General: MMOWTF: Happy Games Make Me Want to Kill

Stradden

In this short-but-sweet edition of MMOWTF, Dan Fortier takes a swing at what he calls "kiddie MMOs", friendship meters, decorating contests and the like.

That’s right...I said it. Happy Games make me want to kill. If that isn’t clear enough let me put a finer point on it: Games that involve cartoon characters, emasculated male avatars, sparkly music and non-violent ways to compete with fellow players send me into a murderous rage that typically involves turning green and huffing paint. There is just something about really big eyes and a small mouth that gets my adrenaline pumping and makes me want to inflict serious virtual damage on people and property. This week, I take my impotent aggression out on kiddie MMOs and the adults who keep them profitable. Yar!

It seems that a month doesn’t go by in which an MMO that caters to kids (and the people that stalk them) is released. A fair portion of these titles are imported from counties that literally crank out these games in a non-stop stream. The ones that make it to our side of the pond are usually poorly translated and virtually carbon copies of each other minus a title and a quickly assembled backstory pasted haphazardly onto the genre of choice. Is this some kind of payback for something we did wrong in a past life?

Read it all here.

Ozmodan

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.

 

neschria

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

BadSpock

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.

 

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."

Mirandel

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/  

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.

JK-Kanosi

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.

Pengysan

This article is brilliant.

You are brilliant.

{ Mod Edit }

doomguide

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. 

sitheus

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.

 

ryotian

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

Piouss

/join murderous rage

Hexxeity

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.

KoSPr0

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.

Rofl wowwwww, you really dont understand the point of his column do you?

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

Llamster

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.

 

Qworg

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.

Reklaw

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

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.

daelnor

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.

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?

shava

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

shava

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

 

http://tinyurl.com/2lblz8

 

Yrs,

Shava

CactusmanX

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.

boognish75

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''?

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."