Support NeoGAF

[DunDunDunpachi]

Right off the get, the lack of market awareness in the article is puzzling: H.P. Lovecraft's writings went public domain in 2008 in the EU, sparking a huge upsurge in Lovecraft-mythos books and especially board games. If you are curious about why Lovecraft fandom surged, that is a huge reason why. It was only natural for the rising popularity to eventually be picked up by videogame developers, too.

Anyway, quotes from the article. More at the link if you'd like to read more:

I'm not keen on mincing words on this one. H.P Lovecraft was a racist and before you go making an argument for separating the art from the artist, let's be clear on another point: so are his stories. They encompass other problematic elements too, of course - misogyny, homophobia. Right down to their core, right down to the very themes that recur throughout his works, you'll find the hateful perspective he had of the world: the ignorance of someone who viewed anything unlike himself with revulsion. While he drew inspiration from works predating him, what Lovecraft gave to the genre of cosmic horror was his hate.

Which is now video games' problem. For decades video games have been regurgitating the themes, plots and aesthetics of his stories with not one ounce of scrutiny. The half-breed monsters that embody the very essence of Lovecraft's revulsion, the troubled white male heroes that contain his arrogance and his gross simplification of mental illness are recreated in video games with no subversion, no critical thinking. In doing so they are breathing life, again and again, into Lovecraft's hate. At least Bloodborne had the decency to suggest that its protagonist could be the real villain of the story.

Source at Eurogamer

http://Source at Eurogamer

 

[The Bloody-Nine]

Ugh.

 

[Orta]

That website has really gone to the fucking dogs the past year or so.

 

[Brilliant Disaster]

Oh my Tehlu really now!!!

Can this bullshit stop already, na lets complain about every damn thing and nitpick it all.

 

[Armorian]

That website has really gone to the fucking dogs the past year or so.

Just like EU.

 

[cr0w]

No, we're just fine, thank you. Stop holding long-dead writers or other creators up to the standards of the modern day. Fuck's sake.

 

[Woffls]

Is there an approved list (I was going to say whitelist but I checked my privilege just in time) of things which aren't racist, sexist, hateful Nazi propaganda?

 

[Stitch]

(White) man born in 1890 was racist, news at 11

 

[Toe-Knee]

Is there an approved list (I was going to say whitelist but I checked my privilege just in time) of things which aren't racist, sexist, hateful Nazi propaganda?

Check the other place. Pretty sure they have a really exhaustive list.

 

[manfestival]

So is this like saying he shoulda changed his ways and we should punish him now even though he is long dead because the modern progressive movement condemns the past? lol

 

[infinitys_7th]

(White) man born in 1890 was racist, news at 11

I mean, no shit.

If these people get their way I can see, eventually, a purge of all "problematic" history, of anything related to anyone who was ever racist, sexist, anything. Knowledge will have to be rediscovered by the right people - we need a hemigendered omnisexual Super Wholock fan to rediscover Calculus, to start again with new axioms in geometry and number theory.

History will restart anew Year 0 Anno SJWi, like the Void Century or any other dystopian takeover of the world.

 

[The_Mike]

SJW rants are so tiresome and so last year by now.

Racism is not ok, but you can’t judge people by modern standards, that’s taking everything out of context.

 

[Barakov]

Didn't expect to roll my eyes this hard on a Tuesday.

 

[Deleted member 740922]

Just like EU the world

 

[manfestival]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-03-03-why-cant-we-forget-lovecraft
It is like Eurogamer is a bipolar site

 

[Castef]

Also, stop making games based on Disney's IPs?

And so on...

 

[Schrödinger's cat]

 

[gela94]

Maybe we should burn his books ...

 

[Thiagosc777]

Does anyone take the games media seriously? I get the impression that many people read gaming websites just for hating on them or to find things to laugh about.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-03-03-why-cant-we-forget-lovecraft
It is like Eurogamer is a bipolar site

Huh. That's quite funny!

