Disliking works of art because you dislike the artist...
Yesterday, I was reading some recent tweets by Dan Shive, the creator of El Goonish Shive, concerning the new King's Quest game. At first, he was simply praising the game (starting around here), but later on, he began to rant (starting around here) about the fact that people were apparently telling him on Twitter not to support the new King's Quest game because of something about The Odd Gentlemen (who developed the new KQ game) and their previous involvement with Hiveswap, the game based on the hugely popular webcomic series, Homestuck. (Let me tell you about Homestuck.) Apparently, there are vague rumors that they misappropriated money from the Hiveswap Kickstarter (which, sadly [or perhaps luckily], I didn't back, because I didn't know about Homestuck at all until well after that had ended) to help fund the King's Quest game. I don't know if that's true or not. If it is, then The Odd Gentlemen are indeed scumbags. However, that is (mostly) irrelevant to the point I am about to make here.
See, I agree with Mr. Shive, for the most part. I think it's kind of dumb to hate on a work of art, be it a video game or a book or music or whatever, merely because you dislike something that the artist said or did (within reason). Hell, I've even said the same sort of thing myself already, years back when I was ranting about Doug TenNapel and his asinine views on the Quran burnings, in which I also mentioned Orson Scott Card and his homophobia[1], among other things as well. Hell, I still play some EA games, such as The Sims 3, even though I hate EA with a fiery passion otherwise (and despite the fact that there are things specifically concerning The Sims 3 itself that make me hate EA with a fiery passion).
However, as Mr. Shive himself also says, I can understand why one might not want to actively give money to an artist (or a game dev, in this case) since that money would actively go to support that artist in their future endeavors, which might include things that one might not want to be involved with. That's completely fair. If you believe the allegations concerning The Odd Gentlemen and want to avoid supporting them by not buying the new KQ game, then more power to you. Hell, even though I still play some EA games, like The Sims 3, I haven't bought any other EA games at all since probably Dragon Age II.
But again, at the same time, to say that someone shouldn't recommend or even like the new King's Quest game because of some tangentially related thing that The Odd Gentlemen may or may not have done regarding Hiveswap... well, I don't know. I think it's kind of dumb to hate King's Quest over this. For what it's worth, to go with what is probably the most extreme example of this, I think what I've seen of Hitler's paintings are actually pretty good. Yes, I totally went there. ¬_¬ Or, perhaps more timely... will I say that I would never go back and watch (and maybe even possibly enjoy) an episode of The Cosby Show or I Spy or Fat Albert or whatever, due to the current shitstorm surrounding Bill Cosby? If even a small portion of that shit is true, if he only drugged and raped even just one person, let alone dozens, then Cosby is a complete and total shitbag, sure... but I don't think that means that there's now suddenly nothing whatsoever of value that can be found in those older works of his, so no, I'm not sure that I will say that I'd never do that. Nor will I claim that I'd never go back and watch a Chris Benoit wrestling match. Yeah, I know I'm starting to stretch the meaning of the phrase "work of art" there, but still... Benoit was in some pretty good matches.
In any case, as long as whatever crazy, unethical, bullshit things done by the creators don't or didn't directly affect the nature of their works, then I'm not going to straight up avoid those works entirely just because of that. If, on the other hand, whatever asinine things they do are indeed directly affecting the works themselves, then that's where I start boycotting shit (and that's a big part of the reason I don't buy EA games anymore, specifically, and why I'm starting to abandon the game industry as a whole, generally). But I also totally get how this is definitely a YMMV situation.
Disclaimer: I have not played the new King's Quest game yet, mainly because I refuse to play any episodic games until the whole series of episodes is available, but I most likely will play it at some point, regardless of any controversy that may be surrounding it. (Unless, perhaps, said controversy actually turns out to be true, but even then... I'm still taking the same "wait and see" approach as I was before, concerning the new KQ game.) I have read Homestuck, and I believe that it is indeed as awesome as most people say it is. I'm looking forward to Hiveswap. For that matter, EGS is also pretty cool, I think.
