On Metal Gear Survive and toxic fandom.

                                                                          

                                                       

  

   Hey there memory buffs, it your old pal: Ein Jakaal, welcome back to memory beats reality the place where I examine the old and how it holds up to reality. Obviously I do other things here too and today we have a tasty op ed by yours truly.

   So, as you may know, Metal Gear Survive came out about a week ago and most people won’t give it a chance after the messy break-up between creator Hideo Kojima and his former employer Konami. This is not to say that some people out there (myself included) aren’t going to give it a try out of curiosity if nothing else and, I have to say (after about 20 or so hours) that it’s actually kind of fun. This experience of mine is kind of where the op ed begins.

   My piece here begins with the lecture I received from a long time friend who was more than a little miffed at my decision to spend MY money on a game that he obviously didn’t like. I listened for about twenty five minutes as he explained, in great detail, the reason that the game should not exist and how it was absolutely deplorable that Konami would dare to try and continue this amazing series without the man that had contributed so much to it. He ultimately asserted that anyone who dared to buy this game was somehow selling out and supporting the most evil company in existence, that seemed a little melodramatic. This is a trend that I see in the gaming community that drives me absolutely insane though, something that has been around for a decade or more changes and suddenly people are coming out of the woodwork proclaiming the change to be evil and to be a blight upon the industry as a whole. Yes, these changes are not always for the best but, they can also be innovative. Keep in mind that Metal Gear Survive is not a great argument for innovation or even the success of these changes, early sales figures are not looking good and, In the very least, some critics are saying that Survive is a decent survival game.

   Now I understand that some of you may ask why the reaction of one friend is enough to spur this piece. Short answer, it’s not, it is the ongoing vitriol I see in comment sections and forums aimed at people who have stated that they thought the game was interesting or anger aimed at reviewers who gave it so much as a mediocre review. It is the ongoing problem of people shouting down or berating others for the simple act of a purchase or even interest is the issue here. Keep in mind, that there is nothing wrong with saying that you do not like or do not wish to buy a product but, your dislike for a product does not entitle you to the agreement of others. Yes you are valid in feeling no need to buy something but, the choice of others to make the purchases that you wouldn’t does not make you better or worse than them, it is literally a matter of personal choice.

   I know that game companies do not always make the best decisions and that many of those decisions deserve the ire of consumers but, leave your fellow consumers alone. Your fellow gamers whether they be casual, hardcore, or somewhere in between are allowed to buy to whatever they damn well please and your toxic ass behavior is what makes mainstreamers hate us so much in the first place. Yes, I get it, your favorite series took a nose dive after mommy and daddy broke up and now anybody who takes the side that you didn’t is the enemy and they must be stopped! You must save the world and tell everybody how terrible they are for not agreeing with you. It is this type of social media echo-chambering that makes us look like a bunch of douche bags who need to be blocked and regulated. And, I really am sorry if I am coming off as self righteous but, dammit, I have been a gamer for almost 3 decades and I have grown so sick or people acting like this whenever something changes or becomes stale. We are human, we are always changing and yet we hate change in all its forms, why? Why do we do this? Is it fear of death? Probably, to an extent, we fear the death of something that we love, we fear the loss of it not going on forever. WE DON’T GO ON FOREVER!!!! And no amount of shutting others down or declaring something finished so that the memories of your childhood can remain pristine is going to change that.

   In closing, I do understand how many feel about the Metal Gear franchise and Kojima’s former direction of it, I understand being a long time fan of something only to have it tank or stop completely. The whole ordeal of losing a great franchise to mediocrity or cancellation can be devastating to us as gamers since a lot of these long running franchises have been a very large part of our existences. Some of us grew up with them, some of us found solace in them, and others found inspiration. That is not to say that you have to celebrate something that you do not want to but, you should probably accept that people are not required to see things your way. They may not love something the way that you do, they may not have the passion that you do, and they may even be put off by your feelings as they relate to certain things. You see, sometimes we all need to step back from ourselves and realize that our memories may not be the realities of others.

   I am Ein Jakaal and thank you for reading.