DMeisterJ recently wrote a post calling us VGChartz users out because of how we react personally to game sales. I've seen the same sentiment expressed elsewhere in the forums, too. These are just companies looking to make a buck; we're not shareholders, so why should it matter to any of us who does well, or who fails?
While I want to agree, some soul-searching has forced me to conclude that I do take all of these sales figures personally. And, based on how others here react, I assume they do, too. So, I ask myself: why is that so?
I believe that it is because there are important philosophical differences when it comes to gaming, and that these sales figures are a place where those differences do battle.
There have always been graphic whores, and I have always hated them. In a thread about a "main" Final Fantasy game going to the Wii, I remembered how in elementary school, I had to defend my love of Final Fantasy to other kids who loved graphics more than anything else. Today, in conversations about the Wii vs. HD systems, I feel like I'm basically arguing with the same children; kids who, if they had grown up with me, wouldn't have been able to understand or appreciate Final Fantasy.
Look: loving graphics is easy. We all have eyes, and in order to use them, you just have to keep them open. Graphics are just one part of an overall game experience. I believe that graphics are as important as they are to some because graphics whores are unable to appreciate other parts of gameplay. They're the same people who can't stand foreign films due to subtitles, or older films with sub-par special effects by today's standards, or usually books at all. They're the ones who never get to know what a woman's like because they can't see beyond her cup-size. Their minds just aren't sophisticated enough to allow them to get past the glaringly obvious and superficial.
Am I calling graphics whores stupid? Not always--sometimes they're just really young. Kids will often have more problems with, say, black & white movies than adults will, due to a lack of experience, information. etc.; abstraction doesn't come automatically and must be developed over time. But some of them, young and old, are in fact stupid.
Anyways, in the current gen, for obvious reasons, the HD systems have called the graphics whores--the young and the stupid--to its side. Often, they are the HD systems biggest proponents. I think it's not coincidental that so many PS360 fanboys tend to skew so young. I think it's not coincidental that so many of them have such problems with spelling, or grammar, or logic, or coherence. I think it's not coincidental that so many of their interests are seemingly so limited to the "mature" topics of violence, sex, sports and swearing. I think it's not coincidental that the gaming forums that have a high percentage of HD users are unreadable and unusuable. It's a common attack on the Wii that it is "kiddy," but ask yourself what your experience has been on these forums. Do most of the juvenile posts tend to come from young Wii fans? Or other places? How about the well-written points of view with balanced perspectives? If someone were to write in all-caps, filled with insults and cussing but devoid of sense... well... what would you think more likely--Wii fanboy or PS360? Are both sides equally guilty...? or does it tend to be one side more than the other? Maybe my biases just lead me to notice one more than the other, but I honestly don't believe so...
This isn't true of every PS360 fanboy--some of whom are intelligent and good-natured people--and God knows that there are some ridiculous and awful Wii fanboys, too. But I think that the overall differences in the general population are pronounced enough to be noticeable, and to color a lot of the conversations on forums like these.
I believe that I care about these sales figures because I don't like the graphics whore mentality. It's silly to "root against the 360" or to want to see Sony fail. When I think about it like that, I don't care about the numbers at all, and as a man who loves videogames, and always has, I want to see good games succeed regardless of their corporate affiliations. But I do want to see the kind of person I associate with the HD consoles, their attitudes, intolerance and immature arrogance... taken down a notch or two. I enjoy it when I see a graphics whore wail about how they don't understand how the Wii can be doing so well. That's it, exactly: they don't understand.
Ehh, I'm honestly not very proud of the way I feel, and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings -- this isn't meant to be an attack on anyone specific. But it is what it is.
