Welcome back to the Aftermath newsletter, your weekly roundup of everything that happened at the site by me, Riley. This week, we've got streamers, emulators, early access--all of gaming's most heated topics. If you'd like to share your thoughts in our comments and Discord, or just be able to read all our blogs and fight about them with your friends, please consider becoming a subscriber. As a reader-funded outlet, your support makes everything we do possible. |
Streamer Who Lives In Fear Of Saying N-Word Because It Could End His Career Has Actually Said N-Word Multiple Times, Still Has A Career
Nathan digs into the backstory of a Twitch clip that made the rounds this week.
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We Can't Trust Nintendo To Be Reasonable
Another Switch emulator has bitten the dust, but Chris doesn't know what else we expected.
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When Is An Early Access Game Done?
I look at the drama surrounding a recent indie game's 1.0 release and what players expect when a game leaves early access.
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A Niche Vice Presidential Debate Take
Maybe you, like me, subjected yourself to this week's Vice Presidential debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz. I watched it at the bar under my house, which made it a bit more fun, or at least tolerable. I have a lot of opinions on how the whole thing went, but, like my pal Religion News Service writer Jack Jenkins, I'm always looking for religion angles in... well, politics, but also everything. So here's one: I feel like both VP candidates' debate performances were hugely influenced by their respective Christian denominations.
Putting aside the fact that I don't think "Dimes Square" is a thing no matter how much the New York Times insists it is, I feel like Vance's performance was ferociously trad Cath, though his beliefs also depart from that: spouting positions rooted in resistance to change, dressing up old prejudices as some kind of radical newness or honesty. I joked to my friends that it was a Heroes of the Fourth Turning-esque performance, a reference to the Pulitzer Prize finalist play about Catholic conservative intellectuals. It sounds intellectual and reasoned, but if you think about the words he said and not how he said them, it's just ugliness.
Walz, meanwhile, is an Evangelical Lutheran of the Midwest variety. There are lots of different kinds of Lutherans, but the ELCA's mission statement notes "There is no special prayer you need to pray, no special state of mind you need to achieve and no good deed you need to perform... We believe that we receive the gift of grace by faith alone." It's a more expansive view of grace than Catholics hold (and one of the differences between the two), and I think we see that in both Walz's political positions and in his debate performance: a kind of blunt but broad openness that feels heavily Midwest-inflected.
I'm not an expert in either of these traditions, so this is a fairly simplistic outline of the stuff that went through my head while watching the debate. I tried to get Jack to write this, but he has a life to live and also I am not his editor, but if anyone wants to run with this take on my behalf, feel free. |
Here's some good stuff from around the internet this week:
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Aftermath has two podcasts: Aftermath Hours, where we discuss the week's biggest gaming news, and 52 Pickup, where Gita Jackson and Alex Jaffe take you through the world of the greatest DC Comics series you've never heard of. Check them out on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. |
And that's the week! I am going to spend my whole weekend torturing my neighbors by learning the mandolin. I hope you have less contentious plans lined up. |
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