 

But I also don’t know how many cuts we away from a thousand.