 

[Vawn]

We should outlaw other inventions and ideas for this same reason.

Come on fellow warriors. Let's ban electricity - who's with me?

 

[michaelius]

I was reading that earlier - the really amazing thing is I only found examples of why he was racist in the comments because author of the article didn't even care to provide one just wrote stating the fact.

 

[Makariel]

All the while the eurogamer Youtube channel is publishing regular Bloodborne let's plays. Don't do as I do, so as I say?

Meh, nothing new. EG website is getting more preachy every week.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

All the while the eurogamer Youtube channel is publishing regular Bloodborne let's plays. Don't do as I do, so as I say?

We need that money to fight the videogame patriarchy. Hashtag resist.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

Lovecraft is so played out at this point, im so sick of hearing about it. he's a decent writer but there are plenty of supernatural fiction writers of that past that get ignored.

i see why people think it has racist roots, Lovecraft's mythos is sort of born out of the Orientalism of the 19th century, basically a culture of fetishizing the exotic by creating western bastardizations of Eastern myths. you had people like Blavatsky picking and choosing from various mythologies and re-packaging it as Estoeric Buddhism. Theosophy was a very hip subject for the elite at the time. Lovecraft's mythos seems like a take on that: a Western cartoon version of Eastern mythology. it is a sort of half-removed stereotype. add to that his contemporary 19th century opinions which don't hold up in 2018 (an age where even 2016 opinion don't hold up).

it doesn't entirely bother me tho. i think people should be educated about the past, rather than try to delete it. fwiw Bloodborne is one of my favorite games ever. still i wish people would find a new hip name to drop and base their video games/board games/ etc. on.

 

[SirKicksalot]

I laughed when I scrolled down and the article just ended. That's not even 600 words lmao

 

[Kadayi]

Jesus that's a low effort article if ever I read one. That opening: -

I'm not keen on mincing words on this one. H.P Lovecraft was a racist and before you go making an argument for separating the art from the artist, let's be clear on another point: so are his stories. They encompass other problematic elements too, of course - misogyny, homophobia. Right down to their core, right down to the very themes that recur throughout his works, you'll find the hateful perspective he had of the world: the ignorance of someone who viewed anything unlike himself with revulsion. While he drew inspiration from works predating him, what Lovecraft gave to the genre of cosmic horror was his hate.

The author doesn't even make the case for before jumping to the defensive, and then she doesn't even make the case after, just throws up misogyny and homophobia as further accusations, as if the golden trifecta of social studies attack words is enough to convince without any actual references to the works themselves.

I'm certainly not going to deny that Lovecraft was a racist and mayhap he may well have been a misogynist and homophobe to boot (it's been a while since I read the stories), but as others have said he was very much a product of his time in that regard and so some consideration needs to be given to that before we throw him wholesale under the bus of modernity and start erasing him from the history books, simply for having the temerity to not match today's impossible standards of inoffensive wokeness.

 

[Calibos]

 

[Kadayi]

As a suggestion when it's clearly a shitbait article like this one, can we also get an archive link for those of us who'd rather not give them the traffic? Even just to laugh at their terrible journalism?

https://web.archive.org/web/2018100...eally-need-to-fall-out-of-love-with-lovecraft

 

[ipukespiders]

H.P Lovecraft was a racist and before you go making an argument for separating the art from the artist

I saw a thread on another site that started with a statement, added a "bingo" card of responses that you are not allowed to make, and opened it up for discussion.
Basically, this is how I feel, I already know your logical response but you don't get to make it here, so let's just pat each other on the back.

 

[Barsinister]

Here is an interesting video essay on H.P. Lovecraft, and his "problematic views":

 

[Hudo]

They apparently haven't read the Necronomicon, then.

 

[Mercer_CAR]

Im really looking forward to the day (and its approaching fast) where these publications just come out as outright anti white racists. I mean, they are almost there now and as we all know there is no repercussions for expressing racism towards whites.

