Selling Out (rant)

[Bioclown]

Bioclown's Rant

I am probably not the only one who has noticed that gaming heritage has been gradually whored out to the same people who beat me up in P.E. by MTV culture and Blockbuster. What was once a respectable culture is now just viewed as a marketing giant. Along with that travesty, there is also this 80's ressurection craze that is going around, affecting people who have, personally, never even held one of the controllers that they are claiming are their "roots." Cultures are being sold out.

That being said, DDR's increasing popularity is bittersweet in my opinion. On one hand, you have the fact that DDR is becoming more popular, meaning that DDR players aren't viewed as freaks anymore. But on the other hand, they, due to the general media's shallow investigations into the culture, are viewed as dieticians, bodybuilders, or just plain Atkins-freaks. This seems similar to the gaming culture's deterioration. What was once obscurity becomes a giant with a filthy secret.
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[n2oxide]

People make and sell games to make money. To make video games a profitable venture, the products must appeal to a large number of people, or there would be no profit (nor point) in making these games.

To me, the mass appeal of video games is due to the undying quest of all (young and old) to live in another world, one where we do not have to pay bills, do chores, or go to work. So, we engage in activities that are difficult, challenging, or entertaining enough to keep ourselves from thinking too much about our everyday problems and ultimately losing our minds. Escapism appeals to many, especially now we can 'experience' things we cannot legally perform in real life with such a degree of realism. We can kill other people and get away with it on games like CS. We can run around on alien planets and take hostages and build empires and wage wars and score the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. Now we can be who we want to be, even a good dancer, even if only for just a few minutes.

Now, I consider building a culture completely around escapism a bit extreme, but I've got nothing against it, except when a fellow 'gamer' expresses his views without thinking them through enough posts a rant in a high-traffic forum like DDRFreak and makes the rest of us sound like hypocrites because we 'gamers are' usually thought of as intellectually superior to most other stereotypes.

Games were never meant to create a culture. I'd bet when Konami first distributed DDR, they hoped only for the game we now love so much to create a fanbase large enough to generate a demand (and a healthy profit). It obviously ballooned beyond their predictions, leading to many sequels, home versions, and online communities such as this. But how did DDR's success come about? By many things. Word of mouth. Online previews and reviews. Ads. And etc. Were it not for such effective advertising, many of us would not be the ddrfreaks that we are. Yes, it is true that the recent stories linking ddr and health/exercise may be nothing more than people trying to make money. Not much different from Konami's intent while making DDR, no? Besides, these articles seldom differ from the ones many of us read, the ones that turned us to DDR in the first place. More fans, more support, more quality games from Konami, eh?

To you, gaming culture may be deteriorating, but I and many others consider the growing popularity as just a beginning. Please take no offense in my reply, Bioclown, and if you do, I apologize. I just wanted to make sure more to this topic is out in the open in terms of opinion.
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[Vater5B]

This post will be kind of jumbled, but it's the thought that counts.

I was pointing out shirts to one of my friends when I found the infamous "Know the Code" shirt (A popular Hot Topic shirt that has the old Konami code on it). My friend was acting like it was the coolest thing ever, but when I asked him what it meant he had no idea... He is a current gen gamer.

Gamers can be put in many groups, these are just a few.

Current Gen - Refer to PSX as "Old School." Can't see anything less than 32-bit as fun. Can kill me at Halo.

Tweens - Raised on SNES and Genesis. Best of both worlds.

Retros - Like Atari. Like Intellivision. Like NES. SNES? Never bothered with them there new fangled things.

Gaming Legends - Can carry on a conversation about Infocom or at least Zork.

Well-rounded - A mixture of all groups but no more proficient at one than any other.

Techead - Just in it for the technology.

There are many breeds of video gamers. With gamers are now being thrown into the mainstream, there has been a sudden rise in the current gen gamer. Is that a bad thing? No! It is good! Sure there are going to be arrogant little snots that think they know everything, but for every one of them, there are 3 people who want to play the classics, who want to know why we hate E.T., who want to to embrace the history of gaming! This is a great age for gamers! We should embrace these people! Maybe they want to "Know your roots!" and that's why they are wearing that shirt!

[/fanatical revolutionary]

I swear, these pain medicines give me the hardest time trying to stay on topic... The point is: Don't discriminate. Educate!

I'm going to bed...

[TrippinTheTrance]

I dont see why it bothers you so much who plays the games. So what if people want to wear a gaming t-shirt or start playing DDR. If you like to play the game, then play the damn game. It's sad that you're trying to give people that play DDR the name of "freaks", its image-crazy people like you that ruin everthing with giving people labels, because then you try and live up to your label, which isn't real at all, it's just retarded. So let the kids that beat your a$$ in P.E. play what they want, stop trying to police it by thinking you are better than they are for some reason.
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...:::v^v^v^v^{[| LeT's MaxX!! |]}^v^v^v^v:::...
Playing Level: 7-8

[DJX]

A few things first:

[n2oxide]

[quote="Vater5B"]I was pointing out shirts to one of my friends when I found the infamous "Know the Code" shirt...

[Sinistar]

As a 'Gaming Legend' according to the scale provided above, I'll take my turn to weigh in on this topic.

