Does Nostalgic Fear of Change Have a place in gaming anymore?

[AzrealMaximillion]

It's 2011. Video Games have reached the point of becoming so close to being regarded as movies and music that we can taste it. We have gaming franchises that have grown up with us, and newer franchises that have found a place in our hearts. We are all fans of this art. But there are fans of our art that do not like change. Its comparable extreme irrationality at this point.

We have fans who don't even want to see Link, or Gordon Freeman speak for fear that the chosen voice won't fit them, thus ruining the franchise. There are fans who don't ever want to see colour in Diablo III. My question is this. Do we really have room for this kind of attitude in a media platform that prides itself on progress and change?


Actual discussion please, not fan banter.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Well, in the examples you gave, I don't think Link or Freeman need a voice. The game works perfectly adequate without them and at this point, adding them would be a huge risk because if you do it wrong, people are going to be unhappy. But you know what, films are the same way. Remember the backlash of X-Men 3, or Spider-Man 3, or even more so, Batman & Robin? Yeah, you screw up movies, fans bite back just the same as if you screw up video games. So really, I don't think this is that much of a problem. Yeah, there are going to be some who gripe and moan over every little thing, but I doubt that it's going be enough to hurt the industry.

 

[Limecake]

Developers should be aware of the general response to decisions like color choice and changing characters. However I would hope that every developer knows the difference between being aware of feedback and actually following it.

Video games are multimillion dollar investment and they take years to produce. Would you really make huge decisions on your game based on a couple posts on the internet?

I'd say if you're going to make changes to a franchise or character at least do it right (I'm looking at you Other M) If we apply video game logic to say the movie industry you could see how this would be ridiculous.

"Don't reboot Batman! Jack Nicholson was the best Joker! Heath could never live up to that"

so yeah, if we refuse to make changes we'll never progress.

 

[SammiYin]

I think fans need to man the hell up and deal with change. If a game goes in a new direction it's great, it doesn't always work and will probably be shit, but then you know what? The games will go back to the way they were.
They also won't change the old game! Giving Gordon Freeman a voice won't stop him being one of the most boring things about Half Life 2, so get over it.

There will always be fans out there who complain over anything, and I say fuck them.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

But there are fans of our art that do not like change. Its comparable to xenophobia at this point.

No, it's really not.

Xenophobia : "an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange"

What you're talking about is a fairly rational fear that someone is going to destroy something by meddling with it, given that we have so many recent incidents where it has happened.

Phobias are irrational. If we had a fear that Gordon Freeman would appear in our dreams screaming in Urdu/Mandarin - that would be Nostalgic Xenophobia. Mostly.

So, no.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Well, in the examples you gave, I don't think Link or Freeman need a voice. The game works perfectly adequate without them and at this point, adding them would be a huge risk because if you do it wrong, people are going to be unhappy. But you know what, films are the same way. Remember the backlash of X-Men 3, or Spider-Man 3, or even more so, Batman & Robin? Yeah, you screw up movies, fans bite back just the same as if you screw up video games. So really, I don't think this is that much of a problem. Yeah, there are going to be some who gripe and moan over every little thing, but I doubt that it's going be enough to hurt the industry.

Great point about the voices. My only trife with Link not having a voice is that NO ONE has a voice in the LoZ series(Navi does not count). If we could have everyone but Link voice acted, just like everyone but Gordon Freeman in HL2, I think that would be better. People wouldn't have to plow through text in this day and age anymore.

 

[Invader_Ace]

Fear of change does not equate to xenophobia. I can see what you're going for,but the definition is way off.

 

[kane.malakos]

Change isn't a bad thing, but at least for the voice thing, those decisions were made for good reasons, and I doubt the game would benefit from a change.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

But there are fans of our art that do not like change. Its comparable to xenophobia at this point.

No, it's really not.

Xenophobia : "an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange"

What you're talking about is a fairly rational fear that someone is going to destroy something by meddling with it, given that we have so many recent incidents where it has happened.

