Friday, April 24, 2009

Kinda update

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=282

Mind the swearing. Just read this, and this sums up what I have been feeling about  the new face of "Gamers" for quite a little while. I think I now know how green day fans felt pre-"american Idiot". Way back when, being a gamer was really a nerd thing. Now being a nerd or gamer is trendy. You'd think this would make me especially happy, but it doesn't, really. It is just frustrating to have something you once loved in a niche kinda culture thing just get watered down and sold to the masses. Time back way back when, being a gamer was a bad thing. "Nerd" was a term met with shame and indignation.  Somewhere along the line, being a nerd got cool. And that wasn't really what being a nerd was, back in the day. Unfortunately, as the comic states, this has really affected us. Unfortunately, our mommies and daddies in Nintendo and Sony realized that they could make absurd amounts of money by making games about two basic concepts: 1: Very easy. 2: Very simple. This sucks, for us. I think the main reason I am angry about this, is that now being a nerd/gamer is easy. Time used to be that you had to work your thumbs down to bloody stumps to beat a game. They were hard things, Nintendo's originals were renowned for being extremely difficult, for platformers, adventure games and the like.  Play The original Legend of Zelda or Zelda II sometime, you'll know what I'm talking about. I realised this when I watched an episode of "The big bang theory" on an airplane recently. Grossly innacurate. For one reason, ladies. The main characters have a supposedly ditzy neighbor that for whatever reason, just loves to hang out with them. And the main character has an awkward past with a lady he slept with. They seem to forget that such lady-folk usually either avoid such types, or simply don't exist. But for what I presume would be ratings, they added some normality to the show. It just pains me to see what I grew up with twist and fan out in so many directions. It's just too easy, I tells ya. So I guess the definition of "Nerd" is expanding to include more people than it did, but unfortunately those of us who had to look up cheat codes to memorise to beat "Mega man 2: Dr. Wily's Revenge", because it was insanely difficult, have been rather left out in the cold, with the advent of so many casual games. 

I am going to England tomorrow to see a play called "Dancing at Lughnasa". Laters!

"Oh the times, they are a chaaaa-aaangin" -  Bob Dylan

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is me agreeing with you totally!

Long live the nerds :D

(although im not a gamer)