I am, in the words of the great moody one: Pissed. Not just minorly, but
majorly. While I think I could end this editorial here and get the point I
want to make across, I have a feeling it wouldn't be posted to RPGFan, in
which case all hopes of that flame mail I've grown to love reaching my mail
box would be lost. So, I'll elaborate....
There has been a lot of whining since Final Fantasy 7 came out, and it's
really been getting worse, not better.
"Loyalists" (from here on referred to as "us") to the RPG genre have turned
into whiny spoiled brats, complaining that RPGs are all eye candy and no
quality. I've heard a lot of whining that we deserve better, that we deserve
more than any of these hated "casual gamers" because we've been playing RPGs
longer. I've heard a lot of people saying that the RPG developers and
publishers OWE us and should only make games the way we want them, even
though they'd be able to make a good deal more money by making games mostly
for casual gamers, and a few for us. What makes me maddest though, is that
people seem to hate these developers and publishers for wanting to make money.
I have heard these things from not only from faceless nameless jerks who
can't spell properly, but from a lot of people whom I know and respect, or
even just respect. The most aggravating occurrence was an editorial by
RPGFan's Jaime on Working Designs' "Spaz" label. In this, all I heard was a
good deal of an angry RPG loyalist griping about how we deserved more RPGs,
and Working Designs should not be so preoccupied with making money.
I will start off with my own opinions by arguing my point against that
complaint. To support one's self and family, in ANY form of
government/economy, you need to make money. Therefor, they over at Working
need money to live a good life. And this applies to every other game
developer/publisher/whatever in the world.
But let's face it, we who care for quality over eye candy are a minority, as
are hard core gamers in comparison to casuals. Therefore, it seems to me at
least, that no one can make very much money by making games for us, the
"loyalists." Furthermore, it seems to me, that if any one company catered
all its games to us, they would go broke, leave the business, and we'd have
one less company working towards making us happy. So, as logic follows, they
have to find a balance.... A few eye candy games (which can be fun, on
occasion) for the casuals to make them a good amount of money. And then, a
few quality games for us, the "loyalists."
Mind you, a lot of developers don't use this balance. Working Designs most
definitely does (I consider that to be more of a fact than an opinion) .
Strangely enough, I feel that Square does too. And they are often the ones
getting it worst from these fed up "loyalists." Note also that I would also
want money if I were making games.
On to the next point... Developers owe us nothing. Saying they owe us the
games we want just because we've stuck by them all these years is like saying
our parents owe us really nice cars, just because we've rode the bikes they
bought us over the years. If I heard someone saying something like that, I'd
immediately know they were a spoiled brat, and whoever's reading this out
there probably would too. Please, stop whining about how they owe us this
and that. The fact is simply this: they don't.
I suppose that that pretty much covers my feelings on the subjects. Please
send all flame mail to NetSpieder@aol.com, or if you have the time submit an
editorial to RPGFan. I'll have Rudo pulling his hair out yet.
Signing out, Abe.
