MMOWTF: Happy Games Make Me Want to Kill

Making net games for kids is just dangerous these days.  I get tired of hearing the abuses in the news.

The sad thing is there are lots of irresponsible parents that don't really pay any attention to it.

I really have to question putting news of MMO's like this on this site.  You have to draw the line somewhere.

Such hostility! You must need huggles.  And bunnies! Lots of bunnies!

I hated your last piece on Noobs/MMMOOOOOOO whatever it was...

But I like this one.

True, I don't get as animated and violent in my dislike for "kiddy" games shipped straight from Asia, but I feel where you are coming from on this one.

You are a professional writer for a popular website, so probably in your 20's or 30's. It's VERY much a good thing that you don't like the happy kid fun games. The only 20-40+ year olds that play these games are, in my opinion, creepy. It's like 40 year olds on facebook pretending to be 19. Scary stuff.

Older adults obviously are entitled to like and dislike whatever they wish, but one would think that games with more realism would appeal more to adults?

And no, I'm not talking about WoW. It may look cartoony but it is no Maple Story or Flyff etc.

It's a culture difference, more or less.

Also, it's marketing. Free to play games with item malls are designed for kids who can't afford monthly payments, or can't get their parents to pay for it. How do you attract kids? With childish themes. Basic marketing.

Sorry, but I got over the macho insecurity thing in my early twenties. The greatest part of being an adult is the fact that you don't have to try to prove that you're and adult  to everyone the way you felt compelled to when you were in high school. I like what I like and anyone that looks down on me for that can kiss my ass. Not just a peck on the cheek, mind you, but a deep loving tongue kiss.

I guess the label of "mature" is a bit of a misnomer. Someone who is really mature wouldn't choose what they play based on the opinions of others. It takes more than titties and bloodspray to make a game "adult."

Should not this column be converted to Dan Fortier's blog? Would be more apropriate to the content. It is not even an opinion any more (and far away from something that can be call an article).

In case Dan will decide to become a writer again not a blogger here you can find some material to support your emotions http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/  

The writer sounds like he is probably a machoist and a sexist. Just like most uneducated people, the writer associates the words tough, mean, violence as masculine attributes and cute, nice, and passive as feminine attributes. When in fact, those things are just taught to the respective gender and actually has no bearing on how one gender should act over an other. A well rounded individual, whether male or female, will have traits such as toughness, respectfulness of others, kind, passive on some things/aggressive on others. I can keep going, but I just find this train of thought sickening and counterproductive to advancing our society to a more equal society. You can slap the equal opportunity label on whatever you want, but until people stop associating traditional male attributes as superior to female traditional attributes, you will always have the people that think a male is weak if he shows compassion and sensitivity among other things.

I just think that the writer should really think before posting, because kids read these articles and learn things from them. Kids need to be learning how to be tolerant and accept other people for who they are and not learning how to discriminate based off of what traditional males see as weak traits.

I honestly think that the writer has personal issues that make him want to implode when seeing something happy and cute. We would all be better off if people did try to be happy, instead of shunning anything that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Originally posted by Jimmy_Scythe

Sorry, but I got over the macho insecurity thing in my early twenties. The greatest part of being an adult is the fact that you don't have to try to prove that you're and adult  to everyone the way you felt compelled to when you were in high school. I like what I like and anyone that looks down on me for that can kiss my ass. Not just a peck on the cheek, mind you, but a deep loving tongue kiss.

I guess the label of "mature" is a bit of a misnomer. Someone who is really mature wouldn't choose what they play based on the opinions of others. It takes more than titties and bloodspray to make a game "adult."

More vulgar than i would have put it, but well said none-the-less. I view people that spout off that they are adults and adults play this or that as insecure adults with a lack of education. Why do I say education? Because the more you know about other cultures and the opposite gender and what they think and feel, the less likely you are to say, do, or think things that would be offensive to them. So either they are uneducated, didn't take cultural awareness and psychology classes, or didn't pay attention while in those classes.

