<p>Gamasutra's Lars Doucet <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20110412/7413/RPGs_and_Suckage.php" target="_blank">shares his insight</a> into the aforementioned keywords, their meaning and how they're interlinked.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There's a few corollaries to the above. First of all, terrible things <em>that you don't care about</em> generally don't "SUCK." When you see people on forums ranting and raving about how awful the latest <em>Call of Duty* </em>or <em>Dragon Age* </em>game is, it's because they're deeply invested in those games in particular and the genres they belong to in general. You won't see them complaining about, say, the new <em>Barbie Horse Adventures </em>game, even if it's awful. As the old saying goes, "The opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy."</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>The degree of emotional investment RPG fans exhibit strikes me as unique. We are very protective of our genre and hold lengthy discussions of whether or not a certain game even "counts" as an RPG.
This article's point isn't to decide who's right and who's wrong - everyone has different taste and expectations, and that's okay. But every fan is a potential customer, and convincing them that our game doesn't suck has a lot to do with managing their expectations. A game they might have otherwise liked will be dismissed ifs framed in the wrong way, and given the heated passions of RPG fans, if your game is deemed to suck it will suck <em>hard</em>.
I think there's a reason that we argue about RPG's so much - it's the same reason we argue about "art" - we all disagree about what the word even means.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Another newsitem brought to you by Severian Silk.</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>There's a few corollaries to the above. First of all, terrible things <em>that you don't care about</em> generally don't "SUCK." When you see people on forums ranting and raving about how awful the latest <em>Call of Duty* </em>or <em>Dragon Age* </em>game is, it's because they're deeply invested in those games in particular and the genres they belong to in general. You won't see them complaining about, say, the new <em>Barbie Horse Adventures </em>game, even if it's awful. As the old saying goes, "The opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy."</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>The degree of emotional investment RPG fans exhibit strikes me as unique. We are very protective of our genre and hold lengthy discussions of whether or not a certain game even "counts" as an RPG.
This article's point isn't to decide who's right and who's wrong - everyone has different taste and expectations, and that's okay. But every fan is a potential customer, and convincing them that our game doesn't suck has a lot to do with managing their expectations. A game they might have otherwise liked will be dismissed ifs framed in the wrong way, and given the heated passions of RPG fans, if your game is deemed to suck it will suck <em>hard</em>.
I think there's a reason that we argue about RPG's so much - it's the same reason we argue about "art" - we all disagree about what the word even means.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Another newsitem brought to you by Severian Silk.</em></p>