Weekend Reading: Mario and Sonic Redux

As Calin needed to take a week off and cry himself to sleep after reading some of the comments (both here and on Digg) that his "Mario, Sonic & Co Should Retire from Games" column attracted, I'm gonna do this week's Weekend Reading column. And I'm gonna talk about gamers and their irrational responses.

Let's make one thing crystal clear. Controversy is good. I love controversy. I sometimes love that I can get locked into a battle of words and wits with people around me. But there's good controversy and there's bad controversy. Calin wrote last week's piece in a clear attempt at starting good controversy, the kind that breeds innovation, that leads to action and that changes something in the minds of people.

Most of the comments have been the kind that encourage bad controversy, the kind that takes aim at the person rather than the argument and the kind that serves as reinforcement for old ideas and backwards thinking. Calin has been called a "whore", people have said that Mario will exist long after he is dead, he was called a "dumbass" and a "tard" and much more. And he also received clean, balanced comments from people that love Mario and Sonic. I think you can guess which one I value.

Anyone who takes a good look at the comments can see that usually the people who don't agree with the retirement point tend to be lacking in arguments while the (fewer) posters who agree with Calin's point are far more articulate and can offer some nice arguments regarding innovation, business practice and the power of melancholy. I'm not passing intellectual judgment here, I am just noticing a trend.

My point in all of this is that whether people agree or not they should have more respect for one man's position. Calin wrote the column in a light, funny tone (I still laugh at the bit about "Mario, Sonic and Megaman Start the War Against Lara Croft and Duke Nukem in Liberty City"), while trying to get a more serious idea across. The idea dawned on him while we were reading the list of games in which Mario appeared. He had this idea about "retirement" and just ran with it. Statements like "get locked in a museum" shouldn't have been taken at face value. Obviously, many people didn't get the humor or irony, and instead of offering arguments and valid points they only offered baseless chit chat and name calling. Way to go, gaming community. Some of your responses only serve to enforce stereotypes about gamers.

Of course, some of the comments offer valid points. Yes, we can appreciate Super Mario Galaxy and all the cool things it offers us as players. And of course, there's some real value in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. But this wasn't the real point. Mario, Sonic and the like generate mostly fan service games, where the power of the characters and not the strength of the gameplay draws in the gamer. And that's not alright, however you want to look at it. Anyone can disagree, but let's make arguments more logical and less personal, for the sake of the discussion.

Comment away.

PS: Calin is on a well deserved vacation that was requested before last week's Weekend Reading was written. To the best of my knowledge he's not crying, but rather having a good time.

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