 

[NickFire]

Reading it made me think she must have accidentally bcc'd her Polygon job application to Eurogamer's editor with a penchant for this crap, and it then got published for the clicks cause why not. In all seriousness, do they just secretly detest the respect that digital foundry brings them?

 

[ipukespiders]

Im really looking forward to the day (and its approaching fast) where these publications just come out as outright anti white racists. I mean, they are almost there now and as we all know there is no repercussions for expressing racism towards whites.

Games really need to fall out of love with Eurogamer

 

[RoyBrown7777]

So by this influence, every great philosophical genius and many artists in history should be written off... What a stupid artical.

 

[LegendOfKage]

Right down to their core, right down to the very themes that recur throughout his works, you'll find the hateful perspective he had of the world: the ignorance of someone who viewed anything unlike himself with revulsion.

 

[plasmawave]

Good luck with that.

 

[Alebrije]

This kind of articles is what puts "videogame journalism" in shame. You can not separate the art form the artist but separate the artist from its social reality and being judged by today´s stadarts its different. He was racist but most of white people were by 1930s.

 

[Mercer_CAR]

Games really need to fall out of love with Eurogamer

Unfortunately its good social capital for them to signal about how un-racist they are. Even though, the majority of gamers just dont give a sh*t about these kinds of topics. Its only a well funded minority who espouse this SJW nonsense.

 

[iorek21]

hahahahahahaha

H.P. Lovecraft's mythos should be more used in video games, not the other way around

 

[metareferential]

Functional illiteracy strikes again (couple with plain, old-fashioned stupidity).

Let's also ban Plato, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe and everyone else, while we're at it.

 

[Mercer_CAR]

Functional illiteracy strikes again (couple with plain, old-fashioned stupidity).

Let's also ban Plato, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe and everyone else, while we're at it.

Your not far off their ideals there old mate. I think your conclusions should read like this for a more accurate reflection of what they are implicitly suggesting:

"Let's also ban Plato, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe and everyone else WHITE, while we're at it"

 

[petran79]

In Shadow of the Comet video game, the post office lady is prejudiced towards Native Americans and the Indian Sorcerer is one of the game's villains.

http://www.weirdretro.org.uk/shadow-of-the-comet-spot-the-famous-actors-faces.html

With such articles, I am not sure if they'd allow such a game today.

 

[onQ123]

He was dead before black people even had human rights in this country why single him out as a racist when it was common?

 

[Mercer_CAR]

maybe this @SamMGreer should attack the horrible "white" racist Ken Levine for his use of Lovecraftian ideas? I wonder if Eurogamers financial backers would like that highlighted? lol

 

[Neverwas]

we must demand a suance so Lovecraft can pay for his looooooong past indiscretions.

By the power of Christ!

 

[Cyber Caesar]

Eat the meat throw away the bones. You can be great and still be a ripe asshole.

 

[DeliciousDoc]

I think they should make a list of banned works. They can also start burning books and games with dangerous ideas. I heard it is totally not something "nazis" and their ilk do.

Lets reject heliocentrism as well.
Galileo was a white racist and people from that era imposed their culture across the world (which is also something we should do).

/s

 

[ruvikx]

Im really looking forward to the day (and its approaching fast) where these publications just come out as outright anti white racists. I mean, they are almost there now and as we all know there is no repercussions for expressing racism towards whites.

The author is a disturbed, anguished, insecure little creature who's desperate to find approval among the so-called "elites" who enjoy shitting on western civilization in 2018. Yet it's all totally irrelevant because H.P. Lovecraft produced timeless classic art & inspired generations (& continues to do so). What will Sam Greer over at Eurogamer ever accomplish? F-all.

It's the equivalent of a special needs toddler passing judgement on Mozart. Move along, nothing to see here. Just another wannabe intellectually challenged fanatic attempting to "matter".