In wtaching the Outside Xbox/Xtra crew doing their hypemeter reaction to GeoffCon, I was cracking up because Mike was the grumpy old man of the group. That’s how he always is during these kind of events. One year, he was saying, “Enough anime bullshit!” which made everyone laugh, but was actually kind of rude. This time, he put down isometric games, top-down games, games without guns, and basically anything that wasn’t a car game, a shooting game (or a game in which you blow up things), or the first half of a FromSoft game. Yes, I’m trhowing shade because he’s never finished one–that I know of. He hasn’t gotten past Biggie & Small in the first game, and he claims it’s because he doesn’t want to end the experience. I think, though, it’s more likely that he’s build it up so much in his mind, he just can’t get over the hump.
Anyway, he was snarking on so many games, his coworkers were getting a tad bit snarky about it in return. They were joking about how he just didn’t like anything, but they weren’t far off. And I get that it’s his shtick, but it got old pretty quickly. “Oh, I’m so funny hating on these games.” No, not really. You look…ignorant. I hate to say it because I really like him, but that’s the vibe I got. The team did call him out, though, for not knowing who ProZD was. I don’t think it’ cute for someone in the industry to hate on so many different games in so many different genres (and be like ‘who cares about content creators?’).
It got me thinking about my own impulse to naysay things. I like to think that I’m not as mean about it as Mike is, but I get the sentiment. I don’t care about most of the things that other people care about, but I don’t feel the need to be rude about it. Mostly, I keep my opinions to myself. If I’m asked, I’ll talk about my feelings on anything, but I’m not going to go around trumpeting them ad nauseam.
It’s funny. One time, I was having a convo about movies on the RKG Discord. I said that I was dumped because of my opinions about Pulp Fiction. People were intrigued. One said he loved the movie, but he wanted to know why I didn’t. I gave a very brief, but thorough summary of my feelings about the movie. He said that he found it fascinating, which was nice to hear.
That ex really warped my idea of what can and can’t be shared with others. Oh, the context is that I was dating a guy who said that was his favorite movie. I hadn’t seen it because I knew from the trailer that I would hate it. It was coming to the midnight theater or something similar, and he insisted I would love it.
Side note: I know myself really well. I know what I like and what I don’t. There has been one time I went into a movie thinking I would not like it and ended up loving it. That was The Royal Tenenbaums, but ti’s the only movie that I liked better than I thought I would. Normally, I hate a movie more than I thought I would or like/dislike it about as much as i thought I would.
But I wanted to impress my (then) boyfriend so I went to see the movie with him, despite my misgivings. The minute the movie started, my heart sank. All the hypercuts and flash photography agitated my brain, and the superslick vibes just turned me off completely. I hated the movie. Hated it with every fiber of my being. Hated it so much ,I wanted to punch someone in the face. Namely, my ex.
When he asked me what I thought of the movie, I made the mistak e of thinking he actually wanted to know. So I told him. For twenty minutes. In detail. He looked at me with a sour face and said, “I can’t be with someone who has that world view.” That’s how he dumped me and why he dumped me.
Later, we tried to stay friends (because I wanted to get back together with him. I was a glutton for punishment), and he dragged me to Titanic. Another movie I knew I’d hate before I even saw it. I did. Then, a movie about a Venetian courtesan I think? Dangeorus Beauty. I had no knowledge of the movie before going in. It was terrible. A Venetian courtesan saves her city somehow, but also, is in love with a nobleman who is married to a horrible harpy. He visits her for a few hours and they laugh and have sex. After the movie ended, my ex was gushing about how it was the best romantic relationship he’d seen in movies.
I snapped that it was easy for her to be good to the man because that was her literal job. She didn’t have to pick up his dirty socks from the floor or do the laundry or cook him three meals a day. All she had to do was be witty, look pretty, and fuck him well. Which, I’m not saying is easy, but come on. Come the fuck on.
Let’s say that we did not remain friends for very long. And I learned to keep my mouth shut. The next guy I dated, we went to see The Matrix. I will say that I was prejudiced against that movie because my last slimy Taiji teacher waxed poetic about how it was the epitome of Taiji. Letting the world flow around you and choosing to stay out of it. Other bullshit that was, well, bullshit.
I went in highly skeptical, but willing to be won over. I went along with it for the whole movie. It was a fine action movie, by the way. But I wasn’t getting the ‘wow this is soooo unique and mindblowing’ part of the movie. I was watching the movie with my then-boyfriend in a partner with maybe five other people. Obviously, years after it was released. Spoilers, though, for the end of the movie. When Trinity kissed Neo to bring him back to life, I was outraged. I jumped up and exclaimed, “That’s utter bullshit!” My then-partner grabbed me by the arm and pllued me back into my seat. I kept my mouth shut, but that ruined the movie for me. For a movie that extols being different and not adhering to social nrms, having someone kiss someone to bring her back to life How much more of a trope could the movie proffer?
In the end, I realized that movies were not for me. And I kept my mouth shut for the most part about them because they were just not my thing. I don’t think that means I should never talk about them, though. I’m still a human being with opinions. I just need to decide the most productive way to do it.