I was raised to think just like the writer, but I changed my ways and thinking after marrying a strong woman and going to college. I just see it as growing up. Somehow, people like the writer skip that portion of the growing up phase.

This article is brilliant.
You are brilliant.
{ Mod Edit }

It was, I think, an attempt at humor.  But writing humor is hard, especially when you go the route the author did--ie the rant and rave kind of thing like comedian Louis Black does.  WHen it works it is good stuff, but all too often it just comes off as being annoying and usually a bit offensive.  Which in most cases is what they are shooting for anyhow.

As for the testosterone?  When you get down to it, He Man and GI Joe were just bulked up Barbies so the 'blur' was already in place. 

Haven't kept up with AoC much, but it is mature rating with nudeness, head decapitations, and dark lore. It will be interesting to see if it is profitable enough to influence other developers to venture into the terriorty of mature MMOs.

Although the OP is tired of playing with kids in kid-like MMOs, I doubt if mature rating like AoC  will keep all the kids away from  mature MMOs.

I really don't care if the MMO is very bloody or not, because if the game play and depth suck, then, well, it just sucks and at the end of the day all I want is still  to play a good MMO with a lot of depth in combat, lore, economy, guild system, non instanced world objective based PvP, city building, player driven,  etc, etc.

Was a great article but surely it will offend the multitudes of girl-using-avatar-posters that we all know are really guys that visit this site. great article

/join murderous rage

This column is further proof that mmorpg.com is run by children, for children.  Congrats on reinforcing the ignorant macho attitudes of your target demo, Mr. Fortier.

Originally posted by JK-Kanosi

The writer sounds like he is probably a machoist and a sexist. Just like most uneducated people, the writer associates the words tough, mean, violence as masculine attributes and cute, nice, and passive as feminine attributes. When in fact, those things are just taught to the respective gender and actually has no bearing on how one gender should act over an other. A well rounded individual, whether male or female, will have traits such as toughness, respectfulness of others, kind, passive on some things/aggressive on others. I can keep going, but I just find this train of thought sickening and counterproductive to advancing our society to a more equal society. You can slap the equal opportunity label on whatever you want, but until people stop associating traditional male attributes as superior to female traditional attributes, you will always have the people that think a male is weak if he shows compassion and sensitivity among other things.

I just think that the writer should really think before posting, because kids read these articles and learn things from them. Kids need to be learning how to be tolerant and accept other people for who they are and not learning how to discriminate based off of what traditional males see as weak traits.

I honestly think that the writer has personal issues that make him want to implode when seeing something happy and cute. We would all be better off if people did try to be happy, instead of shunning anything that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

And besides that the internet is for 13+ anyways, GG mate go teach your son bout fluffy puppys and rainbows so when he grows up a bit, he can just be another person crying that the world ain't fair, and how everyone should just be nice and give to each other.

"The truly strong, only rely on strength of self." - XXX

I'm thinking that this article is more of a humorous one as opposed to a rant.

If it is serious.....

...... well that's just sad.

In a rephrasing of the satirical words of the great George Orwell, dare I say:

"All MMOs are equal, but some MMOs are more equal than others."

Edit: Sentence restructuring.

Originally posted by JK-Kanosi

The writer sounds like he is probably a machoist and a sexist. Just like most uneducated people, the writer associates the words tough, mean, violence as masculine attributes and cute, nice, and passive as feminine attributes. When in fact, those things are just taught to the respective gender and actually has no bearing on how one gender should act over an other. A well rounded individual, whether male or female, will have traits such as toughness, respectfulness of others, kind, passive on some things/aggressive on others. I can keep going, but I just find this train of thought sickening and counterproductive to advancing our society to a more equal society. You can slap the equal opportunity label on whatever you want, but until people stop associating traditional male attributes as superior to female traditional attributes, you will always have the people that think a male is weak if he shows compassion and sensitivity among other things.

