I meant to post on this myself yesterday but at the time my wife was on the main pc and I have discovered this little response box here is impossible to see your type in if you are working on a Dell mini 9. I'm going to buy a large magnifying glass for that thing's screen.
Anyways, I understand the tense feelings that come with this topic. There is a great sense of passion behind the expressions of everyone that posts in regards to the situation with FGU/MHG, and some of the passions are for FGU, against FGU, for MHG, against MHG, etc. Sometimes this passion about the game can be a negative thing, as it results in people leaving, flame wars, things said before they are carefully planned out (I know, I'm stumbling pretty good here myself), etc. But, considering that this is an older game, one that is in the midst of experiencing a fresh renewal in interest amongst gamers, the passion is a good thing. This passion for either being for or against a particular side is directly related to an interest in V&V itself. It has sorta turned into something akin to watching football. One one side you've got Team A (Bears?) fans and on the other side you have Team B (Green Bay?) fans... both love the game, both love football, both share that common interest (alongside piling up empty cans and spilling bits of popcorn and Fritos all over the carpet), but both feel very strongly about the side that they've banked on.
And then, of course, there's a vast middle (fans of other teams with the NFL bit, those that are just purely tied to the V&V game itself) that simply want to get into the game (insert the EA Sports quick ad here).
But, this passion and interest in V&V and where V&V is going can again prove to be destructive. As fans start to become equally (or nearly as equally) as passionate about the controversy between FGU/MHG as they are the game itself, the stage is set for potential significant losses in growing interest and consumer support, regardless of which side wins out in the end. This, in my opinion (and take it as my opinion only), is what Alabaster Knight and Display Name were agreeing on more or less. Granted, I know that most of the argument was over AK's statement about "grown men" but something that I've discovered about the net with forum boards, email, chat, etc. is that a great deal of intended inflection is lost with the absence of vocal pitch, sound of voice, accompanying body movements, facial expressions, etc. Not even a 1,000 emotioncons, or whatever the smiley face things are called, can truly add those important aspects of communication back in. Sometimes what we read is what we read, plain and simple, but sometimes we add our own impression of voice pitch, facial expression, etc. (thus, essentially we add our own interpretations) to what is said.
Now, I'm not saying that this happened here, at this particular time... but, it is a feature of this new way of communicating that I'm sure is almost a second variety of dialect for many of us older gamers
to get used to.
Anyways, lost in translation or not aside, getting back to the main beef of the issue. The last thing that we want to do is alienate each other. V&V is going through a very exciting time right now, battles and disputes aside, but that could easily fizzle if the fans their selves start taking it out on each other, getting frustrated, and thinking "you know, if I just went off and put my concentrations towards another game I would find that I would have less headaches, heartbreaks, and misery attached to my past time." On that note, this also applies to designers... it is exactly the same thought I had in my head and the reason you've not seen much out of me in the last few months was a direct result of being tore up over the whole controversy and thinking that it was better to just use other games as a creative outlet for my design interests. I've only recently gotten back into working on V&V products again after deciding that I really didn't care about the battles, I needed to just worry about what I do... create.
The thing is, V&V has a lot of competition out there and in order to keep the products rolling out... regardless of who's producing them... its gonna take us as a whole, together, supporting the interest, sharing ideas, and having a few happy discussions about our V&V experiences... not fighting. And when I'm talking about V&V's competition, I'm not speaking of Champions, GURPS, Pathfinder, etc. I'm talking about the V&V interest shares the same competition as with all role playing games in general..... video games, World of Warcraft, Heroclix, Magic the Gathering cards, home gaming consoles, family game rooms (pool tables etc.), expensive family ventures (aka going to the movies), etc. etc. etc. V&V may be primarily in the market of paper and dice games, but it is also very much a part of the larger market of entertainment... the last thing we need is to make the game seem less friendly (and hence less fun) and watch people's free time interests go elsewhere.
That said, I'm crawling back into my shell where I refuse to speak of the conflict and I'm going back to work.
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Enjoy the boobies!! - NSFW! (Read 103573 times)
