cyan's Journal: Perspective

So, FireMyst is complaining about his lack of "notoriety" in the gaming community. I guess he finally figured out that, you know, just because you run a website based around RPG reviews, that doesn't make you hot shit.

His solution to the problem? To "de-dragonify". No, I'm not kidding:

" First and foremost, a new avatar. Using the New Xbox Experience, I created an avatar like myself, Adding a few touches to it to make sure the dragon is not forgotten, and here we go. "

Wow. Yeah. A new avatar is totally going to modernize his image. I could think of a few other things he could fix. For example, he seems to be completely obsessed with E3, even though the whole gaming community has unanimously agreed that it has gone completely down the shitter. Take, for example, this quote from Chris Delay, of Introversion Software:

" I'm sick of reading and hearing dishonest propaganda and marketing euphemisms from big name developers who really can't seem to stop spouting shit. They really should know better. E3 seems to bring out the worst of them. "

Everyone agrees that E3 is, by and large, a dead event run by the collective marketing departments from the various gaming companies. By "companies", I mean monoliths like Electronic Arts, Blizzard, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Note that doesn't include visionaries such as Introversion, Basilisk, or other independent game developers. The fact that Penny Arcade Expo has a strong showing of independent developers while E3 does not should speak for itself.

Brian Hughes, a good friend of mine, owns the GameDeals video game store in New Westminster. I regard him as one of the sharpest minds when it comes to video game retail. So far, most of his predictions about market trends have been spot on. Folks, I can assure you that operating a retail store is several magnitudes more difficult than operating a website. Anyway, Mr. Hughes had the following to say about E3 2008:

" It's that time of year again, when the big video game companies get together at E3 and announce all the cool stuff that we have to look forward to... except this year, the whole thing was a big waste of time. "

See, Brian wasn't even at E3, but even from afar, he considered it "a big waste of time." Our pal FireMyst, Mr. Mikel Tidwell himself, was actually at E3 2008, and he had this shocking statement to make about it:

" Overall, I would have to say it was better than last year, maybe even a few years ago. "

Better than a few years ago? Are you shitting me? When Penny Arcade has things like this to say about the event, I think it's time for Mr. Tidwell to maybe, you know, get on board with the gaming community a bit. That might improve his "notoriety". Maybe just a little.

But I can think of a few other things that might affect his "notoriety". Stuff like this:

Firemyst ([e-mail])
ircname : Firemyst
channels : @#RPGamer @#Relax @#furry

Wait, what's that? #furry? That might have something to do with it. You know, gamer sympathy for furries isn't exactly at its highest level ;) Ironically, I actually saw FireMyst at PAX 2008, hanging out with his furry friend. "Proud to be a Furry", and "Furry is Life"? Ouch!

Then, there are the rampant rumours about adultry and an inability to keep a zipper done up while on business trips. Or his apparent distaste for Penny Arcade Expo even though it's right in his own back yard. It's almost like he's "too good" for PAX.

But that seems to be the summary of Mr. Tidwell since I've first met him. Arrogant and uppity, thinking he belongs to a superior class of technocrats. The fact that his lack of online "notoriety" bothers him so much should speak volumes for how he views his place in society. Or it might just be because Microsoft announced that they're going to be laying off their bottom-feeders. Last I checked, Mr. Tidwell was employed by Microsoft.

I guess I'd be worried, too.