I just think that the writer should really think before posting, because kids read these articles and learn things from them. Kids need to be learning how to be tolerant and accept other people for who they are and not learning how to discriminate based off of what traditional males see as weak traits.

I honestly think that the writer has personal issues that make him want to implode when seeing something happy and cute. We would all be better off if people did try to be happy, instead of shunning anything that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Well said

Has anyone other than me noticed that everyone on this site seems to be an expert on psychology? Seriously, everyone's examination of TRUE reasoning of someone elses words is astounding. Everyone has an expert diagnosis for everything, ESPECIALLY when it is of a different opinion than theirs.

D.

p.s. Personally, I blame child abuse for any opinion that differs from mine. They musts obviously be caused by some childhood trauma, or they would always agree with me implicitly.

Oh, and while I'm at it, you can't forget the +1 guy. They always pipe in with a one or two word response that doesn't mean anything.

^^^what he said.

D.

Originally posted by daelnor

Has anyone other than me noticed that everyone on this site seems to be an expert on psychology? Seriously, everyone's examination of TRUE reasoning of someone elses words is astounding. Everyone has an expert diagnosis for everything, ESPECIALLY when it is of a different opinion than theirs.

D.

p.s. Personally, I blame child abuse for any opinion that differs from mine. They musts obviously be caused by some childhood trauma, or they would always agree with me implicitly.

Just like the "columnist" thinks he knows what's best for the MMO genre, 'we all' know how his clueless mind works. It's really not that complicated, actually. The clumsiness behind the post is blatantly visible, and it's funny to an extent. It's not as funny when you start thinking that this guy thinks he's all very mature and adult playing a bloody dwarf who kills fantastic creatures in his weekly D&D sessions with his equally 15-year old minded friends. And they're not 15 year old minded for playing such things; they're so because they pretend to be superior to, I don't know, guys who watch cartoons or whatever. A discourse such as this "column" just goes to show how maturity-avid these kind of people are. Shows what they're lacking, doesn't it?

Concerned that shoujo (girl-aimed cutsy anime) games will mar  your masculinity?

Perhaps you are mapping cultural assumptions on Asia that don't properly map here.

http://www.basugasubakuhatsu.com/blog/2006/07/17/what-the-demographic-labels-shoujo-shonen-josei-and-seinen-mean-to-american-anime-and-manga-fans/

is a great examination of "demographic" anime styles and the people who actually watch them.  I'm sure it applies to games.

If the post isn't humor, I agree, it's sad.  Either way, take it as a teachable moment...:)

Yrs,

Shava

For those who can't get the URL in the previous post:

http://tinyurl.com/2lblz8

Yrs,

Shava

Good point about the anime and manga demographics.  The japanese do have a much different system of labeling things.  I still can't figure out what demographic the anime I watch is supose to be in, whatever demographic likes Gungrave, Bebop and Vampire Hunter D.  But if there were a Japanese MMOG as cleaver as Azumange Daioh I might play it.

I don't think it is the setting that makes many of these asian MMOGs bad, it is the lackluster, shallow, repetitive gameplay.

Cartoony doesn't imply the previous descriptors, just look at games like Okami it is a rather deep and satisfying game.  While games like Postal, which has all the blood and crude humor you would ever want, are shallow and dull.

If anyone remembers True Fantasy Live Online from a couple years ago, it got cancled but it did have more cartoony graphics, technically it could be considered one of these cutesy games, but it had, or rather was going to have, depth; houses, real time combat (zelda-esque), boats, open skill system and a huge land to explore.

So cartoony or cute doesn't mean bad, it is independant from the depth and quaility of the game.

Yup the cute big eyed anime mmo's make me want to grab random kids and make them give me there favorite stuffed animal so i can make them watch as i gouge out the stuffed animals eyes with a rusty pocket knife and shout at them'' is this cute enuff for you''?

