Oh wow! I can think of many artists who Im torn about this. Many different art forms and uniquely different crimes they committed.
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Can I ask which game? Regardless, though, I can understand someone not liking it, itās certainly not for everyone. His games seem to be a bit like Monty Python, you either love 'em or hate 'em, thereās no middle ground.
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Great article, thank you for sharing!
My answer is: Itās complicated.
Looking back on my life, I have done and said a lot of stupid things and I have changed a lot over time, mostly for the better, at least I hope so. Others do it the other way round or what they think/did/do becomes apparent later.
Some artists die early enough to have no chance of becoming assholes, and I donāt want to wish artists I like an early death to be sure I can consume their art with good conscience. Others like Mozart are long dead, who knows what they thought or did, he may have been the worst asshole in the world and his crimes have been forgotten. Some were fine in their early years and get awful later, is their early art ok to consume then, do we lump it in with who they are now and what they do now?
Some art may exist simply because the artist is an asshole, because letās face it, great art, great inventions, great leadership often comes with great psychopaths, although good people can do it too and not harm everyone in the process. Sometimes it is what is broken, disturbing, wrong etc. that makes good art and fame.
Can art be still good even if the artist or the work itself is disturbing? Yes, I will always love the work of Lovecraft although I see the racism in his art and have to work to push that aside. I do still love music, paintings, movies and a lot of books of my childhood that have now had to be cleansed from racist parts, antisemitic parts, misogyny etc. My favorite childhood book series had their artwork redone and a few words changed just this year and it was necessary although the books are everything but racist.
If my money contributes to an artist being able to harm people (for example, by buying everything Harry Potter that allows JK Rowling to spread her hatred of trans people), then I keep my money, but I may still love the art I already own or consume their art āfor freeā if I can.
Then there are the unproven accusations that complicate things further. Do I act upon them or not?
And then there is the moment when suddenly what I hear about an artist completely annihilates any positive feeling I had for their art - it is just gone. In that case itās not a decision I make, it just happens and I canāt undo it even if I try. Happened to Rammsteinās music. Canāt listen to it anymore.
There is no āone fits allā situations for me. I struggle with what to do, what to feel with every artist this is happening with and it often makes me really angry or sad.
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Awesome reply! Thanks, Nelemania!
Yes, I will always love the work of Lovecraft although I see the racism in his art and have to work to push that aside.
Man, I canāt believe I didnāt think to mention Lovecraft in the article! I love his works, too, but the racism is so clear and apparent. I donāt think itās right, but I donāt think it diminishes the strength his work shows. However, I do feel itās slightly different here as his work is now public domain, so he is not earning anything from it (obviously) so it can be appreciated simply from a literary perspective without arguably supporting racist views monetarily. Iād say a similar thing is true for Mozart; if the artist is dead itās a bit easier to promote just the art.
My favorite childhood book series had their artwork redone and a few words changed just this year and it was necessary although the books are everything but racist.
Can I ask what that was? My favourite comic hero, The Phantom, has had many of his strips edited over the years due to perceived racism. At the risk of sounding incredibly arrogant, I feel like Iām encroaching on being a Phantom expert (Phantomologist? 
) and as such feel I can say with some certainty that at the time those strips were written, the mid-1930s, what is in them would not have been considered racist and that the author, Lee Falk, certainly was not racist himself. However, by todaysā standards, as weāve evolved and grown our understanding of racism and how it affects people, I can see how some of the things in those strips - particularly the White Saviour aspect - would be considered racist. This is why, I feel, a big part of this - and when consuming media in general - is giving consideration to when a thing was made. By the society values of the 1930s, even for those who would have considered themselves progressive, which I feel very strongly that Lee Falk would have, nothing in The Phantom is racist. But out views on what equates racism has changed since then.
And then there is the moment when suddenly what I hear about an artist completely annihilates any positive feeling I had for their art - it is just gone. In that case itās not a decision I make, it just happens and I canāt undo it even if I try. Happened to Rammsteinās music. Canāt listen to it anymore.
What happened with Rammstein? Iām not terribly familiar with them.
Iāve had a similar issue with Archieās Sonic comics and Ken Penders. I wonāt go into the details of it all, but suffice to say that Penders proved himself to be an arrogant, loathsome, egocentric hack who took every opportunity to shit on the creative work or other. Basically, the kind of person I absolutely detest. Before all that came out though, I had spent a considerable sum on buying the collected volumes of his work on Archieās Sonic book. I have since struggled many times with thinking I should just bin everything his name is on because he is such a horrible human being. What stops me it that other, much more talented people than he also worked on those books and their work, I feel, deserves to be seen. Also, he apparently earned no money at all from the sale of those collected editions, so the fact I bought them is kind of a two fingered salute to him. 
There is no āone fits allā situations for me. I struggle with what to do, what to feel with every artist this is happening with and it often makes me really angry or sad.
I agree. I think we need to take things as a case-by-case basis and weigh them up against our own moral standings. The Penders thing probably wouldnāt bother many fans, but it irks me no end, hence why I struggle with it. Obviously some things are cut-and-dry, like whatās going on with Rowling, but others are more complicated.
Thanks so much for reading the article. I really appreciate it!
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Lukas der LokomotivfĆ¼hrer (Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver)
A German article about the changes. For example the n-word was in there once to illustrate that there was a racist person in the story. They changed it so that it keeps the person problematic and racist but without using this word.
