Hi, I’m Wallace, the creator of Loose Cartridge. I love gaming both modern and retro, this space is built to explore the creative spark that makes gaming so special.
I'm a 90s kid, so I remember a time when algorithms didn't dictate our gaming discourse. A time with gaming magazines, message boards, and fan sites. This site and my YouTube channel are my way of revisiting that magic — one experience at a time.
Video games are beautiful. The joy of getting absorbed into a world crafted by a team of artists, the stimulation of engaging with intricately crafted gameplay systems, the pain of defeat that is replaced by the thrill of joy upon victory. No other entertainment medium provides the experience that video games do, not even close. Unlike other media, playing a video game is a personal endeavor. Two people can watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy and have a very similar experience, two people can listen to Michael Jackson’s Thriller and experience the same music, but have those same two people sit down and play The Legend of Zelda Link’s Awakening….they will come away with different stories to tell. Different bosses they got stuck at, different ways they approached levels, different places they may have visited all together.
People always have different opinions on media, but only in the realm of video games do those differing opinions come from very different experiences with the same product. That’s why gaming discourse has always been so fascinating to me, and why I’m saddened by the state of gaming discourse on the internet today. I’m old enough to remember the early days of video game discussion online, before it all took place on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter. In the 2000s, discussions on games happened on dedicated forums, every different community had its own vibe. Sure, some of it got heated but it all felt quieter, no one was being inflammatory for the sake of going viral or getting Reddit karma. It all felt authentic in a way that let you know there was another living breathing gamer on the other end of those words. That world of genuine decentralized gaming communities has morphed into something unrecognizable to me, a singular void where gaming content creators are rewarded for being as loud, disrespectful, and inflammatory as possible. Where people are paid handsomely to strip away the humanity of people they disagree with or studios who made games they didn’t like. The modern internet does not do justice to the games I love, it doesn’t feel like a place where people can freely share their diverse experiences they had when playing. Instead it feels like a hostile cesspool where large creators turn a profit by keeping their audience as angry as possible.
I’m not naive, I know I alone can’t change this direction of gaming communities online, it is simply a sign of the times….everything is more divisive in our current social media environment. All content is geared toward engagement and video game content is no different. But I want Loose Cartridge to be a respite from the noise, a quiet cozy spot on the internet where you can just hear my thoughts on some cool video games and enjoy yourself. I want to make this a thoughtful place, away from the clickbait and rage-posting. This may not change the trajectory of gaming communities on the internet, but in this little space, I can curate the type of content I want to see more of. My small proactive step of being the change I want to see in the world.