HomeNews
Bounty of gaming news discovered in isolated Scottish cabinAn end of year round-up, possibly
An end of year round-up, possibly
Image credit:Edwin Evans-Thirlwell/Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Edwin Evans-Thirlwell/Rock Paper Shotgun
The existence of the Upper Lunch Hut implies the existence of a Lower Lunch Hut, but as far as I can tell, no such building exists. It’s one of many mysteries that surround the edifice, which I discovered during a holiday in the Cairngorms this August, while everybody else at RPS was writing about some tyrannous entity called Gamescom.
Image credit:Edwin Evans-Thirlwell/Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Edwin Evans-Thirlwell/Rock Paper Shotgun
The Upper Lunch Hut is no collapsed and forgotten dimension, nor even a homely “place of lunch” for passing walkers with too much time on their hands. It’s a gaming social media hub, akin to a forum that has escaped Google’s spiders and achieved a second lease of life in the material realm. It is a place of discussion and insight, a secretive spawning vat for News & Opinion.
“Life is Roblox”, you say? An apt observation, for the 2006-launched game creation platform encompasses all things,goodandless good. Roblox Corporation founder and CEO David Baszucki has justposted a 2023 round-up letter, incidentally, in which he hints at how this great elephant in the room of latter-day “multiverse” projects might evolve in 2024. One thing that jumps out from that post is a push towards accommodating (slightly) older players. According to Baszucki: “in Q3 2023, more than 57 percent of our users were 13 or older and the fastest growing age group on Roblox was 17-24 year olds. And we believe there is much more growth to come with this audience.” Another thing that jumps out is the increasing emphasis on advertising and monetisation tools and support for “real-world commerce”: Baszucki has elsewhereexpressed enthusiasm for NFTs.
These grand plans lend a sinister aspect to the phrase “Life Is Roblox”, though I deduce from the non-joined-up handwriting and the loose dotting of the “i” in “Life” that the author is an innocent soul, who wrote the message in a spirit of fun. Still, the reminder of Roblox’s universe-straddling ambitions is appreciated. What more does this bare wooden wall hold for us? Lowering our eyes a few centimetres, we are transported from the anxious realm of the near-future to the nostalgic security of the 18th-19th century.
Image credit:Edwin Evans-Thirlwell/Rock Paper Shotgun
But enough strategy. What about this message, a little further down the wall?
Image credit:Edwin Evans-Thirlwell/Rock Paper Shotgun
Again, the fumbling layman might perceive this to be a reference to an actual person called Jak, perhaps an especially narcissistic class clown. But the debonair connoisseur of virtual entertainments will arch an eyebrow at that comicbook font, roll a successful “Lore (PS2)” test, and see the graffiti for what it really is, a homage to Naughty Dog’s old open world Jak & Daxter games, of which the mildly cyberpunk Jak 2 is surely the highlight.
I really miss Jak & Daxter. This was Naughty Dog before Naughty Dog got really into HBO and reinvented themselves as serious purveyors of boutique apocalyptic cinema, a Naughty Dog that still knew how to double-jump and spin-attack. I don’t think we’ll ever get another Jak & Daxter game, unless they hand the rights to another Sony studio such as Ready at Dawn, who created the PSP Daxter spin-off. I’m sure we are all very sorry about that. But hang on, what’s this?
Image credit:Edwin Evans-Thirlwell/Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Edwin Evans-Thirlwell/Rock Paper Shotgun
As I concluded my tour of the Upper Lunch Hut - wherever, whenever and whatever it is - it remained only to leave my own mark on this strange meeting of the ways, this waterhole for gamers of all stripes and demographics. But what could I possibly add to the wit and profundity already on show? How to celebrate the place in a manner appropriate to the equally peculiar and timeless traditions of Rock Paper Shotgun? Ermmm. Well, how about this.
Image credit:Edwin Evans-Thirlwell/Rock Paper Shotgun
Merry Xmas all.
