Overly Positive

In my last post I talked a little bit about MMO cynics and how they do tend to feel about the latest and greatest to come through the online RPG-verse. This wasn’t entirely an accident, you see – during my time not writing, I still managed to read quite a few blogs and feeds from my handy-dandy Google Reader. Aside from figuring out that if I have over 1000 posts unread I should probably delete the feed, I learned one thing:

Is there a lot of grouchiness on the internet regarding MMOs or what?

Maybe it’s just me, but perhaps it’s just easier to be grumpy or frumpy or otherwise grouchy about the state of MMOs today. If you think about it, cynicism is easier to argue from if your goal is to actually be correct or viable. Hedge your bets or even fall into the negative on a response to the best MMO trailers, gameplay demos, or reveals, and you’re vindicated when things inevitably aren’t exactly as explained. Refuse to let yourself get excited over the goals that developers want to accomplish, and not get disappointed later. Maybe it’s easier to type “this sucks” rather than “this is awesome”. Regardless of the reasons, it doesn’t seem to be that difficult to be underwhelmed.

Speaking of which, I think I have a new nemesis and opposite, since I suspect  Hardcore Casual’s Syncaine has had the rough edges softened slightly by marriage (don’t worry, it happened to me too). Not to be picking on him, but Keen from Keen and Graev’s blog appears to be my new mirror opposite, and a writer I like to keep reading, partially just to see what not being optimistic looks like. Keen has a few posts where he is genuinely excited about something, but many of the posts fall back on a bit of a negative slant on MMO development in general, how the latest companies to try their hand at something are doing it wrong, and how they might fail or fall short of expectations. Even though he’s very well-written and I respect him, it seems that the posts with which he writes come from an ease of a position wrought with broken hearts, expectations, and promises, making every post in response to MMO news almost automatic in their negativity.

Optimism and idealism, which it seems gets me less readership, is a bit more difficult to deal with and have. If I’m excited about something, see the good in it, want to prod it into a decent light, in today’s MMO community I have to work hard to put it on a pedestal. The empirical evidence for an optimist in the MMO industry is certainly in the “against” column, as the titles since WoW have struggled to maintain some kind of viable market and subscriber base despite lofty missions and ideas (though there are exceptions). And a positive person puts themselves out more for being the target of ridicule and being wrong – because things rarely turn out exactly how they think.

But I’d rather take positive over negative any day. Why? Well, I think that even though it’s more difficult and disappointment can abound, I’d rather be happy about something some of the time than not be happy about anything any of the time. As adults, I think we tend more towards the jaded portion of the scale mostly because our experiences, good and bad, teach us to properly manage our expectations, or even shield ourselves from them to avoid being hurt. This is especially true in the geek world, where the new shiny sometimes has issues that tend to crush hopes and dreams. But the stuff of geekery, especially when it comes to the MMO world, has the potential to be a really fun and exciting experience. Being pleased at having your negative expectations exceeded is nice and all, but the reward for having faith, love, and happiness regarding an MMO title be validated is just that much sweeter.

Maybe it’s easier to walk around with lemons all the time, but I’d rather be doing that with a glass of lemonade and a healthy dose of sugar. Wouldn’t you?