Pointing and Laughing
Jim Sterling’s latest comic creation, the Duke Amiel du Harcore, currently presents a weekly video in which he narrates comments written by self-professed “hardcore gamers”. These monologues ironically highlight the pomposity and lack of self-awareness that is so common to individuals possessing such a mindset. Sterling delivers them with his usual theatrical flair, ensuring that source material is presented literally, complete with all their punctuation and spelling mistakes. “Commentocracy” may not be big or particularly clever but it makes its satirical point and is an amusing diversion, providing a welcome break from the po-faced, default stance of the gaming community these days. It also seems to be hitting home and ruffling a few feathers because there has already been some push back from those Sterling seeks to mock.
Jim Sterling’s latest comic creation, the Duke Amiel du Harcore, currently presents a weekly video in which he narrates comments written by self-professed “hardcore gamers”. These monologues ironically highlight the pomposity and lack of self-awareness that is so common to individuals possessing such a mindset. Sterling delivers them with his usual theatrical flair, ensuring that source material is presented literally, complete with all their punctuation and spelling mistakes. “Commentocracy” may not be big or particularly clever but it makes its satirical point and is an amusing diversion, providing a welcome break from the po-faced, default stance of the gaming community these days. It also seems to be hitting home and ruffling a few feathers because there has already been some push back from those Sterling seeks to mock.
Contemporary gaming culture is in many ways a microcosm of everything that is currently wrong in western culture. It can be myopic, self-aggrandising, lacking in humility and rife with hyperbolic rhetoric. Critical thinking, introspection and comradery is hard to find. Too many gamers consider themselves the arbiter of its associated culture and there is still a percentage that mistakenly consider their personal efficiency at playing games to be some laudable achievement, commensurate with success at sports or in the arts. There is one particular blog that I read, whose author is so vain and delusional that they’ve constructed an internal narrative that paints them as a virtual Nietzschean Übermensch. Yet their prose show that they’re a somewhat emotionally damaged individual with an erroneous perspective of the world. Yet such is the nature of gaming these days. “Git Gud” culture and a bellicose, binary world view go hand in hand.
"As I said to Chancellor Metternich at the Congress of Strasbourg: Pooh to you with knobs on!"
It can be argued that debating such a position is the best way to challenge it. I myself enjoy the cut and thrust of a good discussion based around contrasting views. However, we are not currently living in an age where people will concede an argument if given evidence to the contrary. A point of view has become more of an act of faith, a symbol to embrace and a flag to rally round. It’s not about what is demonstrably or ethically right or wrong. It’s about how you feel. A contrary opinion is perceived by default as an attack upon your own. Someone questioning your position is ultimately questioning you. Hence, we see all the zealotry that was once exclusive to religion, manifesting itself around aspects of popular culture. If politics has become tribal, why shouldn’t all the other facets of our life? We’ve spent the last ten years racing to the bottom and we’ve finally arrived, spittle flecked and ready for battle.
However, when confronted with such a bullish and implacable mindset, there is an alternative to debating. There is always humour. Why waste valuable time and energy responding intellectually to professed gaming elitism, when you can simply point and laugh at the utter fatuousness of such a position. Historically, any dogma founded upon self-professed superiority is usually devoid of any capacity for self-deprecation. Philosophies of this kind seek validation and despise ridicule. Humour robs them of the gravitas that they seek and undermines the bogus credibility they espouse. If there was ever a time to justifiably mock and deride these rogue elements of the gaming community, the time is now. Hopefully, the Duke Amiel du Harcore will continue to rib those delusional gamers that haunt subreddits and forums, extoling the virtues of the “PC master race”. He may even encourage more of us to finally climb of the fence and tackle this blight on our community, by doing the same.
The Myth of the Perfect Video Game
Jim Sterling posted an interesting video this morning exploring the ongoing obsession of major games studios with trying to find the perfect video game and how they’re on a hiding to nothing. He cites market research conducted by the food industry in which two rival companies tried to find the perfect pasta sauce. To cut a long story short it turns out there was no universally favoured product and a third of those polled actually wanted a type of pasta sauce that wasn’t even available. The conclusion of this analysis was that success was dependent on offering a broad range of products. To quote Mr. Sterling, “there is no perfect pasta sauce, just perfect pasta sauces”. Let it suffice to say this anecdotes parallels with the gaming industry are obvious. Games perpetuate features that work, which end up being adopted by other rival products. This leads to a lack of innovation and constrained creativity.
Jim Sterling posted an interesting video this morning exploring the ongoing obsession of major games studios with trying to find the perfect video game and how they’re on a hiding to nothing. He cites market research conducted by the food industry in which two rival companies tried to find the perfect pasta sauce. To cut a long story short it turns out there was no universally favoured product and a third of those polled actually wanted a type of pasta sauce that wasn’t even available. The conclusion of this analysis was that success was dependent on offering a broad range of products. To quote Mr. Sterling, “there is no perfect pasta sauce, just perfect pasta sauces”. Let it suffice to say this anecdotes parallels with the gaming industry are obvious. Games perpetuate features that work, which end up being adopted by other rival products. This leads to a lack of innovation and constrained creativity.
After watching this video, I immediately thought of the MMORPG genre and how it is an exemplar of this theory. Since World of Warcraft established its dominance of the market, all major Triple A titles have sought to replicates Blizzard’s success. Thus, there are numerous franchise based and non-franchise based theme park MMOs, running on hybrid B2P and F2P business models. Most are couched in generic fantasy trappings, all offering skills trees, crafting, reputation factions, as well as major or minor quests. MMOs can be entertaining but after you’ve played through three or four, the similarities soon become apparent, with the only major difference being the setting and theme of the overall game. At present, if you want innovation in MMOs you have to look to the independent gaming scene.
The search for a winning formula and how it often leads to generic products, is sadly common to most consumer industries. Boy Bands, Reality TV shows and junk food are just some of the examples of where this can lead. Producing “more of the same” ultimately stagnates the market and so the revenue stream is far from indefinite. The slasher boom of the eighties was lucrative but ultimately ran out of steam. So will the MCU and other major movies franchises. Therefore, why should gaming be any different. However, one thing Jim Sterling doesn’t explore in his video is what happens after the inevitable crash that comes from doggedly pursuing an unobtainable business goal, such as the “perfect video game”.
History shows that when the mainstream ceases to innovate and engage with its customers, creativity emerges from the fringe. It happened in the film industry during the late sixties and early seventies when independent films started to gain both critical and commercial success. The conventional music industry was similarly side lined by the emergence of punk and then later with hip hop. The rise of the internet has facilitated a wealth of content outside of commercial television. It caters to bespoke and niche markets. So, although mainstream gaming may well be heading for a commercial crash, what comes after may well be worth the wait and the current inadequacies of the market. In the meantime, if we as gamers wish to expedite these changes, we need to look to ourselves and what we buy. Exercising consumer choice sends a potent message.