Back From An Extended Vacation
Hello boys and girls, it's me your good pal Uncle Brandon. I know I've been away for awhile and I know how much you've all sorely missed me and my soap box rantings. Well fear not children because I'm back and ready to go.
But before I do allow me to clear up a few things.
1. I am no longer on Myspace so I'm just going to be posting here and supplying anyone who is interested with the link. I'm stating this so that no one raises an eyebrow at the fact that there currently only seem to be two people posted on my livejournal friends list
2. For those of you who are new to Brandon's corner let me alert you that this is not your mother's blog rant. This is not the place for the faint of heart nor the easily offended............hell now that I think about it, this isn't the place for you if your offended by anything, and I mean ANYTHING.
3. Feel free to comment on anything you'd like (that of course meaning you'd have to join this stupid thing first) as long as your aware that any dumb knee jerk reaction shit that comes out of your mouth will be fired back upon with unflinching realism. This blog is for people who know me and know the way I run shop and happen to find it at least mildly entertaining.
That being said, we now move on to the rant
(TAKES A DEEP BREATH)
I'm sure most all of you are familiar with the role playing card game MAGIC, or MAGIC: THE GATHERING, or any number of generic knockoffs floating around out there and so I'm sure your aware of the apparent mass popularity the game has with it's legion of fans.
Now right out of the gate let me make it known that I'm not nor have I ever been a fan of role playing card games (or most RPG's period) so I acknowledge that I'm obviously not the games target demographic. But what bothers me is the other people who are various levels of obsessed with the game that aren't in the target demo either. When I was in high school (around 1995-1996) I was first introduced to the game, through a friend of mine who hung out with the stereotypical "nerds" of the school who would arrive at school early for whatever reason and kill time waiting for class to begin by sitting at one of the many empty lunch room tables and playing this game called Magic. My friend new these dudes and would often times have them over to his house for games, so since I spent alot of time at his house I would be there when the gaggle of goobers arrived with their custom made decks. Now believe it or not I'm open to all many of different forms of entertainment (from movies to sports to painting to video games to whatever) So while I've never understood the appeal of old classics like D&D, I thought maybe I would give this new fangled Magic:The Gathering thing a whirl. So I asked my friend "hey man, you mind showing me how to play this thing?" thinking if I got into it then I'd have yet another thing to waste my money on (movies, cd's and cigarettes just aren't enough sometimes) "sure" he said as I followed him over to the table of gamers to sit in on an actual game. I sat there and watched as they did their thing, laying down card after card, and I was overcome with only one thought after about twenty minutes.
"THAT'S IT?" I thought "THAT'S ALL YOU DO?".........fuck that's boring.
"No it's not" the nerds hissed at me. "It's a game that requires imagination and strategic creativity" Not wanting to be lynched by a gang of nerds I simply said "ok, that's cool, I guess it's just not my cup o' tea" and got up to go into the other room.
But inside I couldn't help but think "A game that requires imagination and strategic creativity?!" BULLSHIT
Folks, don't get me wrong, I'm an open minded man, who believes you should do whatever you want to do as long as it's not hurting anybody. Just because I don't care for it doesn't mean someone else can't. But there's a line, and this fucking games overhype crosses it.
Although I suppose to be fair I should state that it's not the games fault as there's an age range I'm sure it's intended for. It's the socially awkward douche bags who continue to dump money into the shit that are at fault here.
Now before any of you oversensitive pussies out there go getting offended by this just cool your jets and listen to what I'm REALLY SAYING
If you want to be creative, GREAT. If you want to use your imagination to create all sorts of awesome new worlds and adventures, THAT'S COOL. But you have to acknowledge that MAGIC:THE GATHERING is a poor creative outlet at best. You buy cards with pre determined actions on them. If I'm not mistaken you create your own characters to do battle with others characters.......that's it. This game is intended for ages 13 and up (I've looked it up)which means while it technically has no limit in who can play, it's kind of silly to think that people anywhere from early twenties to late thirties still play it on more then an occasional basis.
I can understand a 13 year old playing this game and loving it, as it gives him or her the chance to be something they are not, much as playing make believe allows a child to do the same thing. A thirteen year olds creative side is more then likely not developed enough at this point to do much else unless he or she is some sort of child prodigy in whatever capacity. So middle school even through most of high school I'll grant you it's at least mildly understandable why a kid would play it. And even though I think alot of times games such as this are used as something to hide behind for socially stunted teenagers, they're still at the point where they have the chance to "grow out of it" to expand beyond it, to go out and be social in ways that don't require this stunted form of make believe.
But fast forward about ten or eleven years and you see a group of early twenty somethings sitting around someone's house for "game night"
Here is where it gets lame. At this point you should be writing a book, or taking these elements of game play and strategy they seem to flock to in this game and do something with it. It's a sad day when I sit here and advocate the playing of video games (Halo, Diablo, etc.) more so then this.
Now those of you who love Magic and think I'm being unfair,let me tell you for the last time: I DO NOT THINK YOU ARE STUPID FOR PLAYING MAGIC....also, I DO NOT THINK THAT MAGIC IS STUPID OR GAY OR LAME. I do however think that it is extremely overhyped and extremely boring (but that last one is of course just my opinion)
Bottom line: Play it all you want, but admit to reality. It's a young adult's game that is still being played by people who should've long ago moved on. So I smirk and chuckle at you and your pro decks the same way you know you'd laugh at a twenty five year old dude who hosted game night at his house so that him and a bunch of people could sit around and play some trumped up overly serious version of CANDY LAND. And if you say you wouldn't laugh at the CANDY LANDERS, then your a liar as well as a dork.
