Tell Me Why is a game about experiential growth.

I was on a call with this journo and they asked me about esports. What I think about it, how it was in the olden days, where it is going. That kind of thing. In particular, they wanted to know about the fighting game community, as I have been grinding away in the mud since the early nineties.

Instead of the usual spiel - esports is a hot property right now, massive growth potential, positioned well in this covid landscape, yadda yadda yadda, I decided to be honest. Yeah, I know. Famous last words.

I told them the fighting game community is in the same place everyone is right now. Depressed, toxic, adrift, and surviving off pure instinct. Imagine how well that statement went over on the call and subtract a few points for my offputting speech style and you are in the ballpark of where the mood of the call went.

Journo asked me to paint a picture for him, so I did:

I said the best comparison I could muster was to say that I began smoking cigarettes at the same time I began playing Street Fighter. The same month, same day. I know that because I started smoking because I wanted to be part of the crowd of players who skateboarded and smoked in the parking lot of my local arcade.

I didn't like smoking, didn't want to smoke, I just wanted to be part of a community. I wanted them to like me. It's over twenty-five years later and I still smoke, even though my health is failing, even though it's wildly expensive, even though the act omits me from more communities than it gains me access to.

Yet here I am. Every reason to let it go, the only reason to continue - It's part of who I decide I am every day. The esports community decides who it is every day. The gaming community as a whole decides who they want to be every day. The world decides who it wants to be every day. Such is life.

The journo, after a long silence, asked if I ever believed I would be ready to quit smoking.

I said, "Man, I'm scared if I let go of that part of me, won't be nothing left."

Journo said, "I'm sure something would take its place."

Anyway, shout's to information. Rip tb Rip tc Rip Tall-T. Love is wise, hatred is foolish. Get out there and do great things, we believe in you, also Jobs.

The Protoculture Mixtape : Issue : People : Tandem