Hello once again! Despite the bitter cold and last week's ice, I have yet to perish! As such, I have returned to ramble more about stuff and things. Unfortunately I underestimated the amount of effort setting up various parts of this website would take, so that is still incomplete for now. That being said, I have been soldiering away at it in my brief windows of free time in-between readings for my classes. I won't be foolish enough to give an estimation for when the other parts are done so I'll go with the age old method and say soon™. Likewise with various writings, which have funnily enough been delayed to make way for other, more academic writings. I am quite excited about them though, and if I can get permission from my professors (don't want to be accused of academic dishonesty or self-plagiarism) I will probably post them here.
Moving on from the more granular update stuff, I have recently become absolutely fascinated by the subject of children's horror games. That is to say, video games that while being horror, are targeted towards a younger audience or at the very least are tame enough that they can be enjoyed by younger people. This genre used to be quite uncommon, but due to the rise of games like Five Nights at Freddy's, Baldi's Basics, Poppy Playtime, and other "mascot horror" (which is itself a wild rabbit hole), the genre has been dragged from obscurity into the mainstream.
The first time I came across something in the genre was when I watched Markiplier's 2014 playthrough of Among the Sleep, which for the sake of my own sanity, I will be choosing to ignore is now nearly twelve years old. I was eleven years old at the time, and was not the biggest fan of horror, but something about curling up under my blankets with my iPod touch far past my bedtime (sorry, Mom and Dad) and watching Mark's humorous and exaggerated reactions to the the dangerous colorful and dreamy toybox-like world of the game was captivating. Thinking back on it, I assume that my interest in the horror genre was sparked by this game (as well as the darker parts of Invader Zim and Tim Burton's works). It was able to provide a safe and tame way for me to engage with a genre that I had previously shied away from, being a sort of "baby's first horror" if you will, and for this, I am eternally grateful as horror is one of my most favored mediums to engage with creatively.
As I had previously mentioned, this genre while once niche (in gaming, at least- it was far more common in books, tv and film) has since become mainstream. All one has to do is look at any children's or toy sections of pretty much any store to find FNaF merch, and other games (particularly Poppy Playtime) have reached similar heights. While part of me is thrilled that such a previously niche genre has finally recieved its flowers, I am also lightly miffed with the quality of some of these games, particularly in the narrative department. Some are better than others, but buy-and-large most of these games can only be described as "slop" (a term I generally dislike, but I feel like it's apt in this scenario). They are often poorly constructed, focusing almost entirely on clickbait-y jumpscares, while having poor gameplay and often downright infantile writing.
This may seem counter-intuitive, as these are works designed for children, but I feel that we ought to have more respect for them. Kids may not know as much as adults, but they aren't stupid, and if everything we make for them is low quality slop, we will be doing them a disservice. Children deserve high quality content, especially in the horror genre, as it is a safe space for them to explore the darker side of the world. Video games are wonderful for this exploration, as they put children in the shoes of the characters in dangerous/dark situations, and beyond that, horror can be an absolutely wonderful vehicle for metaphor and symbolism. The previously mentioned Among the Sleep is a fantastic example of one such game, as it explores themes that are dark, but familiar/understandable to younger audiences through the lense of childhood abstraction. The twisted wonderland of the game's world is highly symbolic, with everything from the anthropomorphic talking teddy bear that accompanies you, to the aesthetics and puzzles often having a secondary meaning. Contrast this with Baldi's Basics, a game that seems to not have much of a narrative and instead rely on provoking overly-jumpy YouTubers and easily frightened children. One could argue that perhaps it is some form of commentary on the spotty American public education system, but not much effort is made to create anything particularly engaging.
I suppose this can all be explained by the simple fact that where there is money, there will be low-effort slop chasing that success, but I implore game devs to put more effort into these things.
In entirely unrelated news, I have begun the process of setting up this year's garden! I am often late to start and I wanted to avoid that this year, so I have begun starting the plants indoors that need to be started, particularly the onions, herbs like parsely and thyme, and the peppers (this year I'm going with Bell Peppers and Jalapeño). Next week I hope to start the tomatoes, lettuce, and possibly Maypops (although that plant supposedly spreads at an insane rate and has been known to burrow under concrete so if I grow that fruit, it will be strictly in containers).
The Current Garden Plan:
I am very excited, as gardening is one of my favorite pasttimes. Something about being out there in the sun, putting effort into growing my own food is highly appealing to me. The whole process scratches my brain in the best of ways, because it is a process that results in you being able to literally eat the fruits of your labor, not to mention I quite like the smell of soil. My only problem with the whole experience is that I often get too excited and go overboard (case in point: I currently have run out of window sill space for my starter plants and am considering converting a closet into a grow room with my UV grow lamp). Regardless, the whole shebang is incredibly rewarding and I will probably update y'all fairly frequently on the subject.
While logging in the other day I noticed that this website officially has two, that's right two followers! A fact that I find unreasonably exciting. To the two of you that are choosing to read my semi-coherent ramblings on this poorly programmed website, I am immensely grateful. Y'all have given me more motivation to continue to write and to learn CSS and HTML.