A Complaint Against Complaints

I'm tired of hearing that magical word in the video game world. I'm tired of the pursuit of fair gameplay, and the countless errors the so called fixes bring about. I'm tired of people whining nonstop over certain weapons or moves, and bemoaning the ineffectiveness of others. Everyone is doing it. I'm doing it. Nerf this, buff that. Balance, balance, balance.

What people fail to realize however, is that this is a problem brought upon them by themselves.

Humans, by nature, want more. None of you can honestly say to me (thank goodness for the Internet and it's textual methods of communication) that you wouldn't like a bit more variety. Just one more gun please, maybe one more perk. Oh could I get a new projectile with that? Thanks.

Yet for some reason we seem to never realize that you can't fix a game by adding more stuff to be broken. Add a new character? The whole spectrum of balance is altered. New player class? You've just made another one utterly useless. No, you balance video games not by adding, but by reducing. Less variety, less chance for something to be undesirable. This is especially true for shooters, to which these days comprise of nothing but class based warfare. Get rid of the player classes outright. Make every player start with the same weapons, same ammo, same stats, and make them scavenge from there. This will let you concentrate on only the weapon balancing, and will ensure at least a semblance of balance no matter how badly you screw things up there. This is the method of the video game Doom (had to mention it), which I'd like to boast is now 16 years old, and still has a fairly large gaming community. Of course this doesn't mean emulate Doom, but it makes a great example as to how simplicity lasts.

However, I realize that we'll never be able to go back to the basics in gaming. While some will wholly support it, the majority will cry saying that things just aren't modern enough anymore. I suppose it's all human nature, and we all know how easy that is to fix. Oh how much I would love the day we would be able to nerf cell phones.

Wherein I discuss Karate Kid: The Remake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxJs9482qys

This is a fascinating trailer. 10 year old kids beating each other down in the streets of China, using martial arts moves that some adults have trouble with (Wow! A spinning sweep kick!)It's almost like watching The Matrix, except stripped of everything that made the movie interesting (large amounts of Hugo Weaving?) and weighed down with an aging, wandering Jackie Chan.

Logically, this means one thing, and one thing only: With the expected smash hit of this movie, the Wachowski brothers will notice the acting capabilities of Jaden Smith. Ignoring all logic and sense, they will cast the young boy as Neo, in a remake of The Matrix. Jackie Chan will reprise his role as Jaden's mentor as the new Morpheus, and Trinity will be replaced altogether by a wisecracking Chris Tucker.

Sounds appealing? Neither does this movie. Or your posting.