# retro garming conservatism and ghost in the shell politics aka back to 1995 consider the odd potential politics dormant / inherent in so-called retro garming: some loose notes based on recent experience of collaborating with a developer // video here timeline **+** you semi-accidentally discover "back in 1995" by developer ichijou takaaki **+** in which you probably saw ichijou takaaki as a "japanese game developer" **+** in which you're glad to write the translation for "what is back in 1995" and the developer is pleased **+** you also decide to follow the developer on twitter - and they follow you; nice **+** at some point you notice the developer has retweeted a statement and picture comparing the head of some student activist to hitler (the original poster's account now suspended) (caption id="attachment_44184" align="aligncenter" width="656") western perceptions of game developer politics in japan(/caption) **+** you understand that a reweet is not an automatic agreement.. but still **+** after you respond to the developer (basically saying that young students protesting militarization hardly makes them hitler) you find yourself immediately unfollowed **+** for some reason you are reminded of the (/seemingly) hyper-complex politics of ghost in the shell and of politics in japan generally - at least your ultra-limited perceptions of them **+** you are left with the strange feeling that somehow (/'japanese') retro garming and conservative / nationalistic feeling are (somehow) strongly linked or bound up in national (/gamer?) identity question: to what extent are your feelings and assumptions about this small experience clouded by / founded upon western / orientalist assumptions prejudices and general cultural misperceptions (on both sides')? // video here > (..) stereotypical representations of the japanese emphasising ir cultural otherness have influenced the british interpretation of japanese media imagery where perceived difference or distinctiveness has been stressed rather than similarity or commonality > ~ perry hinton representation or misrepresentation?: british media and japanese popular culture indeed did you not initially not see this game not just as a game but specifically as a cool japanese game? note how so called japanese games in the west are mainly either cool (killer 7) andor weird (deadly premonition.) perhaps in the same way that ghost in the shell (/memory) addresses ideas about memory and claims to knowledge (about the world / oneself) based on memory alone perhaps your ideas - memories - about a japan and japanese society and politics you never visited (except through culturally sanctioned / selected / imported / filtered media products) informed your notions of going back to 1995 ## update patch: speedruns you were responding to tweets about speedruns last night and made some notes (speedruns being important in retrogaming - not exactly sure how they fit into perceptions of japanese games but still) **+** consider "retrogaming" nostalgia just another form of consumerist hive minded cult **+** community based events like speedrunning - even with actual group singsong - might still be just another expression of willing collective blindness ie. digital culture **+** consider how community and telling stories together might just be collective self-mystification; golden oldie vaseline smeared over a deliberately blurred lens **+** despite active expressions of communal performativity acceptance of the (somehow) inherently good or friendly nature of games still seems a distinctly passive essentially uncritical pursuit **+** things like speedruns might superficially go against initial design-usage of maps but they still depend on a tacit agreement with authoritarian design of games as a mechanical systems of inherently self-limiting cultural rules // republic of bob