Last time, you and I got off on the wrong foot. I'd like to try again, if I may, and I promise to keep the patronization to a minimum. Do be warned that what follows is a long post, though. So with that...

It is one thing to take pride in doing something others can not, even if that something is minor and pointless. We all do it at one point or another, so as long as its kept within reason there's nothing wrong with such behavior. For example, I am great in the kitchen, and even though that achievement isnt' really necessary nowadays it's still something that I can look on and smile about.

The problems arise when you take such an inordinate amount of pride in a meaningless accomplishment that you start being hostile to people who haven't done something similar. To continue my example, I don't take so much pride in my culinary skills that I actively loathe and despise anyone who buys cake mix or Top Ramen.

Yet that is essentially what is going on in with this comic. The author is proudly boasting that he (like myself) wasted large chunks of his childhood by locking himself in his room and memorizing ten-part button combinations that make his character swing his sword just so. He is, in fact, patting himself on the back for encountering a barrier to gameplay and surmounting it. He's welcome to do so: shoot, I still do the same myself.

Unfortunately, he then takes this to the illogical extreme: if you don't have the patience to do what I did, if you didn't make yourself a "social outcast" (his words, not mine) in pursuit of learning how to do a single Sonic Boom, if YOU didn't have the patience to jot down and keep sixty-character passwords just lying about, then I despise you. Never mind the fact that these button combinations, these lengthy passwords, these barriers to having fun, were never meant to be the challenge in and of themselves. No, if you have not Suffered as I have, then you are Not Worthy,

Here's the problems. Not only is that incredibly elitist (and I can't think of a single time that "elitist" qualifies as a good character trait), but that attitude ultimately retards the very hobby that we all enjoy. On a literal level, had gaming always listened to folks like this author, folks who wanted everyone to go through the hassles we had to go through, we'd all still have to be programming our games before we played them, rather than taking the easy out of just plopping the cartridge into a console.

And I'm not completely speaking hypothetically here: only a few decades ago, computer gamers (the "Real Gamers" of their time) were openly contemptful of those idiots who had to use an Atari or NES to play their games.

When it came time for the SNES/Genesis, "Real Gamers" (like myself) were infuriated. What do you mean that I don't have to replay the game twenty times before I'm good enough to move on to the second level? That wasn't the way to have fun: difficult games that never let you take a break from the action is where it's all at!

When the Playstation came along, I (a "Real Gamer" at the time) joined those who looked down on those stupid jocks and M-TV morons who were coming into our hobby and causing developers to dumb down the difficutly levels even more, and now they're trying to make our games into movies. What the f***'s the point if all I'm going to do is watch?

The simple truth of the matter is that none of these have killed Gaming. The kids of the 80's didn't do it, the jocks of the 90's failed, the casuals of the 00's ain't gonna do it either.

What has happened is that games no longer require that you to learn how to program stuff, to devote whole months of your life to beating a single level, to have the patience to write down reams of gibberish, to do all the things that stop you from having fun. And every time this happened, every time the barriers lowered a little more, new people flooded into our hobby, bringing with them new expectations, new ideas, more money, and just a little bit more social acceptibility, so that admitting at a party that you play video games no longer guarantees that you're sleeping alone that night.

And that's what's happening here: new technology has made it even easier for people to take up our hobby, and with them comes more money for our developers to create games, new ideas to expand the old genres, an easier way to play games, and, yes, increased social acceptibility (Guitar Hero, Mario Kart, and other "party" games can now get you laid. True Story!). Which of these things so bothers and disgusts you?

There's more. Any group or hobby that tries to forcibly expel new blood, that makes elitism a point of pride, will almost inevitably descend into irrelevance. Catering exclusively, or even primarily, to the "hardcore" of gaming will inevitably result in gaming retrogressing to the days where only a small homogenous niche plays the damned things, and thus new ideas are rare and the entire hobby stagnates.

We already have a very clear example of that with the comic book industry, where catering primarily to the "hardcore" excluded almost everyone, until all that's left is young males slobbering over the latest reboot of some series from the 60's or earlier. Nobody respects them: they're the butt of jokes, most girls roll their eyes when they hear that someone likes comic books, and when movie studios jack the properties they pay only lip service to the comic-con folks. I have zero desire to share the fate of those people.

That is one of the reasons why, instead of trying to repulse new gamers, I welcome them. And I know, from personal experience, that when the day's over and it's time to get ready for the next generation, gaming will be just as alive as it was when I got into it. Oh sure, it will change, in some ways good, in some ways bad. But at the end of the day, the sky will not have fallen, the games will still be fun, and in the end I'll have new experiences to look forward to.

I can't see how any of that is bad.

Agreed, this is one of the reasons why I dont play card games any more. So many nubs with cards that make the game cake work. I remember my red/green Magc Deck which was strong but insanely difficult to work with yet now a days a red/green deck is the ultra pathetic excuss of easy. There is no such thing as strategy anymore in Yu-Gi-Oh, MTG, Pokemon, and everything else but The Eye of Judgment (mainly due to it being not popular yet.).

