Most popular survival games (Minecraft, Valheim, Raft, Ark) are dull, unimaginative experiences that disrespect your time. I truly don't get the appeal, other than if you're a terminally online kid with nothing else going on. They promise this world of near-eternal fun and imagination, and then forget to develop fun mechanics, write a compelling story to give context to what you're doing, give you goals, teach you how to play...

Raft is probably the worst example I can think of. What a crock of shit that game was. Zero tutorial, a terrible grind. Just lazy. You can softlock yourself in the first 30 minutes if you jump onto an island and let your raft drift away, because you can't build a new raft, and all the game's resources spawn around it for no good reason. The game has a Very Positive rating on Steam with over 200,000 reviews...

There are some obvious exceptions. Terraria is still so charming, and does away with the hunger/thirst/durability trappings of other survivals. I didn't get too far into Subnautica, but it's clearly a fresh idea and has an ambitious story. And y'know... I can't be too hard on Minecraft, it's iconic.

But the rest is just hollow and soul-crushing and in most cases unfinished. They're punishing time-sinks disguised as a "world where you can do anything," and the fact that so many go to bat for them really makes me grieve for people's taste in games.

Hot take over... Woof, I need to lie down...