Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is tardy to the party

It is too soon, but that's what makes it funny. But I had to go w/ VG Cats. This was a good week though.

15 years is NOT too soon. Also Nirvana sucks.

I couldn't vote for it. It was funny up until it went the "You're not real gamers" route and I realized it wasn't a joke...

@T

So I take it you put yourself in the category of "auto aiming, madden rostering, wii bowling asstard"?

It's clearly taken to the extreme, so I think it never ceases to be a joke, even if it turns out to be a serious one.

I mean, come on... "We defeated the robot masters, knocked out Tyson, and saved the fucking princess"... I couldn't avoid to say "damn right we did!" at that point.

So yeah, gets my vote.

@Vaitork

Nerds around the world reading that will all want to give a hearty "Hell yeah!"

I'd say it's part humor and part genuine frustration with the loss of what it means to be a gamer, which I think there is a good conversation to have there (one that has really been going on for the last two or three years, but is still interesting).

Frankly I think it's kind of sad how dependent gamers seem to be on terminology for their identity. First we were "unique" just for playing games, then it was for playing "hardcore" games, now it's really just bitching about everything. Which seems to be the sin of the VG Cats comic (which, at least in it's general point, was clearly not joking/ironic). Why is our community so insecure? Why are we angry that others want to enjoy our hobby alongside us?

Further, there was the comically deluded bit about the quality of games going down. You need to be completely insane to actually believe that. Go back and play even the best of games from anything between 1985 and 1997. With one or two exceptions, they simply aren't as good as the top of the modern market, and the general standard was FAR lower. Bastardizations of classics? Why don't you go back and play your "classics" and realize that your rose-colored lenses are so thick that you can barely see.

I'm not by any means dismissing the games of yore (I own more than 30 VC titles and a whole lot of other collections) nor the gamers who've been through the long run (since my old front-loading NES), but certain individuals' feelings of superiority and entitlement are simply disturbing.

I see what they were trying to do there, it just wasn't funny. It just got political and preachy. But people have always loved VG Cats. I don't know why. I voted for 2P Start, but Penny Arcade was good too.

it's not just bitching yourself. If you played DandD for 20 years, got all kinds of stuff for several characters, played with your friends every weekend, and just loved it. But then one of your friends cousins or friends or whatever joins the group and starts to play too for his first time, and he acts like he's a veteran, he's the best, he's been playing for years; only he has no idea what the fuck he's talking about. Wouldn't that be upsetting? Even simpler, isn't it annoying when your sister or whoever the fuck would copy you? Say everything you said and did? Didnt that upset you because she thought she could be you? Really it makes perfect sense, I've put years of time and literally thousands of dollars into games, and now my cousins and even my Grandma are talking about the Wii and how great it is and how much the love games, but not one of them understand what the fuck I'm talking about when they ask me about games at Christmas.

I don't actually read VGCats enough to know if it should be taken seriously or humorously. It reads quite easily as poking fun of people who might feel that way, but I can see it being taken seriously too (obviously).

Seeing as how the comic was meant to be a parody of the Colbert Report... And the Colber Report is a parody of most news programs out there... I think it's meant to be a bit "extreme" in its message. I mean, if you watch the Colbert Report and think Stephen Colbert is EVER being serious... you miss the point of the show entirely.

Some people here are taking it too seriously. Relax fellas. Nobody's being elitist here. There's a reason why the comic is laid out in your typical Colbert style. It isn't even remotely serious even though it very well seem like it.

Pre-post: BPMOmega beat me to it, so there.

@Yourself

I enjoy classic Nintendo titles a great deal more than the "top of the market" today that is 99% shooters.

I'm with Dark Wayne on this one. It's not that I'm angry at people wanting to share my hobby, but when my sister is a self-proclaimed "Final Fantasy Fan" despite having only played two discs of FF8, and nothing else, I get a facial twitch. Hell, I'm not sure if she even knows about Aeris. So while she does acknowledge I'm the bigger nerd, the fact that she thinks of herself as one is a fair representation of what's going on with the Nintendo Wii. Having these people claiming they're gamers is like someone saying they love movies, but haven't seen anything rated above PG and after 2005.

