Oh please.
Read what you wrote again. You are, in effect, insulting people who like Ice Cube over the stuff you like.
I can't stand a number of the bands you listed. In fact, I flat out detest them. So, is it that I am not putting in the effort to enjoy them? Or is it because I don't have the intelligence to appreciate them?
What we are dealing with here is, in my opinion, elitism, not intelligence.
I've been waiting for someone to say this.
I think perhaps you don't like it because your tastes are different. I do know from other posts you've made that you have a fairly eclectic interest in music that I can not and do not find inferior.
You like things that I don't like, but I can at least see the artistic value in your tastes in music.
However, what I am getting at isn't elitism. I know it sounds that way, and I'm surprised it took this long for someone to bring it up. I noticed I was sounding that way several posts ago.
What I am getting at is that EVERYONE (me included) is mentally lazy. This is a principle of psychology. everyone has an innate desire to follow the path of least resistance. Work sucks. Why work to have fun, or work to appreciate art when it is easier to have it spoon fed to you?
To take it back to music for a minute, I used the phrase "jungle beats" to allude to the fact that even classic rock and roll (my favorite type of music) is a dumbed-down form of music compared to what came before (big band or classical, or even jazz). Of course opinions differ on that... but this isn't really about music...
My point is that anything easier and stupider, is likely to be more popular. Because everyone prefers to follow the path of least resistance. I'd love to be able to sit around and play video games all day right now rather than sitting around playing PnP games. But I don't because the video game thing is a waste of my time and money. By contrast, the PnP game thing is an investment of my time and money. It certainly isn't easier. Its work. Yeah, its a lot more fun and rewarding that other forms of work, but it is still work (for example, I should be updating my web site right now, but instead I'm talking to yall... because its easier and more fun.)
Now, is it elitism to think that politics is more important than football?
Is it elitism to think that something other than "the same old beat" is good music
Is it elitism to think the acting in professional wrestling is flat out silly?
Is it elitism to acknowledge that PnP games take a certain level of comprehension, patience, and imagination, that not everyone has?
If it is, than I stand guilty as accused.
I just think people should deliberately work against the dragging down of society. What's the value in reality TV? Who gives a crap about Tom Cruise's marriage? Why the hell is that stuff important to anyone when real, important things are going on.... Why would you want to listen to "I like to move it, move" when you can listen to so much else?
Of course all that is beside the point. The real question that we are getting at here is:
Why would you want to play a video game when you can play a PnP game?
And Arnwyn has answered that for us very well.
And his comments prove my thesis correct. The threat we face from video games is the greatest threat to our industry. For many of the various reasons that I have cited (the life-like aspects of live play and the ease of play) for many of the reasons that Arnwyn cited (better stories, better value), and the reason recently suggested by Cavelorn (the fact that you can play by yourself).
These are all reasons why video games are “superior” to PnP games in terms of sales volume. The question now is, what can we do about it?
And…. Well, I refer you to my previous posts.