The best part about Dan's columns is reading all the serious responses he gets from folks regarding them.

Folks....he is pulling your leg.  This is his style of humor...yes, that's right...he's not really serious about these columns, he just writes them to get a rise out of self-rightous, sanctimonious people..... (though I'm sure he & Stradden laugh as hard as I do at some of the responses)

As Dan said at the end of this article... "This concludes my weekly waste of column space."

Sorry, but this is an idiotic article.

First, why the heck would anyone get angry over a game they're obviously not going to play?  I hate Sims games, yet I'm not going to complain about them since I don't play them.  What do I care what they do with those Sims games, I don't play them.

Second, good job on the violent tendencies represented in your article!  That really sends your point home, how a game you wouldn't even play makes you want to act out violently, even if in a virtual world.

Third, your reason for hating these games (because you think others will see you as the type that plays these games that you don't like rather than the virile MMOs that you do play) is pure crap.  That's like saying people see me as the type that plays sport games because I play video games.  What do you care what someone who hasn't taken the time to learn what type of games you like to play cares anyway?  Some parent sees me at Best Buy looking at the game section and thinks I'm the type that likes to play the most violent games just bother me at all because I know who the heck I am and what the heck I like, as do those who I share my gaming experiences with.  All those other people are just generalizing me, like they do everything else, and that's fine.  I don't care, and neither should you.

Join the fight against happy games?  Can I join the fight against people who fight things they don't care about or even play while millions of others do?  Oh, wait, I don't care that you hate these type of games, so my comments here will be all I have to say.

Just an extremely idiotic article.

Originally posted by Kyleran

The best part about Dan's columns is reading all the serious responses he gets from folks regarding them.

Folks....he is pulling your leg.  This is his style of humor...yes, that's right...he's not really serious about these columns, he just writes them to get a rise out of self-rightous, sanctimonious people..... (though I'm sure he & Stradden laugh as hard as I do at some of the responses)

As Dan said at the end of this article... "This concludes my weekly waste of column space."

I agree with his last sentiment, his writing is a waste of column space, but wish MMORPG.com would focus on people who don't waste time on the most vapid of conversations without any purpose or meaning.  It's not even funny.  My post above may be more serious than his, but I don't come here looking for drivel of this sort as if the writer finds it funny that he can write a few paragraphs drawn from some nebula of what he calls imagination or creativity when in fact it just makes him look like an idiot.

hmmmmm....... Which game would I rather play?...... A happy cartoony game where your killing weird monsters with weird music playing along or a game that desperately tries to seem 'realistic' but because of the bugs and bad graphics in it's game it ends up looking worse than the cartoony games hmmm... What to pick what to pick?

I would rather play Puzzle Bobble or Lemmings ( or even Team Fortress 2 seeing as how that has cartoony graphics too ) for several hours than have my eyes go unfocused as I watch an experience bar go up as I play an MMORPG that's only major selling point is that it has boobs showing and has blood or scantily dressed women, if it weren't for the incessant grind I can honestly say I would find Flyff and Trickster more fun than any of these loot based games, honestly....

"Happy Games make me want to kill"

"Maybe all that aerosol I sniffed wiped my memory"

These two comments kind of sum up your mentality and the source of hatred for anything fluffy.

I don't enjoy these games but it doesn't effect me in any way that other people do. Some people don't require drama and death to be entertained... so what. Get over it.

You are clearly envious of their youth and ability to be silly... maybe even the fact they don't care what other people have to say, unlike you who are so insecure that you can't bear to be associated with such things.

I kinda feel sorry for you, go find someone special and get yourself a hug.

YES!  This article is totally right.  I definitely think pissing and moaning about it on a website will really change the amount of "cute, happy games" that show up on the Internet.  This isn't your blog, you lousy hack.  Get back to writing real articles and quit crying about the things that bug you as a gamer.

