UPDATE: Time to put this thing to bed I think. Thanks to those who commented constructively and politely this week, trolls can crawl back in to their holes.
It's been an interesting evening here at CtL but the time has come to clarify a few things. Less for the benefit of those who can't think of anything better to say than 'stupid shit', but for the reasonable people who just didn't quite get what my last post was about. Shall we start with some pictures? Yeah lets do that.
UPDATE: MMORPG.com (which has a really nice background at the moment) has picked up on it and also used the Starship Troopers thing below, nice touch even if they confuse my gender even more than most.
UPDATE: Massively: Picks out the most emo line in the post to feature. I do feel a bit emo about that whole thing. Thanks chaps!
PC Gamer: Who thought I may have been on the Rift marketing team and that I was demanding things. I'm not doing either but Dan eventually established that I could still be described as 'subtly brilliant'.
Quarter to Three: I hadn't even heard of these guys but I love this blog! Great name too, read why it's called that in the About section. They take the title for My Favourite Headline Ever. But Tom did end up coercing me into confessing that I know who Justin Bieber is even though I don't want to.
I just... this just might be my new Favourite Thing. A Starship Troopers reference masterfully crafted into Art:
No pictures here but of course Larísa at PPI had some insightful things to say and mentioned it.
I get that it's great fodder for WoW vs Rift rant-fests, so can't blame people too much (you're all wrong). And of course there were a few more feckless and derogatory comments on the post itself you can amuse yourselves with below.
A lot of misunderstanding stems from not appreciating how light-hearted I am in all my posts here. I don't expect people to pour through the archives to get to know my tone (but there's cake in it for you if you do) and end up thinking I hate Rift's guts and I'm trying to start a flame-war, or I'm having some serious nerd-rage, or I don't get enough fresh air.
I hold absolutely no disdain for Rift. I love games, I love it when good games get backing and do well because that can be a feat in itself when so many great games don't get to see the light of day. The computer and video game industry is in a pretty bad place for smaller developers, especially here in the UK where they don't even get tax relief any more and smaller companies are shutting down. It's pretty heartbreaking. So when a good game from a relatively unknown developer rises up and has success I'm completely thrilled for it, I want Rift to succeed and stand as strong competition, it'll keep both WoW and Rift on their toes and I think we'll get some great gaming out of it. I especially like the thought of cross-game guilds which I've seen a bit about. I wish I had time for both, but alas.
So I don't want Rift's face to catch fire and then have the fire doused by sand and the sand to be full of scorpions. Nor do I blame Rift for my guildies leaving and breaking the guild, they were disillusioned already by then, it could have been *any* new shiny thing, they were done with WoW but there wasn't anything new for them to get excited over, so they logged in like they always have, until Rift. I'm pretty mad at the way they handled the situation but I'm not mad at Rift and if players have had enough of WoW I'm grateful that there's somewhere they can go enjoy themselves instead of feeling like they're stuck in Azeroth.
It's worth remembering that Rift brought WoW comparison on itself. Using 'We're not in Azeroth anymore' as a marketing tagline means you will always be compared and contrasted for better or worse. They've tied themselves to the WoW community for a reason. Rift ads are all over WoWhead and Tankspot. I'm fine with that, we're used to seeing that sort of thing, and it does interest me and I would like to read about it and know more. But I don't want to go to Apple's site and read all about the latest Samsung, do you see? Yes we can ignore it, yes we can skip over that post, yes we can unsubscribe if we feel that strongly about it, but it's still a little frustrating and I decided to have a bit of fun with it because that's what I'm like. Plus no kittens will be harmed.
And finally (phew) I'm British, mostly, and my humour is stereotypically so in that there's a lot of irony and sarcasm. In the words of Reginald D Hunter "Y'all like subtext and irony and tongue-in-cheek, you know, clever ways to be indirect about what you think", here look, it's hilarious:
TL;DR:
- I’m not on Rift’s marketing team.
- I don't want there to be fire and/or scorpions on Rift's face.
- I would play both if I had time.
- I'm officially 'subtly brilliant'.
- I’m not a terrible, bitter, dungeon-dwelling individual.
- There's cake in the archives.
- I wouldn't go to Apple's website expecting to read Samsung news.
- I like sarcasm, irony and above all; humour. With a 'u'.
- I feel greatly ashamed that I know who Justin Bieber is.
Oh one final thing before you go; if you've used the badge or want to use it but are worried about angry people hitting it with sticks, I've done an amended version with a disclaimer, as seen above, code here:
<a href="http://clickthelightwell.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h472/clickthelightwell/CtL_026_riftfreezone2.png" border=0></a>
~Reala
PS. The irony of talking about Rift and getting traffic because of it isn't lost on me. My little British brain might explode with joy.
