LONG BLOG
The entitled gamer.
The recent "controversy" of Square-Enix announcing that the Final Fantasy VII Remake is going to end up being multiple parts has sparked this blog entry. I won't get into why I'm ok with this announcement and just say I'll reserve anything close to negative reactions until I've heard more.
But it brings me to the modern state of gaming. It's kind of ironic because it very accurately reflects the state of political correctness that the US has been falling into as of late. Where ANYTHING can be offensive and some petition or another will try to fight it. In a sense that's modern gaming.
Entitled brats whining about everything they even mildly disagreeing with, boycotting games and companies the moment the first hinted leak of something they don't agree with is breathed. Don't mistake me here, I'm GLAD that gamers and consumers have more of a voice in these matters. And there are some companies that really DO deserve this level of scrutiny. But it's getting fucking ridiculous. Now, I know I started this about Square-Enix...and they do deserve an air of caution and some scrutiny, I'm not saying they don't. But I use this example because it's a good one for people blowing something completely out of proportion based on a sentence. So little information is known here, and yet it's already the doom of this project...and it's also spawned so much misinformation being regarded as fact. (Seriously it has never been said the game would be "episodic" ala-Tell-Tale games.)
I might be a crotchedly old bastard at this point, but I've been in this game since 1989. I've been playing games longer than some of these entitled shits parents were alive. I'm not claiming to be an expert, but I'll tell you this, I've seen a lot of trends rise and fall in this industry, I've indirectly worked within this industry and I've played, reviewed and enjoyed more games than I can literally count. I'm just saying I think my opinion is as valid as anyone elses here, I have the knowledge of the field to feel I can interject and have my say.
Sometimes I just feel it's ok to chill the fuck out. To chill out and reserve judgement until all the facts are in front of you...in fact that's not only ok, but hell it's recommended most of the time. Anyone who enjoyed FF7 back when it released on PS1 during 1997, and the many who have since enjoyed it for the first or 50th time since has probably been wishing, secretly or otherwise for this for years. And now we're finally getting it, and then this news comes out, but it comes out in Square trying to do the right thing and saying this is happening BECAUSE they want to present the full, un-compromised vision of the game. But rather than take that into consideration fans everyone are raging, boycotting, and having dick-measuring contests at the news.
This is of course but one example. Honestly some better examples came last year in the form of games like Watch_Dogs. Rather you really enjoyed that game or not, as a reasonable person you have to realize how absolutely fucking absurdly overblown the fans reactions with Ubisoft were regarding the old E3 footage of that game. The game wasn't perfect, but I played it based on what it was and personally found it pretty decent, one of my favorite Ubisoft games in fact. (That's not saying much for me, to be fair.) But a shitstorm comes a-brewing and all of a sudden it's the unpopular, outcast opinion to like the game.
Another classic example, and one I've fought for for some years now is DMC. Make no mistake I'm not great Devil May Cry fan...but the things that DMC supposedly did wrong is my reasoning why. I LOVED Devil May Cry, the original, ever since playing the demo disc that came packaged with Resident Evil: Code Veronica for PS2. The second game was kind of lacking...it was ok, just mediocre. Then the third game came along...the one that MOST fans consider the best, the one that certainly defined Dante as the character he WAS until DMC. I hated so many things about that game, but name it was in Dante and the games fucking terrible writing of his character. Regardless, it's not the popular opinion, I can accept that.
BUT THEN...DMC is announced. Fans lose their fucking entitled little minds. The game comes out, I personally thought the new direction looked decent, so I gave it a shot, even though I hadn't really enjoyed a game in the series since the original. I thought the game was great. I liked the new Dante a lot more, as he just felt like an overall better developed character (As a very character-driven writer myself this means a lot to me, probably more than most) and then I see the fans shred the game to pieces...because it wasn't the old DMC. Not because it was a bad game, because if you took the DMC name off it, it was a pretty competent and fun brawler. But entitled fans have to have their way...so Capcom is made a mockery and you're considered one of the most uncool, lousy pieces of dogshit on the internet if you sing the game any praises.
That's the problem right there. Fans throw a fit when you change up things and try to take something in a new, and different direction. BUT...then they get pisses when you make a sequel that doesn't change enough... So you literally cannot win with those types of people. "I hated this game because it changed things from how I know them, and how it was. I wanted a new version of that game that was just like it, but new!" And these same people will then turn around 2 minutes later online to say "UGH, ANOTHER Call of Duty game!? It's the same fucking game as the last one, just with new guns and maps! The same fucking game with a new coat of paint, who wants this shit!?"
Fucking nonsense. You can't win. You just can't. This entitlement needs to stop. It won't, I'm not fool enough to even remotely think it will, ever. But it doesn't change the fact that all it does it honestly hurt the industry as a whole. And so many of the people who do it think they're being revolutionary minute men fighting the good fight to change gaming for the better. The only difference to actually attempt to do what they are claiming to do is just calm the fuck down and use some reason. Discuss things, debate things, take the complaints to the developers and keep it civil, so you actually come off as a decent human being who wants to buy into this product but has some reservations.
It's so much easier to just fucking chill out, man. If any of this above applies to you, I implore you, give it a shot. You're not changing anything, no one is going to remember you as a great martyr that helped make that one game better. And that's ok, who fucking cares?
Have a nice day. Or don't. No one gives a fuck.
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