The lights are on
Veteran Member - Level 12
The game industry is notoriously cutthroat. Stories abound of men and women who are put on deadline crunches for months, multiple times over the course of a game's development cycle, all in the service of bringing our favorite games to us. Thanks to the publishing structure and nature of the medium it is not an industry that often produces million dollar celebrities on the production side. The result is studios full of men and women that work just as hard as anyone else to put food on the table of their families while struggling with the added pressure of producing a piece of entertainment for millions of people.
Even games that have seen a massive amount of effort poured into them do not always come out as hoped though. The results are games like Medal of Honor Warfighter, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, or Final Fantasy XIII that fail to meet the high expectations set for them. Though no game can be expected to cover all bases for every member of its audience, some fall even shorter of the line than others. So what is the proper response to these games that fall short in spite of the hardworking, caring men and women working on them? What is the solution to the clashes that developers and gamers so regularly experience?
I find the solution quite simple: more petitions. Petitions are the new favorite tactic of gamers in their battle to better games for everyone and I, for one, wholly support it. In the past few years we have seen petitions to add dedicated servers to games, change endings and demand a completely logical government sponsored boycott of prissy DmC Dante - among others. Though they have been a part of the industry for years, the proliferation of the internet has made petitions an even more effective tool. That effectiveness comes from the petition's structure; its organization and collective voice allow us to more efficiently express our opinions.
More important than a collective voice, however, is those petitions' ability to represent a much broader group than the people who actually choose to sign them. One of the most important things that we as gamers can do to help encourage the health of the industry is to make sure that every gamer and customer is represented, even when our small group is the only one speaking. It would be morally unconscionable for us to go about the process of making our demands without including everyone who may not know that they should be making them. After all, it is our right to demand, not simply request, change to these products as we see fit. It is our responsibility to improve the industry on other peoples' behalf.
Some will say that we are not within our rights to demand this change. They will say that our complaints focus on arbitrary, aesthetic elements. Of course, we all know these pathetic claims are wrong, almost laughably so in fact. We paid for these games, our money keeps the studios going, and that gives us as much right to see something we do not like changed as any creative director or investor.
Others will attempt to deflate our claims by pointing out that the signers are only comprised of a small, like minded group of players who share a common dissent. As I have already pointed out however, our petitions represent the entire player base even if only 60,000 members of a popular game's 4 million person player base actually signs. Still more will call it ridiculous that we demand so much change from our games while movies and music see so little of the same, but in our hearts we know it is not. We cannot let the publishers' and journalists' attempts to hide our activity stop us from helping those who do not know they want change.
We must not let the ignorant claims that we are being disrespectful of the work that went into these games bring us down. The masses may think us so, but they are sheep and we know that the only way to get anything done is through veiled threats, thinly disguised slights directed at a production house's credibility, and thugish mob tactics. The time of calmly explaining ourselves on the developers' forums has passed, and they have started neglecting our cries in the places they set aside for us to express ourselves. They say we act childish, rude, and obscene when we use the language that is necessary to get their attention, but we know they are wrong. After all, we know we are right so how can they be anything other than wrong?Games are amazing, beautiful works of art, and that art should conform stringently to our own personal preferences.
For supplementary reading, might I suggest a wikipedia entry relating to this post.
I'd say I disagree with you treating those who complain about the product they purchased for 60 dollars as childish in of itself. For one since publishers now like to embargo reviews to the day of a games release often times way past the midnight launches of big titles, that gamers are being hamstrung by the wallets on a daily basis.
As for "thuggish" and hints of discrediting a studio, well there's an old saying that I follow which is "always appeal to the ones who will complain the loudest." This was something that comic book movies started to realize and hence why we now have such faithful adaptations to the source material. Batman and Robin are laughably bad even compared to those who don't care whether Bruce Wayne's parents were shot or not.
Yes the core fans who have spent times with these games and helped shaped them through purchases of both the games and other media are thuggish and full of "entitlement" especially since you know without the Die Hards who purchased all the Devil May Cry games prior to DmC there would be no DmC. Or the group of PC gamers who played all of Bioware's titles prior to the Mass Effect series that are outraged by the complete takeover of that company by EA. Yes these loyal fans who stayed with the product line for years before it reached the big screen should just stay in their corner and ignore the streamlined versions of these titles simply because a studio put hard work into it.
You sir are one of the reasons this industry is falling to part at the seams and we continue to get crappy military shooters and games that are lacking significant innovation, because people who just let the industry does what it wants, and says that they are more than happy to play the games because they are fun, have missed the point.
Your veiled attempts to sarcastically belittle others does not amuse me.
Oh I'm sorry did I put myself on a pedestal of how people should act online Jon. In fact I think the last time we talked it was you who cursed me out and kept pushing the issue. Sure judge other's for death threats( really did this happen?) And voicing their opinion and foul mouthed language when on twitter you have done the same thing. Go on hop on the pedestal. This blog wasn't civil in the way and reason it was written so why should anyone grant you the same.?
Now that I'm not on my phone and at a computer let me address things civily, since you're such a big fan of that word, even though this blog never had any amount of civility in it, just a veiled attempt to make yourself feel like a better person.
P1. First of all we are in a country called America, where citizens are granted certain rights and privileges. IE. the ability to petition the White House, which was naturally shot down. Secondly if a website which is privately owned decides that it is acceptable to post strings of profanity without moderation than that is on that website and not the user. You cry foul at these all you want, but civility is always broken by the "loud minority." I could discuss as well the culture of gratification that we have instilled in us as consumers, which until recently has flipped. You know the idea that the costumer is always right, well we were until people, like you, said that people shouldn't be vocal about their concerns. Because that is what this is about, after all, it's not about civility, you said it yourself and I quote "Games are amazing, beautiful works of art, and that art should conform stringently to our own personal preferences."
In that very sentence you have shown your utmost contempt for those who disagree with you, but we have to be civil so if I cry foul, it's me not you right?
P2. Complaining the loudest, let me explain it in a way that you can understand. You're a comic book fan, a film company has announced plans on an adaptation. Let's say they totally screw it up, who is going to complain the loudest, the fans of the comics, or the people who just don't care about the comic lore? My guess is those fans who have been fans for as long as they can remember I'd imagine. Are these fans who have been with the company time and time again some how wrong for being vocally upset, especially since the comic company announced the film as canon? I'd think they would have a right to get a little vocal in that situation. Now death threats, I really don't know where you're getting this idea that we're all murdering psycho's unless you believe that video games make us violent? Are you saying gamers are inherently vile and evil Jon, because I thought you defended us against that evil Senator from California, ironically a democrat which if I'm not mistaken you're a Republican, I think I might see a bias coming there in another form, but who knows...
P3.You said and I will quote again, boy you forget an awful lot of what you're writing, "The masses may think us so, but they are sheep and we know that the only way to get anything done is through veiled threats, thinly disguised slights directed at a production house's credibility, and thugish mob tactics." So yeah my thuggish comment and veiled threats to credibility weren't words in your mouth they were your words.
P4. Actually I'll have you know that when I play online I report every instance of offensive language immediately. So thanks for taking a stab at my credibility without actually knowing what you're saying.
PS. Go ahead and block me, I am legion, I am everywhere.