Last time, you and I got off on the wrong foot. I'd like to try again, if I may, and I promise to keep the patronization to a minimum. Do be warned that what follows is a long post, though. So with that...

It is one thing to take pride in doing something others can not, even if that something is minor and pointless. We all do it at one point or another, so as long as its kept within reason there's nothing wrong with such behavior. For example, I am great in the kitchen, and even though that achievement isnt' really necessary nowadays it's still something that I can look on and smile about.

The problems arise when you take such an inordinate amount of pride in a meaningless accomplishment that you start being hostile to people who haven't done something similar. To continue my example, I don't take so much pride in my culinary skills that I actively loathe and despise anyone who buys cake mix or Top Ramen.

Yet that is essentially what is going on in with this comic. The author is proudly boasting that he (like myself) wasted large chunks of his childhood by locking himself in his room and memorizing ten-part button combinations that make his character swing his sword just so. He is, in fact, patting himself on the back for encountering a barrier to gameplay and surmounting it. He's welcome to do so: shoot, I still do the same myself.

Unfortunately, he then takes this to the illogical extreme: if you don't have the patience to do what I did, if you didn't make yourself a "social outcast" (his words, not mine) in pursuit of learning how to do a single Sonic Boom, if YOU didn't have the patience to jot down and keep sixty-character passwords just lying about, then I despise you. Never mind the fact that these button combinations, these lengthy passwords, these barriers to having fun, were never meant to be the challenge in and of themselves. No, if you have not Suffered as I have, then you are Not Worthy,

Here's the problems. Not only is that incredibly elitist (and I can't think of a single time that "elitist" qualifies as a good character trait), but that attitude ultimately retards the very hobby that we all enjoy. On a literal level, had gaming always listened to folks like this author, folks who wanted everyone to go through the hassles we had to go through, we'd all still have to be programming our games before we played them, rather than taking the easy out of just plopping the cartridge into a console.

And I'm not completely speaking hypothetically here: only a few decades ago, computer gamers (the "Real Gamers" of their time) were openly contemptful of those idiots who had to use an Atari or NES to play their games.

When it came time for the SNES/Genesis, "Real Gamers" (like myself) were infuriated. What do you mean that I don't have to replay the game twenty times before I'm good enough to move on to the second level? That wasn't the way to have fun: difficult games that never let you take a break from the action is where it's all at!

When the Playstation came along, I (a "Real Gamer" at the time) joined those who looked down on those stupid jocks and M-TV morons who were coming into our hobby and causing developers to dumb down the difficutly levels even more, and now they're trying to make our games into movies. What the f***'s the point if all I'm going to do is watch?

The simple truth of the matter is that none of these have killed Gaming. The kids of the 80's didn't do it, the jocks of the 90's failed, the casuals of the 00's ain't gonna do it either.

What has happened is that games no longer require that you to learn how to program stuff, to devote whole months of your life to beating a single level, to have the patience to write down reams of gibberish, to do all the things that stop you from having fun. And every time this happened, every time the barriers lowered a little more, new people flooded into our hobby, bringing with them new expectations, new ideas, more money, and just a little bit more social acceptibility, so that admitting at a party that you play video games no longer guarantees that you're sleeping alone that night.

And that's what's happening here: new technology has made it even easier for people to take up our hobby, and with them comes more money for our developers to create games, new ideas to expand the old genres, an easier way to play games, and, yes, increased social acceptibility (Guitar Hero, Mario Kart, and other "party" games can now get you laid. True Story!). Which of these things so bothers and disgusts you?

There's more. Any group or hobby that tries to forcibly expel new blood, that makes elitism a point of pride, will almost inevitably descend into irrelevance. Catering exclusively, or even primarily, to the "hardcore" of gaming will inevitably result in gaming retrogressing to the days where only a small homogenous niche plays the damned things, and thus new ideas are rare and the entire hobby stagnates.

We already have a very clear example of that with the comic book industry, where catering primarily to the "hardcore" excluded almost everyone, until all that's left is young males slobbering over the latest reboot of some series from the 60's or earlier. Nobody respects them: they're the butt of jokes, most girls roll their eyes when they hear that someone likes comic books, and when movie studios jack the properties they pay only lip service to the comic-con folks. I have zero desire to share the fate of those people.

That is one of the reasons why, instead of trying to repulse new gamers, I welcome them. And I know, from personal experience, that when the day's over and it's time to get ready for the next generation, gaming will be just as alive as it was when I got into it. Oh sure, it will change, in some ways good, in some ways bad. But at the end of the day, the sky will not have fallen, the games will still be fun, and in the end I'll have new experiences to look forward to.

I can't see how any of that is bad.

tl;dr