> But the uncomfortable subtext of No Man’s Sky is that the galaxy exists for your benefit, that it’s OK to blindly consume and profit from everything you see.

> But the uncomfortable subtext of No Man’s Sky is that the galaxy exists for your benefit, that it’s OK to blindly consume and profit from everything you see. There is nothing uncomfortable about this, unless you somehow have trouble distinguishing this fantasy world from reality, or believe this game for some reason should teach you life lessons and influence your personal values. I personally am sick of this kind of hand-wringing, navel-gazing writing online. Especially as regards games, of all things. This isn't thoughtful critique or meaningful introspection. The original tweets are good critique. This writer's article is simply melodrama, false-intellectualism, and pseudo-ethics. In terms of videogame critique, there is no doubt a lot to say about No Man's Sky. Including that it is disappointing that a game which is so creative, innovative, and envelope-pushing in so many ways reverts to rote mechanics like point-and-shoot and a trite explore-collect-upgrade-expand core loop design. I personally would have loved to see NMS' core loop be about discovery and improvement -- leaving planets better than you found them, perhaps. (Though "better" on what dimensions and metrics would be an interesting question.) And one could actually write a meaningful article on philosophy, culture, or even sci-fi and futurism based on the universe NMS presents for consideration. Unfortunately, this article does none of this and is a lazy aping of more thoughtful tweets. As much as the article critiques NMS for relying on the tropes of shooting, and extracting+expanding in games, it leans entirely on its own tropes of online "journalism" today, with shallow thinking, false moral criticism, and pointless hand-wringing for the sake of attention.