Opinions, and wow, more opinions!

by Dan Highwind

Last week Wisdom took it upon himself to spot the holes in Wildfire's editorial on the SNES' supremacy. I'm not one to be system biased, but I can find a lot of holes in Wisdom's argument. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that the SNES was the greatest system ever; to me it was one of the greatest systems ever. That's beside the point. I might as well begin.

Wisdom begins by stating that "Nintendo brainwashed us". That statement is completely unjustified. Nintendo by no means brainwashed us. They had a good marketing scheme, along with good games that everyone wanted to play. Just look at how they sold their system: you got the SNES console, two controllers, your link cables, and as an added bonus you got Super Mario World packed in with the system. Combine this with the fact that people who bought the first Nintendo system already knew who Mario was, and trusted Nintendo; this meant that Nintendo could sell a lot of systems.

Another argument Wisdom makes is that "by today's standards, they [the games] blow chunks". He then goes on to say that most of the games that were considered good then can't be considered good now. Why? Let's see...because you "can't judge a game's merit on how excited you were to play it". Well, I guess that means all the games that are good in my book don't count. Final Fantasy IV, for example. Even Chrono Trigger is not a good game because it was played "under the fog of youth". Boy, I guess there are no really good games out there. Seeing as how each and every game by itself is judged by the person who plays it and by how excited they are not only to play it, but to experience it, this means that no game is good (according to Wisdom).

Wisdom then talks of how games of yesteryear can be compared to games of today as children's books can be compared to Dickens. Well, this is a rather flawed statement. The reason today's games look so grand is because of the hardware they are produced for. Look at Final Fantasy I, then look at Final Fantasy X. You can't tell me that there is no huge difference in the hardware that these games run on. Wisdom is under the impression that if a game looks simple it's childish, and if it looks complex it's not childish. He even states that Final Fantasy I was easily played through. Well, sure, it's rather easy, but it's very hard when compared to Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy IX. In my experience, the older the game the harder it is, the newer the easier (this probably isn't the case, but with my experience it seems so). Wisdom also makes it seem as if the old NES was designed for children, and the newer systems like Nintendo 64 or PlayStation 2 were not. I know plenty of younguns who play the N64 or PS2; unlike books, games are universal, they are meant for a wide audience (except T- and M-rated games, of course. ^_^)

Now for my big blow to Wisdom's editorial. In the second paragraph he says: "For the last time, favoritism does not equal merit. Yes, I happen to love Final Fantasy IV beyond any other RPG in existence. This does not make it better than Skies of Arcadia. You cannot judge a game's merit solely on the basis of how excited you were to play it. You can't judge anything's merit on how excited you are on its prospect. (I was *really* excited about SaGa Frontier. I was also *really* excited when I lit it on fire and threw it out of a moving vehicle.) Wildfire's "points", (and I use the term loosely), reflect nothing but his/her personal opinions--which he/she is more than allowed to harbor, but, contrary to his/her belief, hold absolutely no merit in an argument." So let me get this straight: Wisdom says that Wildfire is entitled to his/her own opinion, yes? Then why does Wisdom say that it gives no merit to an argument? Not to mention that Wisdom expresses his opinion throughout this entire editorial! I think I smell a contradiction! If Wildfire's opinions are not valid in an argument, then why are Wisdom's? According to Wisdom, his own argument is no more valid than Wildfire's. What's up with that?

Basically what I'm saying here is everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion. Opinions are valid in an argument, especially in a forum such as this; editorials are essentially someone trying to persuade others to agree with his/her own opinion! You can't say that someone's opinion is not valid just because they liked a certain game that you found to be crap. Let everyone express their opinions freely! If you feel the need to flame me, make a comment, or ask a question then e-mail me at LinkZ1@aol.com and let me know. I'll be back, and you can quote me on that!

Original Editorial: Revisiting an all-too common topic