I'm caught between writing a potentially inflammatory post, trolling the entire internet and making neither the Guild Wars 2 zealots nor the game's detractors very happy OR writing a shiny happy post about how much much fun I've been having in Tyria, with only pesky interruptions like my job and my need for sleep to stop me. I think I shall troll. If I ramble a bit, welcome to Sctrz' world.
Let's start with making a few people mad. Kleps thinks we should stop apologizing for GW2 or any other MMO that comes out. I agree, because I don't think there is anything to apologize for. As I said in my comment on his blog, Guild Wars officially launched yesterday with no login issues that I am aware of. Oh, that stuff on Saturday? I found something else to do. Actually, I had a very lively conversation with a guildie from across the pond while surfing the net. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday morning, though I probably should have gotten up and mowed the lawn. The people who got their noses bent out of shape because they couldn't play need to grow up.
STRESS?
I wonder if reactions would have been different if ANet had said, "Hey, we're having one last stress test, but won't be wiping characters again before launch." Probably everyone who was eligible would have tried to log in to get a "head start," so to speak, but if/when the servers went down they wouldn't have had much to complain about. After all, it would have been billed as a test. Of course, it was billed as a perk for pre-purchasing; therefore, people feel entitled (not incorrectly) to get what they paid for. Now, ANet is having issues with groups being separated across overflow
servers, etc. This is annoying, but in the meantime there are things to
do that can be done solo. They'll get that stuff fixed.
Should MMOs launch with bugs and potential network issues? Of course not. Cars should be designed without any flaws either, but you're a fool if you expect the first year a brand new model design comes out not to mechanical bugs. The same goes for MMOs. If you're going to whinge about access outages, better to wait until the weekend AFTER the launch so major kinks can be worked out before you have to waste your precious time playing solitaire, or—heaven forbid—getting outside for some exercise and fresh air.
I'm not talking here about reasonable critiques of why you don't like a
game. I'm talking about the "OMG death of the genre EPIC FAIL!
Whaaaaaa!" types of reactions to games.
Meanwhile, the fanbois and zealous devotees are seeing every critique of Guild Wars 2, whether it be about the outages and bugs or actual design features, as personal attacks on them. And they respond in kind, crying that the Great Gospel of Guild Wars is unassailable, and the rest of us just don't get it and need to shut the hell up. Some of this is from from people playing TSW, all the while whinging about their struggles in Kingsmouth of all places, when they won't listen to direct advice about synergizing weapons and active/passive abilities.
Don't You Get It?
I bring up TSW because it's another game where people (including myself) talk about "getting it." Although the TSW fans seem to be a lot more pragmatic about whether others like the game or not, much to Funcom's dismay, I am sure. There a certain stench of self-superiority in the phrase "you just don't get it," regardless if the speaker is adamant or or blasé about whether you should or not.
One of my favorite comebacks when I don't laugh at someone's joke, and they say I must not have gotten it: "Oh I got it, it just wasn't funny." Players of both TSW and especially GW2 need to realize that it's not a matter getting it but whether the game is fun for the individual or not. It doesn't even matter whether the game is well-designed or not. What matters is the number of people who are HAVING FUN playing the game. If you're not having fun, it's not because the game is bad. It's because it doesn't fit your definition of fun.
Complaining about conversation wheels, or trinities, or dynamic events, or pandas or whatever, is like complaining that football doesn't have bats or that there are no pedals in a row boat. You can say you don't like a game and why. But recognize that is more a reflection of you than it is of any intrinsic quality of the game.
I don't think the reactions in general have been particularly strong one way or the other. Mostly quite reasonable I'd say. Warhammer, Vanguard and probab;y Age of Conan all had more hysterical coverage. I think things are improving by and large when it comes to perspective where MMO launches are concerned.
ReplyDeleteI'd say the average reaction of the "haters" has been pretty mild compared to what TOR received. Some of the supporters have been a tad over-enthusiastic, but I've seen nothing that's gone beyond rose-tinted specs and lah-lah-I'm-not-listening.
All-round, good humor and patience seems to have won the day.
In my my little circle in-game, the annoyances are just that, nothing to rage-quit over. I have a fun post coming, if it doesn't interfere with my game time. :P
DeleteYou're right about the venom directed toward SWTOR. Much of it was irrational, and the apologists mostly just said, "But. . . it's fun." The pendulum seems to have swung the other way with GW2. The frothing at the mouth seems to be on the part of the fanatics, while the critics are putting forth mostly reasonable points of view. Not there aren't unreasonable haters.
My Twitter feed blew UP yesterday though. I hope you're right and this is the beginning of a decline in the crazy rhetoric.
I use that comeback a lot too. Last time I used it (in a WoT general chat discussion) I was told that was "really mean" and "cold, man, cold." In other words...it works!
ReplyDeleteLOL yep
DeleteHonestly, I think the somewhat cultish fan support for GW2 actually put me off of it a bit. I'll give it a whirl whenever some kind of trial goes live, but for now my MMO plate is full. I'm still barely into Egypt in TSW, barely started on the expansion content I bought a couple of months ago in DDO, and actually still enjoying SWTOR (crazy, I know).
ReplyDeleteHey play what you like. :) I'll be stopping back in TSW a a day or two myself.
DeleteHmm, I had no idea of the stuff on Twitter. Baby GC is fussy a lot during the day now, making me miss all this drama! Damn!
ReplyDeleteI wish people could just chill and not treat MMOs like their favorite sport teams, or feel they must leap to its defense whenever someone points out something critical. More often than not, it simply comes down to a matter of taste. That can't be changed, really, so why bother.
Hey, one thing I want to point out though, is that people do seem to be giving GW2 and Arenanet a lot of leniency. Look at the recent rampant hacking and phishing attempts, for example. I mean, sure, the effects now are still pretty harmless, mostly in the form of "someone trying to reset password" emails to the player, but if this had been any other company? Say, just for the hell of it, Cryptic? Somehow, I'd imagine the playerbase outcry would be far more heated.
The sports fan analogy is apt, though there are some differences, like sports fans seem to understand when their team is sucky, and they're fans anyway. Maybe that's just here in the States, not very many soccer hooligans.
DeleteI haven't even looked at my spam catcher email address. Maybe I should.