Wow. I mean just... wow.
I feel for poor Vocenoctum, whether or not I agree with any of his points. He's been treated rudely, he's been all but flamed, and not a single person has stopped and said a word about it. Now don't get me wrong, all things being equal I've had much more heated discussions (and enjoyed them), but the fact remains that I've seen people get jumped on by Mods around here for less. And I know for a singular fact that if someone were speaking that way to someone who was more popular they'd have been shut down. I've seen it happen. And no, I will not scour through dozens of forum pages to 'prove it'. I don't have that kind of free time.
But seriously, he hasn't been snide or nasty, he's repeatedly tried to make a point as he sees it. And he's been responded to as if he were trying to preach philosophy from the short bus. He may be right, he may be terribly wrong, but if he came into the thread and started talking about the idiocy of anyone willing to pay $120 for a book that could have been produced at a fraction of the cost using less art, less expensive art, B&W art, a normal cover, less expensive paper, and whatnot (just to show how it could have been cheaper without knowing it's exact production costs, since it's come up a few times, regardless of whether it's for us to say it should have been) and how he can't believe the mindless lemmings shuffle lockstepping along behind the Monte name with their brains in their wallets extended with a smile... People would jump his arse for it.
But we (and by we I mean Not Me) can make fun of him and take things to outrageous extremes (why is it that as soon as a topic or sub-topic arises that has to do with people who are cheesed off because something they'd like to be able to spend their money on is priced out of their price range, it's so popular to immediately jump to the farthest extreme an start acting as if some accusation of secret societies and hidden plush extravagant leisure dens with servants and evil moustache-twisting villains had been made? I've been wondering about that for years now), and say he's "bitching" and "whining" and essentially tell him that unless he's ready to bow before the common opinion he can go find somewhere else to be.
I just don't know, people. It wouldn't bother me in the slightest if it was okay for everyone to be treated that way. It really wouldn't.
On another note, I hope at least half of you realize that the ferarri arguement is entirely apples & oranges. You can't justifiably try to compare an culturally pervasive industry (the automotive industry) in which practically everyone is a customer to a niche market with a relatively minute customer base. The arguements about price escalation have merit, on a general basis. Let's take that automotive industry, shall we?
When it began, the automobile was a luxury (it still is really, you've got feet, you don't NEED a car), and it was priced accordingly. It was a toy for rich people, basically. Now jump forward to now, and despite the fact that it's generally assumed that every household Requires at least one car, we still find it completely acceptable that even a cheap car costs in the range of $10,000? That's Ten Thousand Dollars. I've seen small houses that cost barely more than that for gods sake. We're not talking about every McDonalds worker owning a ferarri here, we're talking about everyone being able to own a car At All. Which it is generally assumed most everyone will. The automotive industry knows good and well that few people are willing to walk to and from work, and that they've got society by and large by the shorthairs. They charge whatever they want. And that luxury has become seen as a neccessity.
I'm not crying Doomesday, I'm just pointing out that it's not a trite notion that a rising industry standard pricetag based on evidence that some people will pay it could affect this rather small industry. And faster than a larger industry. And yes the industry may even itself out 'eventually' in such a case, but IN such a case how many gamers would have left it long before that happened? That would leave you with a fraction of the pre-existing gamers (consumers, customers), an industry with a bad reputation for outrageous prices for a hobby, and few if any new gamers willing to test the waters of what they have heard was a very, very expensive hobby. Sure the industry would stabilize itself; but how long would that take, and how long would it take to recover from it? It's a worse case scenario, obviously. But it's not like it couldn't happen just the same.
I mean gods, someone has to point out that just because your stance is popular, backed by all the cool people, and delivered like the Ten Commandments doesn't mean that it's Absolute. We're talking about extremely tenebrous and amorphous conditions and cause-and-effects. None of us can say what Will hapen, and the odds of any predictions on what's Likely to happen being accurate decrease in relation to how far in the future we try to auger.
And that's about all I have to say on that matter. I just felt it needed saying.
