Gaming Review: Rapid Fire

Don’t forget to slow down and smell the flowers.


Unless it’s this one. Run far away from this one.

Cannibalistic horticulture aside, my sentiment remains true, in encouraging individuals to slow down, take some time, and enjoy some self-reflection when one can. With that said, I’ve reached the end of another work week, and as always, I’m positively pooped. In pushing myself to rise to the occasion to meet the “quotas” set forth by creative challenges (I.E. write everyday consecutively for a month), I do tend to wear myself thin, but it is in response to feeling as if I’m simply not doing enough. The downside to this is that I rarely can find the time to do more long winded articles…or really anything aside from quick posits of wisdom or straight forward news poats, which is at least still affording me some practice in the realm of creative consistency. To wit; one of the ideas I’ve had kicking around in my head to break up some of the monotony of posting such straight forward affairs is to try my hand at a new feature called Rapid Fire, where I look back on the last week of articles, and insert a quick aside or addendum on my thoughts involving the games I’ve keyed about recently, and possibly add a little more context that I may have missed the first time around.


Context is key when discussing emotional reactions,
as sometimes you’ll be lucky enough to live in ignorance

With that said, let’s get to rapid fire:

-My write up Pokémon Disaster is a perfect distillation of what happens more often then not here on Active Time Event: working with what you got in the time you have. The initial idea was to finally sit down and watch the Pokémon Presents video Nintendo posted nearly a month ago, and dictate upon it. Mind you, the video is only twenty minutes long, and I still haven’t found the time to sit down and watch the fucking thing through to generate ideas from with which to coax an article out of…but I still wanted to write about Pokémon and didn’t have much time to do so, ergo, the Pokémon disaster occured.


Not that one

– My Words of Wisdom: Non-Simulated Thinking is another feature I came up with to have my cake and eat it too. I wanted to mostly relax on my first “weekend” day, but I still wanted to keep up with a writing schedule, so some quick posit was the way to go. I still try not to skimp on quality of course, so the idea always has to have a strong premise. I think I could have perhaps added more reference points involving how to go about engaging with tech via video games through the use of critical thinking, or wax philosophical about how mindfulness is the way to help cut through the bullshit of algorithmic tendencies, but all things in hindsight…life remains something that can only be understood backwards but lived forwards.

– The Casual Delirium of Video Games: Tuesday Edition ended up being a Frankenstein post, as I had a bunch of disparate ideas, but once again, not enough time to really dive into them all, so a monster was thusly born. Todd Howard’s thoughts on Doom and Mario’s impact on games is on point, and having even met the game in real life, he is a delightful individual with excellent insights into the industry, it’s just a shame he has helped to make himself into a meme with all of his wildly over promising ideas regarding Bethesda games.


Depending on who you talk to, of course

–Video Game Workers Unite! was a rare moment of positivity on ATE, which is a currency I don’t often trade in, but the gaming industry has been in a rough spot for a hot minute, so giving credit where credit is due for those who make the magic is definitely worth any amount of time. Writing about a more relatively important topic of note within the standards of the industry, especially involving the importance of unionizing and workers rights in general, also yields to the notion of more authentic journalistic integrity, a reality of which both gaming journalists and freelance writers don’t get a chance to experience in liu of just needing to act the role of hype man while drowning in a sea of enthusiast press that is not totally dissimilar to just straight up hawking products or being low key advertisers. A cold hard fact that I’m guessing many companies take advantage of with glee, in seeing the rise of influencers amidst the journalists and freelancers, the former of which regularly showcase they have absolutely no scruples whoring themselves out for a cheap, greasy paycheck while happily dropping any pretense they have standards or integrity whatsoever.

–Doom & Animal Crossing 4Evaz!!1<3, most definitely feels like the likeliest candidate for softball article if there was one this week, but I am madly endeared to both series, and it was a unique dual double-birthday, so worthy of the amorous celebration I showered both with. I also very likely could have easily made the article four times the length and not broken a sweat in the matter, but time was once again, not on my side. There’s actually been a shit ton of news about Doom: The Dark Ages I likely will follow up on, and I am guessing Nintendo’s Switch 2 first look on April 2nd has a great chance of showcasing more about the next Animal Crossing, so expect ample fixation on both series moving forward.


