Leaving web pages open in browser tabs has become my thing. I often click a headline shortly after it’s been published only to have it sit in my queue of unread tabs for several days. It’s interesting to refresh a tab after it’s been sitting there for a day or two to see how much attention the story has received.
One tab that went comment crazy after refreshing it was a blog post titled Indie Elitism by Sara Gross.
She talks about how indies hate on things too easily, such as AAA games. Her point is that indies are doing the same things (making the same mistakes?) as AAA games, so why are they bitching so much. It just makes them look like elitist assholes. She goes on to quote quite a few twitter posts from indies, which in turn made some of those indies get defensive and say the quotes were taken out of context or weren’t really meant to be spiteful.
To be honest, I agree with Sara’s viewpoint, but this isn’t the right way to go about it. Bitching about someone else’s bitching is just more bitching. At least offer a solution.
A good option would be to point out the issue at hand (internet bitching) and tell people that it shines a negative light on indie game developers. Then show the positives of what might happen if people changed their ways if they were to bitch less, spend more time constructively criticizing work, highlight what said game/person did well, or just keep quiet and spend the energy in a more thoughtful and productive manner.
I believe if we did these things the world would be a better place, or at least more pleasant because we wouldn’t have to sift through so much soul-draining negativity.
