YouTube Obsession

In praise of a well crafted hype-cycle; or How Battlefield 6 recovered from 2042.

I have stated before that regardless of it’s launch state, 2042 did become a somewhat fun game in the end of it’s life. But as far as “misses” go, this missed so bad that it forced EA to approach BF6 entirely differently, starting with Battlefield LABs. LABs was their new approach to Alpha testing. It was free to sign up, no real requirements other than a NDA and because “leaks” were everywhere, the community at large got to voice their opinion from a very early stage. Yes, the leaks were intentional and guess what it worked. I was hyped for every leak to see if they were actually changing things or doubling down on the shitty design choices of 2042.

Then came the free and open Betas. This is what convinced me to pre-order the game. Was it perfect? Absolutely not, but if BF6 would have gone on sale after the open beta, I would have bought it no questions asked. It felt like BF4 and that all I needed to see.

Throughout all of the public cycle of the development they have been touting a return to the roots of Battlefield. Gone are the cringy one liners and heroes of 2042 and in are the grounded, faceless grunts of battlefield. Do I think that immersion breaking skins will someday seep into the game store? Yes, but for now DICE seems to know exactly who to target with this messaging.

So did all this promo work on me? Yeah I guess it did, but only because they are so open with the development and I’ve actually had my hands on it. The same creators that are touting BF6 were the same one’s that touted 2042, a game I never spent money on, so I don’t think influencers influence me that much¹ . It really was playing the game first without having to preorder. That showed a lot of confidence and felt player first.

I will say it’s weird that the Saudi’s now own a game wherein it’s main feature is knocking down buildings in American cities. D:

Watching

I think that most AI hype is just hype meant to woo investors into spend billions of dollars for a bubble market accelerating global warming for software no one wants or asked for.

BUT I do like this hypothetical breakdown of what a super intelligent AI might do and how governments might react.

MM

I may need to be trialed at the Hague for this but Jaws: The Revenge might be my favorite of the Jaws movies. Like I know, the original Jaws is a great movie and the most well-made movie of the series but The Revenge is just so much fun to watch and riff on. I’ll leave my letterboxd review here because it says it all:

It’s sickeningly over-dramatic.

Just look at this diva, dying for the GAWDS.

I love her.

Reading

I read Living In Your Light by Abdehlla Taia back in August but have been really struggling to nail down my thoughts on the book. Or rather, I don’t want to cheapen the feelings this book gave me by reducing them to words.

The book follows a young Moroccan woman just after WWII as she grows into adulthood under French occupation and up to 1995. That’s the premise, if that interests you, please go read it before I spoil even a sentence. You will not regret it.

One of my favorite things books can do is force a reader to read differently. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh is a good example; It rewires your brain you have a new experience in line with the characters in the book. Living In Your Light forces an almost poem-like iambic rhythm in it’s structure that would lull me into trance like states that felt like what the character was experiencing. A very moving experience.

It is also a very queer book. I did not know that Taia is an openly gay author while I was reading but it’s notes of queer joy and sorrow are palpable.

Please read this book, it will most definitely end up on my Top Books list for 2025.

Playing

Don’t bother me, I’m playing BF6.

Other Notables

** Top shelf Nextdoor trolling.

** “Only thing I’m working on now is cumshots,” they added. “Having troubles making the cum shoot from the tip, it usually just explodes from everywhere.”

** I’m still not sure about this Epstein fellow

1  I am not saying I am immune to influencers. I would have never played Baldur’s Gate 3 if not for all the cool videos in my timeline.