One of my biggest indie surprises so far this year is Mixtape, in no small part because it's not the kind of game I generally enjoy. I'm a mechanics first type of gamer and titles that don't have much of them don't do much for me. There are exceptions and Mixtape is among them, even though it's more an interactive play and music video fused together than a traditional game. I'm not reviewing it here, but I enjoyed its soundtrack and the memories it stirred in me about that period in high school where we are basically all music snobs. I get why it's not for everyone but like developer Beethoven & Dinosaur's last game The Artful Escape, the rest of the design and presentation overcame the lack of mechanics for me.
As with many games like this in the past, it's stirred up a bunch of the usual discourse about what constitures a "game" and reviewers in the mainstream games press not representing reader interests. I'm over the whole defining a game debate because it doesn't fucking matter and never did. I also think that if you're still basing your buying choices on what the out of touch, cliquey games press thinks, you're the one who is out of touch. They haven't been trustworthy in forever and there are far better places to get informed.
Most negative fan reviews I've seen focus on the aforementioned lack of gameplay or that the reviewers have shit taste in music and hate the game for not reflecting that. Despite this, based on the count of user reviews on various platforms--a far from exact metric I grant--it seems Mixtape is selling just fine, plus they got a chunk of money from Game Pass. Steam reviews are mostly positive and the majority of negative ones are on Xbox because with Game Pass, you don't have to actually buy the game to trash it. People are entitled to their opinion and blah blah blah, I just don't understand why they can't just go play something they are interested in, rather than waste time bashing this. Actually I do know why, but more on that later.
The loudest criticism I've seen that's making me roll my eyes so much it hurts is that Mixtape's publisher Annapurna Interactive is owned by Megan Ellison, daughter of Oracle Chairman and tech bro supervillain Larry Ellison. The copyright for Mixtape is owned by Annapurna and not Beethoven & Dinosaur, meaning Annapurna likely funded a lot of the development. The argument is that because the publisher is owned by a billionaire's daughter--this particular billionaire's daughter--and also because like many indie games, it received partial funding through government grants, that it doesn't deserve to be called an indie game.
As someone who loves indie games and spends the majority of my time on them these days, I'm the first to admit that the term "indie" is now about as clear as a muddy river. It doesn't have a true definition and never did, it's just something you recognize when you see it, just like "AAA". But few things piss me off more than seeing Internet outrage warriors trying to gatekeep terminology because it needs to fit the narrow definition that justifies their impotent outrage of the day.
Annapurna Interactive has been around a decade now and have published over 50 games. Among these are critical and fan darlings like What Remains of Edith Finch, Donut County, Outer Wilds, Cocoon, to a T and I could go on. Megan Ellison ran the company this whole time and Larry Ellison has been an exemplar of why there shouldn't be billionaires for well before that. Where was all the self-righteous outrage then or could you just not be bothered to stay informed about the world until his name started popping up during the AI bubble and Trump's second term?
Did you know that most games developed in Canada, Australia, many parts of Europe and even some conservative US states like Georgia in the last 20+ years all received some form of government funding and that most of the big publishers are among the recipients? How many of the people bitching have played games that involved Tencent or Savvy Games Group? These two giant companies are owned or controlled by autocratic dictatorships and between them, have tendrils in almost all parts of the industry, including League of Legends and Fortnite, two of the biggest games on Earth. Where's all their one-star reviews for those titles? How many of them still bought Call of Duty or Blizzard titles after it came out how Activision's culture and leadership was toxic from the top down? How many use Game Pass or own Xbox consoles when Microsoft is one of the main drivers of the AI bubble? Or use Google or Apple products? Or bought a game from a developer who had a staff member caught up in a cancel mob? Or are typing their outrage on a device made in a factory that has suicide nets because of how horrifically the workers are treated?
See how slippery that slope got? That's because if these people were truly speaking out about injustice and "bad people" profiting from things, they'd have to go so much further than they do and effectively couldn't live a modern life. Fact is, nearly every product or service you enjoy had at least one and most likely many horrible involved somewhere. This isn't even about Megan Ellison, who from what I've read, can be hard to work with but hasn't done anything evil. This is because of who her father is, a man who though I despise him, made possible a publisher that has put out some of the best indie games of the last decade.
This is just the latest example of terminally online losers who have literally made anger and outrage a hobby. They don't care who is backing Mixtape, just like they didn't care about whatever hot topic of the last decade they decided to scream into the void about. They aren't changing anything for the better and they don't care if they do. They're bitching online about an indie publisher CEO instead of emailing or calling their political representatives who are screwing them over every day, or attending a protest or or volunteering to help others and do some actual good. They're just bitching and best of all, largely on platforms controlled by the very billionaires they despise.
The cause doesn't matter to them, they just want whine because they have so little inclination to take control of their own lives that the thought of anyone else enjoying something they are told to be offended by is an affront that just must be made public, even if it does nothing except make them look stupid. They hate how "powerless" they are, yet spend 90% of their day doomscrolling instead of doing anything remotely useful.
Gamers often get labelled as entitled by these very people for demanding things like games launching in a functional state, or that they be optimized properly, or fair and reasonable pricing, or that developers address multiplayer cheating in an effective way, or that they keep gambling out of games. This is not entitlement, this is being an informed consumer fighting for your interests. What is entitlement is slamming the work of an indie team made of less than 20 people who made something they believed in just because it doesn't match your taste or worse, because the executive of the company who made it possible is related to a shitty tech bro.
If Mixtape isn't your jam or you really want to avoid anything involving Megan Ellison, you do you and don't play it. Even with the industry currently in a state of collapse, there are still more games coming out that anyone can possibly play. Find what you like, spread word about it and let others do the same with what they like. It's not hard and praising what you like does far more good than whining about what you think isn't. I think OG walking sim Gone Home is among the most overrated games of all-time and I also detested Open Roads which was helmed by the same lead and guess what, was published by Annapurna. I ranted and raved online about Gone Home back in the day, then I realized its success didn't suddenly make every other game dev want to make walking sims and stopped caring.
If you want to be angry, channel that anger into real action that can actually make real change in the world. Otherwise, get the fuck over yourselves and learn to enjoy things!
