Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Those Darn Fanboys


Fanboys are like leeches, they have to suck all of the fun out of video games, movies, music. A new game comes out and it is already bombarded by an army of overzealous fans yelling that it's going to fail or that it's a poor copy of something else.

Take Warhammer Online. It's an MMO based on the popular tabletop called Warhammer. I don't even know how many of the loyal World of Warcraft fans had to drag it through dirt with their random outbursts that it is a "cheap" copy of WoW. Here is a little history lesson, kids: the Warcraft franchise started in 1994 with the release of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. Warhammer existed since 1980s, ten years prior to the first Warcraft installment, but in the board game form. And Warhammer Online took its story and artwork from the board game. So how exactly did Warhammer copy WoW? I guess it's just too hard to actually play the game and then make an intelligent argument against it.

Another game that suffered from the fanboys' and critics' intellectual handicap is Rise of the Argonauts. The game is an RPG, it is not an action game. But it had to be compared to God of War. Let me guess! Because both games feature Greek mythology, wow, they MUST be the same! (not!) Then why not compare it to Titan Quest? Silly me, God of War and Rise of the Argonauts have to be the same because they have similar camera views. I cannot think of any other reason to explain this nonsense. WTB logic and common sense. Rise of the Argonauts is actually a lot like Mass Effect. Both of them are RPGs with a very similar game play that lacks the fast paced action style of God of War.

But, boy, was I mad with the Diablo III fiasco when the fanboys actually had the audacity to file a petition for Blizzard to change the graphics of the game. They are supposedly not dark enough! Well, where have you kids been for the past decade? Have you played Diablo II at all?! The graphics were already different in that one! Diablo II was definitely not as dark as Diablo. But that did not make the game bad at all. It was a very popular game that had a huge fan base and many people still play it today.

Bottom line is that people love to jump to conclusions every time there is a change in something that they feel comfortable with. The topic has already exhausted itself in someone else' rants and I'm late for the party. But if someone listens, then I've done something right.


PS: The above picture of a unicorn is a satirical response by Blizzard to the fanboys who claimed that the graphics of Diablo III are too "happy" for a Gothic fantasy role playing game.

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