On a light note: Great recommendation @exodus!
I understand what youāre saying and share the same perspective.
The reason the podcast upset me was that the commentary on the topic came off 100% intended to dismiss, diminish, and deflect criticism in a way that felt totally at odds with that perspective - which was totally shocking, given who was speaking.
What I heard were simultaneous excuses: That the idea of collusion and manipulation in this case is total conspiracy nonsenseā¦ but also if it thereās anything to the accusations, āthatās capitalism,ā with the implication that the system is to blame rather than the players. Maybe that inference is on me. Then to further avoid talking about the actual controversy, here come comparisons of WATA detractors to white nationalists and gamergaters as well as framing the investor class as some kind of oppressed minority.
When I heard about the video, I appreciated that someone finally compiled a lot of this information into something people could digest. I hoped it would catch on, as the only coverage of WATA/HA that has gotten any eyes in the last two years is a plethora of irresponsible āyou could have a million dollars in your atticā -type articles forecasting āinfinite growth.ā
I watched the video, and it seemed pretty solid, clearly denoting what information is public record, what is inference, and what is anecdotal. Toward the end, the attempt to āpersonalizeā the problem for āgamersā was indeed a clumsy call to action with very mild ārise upā overtones. I didnāt sense any dishonesty or bad intent, but some people are reacting to this video as if it suddenly segued into talking about lizard people or the Denver International Airport. I really donāt see it.
This doesnāt mean the youtuber doesnāt have some unstated terrible views or something. It doesnāt seem like anyone had been able to confirm that. But, despite the fact that so much of the relative information is of public record, so many of the questionable actions were performed out in the open, and there are now other sources to go to for coverage of this, weāre in here talking about Nazi conspiracies as if thatās more probable or relevant than profiteers doing profiteer things.
By the way, where did the āgood answerā thing come from? Is it a clip from the show or something else? I feel like I must have missed the episode where it started.
@wickedcestus Family Feud for the snes.
(Check out the TAS for the game itās great:
(I thought it was funny at least like at least some of āem)
(Some were pretty bad though)
Okay but seriously, thereās just GOTTA be something weird going on at that airport
@JohnMendou i just wanna say that i brought it up because i have a friend who is a speedrunner and has been around the Goldeneye speedrunning community and has talked about how shitty that community has been and how it has fostered alt-right type people there. i also figured that might be sort of what Frank was referencing. at the same time iāve also watched Karlās videos and havenāt seen any explicit alt-right/white nationalist types of views in them explicitly expressed at all. i do find his tone irritating and i wouldnāt be so far as to say he escapes criticism for the way he cosplays as like the ultimate objective judge on speedrunning disputes, etc. he clearly has his own agenda and likes to insert himself into other stuff. i donāt think heās like a reliable arbiter of knowledge here. at the same time his video did bring this issue way more out into the open when probably nothing else would.
but of course this issue goes far outside Karl and just focusing on the tone of his video kind of distracts from all the criticisms that many people have been making for at least the past couple years about this stuff. so yeah i think Frank was being extremely dismissive about the actual content of the video, and i personally am offended at the idea that some people getting mad at guys with money trying to get into a speculative bubble are at all comparable to many of the super broke marginalized people who were targets of gamergate. likeā¦thereās just no comparison at all between those two things.
also i googled ākarl jobst alt rightā and
more context in this reddit post/comments here
it basically seems like RWhiteGoose is a more open alt-right type (more screencaps of RWhiteGoose saying stuff like he doesnāt support interracial marriage and talking about āthe jewish questionā are in the reddit comments) and Karl was at least sympathetic/turning a blind eye to it. so this at least lends some credence to me to Frankās suspicion of Karl even though i didnāt like some of the stuff that was said about the video itself.
@wickedcestus i started including the clip once jaffe started doing Famicom Feud as a segment, but that particular bark had been referenced on the show before. they riffed on it a few times with episode 200, so i just pop it in any time it comes up in the show. hope itās not too distracting!
also while iām here, hereās the twitter clip: https://twitter.com/InsertCredit/status/1435966219002253314?s=20
Frankās position for a while has been "itās rich idiots grifting other rich idiots, so who caresā and āthis market could potentially allow us to fund genuine preservation work by selling high-ticket collectibles to people with too much money" and until someone can prove causation between the actions of groups like Heritage and the inflation of the broader vintage games market, I don't see him shifting much.
