Sure, the guy has good story ideas, and has, on occasion, drawn me in to one narrative or another - but on the whole I find him overly verbose, plodding, and dare I say it, boring. You, on the other hand, may enjoy Dickens' work, but I somehow doubt I'll find a flurry of angry, pseudo-English slurs questioning my mother's heritage and nightly activities in the comment box.
On the other hand, were I to bash Fallout 3, Call of Duty: World at War, and Halo 3 on a site frequented by gamers, I'm pretty sure more than one person would take serious umbrage with my words and subsequently take me to task over it. (In order to avoid angry comments here, I've chosen three games that I own and enjoy. Granted, now that means someone may take issue with me enjoying these games...) Why are gamers such a reactionary bunch when it comes to their choices for entertainment? Certainly my hours spent on Fallout don't prevent you from playing Gears of War 2. So what gives?
When I think about the possible reasoning behind this "over-enthusiasm," a few potential factors come to mind. Let's explore them.
Age of the Gamer: While the patience required to sit through Tale of Two Cities (Sorry, I'll stop bashing Charlie now) is limited to either the young and bright or the old and tempered, video games pride themselves on accessibility to a wide and varied range of people. Many a time have I read a post on a forum waxing poetic about how "my mom iz a bich cuz shez a11 'git of the game' n im lik stfu bich," I can only hope a sentence like that originates from a preteen who has no business being on the forum anyway...rather than a sad commentary on our state of secondary education and communicative skills...but I digress. The point is online, in-game, and offline, you can find many preteens and young teens who are definitely "gamers" and who have their own opinions. The same, however, can be said of music, movies, and television shows, however - so age can't be the only reason.
Age of the Medium: Gaming is "new." Obviously, video games have existed for decades, sure, so new is a relative term. But when you look at the age of literature, music, and image appreciation (moving or not), gaming is the new guy on the scene. Are these arguments the "growing pangs" of gaming's awkward adolescence?
Nature of Interaction: Unlike the previously mentioned forms of entertainment, gaming offers participants a way to actively engage with the medium. Instead of passively viewing or listening, gaming requires the gamer be a part - indeed, the catalyst - for its success. This requisite interaction may form a different sort of relationship with the gamer than they might have with other media, causing them to feel the need to "participate" even outside of the game.
Nature of Competition: Like interaction, competition is really an experience limited to gaming and not many other entertainment venues. Even if you're playing a single player game, you are competing against the computer or yourself - besting a time, killing an enemy, finding armor, advancing the story, hitting the faux drumset - and you either persevere or don't play. Of course, add multiplayer components to the mix and you're trying to beat other living people at a certain objective. Does the competitive drive that underlies most of our gaming experience also subconsciously drive our need to tell each other how much their favorite game suX0rz? Perhaps.
Forums of Communication: As if the internet hasn't been blamed for enough, it's partially responsible here as well. The wonderful thing about the internet is that it allows anyone to speak their mind about any chosen topic under the sun. (See: This Entire Site) The downside of the internet is that it allows anyone to speak their mind about any chosen topic under the sun. Users of the internet are encouraged to let their voices be heard, and certainly gamers are no exception. Where such arguments were once reserved for the "Letters to the Editor" of your gaming mag, you can now find a topic, post, argue, and call someone a whore in less than ten seconds flat.
I guess when you really get down to it, it's not one simple over-arching reason - more like a clusterf*ck of too much dynamite and not enough fuse. And I haven't even mentioned pressure from the gaming media, gaming companies attempts to foster platform/game wars, and peer pressure...
Oh, and by the way: Final Fantasy VII bored the crap out of me.
-- Matt
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