Being a dork is fine, there's no shame in it. But when you start getting defensive about shit that's not about you, that's when you go from dork to douchebag.
But before I do allow me to clear up a few things.
1. I am no longer on Myspace so I'm just going to be posting here and supplying anyone who is interested with the link. I'm stating this so that no one raises an eyebrow at the fact that there currently only seem to be two people posted on my livejournal friends list
2. For those of you who are new to Brandon's corner let me alert you that this is not your mother's blog rant. This is not the place for the faint of heart nor the easily offended............hell now that I think about it, this isn't the place for you if your offended by anything, and I mean ANYTHING.
3. Feel free to comment on anything you'd like (that of course meaning you'd have to join this stupid thing first) as long as your aware that any dumb knee jerk reaction shit that comes out of your mouth will be fired back upon with unflinching realism. This blog is for people who know me and know the way I run shop and happen to find it at least mildly entertaining.
That being said, we now move on to the rant
(TAKES A DEEP BREATH)
I'm sure most all of you are familiar with the role playing card game MAGIC, or MAGIC: THE GATHERING, or any number of generic knockoffs floating around out there and so I'm sure your aware of the apparent mass popularity the game has with it's legion of fans.
Now right out of the gate let me make it known that I'm not nor have I ever been a fan of role playing card games (or most RPG's period) so I acknowledge that I'm obviously not the games target demographic. But what bothers me is the other people who are various levels of obsessed with the game that aren't in the target demo either. When I was in high school (around 1995-1996) I was first introduced to the game, through a friend of mine who hung out with the stereotypical "nerds" of the school who would arrive at school early for whatever reason and kill time waiting for class to begin by sitting at one of the many empty lunch room tables and playing this game called Magic. My friend new these dudes and would often times have them over to his house for games, so since I spent alot of time at his house I would be there when the gaggle of goobers arrived with their custom made decks. Now believe it or not I'm open to all many of different forms of entertainment (from movies to sports to painting to video games to whatever) So while I've never understood the appeal of old classics like D&D, I thought maybe I would give this new fangled Magic:The Gathering thing a whirl. So I asked my friend "hey man, you mind showing me how to play this thing?" thinking if I got into it then I'd have yet another thing to waste my money on (movies, cd's and cigarettes just aren't enough sometimes) "sure" he said as I followed him over to the table of gamers to sit in on an actual game. I sat there and watched as they did their thing, laying down card after card, and I was overcome with only one thought after about twenty minutes.
"THAT'S IT?" I thought "THAT'S ALL YOU DO?".........fuck that's boring.
"No it's not" the nerds hissed at me. "It's a game that requires imagination and strategic creativity" Not wanting to be lynched by a gang of nerds I simply said "ok, that's cool, I guess it's just not my cup o' tea" and got up to go into the other room.
But inside I couldn't help but think "A game that requires imagination and strategic creativity?!" BULLSHIT
Folks, don't get me wrong, I'm an open minded man, who believes you should do whatever you want to do as long as it's not hurting anybody. Just because I don't care for it doesn't mean someone else can't. But there's a line, and this fucking games overhype crosses it.
Although I suppose to be fair I should state that it's not the games fault as there's an age range I'm sure it's intended for. It's the socially awkward douche bags who continue to dump money into the shit that are at fault here.
Now before any of you oversensitive pussies out there go getting offended by this just cool your jets and listen to what I'm REALLY SAYING
If you want to be creative, GREAT. If you want to use your imagination to create all sorts of awesome new worlds and adventures, THAT'S COOL. But you have to acknowledge that MAGIC:THE GATHERING is a poor creative outlet at best. You buy cards with pre determined actions on them. If I'm not mistaken you create your own characters to do battle with others characters.......that's it. This game is intended for ages 13 and up (I've looked it up)which means while it technically has no limit in who can play, it's kind of silly to think that people anywhere from early twenties to late thirties still play it on more then an occasional basis.
I can understand a 13 year old playing this game and loving it, as it gives him or her the chance to be something they are not, much as playing make believe allows a child to do the same thing. A thirteen year olds creative side is more then likely not developed enough at this point to do much else unless he or she is some sort of child prodigy in whatever capacity. So middle school even through most of high school I'll grant you it's at least mildly understandable why a kid would play it. And even though I think alot of times games such as this are used as something to hide behind for socially stunted teenagers, they're still at the point where they have the chance to "grow out of it" to expand beyond it, to go out and be social in ways that don't require this stunted form of make believe.
But fast forward about ten or eleven years and you see a group of early twenty somethings sitting around someone's house for "game night"
Here is where it gets lame. At this point you should be writing a book, or taking these elements of game play and strategy they seem to flock to in this game and do something with it. It's a sad day when I sit here and advocate the playing of video games (Halo, Diablo, etc.) more so then this.
Now those of you who love Magic and think I'm being unfair,let me tell you for the last time: I DO NOT THINK YOU ARE STUPID FOR PLAYING MAGIC....also, I DO NOT THINK THAT MAGIC IS STUPID OR GAY OR LAME. I do however think that it is extremely overhyped and extremely boring (but that last one is of course just my opinion)
Bottom line: Play it all you want, but admit to reality. It's a young adult's game that is still being played by people who should've long ago moved on. So I smirk and chuckle at you and your pro decks the same way you know you'd laugh at a twenty five year old dude who hosted game night at his house so that him and a bunch of people could sit around and play some trumped up overly serious version of CANDY LAND. And if you say you wouldn't laugh at the CANDY LANDERS, then your a liar as well as a dork.
Being a dork is fine, there's no shame in it. But when you start getting defensive about shit that's not about you, that's when you go from dork to douchebag.