Phobias are irrational. If we had a fear that Gordon Freeman would appear in our dreams screaming in Urdu/Mandarin - that would be Nostalgic Xenophobia. Mostly.

So, no.

I think the term of Xenophobia fits well. "Xenophobia : "an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange"

Voice acting in the LoZ series is foreign to gamers. Dante's new look in the upcoming DMC is foreign, people have expressed major disdain about Dante and we both know crap would hit the fan if Nintendo said that Link was going to be voiced. That kind of reaction is irrational.

 

[Zhukov]

Uh... I'm not even sure that's a coherent argument...

See, there is such a thing as a bad change. For example, do you think they should, say, re-release Terminator with a line dancing routine and a whacky CGI talking animal sidekick? No? Well, you're just afraid of change!

Also, I get the feeling that you don't quite know what "xenophobia" means.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Change isn't a bad thing, but at least for the voice thing, those decisions were made for good reasons, and I doubt the game would benefit from a change.

Fair enough, i'll change the title of the thread.

 

[Worgen]

Hearing a char speak is always a double edged sword, on one hand it can really pull you into a game, on the other, if the voice acting is bad it can annoy the crap out of you or you run the risk of the char you thought was awesome, becoming not, as what happened in the last metroid game.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

The voice acting was just one example guys, please talk about the topic as a whole.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I still don't like Mario's voice but I'll still play the games because they stand on good gameplay. Link had a voice beyond "hyeah!" in the cartoon so actual dialogue in game might actually favor positively in comparison.

As for:

Do we really have room for this kind of attitude in a media platform that prides itself on progress and change?

Of course there's room for them, they make games like I wanna be the Guy(or whatever it's called) and convince Capcom to take Megaman back to it's roots. Why can't we just accept that everyone has a preference to what kind of games they like.

As always though, the over-opinionated tend to deplete the patience of all who don't agree with them. It's best to just ignore people who deal with their pastimes by limiting their emotions to only anger.

 

[Smooth Operator]

If you want a character that speaks why not make a new one, you can't establish a character one moment and then completely rewrite it in the next, it's the equivalent of "it was all a dream", i.e. everything we told you sofar is meaningless bullshit and we just wasted several hours of your time.

If you want change then start a new story don't just take a dump on what we've come to appreciate.

 

[Chad Peters]

While I think that fear of change has more power than it should, there are some slight problems with your examples.

In the case of a video game, not giving a character a voice is a choice the developers have made in characterization. The fact that the character doesn't speak is an act in-and-of itself. If you think of the great silent protagonists of video game history, Gordon Freeman, Link, the player in Bioshock 1 and 2, formerly Samus, and even Mario to an extent, the fact that these characters don't talk is actually pretty important to who they are. They are men and women who get the job done, and don't tend to waste time thinking about it. Whether it's Samus, disconnectedly shooting her way through legions of Space pirates, glancing through logs to see them talking about how badass she is, or the player from Bioshock taking the WYK scenic route through rapture, letting you take in the wonder and the horror without offering a personal perspective to twist that.

Beyond that, I would actually also question the validity of your use of the term art, in some of these cases. Video games are a form of media, but media doesn't always equate to art. The games you mentioned (and that I've mentioned) are a bit more akin to summer blockbusters or paperback mystery novels than fine art or lit meant to enlighten and uplift. I would actually argue that in the eighth game in a series the creators *do* have a certain measure of creative obligation to maintain some continuity and connection to the source material, both out of respect for their predecessors and their audience.

 

[agentorange98]

Well there is a difference between Nostalgic fear and just nostalgia and it's important to remember that, a truly good work of Nostalgiac art will keep themes or ideas from the original while bringing new flare and individualization to the piece, like Tron legacy for example as I can't think of a game at the moment cause my brain is blanking. On the other hand any fear of change is usually a bad thing especially in a medium like ours where stagnation can literaly be a death sentence...or at least it should be a death sentence (Yes EA Sports/Madden I'm talking to you)