We owe it to ourselves to stop calling things "content"
I know there's already a well-established backlash against the word - it's corporatised marketer-language that's seeped into the common parlance of online creators in a way that's distasteful to everyone - but I don't just think it's damaging to the media it's applied to, but to the literacy of people who engage with it.
I've come to see it as a condensed version of a thought-terminating cliché. It's just a general word to mean "more stuff to consume" with no value associated with it, but can encapsulate anything from "the good shit we're all here for" to "grinding for levels" - it's basically meaningless.
When a review suggests a game "lacks content" - what does that mean? I know that in the abstract, they're saying "I want more of this game" but how could anything actionable come from that statement? Are achievements content? Combat barks? Party banter? Challenge modes? Is paid DLC content (it's in the name...)? Cosmetics? Paid cosmetics? Randomised cosmetics???
I once saw One Piece described as "a lot of content" as a negative and like... I had a writing lesson in school when I was about 8 where we were instructed to describe things (shoes, cars, houses, books, whatever) but we weren't allowed to use the word "nice" - "nice" is a filler word that implies substance but conveys nothing about the subject, and when you aren't allowed to use it you end up actually describing things, often in distinct and personal ways. Shoes being "beautiful" or "pretty" or "good" or "smart". Shoes can be all of those things, and one might see any of those traits and write "nice shoes", but they're not the same. What do you mean when you call them "nice"? And in the same vein I have to ask - what is One Piece a lot of?
If "content" is a good and desirable thing to have, then why would One Piece having a lot of it be a drawback? If it's not a good thing, then why is "more content on the way" such a go-to phrase for game developers and YouTubers? I know what the One Piece person is getting at - it's a big time commitment, there's a lot of characters, a ton of tie-in nonsense, decades of fan-culture, competing translations - but in calling it "content" the conversation starts two steps behind the line.
I think when people talk about "content" there's a certain insecurity at play - not only is the word current and relevant, not only is it being used by all their peers - it's safe. It means nothing, but is an umbrella for anything. It's stuff. "More stuff on the way" doesn't sound quite so professional, but it's the same sentence.
In calling media "content" I don't just think we devalue the work - we abstract away the substance. It's not art, or entertainment, or comfort telly, a guilty pleasure - it's just nice.