a rant day today

just added a link to ChittyChittyBangBang! (see sidebar).
he's got a good writing style and churns out an interesting blog.
i don't read it as often as i should, but then i don't do a lot of things as often as i should.

anyway.
i was reading a copy of nag (new age gaming) last night and came across a review of shadow of the colossus.
now the game is fairly bold in its implementation and quite original. its all about defeating 16 giant creatures in some spectacular ways (climbing all over them and stabbing them in the weak spots etc). from all the info that i've read it is a unique experience. there are no minions to defeat, the story is simple yet engaging, its just plain good.
but what ticked me off had nothing to do with the game. what got my proverbial goat (i don't have a real goat to call my own) was the fact that the review opened up with a tired, overused, and lame arguement about gamers that has been bandied back and forth since the invention of games (and pertains to all media really).
the arguement is simply this: people claim they want originality but when something truly new arrives they don't like it.
well what the hell do you expect?
firstly its a generalization. a lot of people will try it and like it. a lot will shun it because it doesn't appeal to them. a lot will shun it because they don't realise what it really is.
but just because its original doesn't make it good.
just because its original doesn't mean we have to try it.
its not a difficult concept yet whenever this arguement rears it overcliched head, the person spewing out the disjointed garbage that makes the basis of their whining claims automatically latches on to the unreasonable fact that because he/she found it original it must be amazing and everyone should try it.
i could make something original that people really should try. i could make some shitty art film about slowly eating cereal while focussing on children being mauled by hungry seals.
"fruitloops and fish" i'd call it, and there would be stupid cunts out there who would watch it an tell other people that its better than crack (which is what i assume they're all on).
yes it'd be original but it'd also be crap.
people like things they know. the best form of originality is taking something people are comfortable with and providing a new and refreshing twist that evolves it into something new.
a sudden disjointed jump of new ideas often leaves people uncomfortable with the new environment, and people don't like to be uncomfortable.
some people thrive on experienceing something brand new that hasn't been done before (especially if they experience it before someone else and can lord it over them), but a lot of people like a certain thing and, while appreciating new additions to their preferred genre, like that thing to be left recognisable as the thing that they like.
people who like action movies will watch action movies. you can create a new, fresh action movie (that may be good or bad) but its still an action movie. fruitloops and fish is something brand new and "never-done-before" (i hope) but an action movie buff is not going to like it (unless they really have problems).
basically the point is this: originality is not the be-all end-all of everything and the stupid old "its original so it must be good" arguement is stupid. anyone who really believes that should be subjected to repeated screenings of fruitloops and fish until they cry blood.
if you're going to review a game (or movie or anything) don't start by threatening your audience by saying that they'd better like it or they're stupid morons.
tell us its original and sell the damn thing on its own credits!
if it is actually good then it doesn't need guerrilla reviewing tactics to get people to play/watch/try it.
the rest of the review actually made me want to try the game. not because its original but because it sounds like fun.

ha!
that's my rant for the day, well... the second really. i ranted a bit on chitty's blog about feminism. i'm not gonna repeat all that here but the basic gist of it is this: feminism can take things too far. as with the rest of life: common sense and not being a dick work far better than some stupid ideal that gets taken up like a brainwashing revolution of idiocy.
i'm sure the original feminist movement was fantastic, but too many female che wannabies have lost the real world applications (quixotic. look it up motherfuckers).
i may have actually gotten my point across a little better here than there... but that's rants for you: a burst of vehement opinion that normally is badly verbalised turning into a bitter stew that you try to force down someone's throat because you think they're too stupid to each such sweet nectars themselves. (man its fun mashing metaphores into some sort of goopy goopy).
*shrugs* whatever. i make no excuses. if you know me you understand and if you don't then it doesn't really matter if you do (understand that is).