Excellent argument, Duffer. Do you do any legal work on the side?

The interesting thing about that is that I’m far from the only one who made that correlation, though I might have been the only one to post in on a blog comment. My friends who initially introduced me to the game were pretty big into the old 2D fighting scene locally in the 90′s. You know, the guys who’d play in an arcade for 2-3 hours on a buck. It didn’t catch for me then (around the 2k/Fore conversion time), but when I was of (legal) age to hit the bars, it was a perfect storm.

We’re getting to the point where people in their 30′s and 40′s grew up with arcades, and those younger really didn’t. They grew up with consoles that were on par or more powerful than arcade hardware, and an online “community” instead of one of camaraderie at a physical location. GT bridged it for me, but it may be time to start reaching backwards a bit to the younger crowd. I’ve got ideas on how to do that, but I’m sure IT’s already putting idea to code for 2011

Remember, the next Andy Haas, Steve Sobe or Chris Eversole is out there. He may just not have hit the bar circuit yet

“I fell in love with GT because it scratched that itch I had for the old arcade feeling in a place I just happened to be getting into at the time: The bar. So it was a perfect marriage.”

I’ve never thought of it that way… Interesting

The point of this rant was to identify what is always insinuated by the gamer press. In my whacked-out style, I got it out into the open. Sparking interesting commentary on the subject is my goal.

Thanks for reading, and your feedback.

DD

Out of the 50 or so comments there were more positive comments about Golden Tee than there were bad ones. Virtually all of the hate was directed at the music and the video, not the game. And honestly I cannot blame anyone who thought the trailer was horrible. There was little to no gameplay shown. Gamers want to see gameplay in a trailer, not a flavor of the week band dancing around like it is a CMT music video.

And I am failing to see how KINGDAVID73 comment is bad in any way. So he doesn’t understand the game, and he never has seen anyone playing the game at his local bars. He wasn’t hateful in his comment. He just posted his own experiences.

You need to stop being so sensitive to what people say in blog comments. The yearly Madden releases get destroyed in the comments and they still sell millions of copies a year. Let the game speak for itself.

And remind me to give you a noogie next time I see you….

The “hardcore” gaming crowd won’t get this game, sure. It’s stereotyped like you noted above, but there’s a nugget of truth there. Gamers are mad about the state of arcades: We used to go there to hang out with kindred spirits while the jocks went out with the cheerleaders, smoking pot behind the grandstands, and doing all those wonderful things that happened in Dazed and Confused. We’d put quarters on the glass and extoll how smart we were for staying in the air conditioned sanctuary. And probably smoking pot behind the Mortal Kombat machine. We were free!

My how times have changed! Find me an arcade now. They’re few and far between, and they sure don’t look like they used to. I fell in love with GT because it scratched that itch I had for the old arcade feeling in a place I just happened to be getting into at the time: The bar. So it was a perfect marriage. The rest of my brethren? Back home, increasingly powerful computers, consoles, and the sanctuary of anonymity on the internet has created this generation of “Gamer”. They aren’t likely to head out to play the game.

So, where does that leave GT? Clearly a game that’s been around 20 years has found it’s “niche” . But will hardcore gamers “get” it? You’ll get some overlap like myself (hey, I’m the overlap in a Venn Diagram! Sweet!), but you aren’t likely to sell that crowd with the trailer. We’ll stick to our high speed internets, our uberfast gaming rigs, and, of course, our air conditioned sanctuaries. But if you convert a few to the altar of Tee, then you’ve done well

I’ll leave you with this last note, paraphrased from Fight Club: We run your e-mail servers. We build your websites. We maintain those networks that your Live platform runs on. Do not *&(&$! with us!

Sincerely,

GT Playing Nerd