I do think aligning so closely with WATA is an obvious conflict-of-interest for a non-profit, but whatever.
@sabertoothalex if youāre in the bay area, I go to Awake TV in Mountain View. I used to have a guy in Oakland but as I think I mentioned his place burned down (through no fault of his own). Anyway the Awake dude rules, tell him I sent you (for no particular reason but he probably appreciates knowing folks get referred to him).
@Squit nice. I like how ācapital Iā I-talian it looks too.
He said he does some contract work for them, didnāt he? And mentioned it specifically because of the perceived potential conflict when heās commenting on something involving them. That, for me, indicates he takes conflict of interest seriously and wouldnāt knowingly do anything in his commercial activities that compromises his mission with the foundation. Whether people find it distasteful is another matter - personally I am of the Missy Elliott school of thought (āaināt no shame ladies, do your thang/just make sure you ahead of the gameā)
the 2 exits away from white nationalism comment seemed harsh, but the weasel nature of those types is to remain obtuse, vague, impossible to pin down about actual beliefs, etc. And has been remarked by others on this forum: even if a given angry game youtube āadult manā isnāt themselves personally committed to a r wing ideology, thereās a market out there that they speak to. And we all know by now that the alt right critique of capitalism and āethicsā only extends into video games and comic books so that can be a bit of a tell lol. Canāt speak for frank ofc but these are the conditions in my mind wrt to this topic, unfortunately. So I donāt think you should take it personally @JohnMendou the video inspires thoughts of things beyond the grievances it lays out
I have family involved in the trading of more traditional arts such as paintings, statues et al. The issues mentioned in the video are pretty widespread in the auctioning industry and definitely worth being flagged, whatever the hidden (or even subconscious) intentions of the author behind the video.
More importantly, I think it is critical that people are more educated and attentive to the systemic conflicts of interest impacting privately owned grading agencies in our capitalist societies when the corruption of these institutions has, on a larger scale, been at the core of the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes and, on a closer and more trivial topic, been echoed by the opacity and bias of a review score aggregator impacting the well-being of thousands of developers without any form of accountability (e.g. zero fallout on the pressure they received from Gamespot some years ago to change their formula and dismiss less ācooperativeā websites, especially non-US outlets). These are always jimmies worth rustling, Iād say.
Also, I have been told these visually impressive plastic cases are not only an ecologic waste but apparently terrible at preserving the original packagingsā¦ So itās not even clear that WATA and its peers are doing that part of the job right either.
Wanna say I appreciate that y'all link stuff mentioned in the episode a lot. Would otherwise be having to google something mid-pod and screenshot it so i remember to look it up again later
@gsk Itās pretty casual to say that these million-dollar auctions wonāt have impact on the second-hand market because yeah, thereās no immediate effect since thereās no overlapping right now. But when more rich assholes got into this like they do with whisky (and even fine art), shit is going to be real expensive. By then, it will be way hard to see through the shady shit they have been doing in the shadow.
@rainbowbattlekid Esper does The Work.
@Jaffe We have no choice but to stan
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@rainbowbattlekid we are compelled as if by an occult hand to stan
they sent me a message saying i had to stan or i am not allowed to listen to the podcast anymore
@rainbowbattlekid I hope you enjoy continuing to listen to the podcast, of course
all shall stan me and tremble
the Show Notes are a project i took on when i was thinking about the long term existence of the show and relistening to some older episodes before i agreed to take over editing from Blaine (it wasnāt a tough decision. i have been an IC diehard since it was recorded over google hangouts). i want people to be able to listen to episodes in five years and still be able to figure out whatās going on, as well as demystify some of the more arcane references to stuff. i figure it helps make the show accessible for people who donāt know every pc engine game, though maybe still a little inaccessible to people who donāt know what a pc engine is, lol.
sorry if youāve ever looked in the show notes for a link to something and it wasnāt there. I almost definitely tried to find something!! but not everything has a trace of existence on the Internet, let alone a mobygames page. iām glad it helps though!!