Cynicism vs. Observation
1,044 words.
I’m going to try a new thing this year on the ol’ blog. Last year, I would start writing a post, thinking it was the greatest thing ever, words flowing all over the place, but then I’d hit a wall and couldn’t really think of a conclusion, and I would wander away to something else. Then I would read the post the next day or the next, and realize it wasn’t that good, despite having a kernel of a good idea. So I’d edit it again and put it away. Then the next day I’d realize it’s even worse, and edit it again and again and again, adding paragraphs, removing paragraphs, changing it entirely from what it once was on the first day. Eventually I’d decide it was utterly pointless garbage that didn’t have a conclusion for a reason-because it was garbage-and it would remain forever buried in the Drafts folder. This is one of those posts. But this year, I’m going to post it anyway! Maybe that’s kind of cynical. It feels kind of cynical. But after writing this post, I don’t really know anymore.
I’m sure @Jaedia didn’t intend this, but her comment on my last post brought up an interesting dialog in my head: Where is the line between cynicism and just plain observation? I mentioned that I thought 2018 was kind of a train wreck for gaming, but when I said that, I didn’t feel like I was being cynical, I just felt like I was making an observation of reality that anyone could see if they just looked at it.
That's, uh, let's say, a picture of cynicism. (Actually I think it's a photo I took in the Natural History Museum in New York.)
I wasn’t even talking about the industry, I was just talking about the games themselves. A lot of upcoming games look very derivative and unoriginal to me right now. That doesn’t feel like cynicism, it just feels like a simple observation, an obvious conclusion drawn by connecting a few dots. As just one example: Anthem is clearly a derivative of Destiny, which is itself a derivative of others. What’s new there? It’s another game of people running around with guns and jumpjets shooting at bots to get loot that makes you look cool to other players. I mean, the first class-based jumpjet shooter game *I* played came out in like 1998. The only new thing is “the lore,” which is entirely irrelevant to the core game mechanics.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy it and play it. I mean if the cost of a new game “doesn’t even register as an amount of money,” as it probably doesn’t for most working professionals, go for it. (I’ve been there.) Maybe it will be the greatest version of Destiny to ever come out, sort of like World of Warcraft became the most popular version of EverQuest. But *I’m* not going to buy it, and I’m surely not going to pre-order it, because (among other reasons) I already played that game back in 1998, and also it might *not* be better. It might be the Battlestar Galactica television series to the Star Wars movie. It could be the Deep Impact to Armageddon (or was it vice versa?). It could be the Unreal to Quake. It might be any number of five million other examples of clones made to take advantage of people’s interest in a popular original. I’m old and wise enough to let other people waste their money now.
But is it cynical to point that out? I don’t think so. I see it more as educational. I *do* think it’s cynical to *make* a clone game like Anthem, though. It’s pretty cynical to sit in a business meeting and propose making an Anthem to sell to all the people who love Destiny, who will pre-order it before seeing anything but a trailer. It’s counting on profiting from the worst of human behavior, which is pretty cynical if you ask me.
Not that I *blame* them for it. Profitable business and marketing is based on deep-rooted cynicism. The basic act of selling a product is the process of tricking someone into buying something they don’t want or need. Wait, was *that* cynicism? Again, it doesn’t feel like it to me. It’s just an observation. That’s literally true, so how can it be cynicism? Is it cynical to pull back the curtain and expose the world for what it is? Or is it a noble service trying to educate and make the world a better place? Or is it more noble to leave people to their happy ignorance?
Maybe it \*is\* cynical to point out that business is cynical.
Regardless, it doesn’t really change the fact that it’s hard to blog about games right now without talking about problems, and nobody really wants to hear about them, and I don’t particularly enjoy beating a dead horse anyway.
