muladhara | (no subject)

1. I woke up yesterday to discover it had snowed a fair bit! Nothing epic, but more snow than we've had all winter so far. And then it rained for most of the day, so there's still snow, but less of it than there was this time yesterday.

2. I decided against writing an angry thing about The Medium. I'm less angry about it now, though I am still angry in general at the devs for being shitty (and plagiarists! it turns out!

bobvids did a video about their previous plagiarising and, while I think he was stretching on a couple of points, it's certainly an interesting watch).

3. I am going full tilt into non-representational (abstract???) art at the moment. This is nothing new, really, it comes and goes. I always feel slightly uncomfortable about it, but that's issues to do with how I think about art than anything else. But I decided a few days(?)/weeks(?)/who even knows any more! ago that I was going to embrace it and just make the stuff as long as I was enjoying it. And I am.

4. Relatedly, I am going to have a crack at acrylic paint pouring. I've been vaguely interested in it for a while, but always put off by the fact that you "need" medium and silicone oil, and the pouring medium is not cheap! Also you don't need the oil, it's only for if you want cells in your pour, and you might not want that!

But anyway, I watched a video the other day that used water and washing up liquid and worked pretty much as well! I don't know what pouring medium is made from, but you use water to let down acrylic paint anyway, so why couldn't you just use that?? And it turns out you totally can! So that's what I'm going to do, because I don't even know if I'm going to like this anyway. (I think I probably will; the only problem is space to let the paintings dry).

(You can also use PVA glue as a pouring medium, and I also have that, so that's an option too!)

5. I don't have a #5, so I'm going to go and agonise over which of these art-related books I want to buy with the remains of my Xmas money.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You prompted me into looking up the Wiki summary of The Medium out of curiosity, but it either didn't cover the insensitivity issues or they're ones I myself am a little blind to! Do you have a link to crit, if you don't want to lay it out yourself? O:

Gosh, is there anything dish detergent can't do? It's been my miracle cure for fogged shower glass, and now I learn it makes art too.

well, firstly CONTENT WARNING for discussion of child abuse and suicide.

I don't mind telling you at all, and I will link to a couple of other people who had stuff to say. I don't know if there's any long form stuff to read, but even the negative game reviews (one of which I will also link) tended to err on the nicer side, but I think that's to do with game reviewers feeling like they can't be too negative about something (imo).

(also holy cow, this is long; sorry!)

Basically, what happens is that one of the characters is sexually abused when they are in their early teens by one of their father's close friends. No thought is given to the victim, it's all focused on the abuser, and tries to excuse them by saying they didn't mean to do it, and they were abused as a child also, because victims become perpetrators in later life. I do not agree with this IN THE SLIGHTEST and I know from having suffered several forms of abuse myself when younger, that it just isn't true. There is also dialogue from the abuser, which I missed, saying that the victim went willingly to him, as if that makes it any better!

Luckily, Bloober didn't go as far as showing anything, but what's in the game is enough.

Then what happens is the victim unleashes a monster from their psyche, which goes on a murderous rampage, leaving only three people alive.

At the end of the game, Marianne actually meets said person, and what they say to her implies that the only way to end everything that's happened is to die (i.e. take their own life or, rather, to have Marianne do it, because they can't - they feel they are not "strong enough" to go through with it), because they are irreparably broken and cannot be fixed, and therefore, death is the only solution.

The monster is still around, and wants to inhabit Marianne so it can go on another killing spree. The only way to get rid of it is to kill the person who created or Marianne can take her own life. The screen fades to black and there's the sound of a gunshot, and that's it, the end of the game. As some people have pointed out, it's probably set up for a sequel, but even if it is, it is still lazy and a cop out of an ending.

There is also stuff related to the Holocaust, but I'm not Jewish, so I don't feel qualified to comment on that, except to say that it was probably put in there in for shock value, much like the child abuse is.

What makes me angry is that there's absolutely no need for it. There's other ways this story could have been plotted without including that. A lot of the set-up beforehand makes you think the child in question has been ostracised by their friends, but nope!

There is a trigger warning at the start of the game, but it is very vaguely worded and kind of implies that if you are upset by anything in the game, then that's on you.

Zoe from Eurogamer's review - I mostly agree with this, except for the part where she says the child abuse is vital to the plot (it really isn't). I haven't read EG's print review, which was by someone else, but it's apparently more favourable.

Aoife's playthrough of The Medium (part 2) - this is the relevant part of the PT; I don't know how far in the actual "reveal" is, but you can see Aoife's disgust at it and if you have the live chat up, you can see how unimpressed they were.

bobvids has said a few things - he made a thread starting here about it, and is working on a video which will be more in depth.

GreeTheWriter is Czech, and made this thread explaining why Bloober Team's attitudes with regard to mental health don't hold up versus those of someone who's not from Eastern Europe.

I see the wiki article doesn't mention the bit I have problems with AT ALL - that whole section is missing!

Anyway, that's some of the reason why I dislike this game so much. There are things I like about it, but they don't outweigh the reasons I don't like it, especially not the gratuitous use of trauma.

Edited (missing word) 2021-02-05 14:05 (UTC)

Ahhh, yikes :/ Hilariously the Wiki article rather proves your point: it made no mention of child abuse at all, just that the person was unable to maintain control of their powers, and I was completely willing to accept this as logical, especially since the housefire alone seemed a traumatic enough incident. Sexual assault as drama has been so overdone I almost immediately tap out of it emotionally, tbh; it's past time people started making their stories work without mashing that button for easy angst.

Thank you for the comprehensive reply, and the links!

Right?? The house fire would waaaaay have been enough trauma, but nope!

it's past time people started making their stories work without mashing that button for easy angst.

100% this.

Also yes, it seems washing up liquid is entirely magical!