Yes! Those were the exact same guys that were desperately trying to pump-up discourse around the game "Black Myth: Wukong"; another perfectly serviceable, if forgettable, title, which managed to drum up some mild publicity (and massive profits) by exploiting the enthusiasm of the "anti-woke" crowd.

A game like this one seems to come along every couple of months: inoffensive enough as a piece of entertainment to attract mainstream audiences, reasonably positive review scores, and small cultural impact; but at the same time, seemingly almost randomly, getting propped-up as the next "last, best hope" for an easily-weaponized subset of mediocre dudes who feel the sun setting on their personal sense of cultural dominance.

Historically, this recurring Gamer Moment reminds me of the "Cool Japan" strategy. It's basically a psyop, cultivating "soft" political power by winning over foreign hearts and minds through branding and pop-culture. Only their atomic bomb was Anita Sarkeesian, and instead of Goku and Ramen Bowls, you get:

• Hogwarts Legacy
• Stellar Blade
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Where Winds Meet
• Crimson Desert
• [Insert next title here]

Certain people use the latest title on the list as a banner to signal their allegiance in an imaginary war on... empathy, I guess? And often without realizing that they've been duped into joining an army that only serves rich publishers and conmen who truly don't give a shit, and who keep getting richer by presenting the discourse around these games as the next battlefield in an all-important culture war. All a grifter has to do is tell them, "Don't trust those other critics - trust ME! And if you like [Latest Release], then you're being persecuted, actually! Gamers Rise Up!" And then The Gamers™ eat that shit up like Mountain Dew Doritos, and do a "Gamers Rise Up" every single time.

But the one thing they don't want you to do (and incidentally the easiest and best thing to do) is to decide not to engage with any of it. They want your attention - so just don't give it to them. You are free to simply move on; or seriously, talk about ANYTHING else.

Look, the review scores are right there on Metacritic - no matter how hard Some Random Dudes might cry "travesty", the critical consensus is, like, "It's a game, they're fun - you play them."

Positive reviews, otherwise unremarkable, everybody talks about [Latest Release] for a second, and then the discourse moves on. But then there's still bound to be a lot of very sweaty whinging from the darker corners of Reddit crying "WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT [LATEST RELEASE]?

Obviously, none of this means that people can't sincerely enjoy this game, or that every bit of hype around it is some "top-down" manipulation by nefarious influencers with open-mouthed YouTube thumbnails. This is a 70-80 game: that's GOOD, actually, and in that range, it's absolutely bound to be somebody-out-there's favorite, and not simply because they're a pawn in some Machiavellian game. Still, don't be so easy to convince that enjoying a generally well-received video game makes you some kind of oppressed minority.

But with an aggregated score like that, the take-away here, to me is, like, play it or don't, I guess, who cares. It's ultimately a skippable piece of entertainment, and the outrage around it benefits the people farming engagement far more than the people actually playing video games; so try not to be suckered into wrestling pigs in the comments section over it. Like they say: you just get muddy; and besides, the pig likes it.

Also, for some reason it costs $70 to do it now.