Broken Reality, Vaporwave, and Irony (Patreon)

So... I step a bit outside my wheelhouse with this one, and while I tried to Do The Reading I'm still worried I'm going to be inundated with people saying that I either take vaporwave far too seriously or dismiss the entire thing as a joke too easily.  And I'm prepping emotionally for that, because I think it's sort of an inevitability that I get both given what I understand of the genre.

That said! This is video about Broken Reality, an imaginary virtual chatroom from (at least!) the year 2045 where you can chat with friends and buy fancy beverages and even go on a cruise!  It's an exploration based game that has pretty colors and lots and lots of low-poly dolphins.  It's got chill music, some occasional funny jokes, a mysterious backstory to piece together, and some cool commentary on technology and culture as filtered through an aesthetic birthed on the internet!

....It's also seeped in all of the meme-ry and layers of irony that one gets from originating on the internet.  And that can lead to problems when it tries to do anything serious or meaningful.  Is the game a pile of cutesy references and internet in-jokes, or is it the tale of a broken chatroom and the relationship of those who created it? It's both. It's neither. It's vaporwave.

Okay that sounded cooler in my head. Just watch the video, you'll see what I mean.