In summation: Quit whining, shut up, and let the rainbows and anime eyes take control.

I love this column. Every week is sends angry nerds into a frenzy of... Forum posting. HA!

Thing is, though, there's a very valid point here. Consider that we're currently living in an age where part of the populace thinks that videogames can be the next great art form, while others still see videogames as childish entertainment (hence the whole M-rated games controversy).

It's not a bad thing that the little kids get to try the whole online culture thing too, but there's a limit. There are certain developmental milestones a child needs to reach before the internet is an okay place for them to be interacting with other people. Obviously, countless people on the internet, and this site, never reached those milestones, which is why they rely on anonymity to be a complete douche-clown whenever possible.

Amazing that the OP can write the kinds of things that would either A: get a regular user here banned or B: get anyone else investigated by the FBI "...Make Me Want to Kill".

Someone clearly has unresolved issues. 

Jeez, are you people all American or something?

Im asking because of your inability to recognise an attempted joke without a canned laugh-track going off at the appropriate time.

Journalists, and people attempting the same, have certain character traits they value and try to develop.. to progress within their chosen class.

These include Witty, Provocative, and Controversial. Literate, educated is less important, and Accurate and Balanced are pretty much irrelevant.

I have never tried any of the genre he wrote about, I dont believe I would enjoy it much, and overdone cuteness does make my skin crawl. So I can see where he is coming from, but not enough to bother posting a reply to the article itself. However, the responses, and responses to the responses, have done their work, and dragged me into the arena as well.

This means the article has WORKED.

______

I say that if a 7 year old wants to play a kiddie game don't blow his head off for it. I say if a 40 year old wants to play a kiddie game, blow his head off for it. I don't think 7 year olds should play 'real' MMO's because most of them are immature, and it shapes their mind thinking that violence is a good thing. Most mature people can tell the difference between entertainment and promoting something. I also think these games should NOT be on MMORPG.com.

I've never read this guy's written work before. Is he always this way? If this isn't his attempt at humour then perhaps he needs to step away from the computer a while. A good looooooong while at that.

It's a pretty insulting piece and I could go into details on why I feel it is, but then again I'm not a psychologist. So I'm reading it the way I (for lack of better wording) want to read it. A touch sexist with a smear of macho BS.

Think I'll stop here before I get into my ranty mcrant rant.

PS - The guy/female that said we couldn't recognize humour. Perhaps if the humour wasn't written as if it were some insecure male in high school, then the humour would be legible. If this is humour then this is the worst satire I've ever read.

The author writes to get a rise of of people. That's his job. That said, there is one key word that everyone posting here has missed so far and frankly it shocks me. Impotent. Not in terms of his sexual functionality but rather his writing.

'This week I take my impotent aggressions out on....'

Mr Dan F is trying to butter his bread by getting folks to write. The more the better. The real  problem is that he's not a great writer. He doesn't have a great deal of original thought ort provoking concepts to offer so he re-hashes arguements already done to death or finds a 'rant' to raise folks hackles and not even good ones at that. Usually, angry is better than happy because anger fuels more anger.

Some of you pointed out that Mr. Dan F. was writing a joke that no one was getting. Not so. You are giving the writer too much credit. For an example of true 'shock jokes', look up Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal," amusing if you understand it. Let's all think fuzzy-happy thoughts about articles with more meat to go with the potatoes... currently being served and move on to something more entertaining.

Well thats it for this week's debunking. Let's file this article under 'A Cute and Fluffy Article That Never Really Was'

"he just writes them to get a rise out of self-rightous, sanctimonious people..."

"I'm thinking that this article is more of a humorous one as opposed to a rant."

"WHen it works it is good stuff, but all too often it just comes off as being annoying and usually a bit offensive.  Which in most cases is what they are shooting for anyhow."

"Mr Dan F is trying to butter his bread by getting folks to write. The more the better."

