Good Ol’ Nerdery

The Seasons that Changed Us

By: LanderAvenue

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1817713

What the RDR games could’ve been as a gay love story.

I’ve always loved the Arthur x Albert pairing. The rugged outlaw meets the proper city boy. What could go wrong?

These works have been my favorite of the pairing thus far. The writer seems to work really hard to think about these characters and their potential motivations. This deeper thought often leads to large payoff because the characters seem more grounded in their dimensions.

I absolutely love the way they also incorporate existing canonical events while tweaking them to feel appropriate to the narrative. LanderAvenue weaves the existing characters into the plot by further developing their relationships than what was depicted in the games.

Back to the Future

By: Caruscus

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16959261

Started reading this almost two years ago and it was recently updated with its last non-epilogue chapter. It’s one of my favorite pieces written in the RDR world. The story pairs Arthur with an OC who is a badass doctor in the modern world. She finds herself transported into the video game and becomes central to the events in RDR2 by having knowledge of the game’s narrative.

There’s romance, angst, mystery, sci-fi elements, female empowerment, a chosen family, and a ton of sweet fluffy Arthur. The writer does an amazing job weaving in a modern character’s perspective into canon and it’s a fascinating exploration of what-if.

It was such an amazing read. Thanks and kudos to the author who clearly put so much thought and care into the work. 🙌🏼

I similarly don’t hate the game or the studio’s leadership. However, TLOU2 was created and developed under flawed leadership. ND’s treatment of employees should not be commended but discouraged. I’m equally disappointed in the VGA showrunners.

I love triple-A games. But if they require hundreds of hours of crunch time under grueling circumstances, I’d rather have an enjoyable indie game. If you need more resources to build an immense game, then find them. Most of these studios have seemingly ENDLESS amounts of capital and they should be using it appropriately to reduce the strain on employees. STOP CUTTING COSTS BY CRUNCHING YOUR EMPLOYEES. Don’t milk your existing employees for every ounce of energy and instead fucking treat them like humans. 2020 has clearly showcased that BURN OUT IS REAL.

- Representation in gaming still needs a lot of work. White Hollywood seems to be penetrating (Vin Diesel, Keanu Reeves, Christopher Nolan, etc.) and it doesn’t help that the industry is predominantly represented by cishet white men, some of whom clearly want to become this generation’s Hollywood execs. Meanwhile, even Disney’s crews and actors showcased in their Investor Day presentation look more diverse than what was displayed at VGA tonight.

- Really happy to see inclusion of an award that commends innovation and improvements in accessibility. Very ironic that an old exec from Nintendo (notoriously terrible for accessibility options in their games) was the person to announce the winner.

- Disappointed in the winner of GOTY. Not surprised considering the buzz from game critics. I’m sure plenty of gamers feel similarly. Objectively, it incredibly pushed the boundaries in accessibility and visual/graphical effects. Subjectively, I did not agree with various narrative and character decisions. I also have issues with statements made by the game’s director and his apparent inability to accept criticism from fans. I’d have given it to the game that worked extremely hard to artfully tell a non-western story filled with non-white characters voiced by non-white people.