Marginal Politics

by Mistress Nightshadow 

Draw your fistcuffs... let's settle it here and now!

Well, this is all got to do with the old and new 'schools' which developed over the last five or so years. Maybe for me, it's gotten to a peak, where I think both sides are now becoming somewhat irrational.

I've been used to hearing that FFIX is just a copout because Square is trying to just woo back disaffected gamers, and that 'older' styles just plain rule because of this... That graphics used within FFVII and VIII were used to hide the fact that the story was cut back, that elements of RPGs were ripped off so that it could make a quick buck out of everyone else...

Think I'm being one sided? Well, when you hear other people bitch about why didn't FFVIII have the frame rates and graphics complexity of Half Life running on a 128 meg Voodoo 5, that since companies are planning to revert to the old style RPGs, that gameplay's going to go out the window, that game shouldn't be held back in the past...

In any case, I've heard those arguments so much, I shrug now, nodding randomly at both sides, listening with half an ear [or maybe read with half an eye] while I go play an RPG or something...

Ok, so sue me. After listening and reading no less than seventy arguments from both sides, [Go to TotalRPG's Letters and reviews page, or maybe GIA's one and read... say the back five issues or so of each. You'll note that they're mostly one-sided.] you'll get either very involved, or very cynical. You can obviously guess where I am today.

I'll probably catch quite a few people out there, and when they read this, they'll list these reasons, and a lot more besides, on why either side is right. When I ask them what the hell makes them more believable than the other RPGamer next to me, they argue they're 'hardcore' gamers, with hundreds of games [Usually RPGs] under their belt. [Although this applies to mostly 'Old' Schoolers, I hear the same thing out of many 'New' Schoolers.]

Hardcore... I really don't know what makes them so special. Sure they've played a few more RPGs than most of us, but then again, so what? They've seen a lot of RPGs, but so? Sure, you could comment on which RPG you liked or not, even if you had to start comparing each and every one of them, but really, is screaming out at the top of your lungs 'Damn it, this isn't what I expect, and therefore, it's total crap, and EVERYONE should avoid it like the plague!' really going to do anything?

Come on, sure, I've simplified things, but for some reason, it's getting far closer to that that most think. Come on, both sides have slammed [from the people I've spoken to and seen] FFIX already, and FFVIII. [Of course, not ALL hardliners from both sides did that, but many vocal ones did.]

Now my big question is what makes the better portion of the English speaking RPG population? Hardliners, those who are dirmetrically opposite each other, or those who are somewhat more centralised, those who don't want either view, but something inbetween, something... well, moderate I guess.

If I'm right, and vocal hardliners make up maybe 10% of the English RPG community, I say ignore the both of them. This political moving back and forth from the 'old' and 'new' schooling is starting to get on my nerves, and it's starting to worry me just a bit. I don't particularly like either extreme result as much as I like the state of RPGs today. Wide, diverse, and a lot of different varieties of RPG to pick from, from the very traditional, to Stragetic, Action, and 'new age' RPGs. If either side got it's way, I think we'd lose that, and I think that result would tear the industry apart and bring it to it's knees.

Hey, Japan's enjoying it, having a far more... reasonable view, where they don't try to demand the Earth, and often don't try to demand mutually exclusive options.

Well, if you'd like to send me anything to comment on it, be it a top ten reasons list why one side is right and the other side is wrong, that you'd actually think I might have something there, or you'd like to just seek me out on #RPGamer and place enough C4 to blow myself, as well as everyone else, out of the channel, drop a line at nightshadow_007@angelfire.com. I'd like to hear about it.

Just a note. I'm neither an 'old' or 'new' schooler, and I don't indend to be either.