Fanbois and Haters, or Shut the Hell Up Already.

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.