Well, here is my take.

Gamers can be ridiculous. Most gamers expected the day the mainstream appeal would happen, we'd be discussing the emotional impact of downing a colossus in Psychology 101 or something. We'd be studying the use of focal points in Half-Life 2 to tell a story. We'd be discussing the impact of a culture of fear in the world of Final Fantasy VIII. But those idiots, and yes... I called them idiots, seem to have not paid ANY attention to what mainstream appeal is. It's the least offensive, least emotionally taxing, and most generic to make it easily marketable products out there. Basically how can you expect gaming, as we respect it, to reach the same mainstream market that buys Tabloids in the grocery store because Octomom is on the cover or votes for their next American Idol? It couldn't have possibly done that.

BUT, that doesn't mean the existance of this "new wave" of gamers negates the old wave. I mean just look at June. Seriously, check out that release list. JUST FUCKING DO IT! Then tell me there is no market left for the old guard.

But in the end, this whole "new vs. old" arguement is bullshit anyway. You know why? Most of the people who remember gaming as it used to be remember warm and fuzzy and perfect games that DID NOT EXIST. Gaming has a whole has been getting better and better with each year despite this new imaginary line between casual and hardcore. Frankly the entire arguement is bullshit anyway. Nintendo is essentially becoming what they were during the NES/Famicom era. I mean people complain about Brain Training... Famicom had a game where it's entire purpose was to show a player how to knit a Mario sweater.

Here's my take: When you need a graphic novel to say something simple, it's no longer funny.

Like i said, i thought it was a lampooning of the elitists, and in no way a support for their views.

@ MystileArmor: No, I put myself in the category of longtime gamers who are pissed when people who actually believe what this comic is arguing act like a bunch of elitist morons.

You know, the ones that treat gaming (a hobby) as some kind of secret club that you can't enter until you know the secret handshake. Thus perpetuating the stereotype of gamers being a bunch of socially inept retards that drives people away from wanting to get involved with gaming.

If the comic strip is trying to be a parody of the Colbert Report, and trying to mock those who are elitist about gaming, it fails. If it is really trying to make a rant about how casual gamers have ruined the industry, it's not really clever. I've heard this argument so many times before. Either way, it definitely wasn't funny.

It is widely known that every generation has something that is misunderstood by the previous one. Just look at music. First, what would later be called Rock & Roll was called black music. Then, in the 50's, people got mad at Elvis for shaking his hips. Then all these amazing 60's musicians were just regarded as degenerates. Then it was punk, metal, grunge. Every older generation has people that hate what's cool now. A lot of it is just nostalgia.

Yes, it sucks that a lot of people who used to make fun of gamers are know gamers themselves. It is hypocritical. But I'm sure most people that used to hate gaming, only hated it because they didn't understand it. It's the case with any generalization. And if you love gaming so much, shouldn't you be proud that there are more people in the world who are now enjoying something that means so much to you?

Finally, to tie this into my music analogy, let's look at Rock Band/Guitar Hero. Those are games that are played by a lot of people who haven't really played games before. But even they are subject to discrimination by musicians. "Why don't you just play a real guitar?" Do you know how many times I've heard the same freakin' argument?

It's just because they are bitter. Bitter that you are enjoying something easily that they had to work very hard for. Well, too bad for them. If there is a way for people to have a fun time, who are we to get in their way?

I think I found a pretty good reference to get my point across better. Does anyone watch The Big Bang Theory? Well, ignoring the brutal nerd stereotyping in that there is one particular episode that reminds me perfectly of what I'm saying here. When a new, young and sexy male scientist joins the research lab, Leonard tries to befriend him because he's so smart, and eventually they go to Leonard's house after trying to ride the guys motorcycle. While the sexy guy is helping Leonard into his house, Penny sees him and is of course immediately attracted to him. The thing is, she then starts calling herself "Queen of the nerds" and says how much she loves science, which makes Leonard say, "Since when?" to which she just angrily yells "Since forever!". This is pretty much going on, people are trying to be scientists without really giving a fuck about science.

