Disregarding Taste- The Scaled Back Situation

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I'm not sure even John Davison can fix this. Please, dear God, let's hope. He deserves better than this. That guy Patrick on the left, I think he is the antithesis of what is bad about some parts of the gaming industry and what I don't like about people. Maybe they were just having a bad day... but wow. The fact that they even call their podcast Thirsty Thursdays, should have made me aware of what  I was in for. Wow.
 
Godspeed, John Davison. Godspeed.

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I wrote this... putting it here for safekeeping.  :) 
 
  Fuck, where do I start.  
 
I could write an essay of what's fucked up with humanity, why opinion is the simultaneous salvation and destruction of man, what exactly human nature is, why Magnolia is the best film ever made, why Shadow of the Colossus changed my perception of games, why Led Zeppelin is my favorite band of all time and helped me through the loss of a family member, what things I hate about people on a daily basis, what I want to do with my life, why love isn't really love anymore, why what David Cage is trying to do for games is one of the most sink-or-swim attempts in gaming, why my new girlfriend perfectly complements me as and individual, intellectual and personality, why small dogs are better than large dogs, why store- bought bagels are sooooo much worse than fresh bagels, why I don't have as many friends as I'd like and yet am still living the most fulfilling life possible, why America is turning into a bunch of consumerist  idiots who no longer think about the actual issues, why Japan is probably the best place to live on Earth, why Disney World will destroy the human species, why I don't want kids, why I think abortion is okay, why a long walk through the woods is the best thing possible, why humanity is so lazy, why cookie-dough is the best type of ice cream, why pie is better than cake, why I never friends growing up, why I'll never reach my lofty goals for life and yet keep them in my wallet on a regular basis, why much of modern science is fundamentally changing the way we live our lives for the worst, why games are artistic, what my favorite bands are, why giantbomb.com, gamasutra and bitmob are the only gaming sites I visit nowadays, why the very idea of religion is stupid, why aliens exist, why I would kill myself before working a 9-5 job, why I show such pride in these writings, why i believe in Fate even when I don't believe in God, why rap destroyed modern music, why I plan to never use a credit card so long as I can, why critical analysis these days in any medium is so up it's own ass, why people murder each other, why I plan to never have kids, why marriage is unnecessary, why my stepdad represents everything I don't wanna be, why I have to read more, why Wikipedia is the greatest thing ever invented, why evolution is not a theory and why the egg came before the chicken.
 
That's all I got for now. :P  So, is that what you were talking about? Stuff like that??

 NOTE: This started as a forum post, but it got bigger than I anticipated. I hope you read it and debate with me, please don't let its size turn you off.  :)
 
PRELIDE: Opinion is the nature of the world, and yet people can't accept that. Thousands of years of development and we still haven't realized what an opinion is. It's why we have wars, it's why we have feuds. That's not to say those things don't come as a direct reuslt of other misconduct and mitigating factors, but people can't accept that they might not be right. It's human nature. I understand that,but it is certainly very frustrating. It's happened to me a couple times, but I'd like to feel that I'm trying to make myself better than it. Please read on.
 
BLOG: It absolutely disgusts me to see how up in arms people get about the quality of a game and feel they have to resent because of a lot of positive hype, case in point Uncharted 2. I know I'll get a lot of flak for this, and deservedly so, I welcome it, but people are fucking idiots when it comes to getting excited for a game. There's some strange precedent out there that if a game has, say, over 90 on Metacritic before release, you all of a sudden have to get skeptical. People can just never be happy and it's absolutely fucking pathetic. I don't see why people have to bad mouth the game before it comes out. The games media is giving us their opinion, that doesn't mean you should have to follow that opinion or be skeptical. Just go into the game expecting a solid game because others not recommended, not preparing to be disappointed. It's a fucking game, be happy about it and revel in the fact that a bunch of men and women put in a lot of hard effort to make the best game possible, even if that's not ultimately the case for the final product.
 
To go a little deeper, the thing that is fundamentally wrong with critical analysis throughout any medium these days is the mentality that you have to go in to try and find faults. Everybody loves Psychonauts, but going into the game not a lot of people were hyped for it at all, save a few. If 24 game critics told you  Psychonauts was one of their top 10 games of all time, people would all of a sudden have to become skeptical and go in looking for faults and maybe it wouldn't be so loved because people would find any little thing that's wrong and not simply be pleasantly surprised. The whole problem (wow this is going deeper than I anticipated) with the Internet, and especially these "fanboy" type characters, is that everything is a glass half-empty situation. People can't be satisfied. We live in a culture of pessimistic and pissy people who feel like their entitled to something
 
The thing is, the ideal situation would be a developer reveals a game three months before it comes out, little of this nonsense called "hype" is established and people get the game and form their own opinions, not be so pissy about those of others. But that's simply not feasible. You have to establish a fanbase and get advertising and marketing out there. Could a game, a AAA game like God of War III, simply bypass reviews so as to avoid all this hype? That would be nice, but the answer is no. Because then people would have to form their own opinions on a game and not being able to make themselves feel better by trying to justify that a person is somehow wrong. God forbid. It is absolutely, one hundred percent a can't win situation these days. It's a problem with all media these days, though more so games. And the Internet has continually fueled this at the expense of the consumer and pure fun. It does so through anonymity and pessimism and people who are so simple-minded that they can't even try to contemplate it in the least like I am attempting to do 
 
