Unfettered Blather

I know some people don’t like the phrase “Your own worst enemy” but I keep seeing evidence of how true this is.

The problem with fandom is that ultimately it begins to fester (not “foster”) a feeling of entitlement. Fans begin to develop expectations that are going to be a detriment to the success of whatever franchise they feel so emotionally invested in. I’m not really sure why fans continue to do this. Businesses have made it clear that if they have to choose between making fans happy and being profitable they’ll choose the money every time. They are not evil for doing so. They have employees with families to consider. Making fans happy and making money can be the same thing but when its not the fans will lose. What many fans continue to not grasp is that they are a minority. They think they are a majority but echo chambers always amplify the noise. Loud in volume but small in number, they have appointed themselves the keeper of intellectual properties they do not own and defend them fiercely despite a continual disregard for the very existence of the fans by the real owners of those properties.

I scratch my head and wonder at how thick people can be to detest a thing because it isn’t exactly what they wanted. Most recently it was Fallout 3 for me, a perfectly awesome game that did depart somewhat from the originals, but I think the originals are being regarded a bit too highlt. My favorite example is the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Again, I think the fans views are distorted. I re-read the Lord of the Rings and was quickly reminded how much fluff and nonsensical crap was in it. Tolkein, great writer that he was, could become obsessed describing the moss on a rock. As I re-read the books I found myself skipping entire paragraphs as he insisted on painstakingly describing the landscape. The landscape! Fans cried foul that there was no Tom Bombadil, but I didn’t even miss him. Guess I’m not a fan? Doesn’t matter, I’m there for the experience, the story, the entertainment. I acknowledge that Peter Jackson took some liberties with Lord of the Rings but he also made the best fantasy film series I’ve ever seen while staying true to the source material.

Let’s tackle Fallout while we’re at it. I’m pretty sure people are remembering these games better than they were. I have people now telling me how great Fallout: Tactics was and how much they missed it. That seems pretty different from the cries of blasphemy when the game was first produced. Does it get a pass now because it was yet another isometric 2D sprite game? What makes Fallout 3 such an abomination but Fallout: Tactics is so fondly remembered? I have many people tell me Fallout 2 is one of the best games they ever played. Was I playing something else? What I remember was a game that crashed repeatedly, had game crippling bugs, and could easily take 10 minutes or more to load a game or area because of a memory leak that shipped in the game. Most of these issues were patched out later, but the first run of the game was horribly broken. Even after it was patched, the game setting itself was horribly inconsistent, as if the designers had run out of ideas and decided to just abandon the idea of a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland whenever it became inconvenient. The whole game smacked of trying too hard. I’m not saying Fallout 2 was horrible, at least not once it was patched, but it was hardly the same level of genius as the original game.

If anything, Fallout 3 is the closest to the original game despite abandoning the classic top-down isometric perspective and opting for a first-person view. It leverages modern technology to make an attempt at a more immersive experience. For the most part it works and the game is genius in its own right. Yet the fans are going to turn up their noses and sneer at it because it wasn’t done the way they wanted?

Here’s the real problem. No two fans are going to agree completely. Companies don’t try to make fans happy because it’s impossible. If being a fan means I have to actually stop enjoying the things I enjoy now, I hope to never be a fan again.

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