F*ck me does this hobby get me down sometimes. I thought this year was going to be a good one. Lots of events to go to, lots of people meeting up, air being cleared, sh*t being talked over, and lots of games being played.
But no, again things turn to crap, sides have to be taken, banners flown and battle lines formed. These events are supposed to be fun, a great excuse to chuck a load of cabs in a room and attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the 70's/80's/90's arcades that we all loved and miss now.
99% of whatever bad stuff happened seems to involve no more than about 10 people - a lot of whom are not even involved in the scene anymore - and still we all have to witness this self-imposed division of forums, meets & events. Some people seem to enjoy nothing more than continuing it and taking any opportunity to make negative comments.
I know there was a lot of chomping about Revival this year as certain people would be meeting up who'd not been seen before and a few people were no doubt hoping it would all kick off.
What actually happened? Everyone had a chat and a pint and played some games. A thoroughly nice time. Many people who have a lot to say didn't put in an appearance, as usually happens with these things.
It's so sad, all of it. I've met a lot of guys this year for the first time and everyone was nice. We can all have vastly different personalities on line to in real life, and actually meeting people in person can completely change your opinion of them if they've rubbed you up the wrong way in the past. We're all in this hobby for the same reasons - to chat about and play old games.
Play Expo will be fantastic this year, there will be a ridiculous amount of cabs there to play, hundreds of consoles, huge lines of pinballs. Why would anyone in the hobby not want to go?
Sometimes it's all to easy to focus on the politics and the people and forget about the games, and that's what we're all here for!
muddymusic2013-07-15 13:49:50