Always a feel good blast with these two

–The Last Laugh is more well deserved credit, by citing Balatro’s success at the 2025 GDCA, which continues to be representative of the notion I still give time to games that I’m not even a massive fan of. Even though I’m still playing Balatro, to attempt to understand the title as much as I can before moving on, one has to realize that even with ultra-eclectic tastes, one is just not going to like every experience under the sun. Balatro continues to remind me that I do ironically spend more time with games I don’t enjoy that much or perhaps don’t fully understand, just to get a better grasp on just why that is before just shrugging my shoulders and giving up, so there’s something admirable left to speak to, at least.

–Individualistic Collectivism was yesterdays post about the Katamari creators (Keita Takahashi) new game, To a T. There was a lot more to the interview that Game*Spark hosted and Automaton translated that I didn’t get to, one point of which involved the game’s narrative having roots in the realities of bullying, which was Takahashi’s way of attempting to humanize the story, and find connective issue of storytelling with a gaming public at large, and a topic that is taken as so mundane and everyday, most games would happily brush over it in favor for some epic cosmic battle. Nice to see in a space that continues to need to push itself to be relatable, and or at least one that still needs to strive to find a more humanistic approach, To A T is dojng so, and is not just lazily crutching on low-brow horndog schlock being shit out by a machine that regularly reguritqtes B-movie grade wank material for 16 year old minded boys.

–Gaming Review: Rapid Fire is a current work in progress. Fingers crossed it turns out well.

As always, time is against me, but it’s been fun keeping it real. That’s all…go forth and rock.

~Pashford

The Authentic Irritation Involved With AI

Sometimes, it’s a hard decision between being productive or sleeping.


Though some of us are clever enough to ask the burning question
“Why not both?” in having to choose what sleep represents

A point of interested which has remained relevant for some time now, even more so if one considers the number of layoffs that have occurred within the industry just this year, involves the actors union SAG-AFTRA going on strike after more than a year of negotiations for better conditions and wages for voice actors that work within the video game industry. One of the more pressing hot button issues that has caused the strike to take place is the use of AI to help sabotage and negate the need to hire voice actors to help bring life the characters that act as the cohesive glue for the entire in game atmosphere of 100’s of video games that come out every year.


Even silent video game protagonists have voice actors

Variety recently reported about the ongoing issues involving the strike, and had quoted prominent video game voice actress Jennifer Hale (Metal Gear Solid, Baldur’s Gate, Mass Effect) as one of many outspoken critics involved with the strike as to why developers and publishers need to play ball in agreeing to sign with the union for better protections against AI-

Jennifer Hale: “AI is coming for all of us. Because the truth is, AI is just a tool like a hammer. If i take my hammer, I could build you a house. I can also take that same hammer and I can smash your skin and destroy who you are. If you use something that originated in our body or our voices, can we please get paid? Because now you’re using technology to take away our ability to feed out kids.”


Jennifer Hale

SAG-AFTRA has even gone before Congress with proposed bills such as the “NO FAKES act”, helping to enable new protections against generative AI from appropriating likenesses, whether it be visual or audio based, to be used in the development of video games, leaving countless actors out in the cold without compensation for performances that they themselves were the original genesis of. SAG-AFTRA has continued to negotiate with over 70 studios to enable more rights for workers within the industry, with big names including Activision, EA, Take 2, and even larger media companies whose scope reach beyond the gaming world, like Warner Bros and Disney.


Pay your people, fools!

The Strike has been going on for a little over a month now, and while it would seem video game companies have agreed with the negotiations of SAG-AFTRA on a number of points related to better rights and compensation, the AI debate rages on and acts as a unique snag as to where the compromise has reached a stand still. SAG-AFTRA has proposed any of the larger companies involved need to sign their new Tiered-Budget Independent Interactive Media Agreement or the Interim Interactive Localization Agreement, if an accord on vital protections against AI misuse will come to fruition. These reports from Variety and the comments from Hale come on the heels of another gaffe related to the strike, as an executive of Amazon games division recently was quoted as saying “we don’t really have acting” in reference to their video games in speaking about the usage of AI, which drew understandable criticism as a push back to a comment that seems utterly unfathomable considering the circumstances.


You guys are developing a Lord of the Rings MMO
for freaking sake. You’re telling me there is no talking
in Middle Earth?

All of this stands as an excellent reminder as to why unions are so vital in protecting our workers, no matter the industry. We collectively as a society, should have been focusing on legislation to reign in the possibly negative ramifications of AI use across the board a decade ago, as we are starting to see the fallout of what happens when we leave it unregulated. Another important reason to stay politically aware, and to contact your local representatives to let them know how you feel about these issues and relevant legislation that may matter in helping to create better standards for unions whether they’re related to the video game industry or not.

~Pashford