Epic Default Productions

Okay people, I’m stealing Anthony’s soapbox for a minute.

First, let me give you a little background on myself. I started my gaming life like most people my age (at least I would hope or else this is going to be an exercise of how old I feel) on a Commodore 64. I also started at the end of the Arcade Boom, so I got to see such classics as Pole Position, the entire Pac-Man series (in the US at least), Tempest, and Galaga in their full, unadulterated glory.

My family got the NES a couple of years before they debuted the SNES, and up until the N64 I had every system that they made (yes, even the Virtual Boy…I’m shivering now). I even was an original subscriber to Nintendo Power. I was the proud owner of a Genesis and a Game Gear, and appreciated most of the games that came out, although I thought the Nintendo franchise had better quality games at that time. Don’t bother throwing shit at me for that last comment. It won’t stop me from knowing I was right.

Then, just after Goldeneye, two things happened. I entered high school, and therefore suppressed this particular character trait in order to gain the acceptance that I so desperately craved (a weak moment, I admit, but what can I do about it now). Plus, I began my working life, so I really had no time to play any games except for a racing game here and there on a cheap Playstation that I found at a garage sale, and of course the Guitar Hero series on an equally cheap PS2 I found at another garage sale. I had a three month addiction to War Crack somewhere in there as well, but wasn’t as hardcore as some of the stories you hear on that front.

That was all until one faithful night when I was hanging out at a friend’s house. He had a 360, an LCD flat screen with Surround Sound, and just picked up BioShock. I had heard about the game, and he let me play a little. Fifteen hours later, gaming and general nerd culture had grabbed me by the ear and dragged me back home, where I belonged, after ten long years. No seriously, ten years…plus a day.† Go ahead and wiki the release dates of Goldeneye and BioShock if you don’t believe me. Since then, I’ve been playing what I could on the little money I could put together in order to feed the addiction.

For those of you wondering what the point of that ramble is, I’m getting to it. Bear with me a few more moments whilst I review what I just said. If you notice, there are only two PC related things in that rant. So, according to some people I’ve met in the past few months, including Anthony, my best friend for six years now, I can sum up those four paragraphs with one sentence.

I’ve never played Doom.

For those of you still reading, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. For those of you who are still reading, just to get ammo of how I’m a n00b, or I shouldn’t be writing anything about games, because I haven’t played the Granddaddy of all FPS’s, shut it, you fucking twat, because I’m about to own you like a 12 year old.

True, I haven’t played Doom, however, I know about the game. As much as it was ahead of it’s time and introduced many things that we take for granted now in video games, it’s not that hard to grasp the concept of it. To this day, I can hold my own in a conversation about the plot (which isn’t saying much) and I have the utmost respect for the aforementioned qualities that it brought to the table. Although I have not played it (relax, I will at sometime), essentially I know my roots. I actively (and knowingly) celebrate what it gave us, all those years ago. Which is a hell of a lot better than a good majority of the gamers you interact with on a daily basis in this time and place.

I guarantee if you poll a number of the “hardcore” gamers of today, a decent amount of them will have never heard of the Atari 2600, hell, more will probably not believe that there was a time where a single dot moving across the screen, brought the same amount of joy that shooting a hooker on the street does today…in Video Game format. I don’t want to hear about an increase in prostitute murders being blamed on me, thank you very much.

Which is fine, really. You’re going to get that in any sort of market that’s been around as long as gaming has. Sure, they are annoying as hell and you feel a lot older, but what’s wrong with that? Getting older means you get to tell stories. You can blow the minds of the little one’s now. Video Games have become the “Twelve miles in the snow, uphill, both ways” story of our generation. And think of it. How annoying is that story the twentieth time you’ve heard it? Go ahead, pass that joy on to the children. They are our future, you know.

Essentially what I’m getting at is, gaming as a culture polarizes itself away from the rest of the world. It’s not the nerds that are socially awkward, it’s the culture. People treat it like some secret society with a handshake that involves fifteen different motions. The problem with that being the case is that it seeps into the culture itself. Look at the console wars. We should be celebrating that there are three console keeping prices down (comparatively, also a concept that Sony should wake up to). But instead, all you hear is this console is better than that console, usually followed by “you’re a fucktard” or something equally moronic.

If you look at each individual console with an open mind, more than likely, you will find something you will enjoy with that particular console. And isn’t that what gaming is about? Well that and enjoying something while you pass the time, either with friends, or alone…for some of us…I mean you. Why must there be a fight? Why does one have to be better than the other? This type of rampant Fanboyism is going to kill the one good thing we have right now, which is the ability to be social. If we keep boxing ourselves in like this, eventually we’re all going to be agoraphobic, virtual pet keeping weirdoes. We’ve already got the weirdo part down, but weird is good, in moderation.

“But Jonny, if you are so against Fanboyism, why is your blog called Fanboys?” Well, ignoring the fact that it’s what the UT television show that we are basing this off of was called, our blog is called that because we are Fanboys. We are fans of gaming, in general, and of all factions. Both Anthony and I are retro gamers, arcade gamers, console gamers, tabletop gamers, PC gamers (Anthony more than myself), and the occasional sports gamer.

Wait a minute, this sounds familiar doesn’t it? Oh that’s right, Wil Wheaton said this in his infamous PAX 07 keynote speech. And, oh yes, people actually applauded him when he stated this, so I know there are gamers out there who agree with me. Why can’t gaming itself be like that? Gaming is aging, there’s going to be a new crop of gamers every generation. Soon, it will become historical; there will be no more working Commodore 64′s, NES’s, Genesis’s, and no more Virtual Boy’s (thank god). The people of our generation are going to be the one’s keeping that part of gaming in the public knowledge, making sure we celebrate the innovations, and keeping the mistakes from being repeated. We need to be a single entity, not separate factions. So put down your rocket launchers, sniper rifles, and gravity guns and start uniting. Acoustic guitars and Kumbayas aren’t necessary but how about a handshake and game without making references to each other’s mother’s love life and our roles in it. *

And for God’s sake, I’ll fucking play Doom at some point!

*Line stolen from Wil Wheaton’s keynote speech, because it’s that damn good.

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