[1] - And I thought I'd made another post along the same lines as this one here and that other one specifically concerning Mr. Card and the new (at the time) Ender's Game movie as well, about how a lot of people apparently thought that Mr. Card's homophobia tainted the movie too much for them to enjoy it or want to go see it, but I couldn't find such a post. Maybe that post was made to Facebook or something instead of Livejournal, in which case screw it, I'm not hunting it up. *shrug* Or maybe I just started to write such a post but then deleted it without finishing it. There have been a ton of posts that I've almost made like that.
See, I agree with Mr. Shive, for the most part. I think it's kind of dumb to hate on a work of art, be it a video game or a book or music or whatever, merely because you dislike something that the artist said or did (within reason). Hell, I've even said the same sort of thing myself already, years back when I was ranting about Doug TenNapel and his asinine views on the Quran burnings, in which I also mentioned Orson Scott Card and his homophobia[1], among other things as well. Hell, I still play some EA games, such as The Sims 3, even though I hate EA with a fiery passion otherwise (and despite the fact that there are things specifically concerning The Sims 3 itself that make me hate EA with a fiery passion).
However, as Mr. Shive himself also says, I can understand why one might not want to actively give money to an artist (or a game dev, in this case) since that money would actively go to support that artist in their future endeavors, which might include things that one might not want to be involved with. That's completely fair. If you believe the allegations concerning The Odd Gentlemen and want to avoid supporting them by not buying the new KQ game, then more power to you. Hell, even though I still play some EA games, like The Sims 3, I haven't bought any other EA games at all since probably Dragon Age II.
But again, at the same time, to say that someone shouldn't recommend or even like the new King's Quest game because of some tangentially related thing that The Odd Gentlemen may or may not have done regarding Hiveswap... well, I don't know. I think it's kind of dumb to hate King's Quest over this. For what it's worth, to go with what is probably the most extreme example of this, I think what I've seen of Hitler's paintings are actually pretty good. Yes, I totally went there. ¬_¬ Or, perhaps more timely... will I say that I would never go back and watch (and maybe even possibly enjoy) an episode of The Cosby Show or I Spy or Fat Albert or whatever, due to the current shitstorm surrounding Bill Cosby? If even a small portion of that shit is true, if he only drugged and raped even just one person, let alone dozens, then Cosby is a complete and total shitbag, sure... but I don't think that means that there's now suddenly nothing whatsoever of value that can be found in those older works of his, so no, I'm not sure that I will say that I'd never do that. Nor will I claim that I'd never go back and watch a Chris Benoit wrestling match. Yeah, I know I'm starting to stretch the meaning of the phrase "work of art" there, but still... Benoit was in some pretty good matches.
In any case, as long as whatever crazy, unethical, bullshit things done by the creators don't or didn't directly affect the nature of their works, then I'm not going to straight up avoid those works entirely just because of that. If, on the other hand, whatever asinine things they do are indeed directly affecting the works themselves, then that's where I start boycotting shit (and that's a big part of the reason I don't buy EA games anymore, specifically, and why I'm starting to abandon the game industry as a whole, generally). But I also totally get how this is definitely a YMMV situation.
Disclaimer: I have not played the new King's Quest game yet, mainly because I refuse to play any episodic games until the whole series of episodes is available, but I most likely will play it at some point, regardless of any controversy that may be surrounding it. (Unless, perhaps, said controversy actually turns out to be true, but even then... I'm still taking the same "wait and see" approach as I was before, concerning the new KQ game.) I have read Homestuck, and I believe that it is indeed as awesome as most people say it is. I'm looking forward to Hiveswap. For that matter, EGS is also pretty cool, I think.
[1] - And I thought I'd made another post along the same lines as this one here and that other one specifically concerning Mr. Card and the new (at the time) Ender's Game movie as well, about how a lot of people apparently thought that Mr. Card's homophobia tainted the movie too much for them to enjoy it or want to go see it, but I couldn't find such a post. Maybe that post was made to Facebook or something instead of Livejournal, in which case screw it, I'm not hunting it up. *shrug* Or maybe I just started to write such a post but then deleted it without finishing it. There have been a ton of posts that I've almost made like that.