Can I take a stab at this one? In case anyone actually reads comment #99?
On a very surface level, I agree- and that is on the level of, "Wouldn't it be great if we could joke about the things that were dear for us, acknowledge the little flaws that we overlook in our enjoyment and even the little smudges that somehow manage to give those things character and endear them to us all the more for their imperfection?" Yes! That
would be great.
...And here's why that's not going to happen.
1. As anyone who has communicated electronically for more than a few months has probably realized, things like humor, sarcasm, irony, satire, and even nuance are often lost in the shuffle. This is the medium that invented emoticons so that people could either let on that they were kidding or get away with saying god-awful things because somehow the smiley face at the end was supposed to make them all better. Combine this with the more recent trend of "TL
R", if you can't get your point across in thirty seconds or 140 characters, it's frequently not going to get absorbed at all... Unless it comes quick-cut with amusing images, has a rockin' soundtrack, or the reader looks smoking hot in tight t-shrirt.
(None of those comments is intended as a shot at anyone associated with the Escapist. No, really. Assume this was written in whatever fucking font it takes to assure you that I mean that.)
2. Welcome to the age of the meme. Just as it's started sinking in that in fact
not all press is good press, we now have a "viral" media which many a PR spin doctor has tried to corral and failed. It's great to joke about a bit of wonky writing, some sub-standard character models, an art style that isn't everyone's cup of tea, or some mangled translation in an otherwise worthwhile game- up to the point where that silly thing becomes
all that a significant portion of the potential audience knows about that game. And while the joke-teller may
know that it's a petty minor negative thing, the rest of the audience may only know that it's a negative thing; and without context, it might be the tip of a huge, awful iceberg. The mocking of black humor at having wasted one's time and money on a bad media experience can be very hard to tell from affectionate mocking of a good media experience.
3. We now live with AAA-games, indie games, and very little in between. I think much of the hardcore fan-base of a AAA franchise knows, consciously or subconsciously, that their loyalty isn't enough to keep their beloved title cycling; the publisher expects to see
growth to justify its enormous and dangerous investment, and that means it has to reach at least
some people with each installment that it didn't reach before. Ideally, that would just mean that new people would see an ad that they wouldn't otherwise see (say, in a movie theater or a non-trade magazine), or some evangelist who loves the series would encourage them to give it a try. But it's just as likely that a potential audience member only hears about the alleged misogyny of GTA, or the long monologues of
Metal Gear Solid, or... fill in your own list. They might not play it just because a joke penetrated where an ad campaign did not. They might even think less of someone who
does play that game because of what they've heard, a situation with which all too many gamers are regrettably familiar.
While an indie game's creators might be slightly more likely to welcome a joke at their expense, it's only because it might be all that stands between them and the bottom of the bottom of Steam's mid-week sale list. They'd prefer to be lauded and the subject of tribute pages and affectionate discussion, but it's better to be looked at in morbid curiosity than not looked at at all. Still, a joke is as likely to write off an indie game as one of many such titles that failed to meet a minimum standard of professionalism than to attract the attention of buyers.
I'm not going to pretend that all, or even any, of this is behind every outraged fan response to a "joking" reference to a game; Sturgeon's Law remains in effect, and there are plenty of people simply willing to go off half-cocked if something they like is slighted. But I do think there's something to it at least to the point that people annoyed at "jokes" shouldn't be written off out of hand. There aren't a lot of jokes that someone defusing a land mine wants to hear.
