Tuesday, October 19, 2004

"Why Should I Buy *Your* Game?"

This is a small pet peeve of mine when it comes to discussing games. I see this sort of behavior at cons and at on RPG.net. People are discussing a gaming product of some sort and the author or a guy from the company that publishes gets involved in the conversation. Inevitably, some yahoo asks "So why should I buy your game, instead of the competition?" Why do people feel the need to do this? Here you are, having a nice chitchat about some nifty game product and you're loucky enough to have one of the people who made it involved. What good does it do to basically force them into a corner where they have to hard sell the product? Your basically forcing the guy into the position of playing the role of corporate shill. Moreover, what sort of yahoo really thinks it accomplishes anything to drop two game products into Thunderdome like that? So maybe I can't really afford to get both the new Blackmoor and the World of Khaas, does hearing one of the publisher's official line on why there setting is better really help me choose which one to buy? More importantly, I really, truly believe that gaming texts are Art with a capital 'A'. Commercial Art, yes, but Art nonetheless. Do you ever hear anybody say "Well, why should I bother to read this Shakespeare, when I already have all this Euripedes?" Good Art doesn't engage other Art in high noon showdowns, each stands on their own merits.

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