Reading about games isn't fun any more because of all this nonsense. I continually try to convince myself that I want all this games coverage, but I don't want this. It proves how pathetic humanity actually is that we put ourselves through all this type of critical analysis and nonsensical details. Reading GB is about as much as I can convince myself to care any more, increasingly so everyday, and yet I'd still love to read games media. However, the fact is these days, the only place I can usually go to avoid these stupid comments is the podcasts nowadays. People are a bunch of idiosyncratic, up their own ass, pissy little people, at least on the Internet because it brings out the worst in them. The hype, review, sequel previews, more hype and review process is tiring me out. All because of this fucking pessimism that comes as a result of hype and the Internet. Just play games people, it's a fucking hobby. It's nice to dissect them and look at them more critically here and there, but not if we're gonna approach it like this.It only serves to heighten my distaste (albeit it a little) for a hobby that I so deeply treasure and wish to discuss with you guys. Don't destroy it by ruining my impressions of you with nonsensical threads about hype and why you're entitled to something. It pisses me the fuck off.
 
EPILOGUE: This is my opinion, it is by no means right. Feel free to argue with me, but please do it in a respectful manner. I welcome open discussion, so don't simply call me a twat if you disagree with me and move on, talk about it. Give examples of why I'm an ignorant jackass for writing this, don't just outright tell it to me. We're not cavemen.
 
P.S. Sorry if I rambled and got redundant, this isn't the best writing in the world, but I feel it expresses my views in a reasonably on point post. I think my point is still clear (somewhere hidden within that monster post) about what I feel. Again, this is my opinion and some people will possibly attack me about it, but maybe that just serves to prove my point on this whole people can't accept that no one view is right. Saying that a person's opinion is wrong is stupid. I hope you made your way through it and even if you don't agree with me, do me the courtesy of respecting that it's mine.

 Just call this My Name Is Earl (minus the terrible deeds before a coma.)
 
 1. Start a website... not like a po-dunk little blog, like a legitimate site
2. No drinking/drugs (nothing against you guys, I just don't do that, though I am perfectly fine with people having alcohol and marijuana in reasonable doses)
 3. Move to Canada or Japan
 4. Learn both Japanese and Italian
5. Write... anything, a website, a book, a magazine... whatever 
6. Learn some programming and maybe create a couple indie games in my spare time... I'm fascinated by that
7. Marry young
8. Never have kids
9. Read more, learn more... books, poetry, Wikipedia, novels, history books, GiantBomb.com... I just wanna be as well-rounded an individual as is possible
10. Explore the world... go on a trip, have fun 
11.  My primary interests right now are web development, journalism, and world history... see where that leads  :) 
12. Eat an exotic meat
13. Forever escape the obesity and consumerism that is American culture
14. Never, ever have a 9-5 job
15. Always remain faithful to a person that I love... the way I see people jump from relationship to relationship these days disgusts me. I wanna find someone I truly love and be the best person I can be (as cheesy as that sounds)
16. Appreciation for artistry... I don't know, expand my musical tastes, take a painting class, anything.
 
Pretty lofty and idealistic, huh? Reality will set in soon enough, but just coming up with that list has inspired me. I'll do my best to stick by it. I'm gonna print it out and keep it with me. Thanks for the thread that gave me this inspiration JonathanMoore. Honestly, it  let me get some of my feelings out there. I will add more in the future.

 PLEASE READ THIS AND NOTE: These recommendations are from bookmarks made on my desktop. I also have bookmarks from my laptop and will "patch" those into the blog itself tomorrow because I don't feel like doing it now. I will make a note of which ones in a comment provided in the comments section for this blog. Hope you understand that this is only like 1/2ish of the blogs I intend to promote and 1/2ish of the blog itself. I'll also be patching in my Editorial, Schmeditorial and the list of users in 'Oh You Blog, Do You?' and the Writer's Corner section. Wanted to get something out for tonight. Sorry for the inconvenience, I'm sure you'll understand.  TUNE BACK IN IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS TIME FOR THE FULL BLOG EXPERIENCE.

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So, taste is such a subjective thing. So when I ask for your support, trust and faith in me in this endeavor... I mean it.
 
I'm thinking that if you guys PM me your blogs, blogs which you feel convey your thoughts on a particular subject well and thougt out in a rational way (no typos), I could do a blog promoting them (as many as I see fit) and maybe so many of them wouldn't have to be linked to the forums (we'll see). 
 
It does not have to be about games, but make sure you feel that it is a good, solid blog or that it is your best work. Another idea, I've been tossing around in my head is that i'll have a weekly subject that you guys can blog about, along with a milieu of blogs on other topics like videogames (predominantly) along with music, movies, books, horseback riding, whatever. For instance, on the week of 9/9/09, I might ask you guys to blog about topics like what The Beatles have meant to you over the years or the Dreamcast (considering that it is the 10-year anniversary).
 
I aim to try and make it work, but then again I'm 90% sure it won't work (anybody remember Yesteryear? no?) without a ton of support. Can I rely on you guys or is this stupid?????