Reviewing The SJW Game Scale: The Beginner's Guide And Epsilon

At the start of the month, I picked up The Beginner’s Guide on Steam, after much Twitter approval, but I also acquired Early Access title Epsilon, the follow-up to a troubled tactical shooter called Takedown. It only later dawned on me that I had chosen the opposite ends of the social issues scale in regards to games and the people who make them.

For immediate illustration, The Beginner’s Guide and developer Davey Wreden’s affiliation to feminists like Zoe Quinn, as seen in the recent GameLoading documentary, would put them on the left-hand side of the Social Justice Warrior (SJW) line. Epsilon and developer Serellan’s affiliation with movements like Gamergate and communities like KotakuInAction would put them on the right side. Good, bad; bad, good; you decide. What was interesting for me was to see how these two radically differing minds would translate in how they approach games. Additionally, it would also reveal more about my personality to play both. For instance, if I only liked The Beginner’s Guide, I’d need to finally admit those accusations I got of wanting to be politically correct. Adversely, the opposite would be true for the shooter and the misogynist claims and so forth. That’s the beauty of internet comments, am I right?

So, let’s get to the breakdown:

The Beginner’s Guide is a first-person, story-driven game, usually described as a “walking simulator,” where Davey Wreden takes the player on the journey through a person’s catalog of experimental game projects. The full experience lasts an hour and a half and most tasks are performed at the command of Wreden’s prompting. There’s a lot to say about the narrative of a troubled friendship that unfolds during this time. That gets rather spoiler-y, so let’s just boil it down to people are awful, even when they don’t want to be awful.

What’s certain is that The Beginner’s Guide is powerfully emotional. That’s what the plot sets out to be. As a game, however, the game is a redundant affair. Most actions are directed by the narrator and as such, most thoughts are also deduced from Wreden. Were this a documentary, nothing of value would’ve been lost.

Due to its nearly detached game approach, but also due to the narrative directly destroying the move for a for-profit release, I ended up refunding The Beginner’s Guide and I advise others to do so as well, if they want to play it. More so, it’s probably best to just watch a playthrough online, as that’s the whole adventure anyway. Your direct input isn’t needed for you to be able to participate in the discussion. And bear in mind that this is something I actively try to prevent from saying, given my history of game reviews and such.

Refund The Beginner’s Guide. Davey Wreden would understand.

Onto Epsilon now, I had higher hopes that the game wouldn’t pull me into a short story without really needing me at all. You’re gun man and you and your gun men need to go do gun things. Nothing spells “video game” more. In more earnest terms, the Early Access title also is a second attempt at reviving tactical shooters the likes of Rainbow Six, which is a welcome change, since Ubisoft is clearly busy with other things.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly possible to even get started playing Epsilon, as it’s one of those PC games in 2015 that inexplicably don’t start with custom controls. Given I’m not in the privileged, confined group of people who use standard controls and there also isn’t sufficient controller support, getting into the game was an effort in futility. Despite multiple updates and a ton of hard work from developer Serellan, the game wasn’t functional enough to even justify working through it.

Epsilon ended up being a refund as well, twice, since testing if the game is functional takes a bit of time each try and that would eventually pass the two-hour mark. That’s not exactly a safe bet.

Look at Epsilon later; much, much later. The shooter shouldn’t be on Early Access right now and slapping a “pre-alpha” sticker on it doesn’t justify that.

Playing on the SJW scale this month has taught me a few things that I was able to derive; about myself, but also the games that are being developed in the space they currently exist. For myself, first off, I was luckily able to maintain the middle-of-the-road view that I like to present. I wasn’t satisfied with either project, each in their own degree, so I don’t have to side with any camp. Not that being the guy who just doesn’t like anything doesn’t get its own bad rep, but that’s of lesser importance.

The Beginner’s Guide, representing the SJW whiners, is heavily based on emotions and breaking norms otherwise set in traditional game development. The connection wanted here is set on people and wanting to get them involved. Accessibility is vital and The Beginner’s Guide therefore facilitates any other process, even directly in the game itself. You can’t fail, because then the narrative wouldn’t be able to get its point across.  This focus, however, forgets that a game also actually needs to be a game. Priorities are set beyond the used medium so much that it’s debatable if that side wants to actually participate in games at all or if they care enough about their product beyond the message.

On the other end, Epsilon and the Gamergate siding it’s on is as “game” as it gets, yet it’s oblivious to representation, beyond the surface level it hears through the grapevine. Serellan made a point about adding non-white male options to the space marine-looking soldiers in the game, since it’s easy to pick up on social media hubbub about how characters are portrayed in games. The shooter, however, didn’t think about any of its audience itself playing the game. It hadn’t even occurred to the team that people use different keyboards, let alone alter controls on something that has so many input options. Accessibility here is an afterthought, even if it’s just a subconscious blind spot with no ill intention. Fumbling to get it right, despite getting it pointed out, shows just how outside of the realm of existence any alternate audience is to the game. The priority is the game and not anything else, to the extent that it’s stipulated in the menu screen.

It’s been a fascinating discovery to me that, in practice, it’s apparent that your standard SJW game is about people, while your Gamergate-backed title is about pure consumerism. This experiment has been the progressive and conservative scale spread out in plain view in game format. It’s just amazing to me how people function. Even in the work they do, their beliefs and ideals poke through in fairly obvious ways, despite it not seeming so evident beforehand; just from a mechanical standpoint alone.

People are weird creatures. Feel free to discuss in the comments what side you fall on. Let’s keep this weird train going.

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed (@Daavpuke)