March 25, 2004
a copy of a copy of a copy
The Gaming Age Forums (registration required but unlikely) are 5% cutting-edge, interesting commentary from industry insiders, journalists, and informed fans ... and 95% uninformed whining from idiot fanboys. It's easy enough to tune out, but once in a while, someone says something so mindbogglingly stupid that you can't help but pay attention.
For example: Stormfront Studios is developing Demon Stone, a game set in the Forgotten Realms universe. Someone on the GAF boards complains that this game just looks like a Lord of the Rings ripoff - and since Lord of the Rings is in turn a Dungeons and Dragons ripoff, they find it difficult to get interested in this copy-of-a-copy. (To be clear: Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings in the 1950s; in the 1970s, Gary Gygax &c. ripped off Tolkien for their Dungeons and Dragons game; Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting in the D&D world.)
It's like a twisted moebius strip of wrongness. It's like watching a car crash in reverse.