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Are games being ruined by angry fanboys? Let's find out.
Whether you scrutinize the plot of Doctor Who, have a huge crush on Justin Bieber, or
cosplay as a demigoddess with a giant sword from Final Fantasy, there are plenty of reasons
why people become fans.
It gives you a sense of belonging to a community, you feel like you're a part of something bigger than yourself,
and it gives the internet plenty of amazing Amy Rose fan art. Like this.
Or this. But definitely not this. And to date
myself, before the internet, it was hard for fans to connect
and almost impossible to reach out to creators. There was
IRC and message boards, and before that conventions and zines, but it's nothing
like the way it is today.
Today, Fandom has become radically democratized, as fans move from being purely consumers
to participators, as anyone who's been following Daniel Bryan can tell you.
And while fandoms can be amazing, and exciting, they can get real ugly, really fast..
I'm talking about fanboy and fangirl rage. And
lately, it seems like it's been getting worse. Fans hated the ending of
Mass Effect 3 so much, that they demanded it be changed.
One guy even filed a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission, which is nuts.
I mean, I hated the ending of the third season of the killing, but you don't see me lawyering up...yet
Online mobs attacked a community manager at Comcept for even proposing a female version
of their main character. And
Phil Fish, who was already buried in hate, canceled Fez 2 because one guy called him a "f****** hipster."
That's harsh. I mean, I live in Williamsburg. It still stings.
The vitriol takes its toll on designers, as seen in anonymous confessions
like this one: I Help Make Video Games, And I'm Sick Of The Hatred From Gamers.
Yikes. Man.
And Vlambeer recieved so many fan ultimatums demanding new features that they wrote
an open letter addressing it, link in the description.
On the one hand you might argue, all creative people get criticized on the internet.
And you would be right. But with games, somehow, it seems more...intense.
The negative reception of Mass Effect 3 allegedly caused BioWare co-founder Gregory Zeschuk to quit
games entirely. Now he makes craft beer in Austin. I like craft beer, but it's not as good as games.
If designers aren't enjoying their work because fans are constantly threatening them, how can
we expect them to be excited about creating something new?
Angry fans are a big reason that we see soo many clones,
ripoffs, and sequels, rather than truly innovative games.
Of course there are economic reasons for creative limitations.
If a franchise works and you've already spent on its technology and marketing, why NOT just make a sequel
to capitalize on past success?
But the narrow scope of creativity even happens with crowd funded titles.
Although places like kickstarter give creators the freedom to make whatever they want, legendary
designers still come back and make the same games they were making twenty years ago. This is not
a dig at Kickstarter. It's just a platform. And there have been some notable exceptions, partuclarily in the
boardgame category. But Brian Fargo crowdfunded Wasteland 2, Al Lowe came out of retirement
to remake Leisure Suit Larry, and Keiji Inafune might as well be making another Megaman game. Even
independent games, which are outside the reach of crowd funding or publishers,
still fall victim. Instead of pushing their luck with
a brand new experience or title, we got Runner2, Hotline Miami 2, Shank 2... the list goes on.
If the hate machine is depressing designers, impeding creativity, and generating more of
the same, we've got a problem. So
where does all this ferocious fan mentality come from?
First of all, unlike movies or TV, most fans don't possess a true technical knowledge of how games are made.
So that low ceiling, or that weird boss encounter, or that kind of lighting,
Those aren't always mistakes. Sometimes game designers make choices to
Focus on more important things that you may not have noticed, like better A.I.
That doesn't mean that terrible games aren't terrible, but, to paraphrase Brian Eno,
"Honor any mistake as hidden intention."
Another reason that fans get so upset is human nature.
A 2011 study found that ironically, people
have biases against creativity, even when they believe that creativity is what they want.
The research shows how innovative ideas actually create uncertainty, so people just steer themselves
back towards the sure thing.
Tim Schafer recently said that backers of his Broken Age Kickstarter project weren't looking for a reinvention
of adventure games. Even though
he is famous for... reinventing adventure games.
Games also create a unique type of fan behavior that I'd call the "illusion of control."
Because we're moving and making decisions for our avatars, our relationships with them
are even more intimate, as compared with TV or movies or comic books.
So when you combine our natural tendency to resist ideas, with a medium that you feel really, really
attached to, and the Internet which allows communities to freely express themselves to the creators
You get this:
After all, if you've chosen FemShep's intimate partners, you should be able to choose the
ending too. And if not you then you should be able to rally up a mob, right?
Uhhh...no.
Let me be clear. There is a real place for games criticism. I should know. I run a
website about it. You should check it out.
But any good critic will tell you that you need to evaluate a work for what it is, not
criticize it for what it's not. Scottish
philosopher David Hume alluded to this as the is/ought problem. Let me give you an example.
Basically we confuse what something is, like say Dishonored the stealth action game,
for something we think it ought to be, like Dishonored the farming simulation. Which would be awesome.
So if you dislike a particular game, that's totally fine! You don't have to like everything that you play.
Argue with your friends about it. Scream into your pillow.
Or better yet, make a mod. LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy put it this way: "The best
way to complain is to make things."
But don't kick and scream until the designer of your favorite game bends to your will.
While that might work in the short term, it's stifling innovation in the long term.
So, in an ideal world, how should we act?
Fan studies expert Henry Jenkins says we need to establish a new moral economy. In
his words, that's the social expectations, emotional investments, and cultural transactions
which create a shared understanding between all participants in a given economic exchange.
We live in a era of flux with the participatory nature of the internet. But new times call
for a new contract between creators and fans. Think about it this way.
We should support our favorite creators for how they create, not always what they create.
In film you might be a fan of Kathryn Bigelow or Quentin Tarantino, but that doesn't
mean that you expect them to make ten sequels to Point Break or Pulp Fiction. Because
if you did, you wouldn't get to see the Hurt Locker, or Kill Bill.
It's important that we give game designers the exact same latitude.
And sure, no creative person bats 1.000. And yes, game designers should listen to their
fans when something's not working.
But if we allow designers the freedom to experiment in their own way, then we'll end up with
the next Katamari Damacy or Minecraft instead of sequel after sequel after sequel.
So what do you think? Are angry fans ruining games?
And what can we do about? Hash it out in the comments and
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