I could talk about RimWorld some more, I guess. Boy RimWorld is a great game. The core game mechanics are awesome, definitely *not* something I played in 1998. And there are so many different ways to play it. Completely chill, like a building game or a fancy screensaver, where you just sit and listen to the music. Or super hardcore survival, where every minute is life-or-death decision-making. It’s all up to you! “They don’t care, *it’s your glass!*”
I’ve also been playing a little bit of Subnautica every day. It’s not quite as great, but it’s not bad.
Ugh now I have to find another picture. I’m not writing about anything anymore unless it’s a game that I have a recent screenshot for.
Editor’s note: I’m still trying to edit this post at the last minute before posting it because it’s still complete pointless garbage that doesn’t really make a point, is slightly off, feels wrong, and many other things, but maybe if I just tweak a *couple more sentences* it will all click into place and become brilliant.
Editor’s second note: No. No it won’t. It’s hopeless.
P. S. Bhagpuss added a comment to that last post which I could have addressed here, but I’ll save it for a *different* half-finished post.
Archived Comments
Wilhelm Arcturus 2019-01-07T15:03:02Z
I would have perhaps cast this as cynicism vs. criticism. While criticism has its own negative connotations, at its base it ought to be the honest appraisal, in the eye of the writer at least, of what has been presented. Recognizing the flaws in something does not mean one is set to discard the whole. I find and write about problems with games I otherwise quite enjoy and play regularly. I would argue that only somebody deeply immersed in a game can really recognize anything beyond the superficial flaws.
Of course, that said, saying that Anthem is a knock-off of Destiny which was itself a knock-off of whatever else… Boarderlands maybe… and so on down the line does strike me as a surface level observation. It isn’t necessarily bad or wrong. It does make the reader ask what might set one apart from the other if the premise seems so close. But it doesn’t deliver much beyond what we could glean already and, if you stop there, it might be prudent to ask it was observation or cynicism or both wrapped up together. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Bhagpuss 2019-01-07T16:39:37Z
I don’t want to repeat myself (although why break the habit of a lifetime?) but I do think you’re expecting too much. Firstly, there’s the old saw about the best being the enemy of the good. I have believed all my life that “good enough” is, literaly, good enough. It’s right there in the language. In gaming terms, not every game has to be best in class. If it’s good its good enough.
Secondly, there’s subjective and objective quality. Again, I have believed at least since I was at college that all human experience is necessarily and unavoidably subjective. There may be external, objective standards but humans, with their intrinsically subjective perceptive systems, cannot access those standards. Can’t go too far down this path without butting into empiricism vs transcendentalism, of course.
Suffice it to say that, as far as gaming is concerned, there are no objective standards. Some people love games that other people loathe; some people think games are examples of the best there is while others would cite the same games symptomatic of the worst. This may have some root in expreience and knowledge but it also comes down to that old devil, taste.
Al of that is a side-issue to the main thrust of your argument, though, which seems to be that the games being made nowadays aren’t “new”. You say “A lot of upcoming games look very derivative and unoriginal to me right now. That doesn’t feel like cynicism, it just feels like a simple observation” to which I would, were we debating this in the pub, irritatingly reply “…and your point is?”
Who said they need to be new or innovative? Not me. If I like a thing there’s a good chance I’ll like another version of the same thing just as much. Novelty has its place but it’s far from the be-all and end-all, even of discovery, let alone of enterprise. Indeed, when it comes to popular entertainment, a more frequently heard complaint is probably that iterations on a theme aren’t enough like the original.
In MMORPG terms, I was quite content to see companies banging out retreads of the diku-mud format. I never felt the problem with cloning WoW was lack of innovation. It was more an issue of over-saturating the market and thereby diluting the offer, along with an often inadequate level of quality control. The mediocre can be an enemy of the good, too.
Anyway, this one could run and run. You certainly know how to get a comment thread started!
UltrViolet 2019-01-07T16:59:19Z I’m saying that new games have to be new and innovative. :) At least, to get my dollars.
Shintar 2019-01-08T06:12:49Z I’m pretty sure you could make a post without including a picture and the world wouldn’t end. :P
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