I think at the end of the day what frustrates and angers people -- myself included -- the most about games like TLoU/RDR/Death Stranding isn't the specific contents of those works but the fact that they're able to essentially buy their way into creative legitimacy

Esp for indie devs, who are constantly fighting a steady uphill battle against accusations of "pretentiousness" or "emo edginess" when they attempt sincerity, having your work and more importantly your invested feelings being legitimised is one of, if not THE most important thing

Struggling against that, and then seeing a publisher being able to essentially establish their work as profound and artistically legitimate before it's even released through sheer marketing clout alone is incredibly disheartening bc it betrays the thinness of cultural legitimacy

This isn't to say that the RDRs and TLoUs and whatever aren't profound in their own right; but rather, that the scale of their profundity and influence isn't intrinsic, but has been effectively purchased; and the larger implication that sincerity carries a price tag