There is always an underground. There is always a genre that you love that others do not. There is often a point where enough people love the underground that the mainstream notices and starts to love it, too. There is always somebody in the underground who decries the mainstreaming of their one true love.

And then, the underground gives up on their one true love and establishes a new underground around something else.

That is, if their entire reason for being an underground is so they can claim underground status. If their reason for being an underground is because they think the object of their affections is a truly great thing, then they are typically happy that more people see it the way they do.

It is only when your underground comes with an ego, a sense of entitlement because you were there first or you saw something in its pure form, unsullied by the masses, that the mainstream acceptance of something becomes a distasteful event.

I've been part of the role-playing underground, the videogame underground, the home computing underground, the electronica underground, and the BBC underground. In each and every case, I railed against the n00bs (though they were not called that at the time) who were jumping on the bandwagon that was my scene. I feigned superiority because I was there first, or, at least, early enough that I could still claim a spot before the crowds came rushing in.

But that was when I was a kid.

Now, as an adult, I don't really have time to devote to being in the underground. I don't seek things out for their underground status. I just like the things I like. And if they grow to wider acceptance, I see that as an opportunity to have access to more of the things I like.

Take, for example, DDR. It was only about a year ago that I first saw a couple people playing DDR Max US at a LAN party. I thought they looked ridiculous. And I had never seen an arcade machine, as I had given up on arcades in the mid-90's. Then, I saw it again at another LAN party and started to think, "There must be something to this. I think I'll give it a shot." So I bought the Ultramix bundle, as I didn't have a PS2. Now, a mere 8 months later, I own Ultramix, Max US, Max 2 US, Extreme JP, Party Collection, and 2nd Mix JP for Dreamcast. I've owned 6 soft pads and am the owner of a Flux hard pad. I play nearly every day. I invite others to play along with me and show them how much fun this game really is. I'm hooked on this game. Every time I play it's a little different. Every time I play, I'm a little better. And I know that I haven't even tackled Oni and Doubles yet, so I've got a lot to look forward to.

But, I'm one of the people in your rant. I haven't been doing this since the beginning. I wasn't part of the DDR underground. I came into it just as it was about to explode across news channels and TV programs. But I have immersed myself in it to a great extent and am an evangelist for it. I have created custom hardware to accompany my play and have built hardware for others so that they might play. I've participated here and in other DDR forums, trading tips, opinions, and gripes right along with everybody else.

So your culture was whored out to me. I took it and accepted it as my own, then turned around and whored it out to everybody who would listen. Because this thing at the core of this culture is something I have grown to love.

However, I think you really need to look at what defines your culture, because a culture based on gaming is largely dependent upon commercial products created not to imbue people with a sense of community but rather to make a profit. When your culture is based purely upon commercial products, you can expect your culture to be whored out again and again and again. As long as the basis of your culture makes money, it will be resold to a new generation of consumers.

Perhaps the real shame here is that capitalism is defining culture these days. But discussing that would result in an even longer post, so I'll just stop here.
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CF cbox mods and more at the 'Pad'

[DJX]

Jesus, man. Amen.

This is easily the most intelligent thread I've seen on DDRFreak in a LONG time.
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[Bioclown]

I don't post it unless it's intelligent.

And I understand that people need to make money, but they are making it at the expense of my heritage.
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[Pantera]

[morgan_rhys]

I was going to post something very much like what Sinistar did. (ok, maybe not quite as well written, but same basic idea at least )

I am also an old fart who has only been playing for a short while. I have also as he put it, been part of various undergrounds. What this arguement reminds me of is what happens when an alternative rock band - a classic example of which is R.E.M. (what was once upon a time ago called "college redio") break into the mainstream; having to listen to people whine about them "selling out." Even though the band in question didn't change at all, just developed a larger audience. The same with DDR, the game hasn't changed, just more people are interested in it.

Two more extra thoughts....

1. I think that the majority of people will still continue to look at someone doing DDR as a bit of a freak, so I wouldn't get your hopes up there.

2. Gaming has never been "pure" - I have been playing video games since the very early 80's - it was always a business. (role-playing games from about 82-94 also, btw.)
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Morgan_Rhys' Site

[Sinistar]

[TrippinTheTrance]

i started playing DDR 8 days ago. It was because I saw it on TV. I thought that it looked fun, so I went and bought it, and now I enjoy it immensely. Just because I found the game through TV at the same point alot of people does, doesnt mean that you have the right to think you are some kind of elite race of DDR players, because you aren't. You just found it earlier, and by a different means than other people. You were new once. Not all things that go mainstream are bad. Sure it ruined some bands, but I highly doubt its going to ruin a friggin arcade game, other than the fact you'll have to wait a little longer for maybe a bigger amount of newbs, but they'll get better eventually. I've made more improvements than I thought possible in 8 days. I'm now playing at a rate that I figured it would take months of practice to do.

-chris
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...:::v^v^v^v^{[| LeT's MaxX!! |]}^v^v^v^v:::...
Playing Level: 7-8

[Pantera]

Dear Sinistar,

You rock. 'Nuff said.

Sincerely,
Pantera
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[lithium3141]

What is the konami code and the meaning behind it?

[n2oxide]

I think it's the code that was in every konami game. I found it on Wikipedia again.

A. B. Start.

[Tomo_kun]

[morgan_rhys]

[n2oxide]

my bad...

[Sinistar]