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Soulja Boy - NOT a prick?!

by sweep

Young "rapper" acts like an idiot on youtube Anyone genuinely surprised? I'm sure many of you have seen "Soulja Boy" giggling like a schoolgirl after his discovery of "mario in the future wearing a suit yo!". Or as we all know it, Braid. The assembled members of GiantBomb laughed in scorn at Soula Boy's ignorance. How on earth can he be so obnoxious over a title that has such obvious depth and...

Young "rapper" acts like an idiot on youtube

Anyone genuinely surprised?


I'm sure many of you have seen "Soulja Boy" giggling like a schoolgirl after his discovery of "mario in the future wearing a suit yo!". Or as we all know it, Braid.

The assembled members of GiantBomb laughed in scorn at Soula Boy's ignorance. How on earth can he be so obnoxious over a title that has such obvious depth and revolutionary gameplay. What a fool! And thus the GB community continued about their wiki posts, comforted by the knowledge that they are experiencing this game on an intellectually superior wavelength to Soulja Boy, and wondering what the world was coming to.

But computer games, for all their meaning and artistic flair, remain shallow in context of the real world. We can laugh at how Soulja Boy misinterprets the metaphor of being trapped inside a fairytale, a subtle commentary on the very foundations of computer gaming. OR we could take a step back and avert ourself from our pretentious position - and try to accept that most of the people with an XBOX 360 do not own Braid, and if they did they wouldn't be able to comprehensively appreciate it beyond a fun platformer.

Circulating the inner sanctum of online gamers requires an insubordinate amount of general gaming knowledge, to the extent that the common titles can be easily referenced and the less common can be articulately discussed - apparently firsthand experience remains optional. Wrapped up in such a intense environment it is easy to frown upon those without the qualifications to participate.

Simply - most gamers dont know what we know. There are still hordes of gamers out there buying games based entirely on the box-art they see when they walk into the store, or whatever is currently sitting on the top of the sales chart on Amazon.com. How else do you explain the (frustratingly) repeated revival of the Need For Speed titles at the top of the charts. A lot of people dont read magazines because they are expensively intimidating, and abstain from internet forums because of childish behavoir and, as mentioned in my last blog - the repeated vehement discussion of matters which, incidentally, do not matter. These factors create an atmosphere of hostility, which for all their productivity are hurting the development of the widespread gaming community in the long run.

For games to flourish there is the necessity for these games to potentially operate on a simplified level of understanding. The point I am making is - the more people playing games the better. Soulja Boy (I hate that name) may be a buffoon, but he represents a demographic of players (not that kind of players) that are included as part of the gaming community whether we like it or not, and if we were to investigate further im sure the "ignorant" would outnumber the educated easily.

I'm not saying Soulja Boy isn't a prick. Because he is. But It is interesting to see the gap between the members of Giantbomb and the "casual" market, even more so to see how startlingly wide it is. Say what you want, but most people are never going to play Braid and don't actually care about its revelationary art style. Games need to be able to appeal to everyone. Braid doesnt. Soulja Boy represents all those people.

Anyways that's another blog by me. Jayge expressed amazement at my blog total (now 55 blogs), considering the site was only started 58 days ago (thaks to Dankempster for the maths). The reason for this is
  • I dont often use the forums. They embody all that is wrong with the gaming world.
  • I cant afford games, so I spend my time writing about game related stuff.

Anyways thanks for all the support and feedback from everyone, I hope you enjoyed reading blog number 55. See you in the IRC.
Love Sweep