Geek Confessional Thread 2024 [NOW 2026!]

[Reynard]

There is nothing more tired in gaming and geek spaces than Lovecraft/Mythos/Cthulhu. Please retire it all.

 

[Scribe]

There is nothing more tired in gaming and geek spaces than Lovecraft/Mythos/Cthulhu. Please retire it all.

There is something fundamental about it though it seems, it's like grimdark. Some may hate it, but it speaks to people in a unique way?

 

[Reynard]

There is something fundamental about it though it seems, it's like grimdark. Some may hate it, but it speaks to people in a unique way?

It certainly has longevity, which must say something. But if I never read the world "Lovecraftian" again it will be too soon.

 

[Scribe]

It certainly has longevity, which must say something. But if I never read the world "Lovecraftian" again it will be too soon.

I'm no expert on it or even a major fan, but I am sure someone must have taken a stab at its long running appeal?

 

[CleverNickName]

There is nothing more tired in gaming and geek spaces than Lovecraft/Mythos/Cthulhu. Please retire it all.

I've stopped using the word "Lovecraftian" altogether, and started using "eldritch" instead. I don't think I can ever go back.

I've stopped using "Potterverse," "Potter-esque," and the like as well (and for similar reasons). I haven't settled on a singular replacement just yet, but I've been kicking "arcadamia" around.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I've stopped using the word "Lovecraftian" altogether, and started using "eldritch" instead. I don't think I can ever go back.

I've stopped using "Potterverse," "Potter-esque," and the like as well (and for similar reasons). I haven't settled on a singular replacement just yet, but I've been kicking "arcadamia" around.

May I suggest Schoolmancy .

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It certainly has longevity, which must say something. But if I never read the world "Lovecraftian" again it will be too soon.

Weirdly I think actual direct Lovecraft-related stuff, modern reclamations of actual Lovecraft-Lovecraftian stuff has done pretty okay in sort of reviving actual-Mythos stuff.

What still sucking and still boring/annoying is stuff that's merely "Lovecraftian" or as @CleverNickName puts it "Eldritch" (aka Eldritch Horror), most of just dumb and unscary tentacle bollocks. Not all of it, but definitely most of it. Like you want something to come out of a portal, whatever it is better actually be scary, nothing pathetically lame like, say, oh I dunno, everything in S4/5 of Stranger Things. Make it actually weird and disturbing or stop trying to "Lovecraftian"/"Eldritch" and just make it a demon or something! I'm looking at you D&D and "aberrations" as well, either make them scary for real or stop trying because it's not working!

I've stopped using the word "Lovecraftian" altogether, and started using "eldritch" instead. I don't think I can ever go back.

Eldritch horror can be helpful to distinguish from actual Cthulhu Mythos stuff, as a term, I think. Lovecraftian covers both and blurs the boundaries in a way that helps understand neither. Like, is it Lovecraftian because a big scary tentacle came or someone read a book and went nuts, or is it Lovecraftian because Deep Ones are actually in it?

I've stopped using "Potterverse," "Potter-esque," and the like as well (and for similar reasons). I haven't settled on a singular replacement just yet, but I've been kicking "arcadamia" around.

Not least HP isn't even the trope originator or even trope popularizer, because that'd be either Earthsea or The Worst Witch.

I think "magic school" as a genre is probably blunt enough to get the point across without trying to make fetch happen with various portmanteaus.

 

[Deset Gled]

What still sucking and still boring/annoying is stuff that's merely "Lovecraftian" or as @CleverNickName puts it "Eldritch" (aka Eldritch Horror), most of just dumb and unscary tentacle bollocks. Not all of it, but definitely most of it.

But isn't that just Sturgeon's Law in action, though? 90% of everything is crap.

A related factor, for better or worse, is that some Lovecraftian stuff just happens to fit into the gaming medium well. Abominations make good gamings foils the same way handsome vampires make good movie characters, cheap romances tropes make good pulp novels, guns make good video game weapons, and tractors make country music. So if you hang out in this sphere enough, you're going to come across it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

But isn't that just Sturgeon's Law in action, though? 90% of everything is crap.

Sturgeon's Law is meaningless circular logic that's promulgated by oldies like us who have been on the internet too long and have just started repeating catchy memes from our youth which never actually had any truth or wisdom to them, and which are notably abandoned by basically everyone under 35 unless they spend way too much time on Reddit. But no, Sturgeon's Law is false, it's circular logic that self-defines. One you start asserting that 90% of everything is crap you just redefine what crap is to be 90% of everything, even when it's very clear that isn't true. It's an ouroboros of idiocy and self-congratulation.

Sorry rant over but don't Sturgeon's Law me maaaan, you might as well say "Stockholm Syndrome" if you want to trigger me about popular stuff that's absolute gibberish (Stockholm Syndrome was genuinely created by a single unqualified psychiatrist to cover for police carelessness and idiocy during a hostage situation, you can look it up).

The issue with "Lovecraftian"/Eldritch Horror is two-fold:

1) Over the last decade, more and more games called themselves or got called "Lovecraftian"/Eldritch Horror to the point where it became basically completely meaningless, just the vague hollow shell of an aesthetic, like steampunk (which interestingly, it's often combined with) became, but weirdly cyberpunk never quite did (or perhaps did in the 1990s but recovered). Anything which has anything creepy or weird going on that isn't zombies/ghosts/vampires/some forms of body horror gets called "Lovecraftian"/Eldritch Horror, and stuff that intentionally calls itself that but isn't actually using Mythos elements tends to be particularly crap and lazy in both its ideas about horror and how it delivers them (again, it's usually just a hollow aesthetic).

2) Relevant to this:

Abominations make good gamings foils

Lovecraftian and abomination aren't the same thing, so I'm not sure about conflating them here. Weird monsters aren't inherently "Lovecraftian" and I think the desire to label them such without reflection is part of the problem, because suddenly a lot of stuff coming from very different cultural places to Lovecraft and Eldritch Horror is getting called that.

HOWEVER!!!!

I do think this is actually slowly improving, on two fronts - there's more actual Mythos reclamation as I mentioned and that's slightly more likely to be good - and there are more games actually engaging with existential/eldritch horror as horror rather just "make it purple and put a lot of tentacles and eyes on it, that's scary right?!?!".

I blame WoW in part for causing this problem (and D&D, honestly), which has possibly the lamest and least-creepy "Old Gods" in gaming history (certain for an AAA), and really just triple-downed on the aesthetic in the worst ways for years (even there they've kind of improved the aesthetic in the new expansion I admit).

 

[Reynard]

Cosmic horror is fine. Existential dread is fine. But leave your Mythos at home.