Wednesday, September 11, 2013

WORD OF THE DAY! 9/11/13!

cacophony [kuh-kof-uh-nee]
noun
1. A harsh dissonance or discordance of sound.
2. A meaningless mixture of sounds in a discordant manner.
3. The use of inharmonious or discordant sounds in speech.
4. A chaotic flurry of sounds, ideas, suggestions, etc.

EX. It seems that the cacophony of selfish or stupid suggestions by Pokémon fans has made the people at Game Freak deaf to our input. This is slightly disappointing but, as a creative type (or as someone who likes to present himself as a creative type), I can understand this sensibility. Amongst writers, there is a certain schadenfreude to criticizing a bad piece of work, especially with an audience or a group of other writers. Riffing on a bad film or picking apart a bad draft can be a very fun experience for those in on the joke. It is easy, as a writer, to find pleasure in the critiquing of bad design and methods.

Game makers probably find the same sort of perverse pleasure in examining a poor piece of game design or bad concept. Most gamers are very opinionated about video games but have little knowledge about game theory, design, or creation. The problem with the suggestions he points out above is that a) making a new Pokémon game with all of the regions would be a massive undertaking (good content stretched too thin), b) just having the first gen Pokémon to fill the whole world would get boring and repetitive, and c) including all of the legendaries would already make the reoccurring "too many legendary" problem even more obnoxious. If there are literally dozens of them, how legendary are they?

All in all, it might seem cruel but it's probably an honest quote.