They changed a place from China to a phantasy land, this was already done by the author himself years ago and they did some other minor but necessary changes.
Also the article shows the cover art old and new and the old one was definitely cringe at best looked at it from todays perspective but never meant racist. It is a book about friendship between people who are different looking, living and thinking and to not judge by a first look and it is anti Nazi. It was the only story of my childhood that had a person of color in it as a main character, so it had a huge impact on me and I love it and also love the puppet show they made for the books:
You might have heard this at some point when it hit the charts, but maybe that was Germany only:
All in all the books are fine now, but also one feels their age a bit. Written in a time where a child of color was so unusual in Germany that in a book it could only be a character found in a basket on the shore of a tiny island and was still very progressive - today we have better stories that are settled in the midst of our society, because thatās where people of color are and belong and you have to look at Lukas der LokomotivfĆ¼hrer and the whole series with a portion of nostalgia. I havenāt gifted the series to kids in my family and rather chosen newer titles for example, but I have read the books to them/with them and we talked about them and watched the puppet series together.
For Rammstein: Rammstein's Till Lindemann Investigated for Sex Assault Allegations
In the end the allegations of sexual assault werenāt prooven, but that there was a āpipelineā where young women were channeled to him for āhard sexā trough a female manager that searched for āfitting and very young womenā on social media promising backstage access to Lindeman and that they got filled up with alcohol first and afterward just pushed out to the streets that is clear now as it is clear that everyone in the business knew about it. They let the manager go, event businesses have promised to check that things like that canāt happen in the future, but it did not go to court.
The problem is, that when you know about this and listen to the texts of some songs, they get a completely different meaning now (or better: I just didnāt get they meant exactly that all along as probably these young women didnāt) and it just feels bad to listen to them for me, to the point that it makes me feel sick.
Definitely true for me, but I understand that there are people who canāt and it is good that you canāt mention Lovecraft on the internet anywhere, video games that use his stories as a basis included, without someone mentioning it and I feel thatās a good thing.
I realized that I often have started to google an artist before I mention them on a forum in Grouvee hoping they arenāt āone of theseā.
I love that! This reminds me that there is a movie called āThe Phantomā (1996) on Paramount+. Is that your Phantom and worth watching?
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I love that! This reminds me that there is a movie called āThe Phantomā (1996) on Paramount+. Is that your Phantom and worth watching?
Yep, itās the same character. They changed some stuff for the movie, as always happens, but nothing hugely drastic. If you enjoy somewhat cheesy, campy 90s Indiana Jones-like action movies, then itās worth watching. Itās one of those movies that the internet thought was cool to dump on in years gone by, but thankfully - like with other media - that seems to have dissipated and people are realising itās actually a pretty fun time.
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Armikrog. All style, tedious puzzles, shitty creator.
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The image I posted is from The Neverhood. 100 times better than Armikrog in every way, but same creator, unfortunately.
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Itās been a little while since I posted an update on the status of the History of SEGA book Iām working on, so I thought Iād share where itās up to.
As of right now, all is going well. The final draft is all but done, it just needs a few minor tweaks, and Iām in the process of sourcing images for inclusion in the book. The issue of images has been something of a steep learning curve as Iāve had to get my head around copyright and usage rules and so on, but Iāve only a few more to source to hit the 100-images sweet spot.
I have a bit of a worry regarding the word count as I did not realise until relatively recently that my 60,000 word allowance includes the main text and the intro, index, bibliography and acknowledgements. The main text itself is over 60,000, so there may need to be some cuts made (Iāve already made a few).
Once all of that is sorted itās off to the publisher to ensure they are happy with it.
Itāll still be a few months before everything is set in stone, but of course I shall keep you posted.
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Not a personal project, but we built this desk for workā¦ giant painā¦but i think it came out nice.
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reminds me of the awsome webtoons i used to read in college
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I agree with BMO, it has a nice comic book shop feel to it and looks great! I love that itās obviously a DIY thing too, adds to the charm!
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Can we all just come visit Ureshi and have a giant workshop session where we all help eachother make one dream setup piece each
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Lol, i dunno if im that skilled but im flattered
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Itās been quite a while but I just finished the minor corrections my examining team wanted so Iāll finally be ready to hand it over and see what comes for me afterwards.
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I had to abandon my above idea of using comic boxes in cube shelving as I could simply not find any (that I can afford) that hold even small comic boxes. However, I did find an alternative Iāve very happy with! Ikea have these wooden boxes that are perfect.
This one isnāt quite full, I think itāll hold about 130 issues bagged and boarded. The small cap between the comics and the edge of the box Iāve put left over bags and boards in. As you can see it doesnāt take up the whole cube, but here I can put graphic novels etc.
Iām really happy with how it looks, but even better the wife like it. So Iāll be grabbing a bunch more and then eventually some cube shelving all my own for my comic/ graphic novel library. 
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So this is why Iām so far behind in life. We bough a house that was built in the 50ās about a year ago. My first task has been to get the basement into a better state. The first step with that was to rebuild the stairs. I hated the way they walked. They leaned forward, and the run on them was super short. They also had 2 layers of carpet on them with maybe 30 years of nastiness contained within.
Weāll be putting carpet on these eventually, which is why everything is just pine. Iām pretty happy with how they came out. Itās definitely the biggest carpentry project Iāve tackled. Now itās on to framing the basement and running all new electrical!
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Looks great. Are you turning the basement into like an entertainment room or something or just giving it a refresh?
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