All the defenses offered for the kind of rant the OP did are EXACTLY what the staff at MMORPG.COM is censoring and banning other people for in the posts we make, i.e.:

You have been issued a temporary ban by one of our moderators.

Category: Trolling

Reason: Posting excessive negative comments or baiting others to respond in a negative manner is considered trolling on the MMORPG.com forums.

In other words, it's OK to bait people to respond in a negative manner as long as the person doing the baiting is an MMORPG.COM staff member, but if regular users here have actual grievances they need to vent about a game, company or product, unnamed moderators are quick to pounce, censoring posts and issuing bans like candy at Halloween.

The very capricious nature in which these bans are applied, combined with the heavy-handed censoring of posts that do not use profanity, obscenity, sexist or racist remarks (which are precisely the kind of posts that need to be removed) simply illustrates the incredible double-standard that exists here at MMORPG.COM. 

I've seen this kind of double standard back in the days of DOS/Text-based BBSs and let me assure you, no BBS that ever moderated its fora in such a capricious and heavy-handed way - while letting privileged posters get away with the kind of thing the OP does - ever lasted very long.

You're either going to tolerate free speech or you aren't.  But if you're going to have two separate sets of rules governing speech on this board, you're only - ultimately - assuring your demise.

The OP's posts of late are important not for what they say, but for highlighting the hypocrisy and caprice that exist among the MMORPG.COM moderators and staff.

The only part of the article that felt needed a revamp (well I felt the article as a whole needed one but...) was the 'I want to kill....' part. Unfortunately, while I am sure Dan F meant nothing by it, there are all too many impressionable  people *cough* out there that might act on such a statement. Anger begets anger and regretfully often leads to violence. Hence the term 'senseless violence,' something all too prevalent in the world these days.  Different words could  have been used to say the same thing. In truth the 'Happy games make me want to kill' is something I would expect from an unthinking teen..not a supposedly mature author.

A note to all the apologists who say "if you were annoyed by this article, you must not have 'gotten' the joke":  It is entirely possible to see that a writer is trying to be funny, but to simultaneously think the joke is stupid.

---

Originally posted by tapeworm00

---

Originally posted by daelnor

Has anyone other than me noticed that everyone on this site seems to be an expert on psychology? Seriously, everyone's examination of TRUE reasoning of someone elses words is astounding. Everyone has an expert diagnosis for everything, ESPECIALLY when it is of a different opinion than theirs.
D.
p.s. Personally, I blame child abuse for any opinion that differs from mine. They musts obviously be caused by some childhood trauma, or they would always agree with me implicitly.

---

Just like the "columnist" thinks he knows what's best for the MMO genre, 'we all' know how his clueless mind works. It's really not that complicated, actually. The clumsiness behind the post is blatantly visible, and it's funny to an extent. It's not as funny when you start thinking that this guy thinks he's all very mature and adult playing a bloody dwarf who kills fantastic creatures in his weekly D&D sessions with his equally 15-year old minded friends. And they're not 15 year old minded for playing such things; they're so because they pretend to be superior to, I don't know, guys who watch cartoons or whatever. A discourse such as this "column" just goes to show how maturity-avid these kind of people are. Shows what they're lacking, doesn't it?

---

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. One word. Editorial.

ed·i·to·ri·al /??d??t?ri?l, -?to?r-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ed-i-tawr-ee-uhl, -tohr-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun 1. an article in a newspaper or other periodical presenting the opinion of the publisher, editor, or editors.

Nobody ever said any of this is fact, just like nothing in your statement is fact, it's simply your opinion.

You guys crack me up.

By the way, with your own reasoning...you sound even more retarded than the writer of the article..and he wasn't even bashing anyone.

D.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. One word. Editorial.

So that's what we're calling "trolling" these days?

Just want to know so that next time some spineless moderator - who refuses to use a name other than "mod" - censors or bans a user merely for expressing an opinion, we know the magic "get out of jail free" word. 

Simply call it "editorial."