>>40472as the sterile bourgeois culture decays, entertainment that was considered infantile and low quality becomes the mainstream. what is happening with games now is what happened with cinema at the start of the 20th century, but at a much higher speed. I haven't found the words to describe it yet, but when you look at modern big-budget videogames you probably get the same feeling you get when you look at modern big-budget movies
your mistake and the source of your confusion was taking consumer identity too seriously, you got too invested in your funko pops, but they are just objects with price tags. your other mistake is assuming there is an innate emotional need for community (there is not): it used to be that society instilled in people a sense of community and a need for community, but for better or worse capitalism has been working relentlessly against that
<The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom - Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.
<The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers.
<The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.so here is my advice, if you are bored get a better hobby, ideally one that isn't exclusively about buying products. if you are lonely, get friends, if the things you like are now mainstream it means now you have a vehicle for conversation with most people. as a matter of fact I often find it hard to make conversation with people at work because I don't like videogames and streaming platforms (I like moe anime but I can't talk about that in public). I do like sports and that's mainstream enough I do have "entry points" for interactions