15 years? Really?

Yea, no. It isn't too soon by any stretch of the imagination.

1994 would have been too soon.

It was too soon...

after all it hasn't been 22.3 years.

(It didn't stop me from laughing like I would at a dead baby joke though; Knowing I shouldn't, but not being able to stop myself from doing so)

That already came out! :D
http://hiimdaisy.livejournal.com/25207.html#cutid1

So what you meant was "I can tell that I'll be bored from now on." :P

He'll pull a Kojima. Part 4 was supposed to be the end but we'll end up with a Part 5.

That was absolutely an NES Megaman password.

No, no, no. She said she liked old Sonic, not new Sonic.

khan, my friend, you never ceast to amaze me.

*cease

also BitF should stick exclusively to the Waluigi stuff, classic.

I wish Brawl in the Family would fix its damn RSS feed.

I actually think that one of the things VGCats is hitting on, unintentionally, is that our experiences as lifelong gamers is changing. It's not that there aren't great games, but the modern generation just has fewer truly iconic games compared to our childhood and younger years.

Fallout 3 is great, I'm playing it now. But it doesn't match the unbridled joy and enthusiasm that I attacked Fallout 1 with a decade ago.

It's hard to explain to my daughter why I played levels in Megaman and Super Mario Bros over and over and over again, memorizing patterns and mastering pixel perfect jumps. She's a gamer, but would never do that (and neither would I now). Why the hell did I do it?

I would play anything, literally anything, as a kid, and usually had fun with it. Every game was fresh and original, even if as an adult I can look back and realize it was actually a crappy game. As an adult, I'm entirely too cynical to approach gaming with the same naive enthusiasm I did as a kid...but I still remember those days fondly.

As I've aged (and I think it's the same for many gamers), the earliest great games that we played take on a mythic purity that is almost impossible for any current game to live up to, even if it is in all respects a better game.

Ha, I do the same thing. I've been thinking lately about some of the games I used to play and I realized that a good number of them were utter shit haha. I don't know about elevating the good ones to an almost deistic status among other games, my favorite games are from this particular decade. In fact, I feel the same way about some of the games I play now rather than ones from many years ago, particularly ones like KOTOR and Halo 2. I went and replayed the first KOTOR, and while not doing pixel perfect movements, I tried to replicate earlier playthroughs as well as possible, when I missed a conversation tree with Bastilla I reloaded a previous save even though it meant losing an entire planets worth of finished quests. The same thing with Halo 2 and even 3, there are some times were I try almost excessively to replicate small details even ones as minuscule as a perfect grenade throw.

Thanks Courtney, that was an excellent post.

I don't think it was unintentionally though. While it isn't Scott's main message with his comic, I believe it is implied through the whole subject.

Gaming is growing to be much more broad than it was before, and for many old schoolers it might be hard to see newer gamers take on the subject without the fondness and dedication we took on it years back. Sometimes, you could say, it seems that they don't "appreciate" it enough.

Bleh, I guess you could say exactly the same from other industries, particularly movies, so it isn't really something new.

@Vaitork

You're right about other industries and mediums, but I think the relative youth of gaming comes into play here in making the idea a little different. Those of us who are old enough were able to basically witness the birth of a new entertainment medium (particularly with the introduction of the home console). Some of us have experienced the entire history of this entertainment medium, from the beginning until now. It's harder and harder to find people who had that same connection to something like movies or television (due to how long they've been around).

@Dark Wayne

You're right, it's still possible to make that connection to games. Sadly, I just don't think that I can anymore, for a variety of reasons.

I've had the thought before that I might actually enjoy gaming even more if I wasn't a big fan of video game blogs. Now it's so easy to be constantly in the know about everything worth knowing about gaming. Sometimes being too well informed ruins the mystique and freshness of cracking open a new game. But, I also think I have as much fun reading Joystiq and some other blogs as I do gaming, so it's a tradeoff.

Clearly it's getting late, I'm starting to babble.

The fact that VGCats inspired this much intelligent discourse gets it a click from me.