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IF YOU LIKE GAMING OR HATE GAMING... YOU'RE COMPLETELY RIGHT! - by Mr Biffo

29/3/2017

25 Comments

 
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Miss me? I'm back - and just in time for the triggering of Article 50! Toot toot! Question: is it called "Triggering" because of Trigger from Only Fools And Horses, who was an idiot? Funnily enough, I've just been in Europe for my biennial pilgrimage. Who knows; maybe it'll be the last one I'm able to do? 

Every two years, I travel to the arse-end of The Netherlands, where I spend three nights in a Dutch Centre Parcs listening to Marillion, with people from some 40-odd countries. There are three gigs in a massive tent, the entire camp is taken over by 3,000 fans, and everywhere you go Marillion is blaring out of a speaker.

For three whole days. 

Learning that such a thing even exists has potentially brought you out in weeping sores, but you no doubt know already that I wear my Marillion fandom on my sleeve. The mockery this usually invites rarely gets under my skin these days. I mean, you probably have a completely wrong idea of what Marillion are like... while also being exactly right at the same time. What can I say? I think they're great, and you think they're an easy target. In a way... we're both right.

Astonishingly, over the years we've somehow convinced a number of non-fans to come along to the Marillion Weekend. All have had a brilliant time and returned for more. There's an atmosphere that is difficult to describe, but must be what it feels like to support a football team and stand in the terraces. The atmosphere, the camaraderie... it's infectious, even to non-supporters. 

Without being able to experience it first-hand, this probably sounds like a real big nightmare to you, but to a Marillion fan it's something approaching Nirvana (not the socially acceptable grunge band fronted by a dirty drug boy - the place). After all, it's an entire weekend where we can feel normal for once in our blighted lives.

And being Marillion fans, my friends and I spend a lot of our Marillion Weekends complaining about the band Marillion, sharing our wildly different opinions on certain songs or albums, and moaning about setlists.

​You know: like how all video game fans ever seem to do is moan about video games and attack one another.
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PINGU MOUTHS
It seems that being fans of a thing means that you spend at least half your time bitching about that thing. Oh, they didn't play such-and-such a song... or they've played a certain song too much... or Footballer A has failed to kick the round thing in a certain way... or that new Mass Effect has characters with Pingu-mouths.

Many, many years ago, a friend of mine invited me over to the flat he shared with his brother for an afternoon of watching old Doctor Who. This was during the Wilderness Years, before the series was revived, and before my Doctor Who fan gene was properly re-activated. 

My friend's brother and his mates were all movers and shakers in Doctor Who fandom circles, so I remember being quietly stunned as they spent the entire afternoon picking holes in the episodes, and complaining about the performances, special effects, and scripts. Which, to be fair, was quite easy to do with most of classic era Doctor Who.

Thing is... Doctor Who fans... Marillion fans... Mass Effect fans... it's like family; we bitch and we moan, but that shared passion unites us, and we never lose the love. If anybody who is a not-we dared to criticise our passions, we'd be on them like jackals.

Is there a single Mass Effect fan who hasn't bought Andromeda because of the mouths? Is there a single Nintendo junkie who complained about the Switch launch line-up who hasn't wanted to share their Breath of the Wild adventures with friends? Is there a Dark Souls fan left alive who hasn't tried to change my opinion on those games? Apparently not. 

Once true love is in our veins, it's virtually impossible to shift, even when it gets tested.
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COME TOGETHER
Something I've come to realise in the last few years of writing Digitiser2000 is that while we're all gamers, we're not necessarily one community. The hippy in me would love for us all to come together, but there's about as much chance of that happening as there is of, I dunno... a crow turning into a bit of string.

Gaming is so diverse these days, broken down into an enormous Venn diagram where the points of commonality only cross over definitively at the point where it's agreed that we all enjoy playing video games of one sort or another.

This was pretty apparent last week when I made the mistake of belittling online gaming - which went down like a concrete tarp, with a few people. Thing is, I get it. I've been there. Take it from a Marillion fan, who has had 30 years of liking a band that most of the country dismisses as a joke. Until I realised what was happening with that, it was hard. 

One of the toughest things for our psyches to handle is being told that the way we see the world - such as, say, a world where Marillion are the best band ever, or online gaming is brilliant - is wrong.

That jars, and can feel like a personal attack. Yet we can't afford to take it personally, because there's little point trying to convince others that their worldview is wrong and ours is right. Those frames of reference have been built over the course of our lives, and it's almost impossible to challenge that successfully. They're ingrained. 

We like different things either because we simply do like different things due to our wiring, or we're too ignorant to know better. It'd be great if we could all just accept that, but it's hard... because some of us live in a world where online gaming is tragic and sad, and some of us live in a world where online gaming has made our life better. Hearing a contrary opinion or belief threatens our world.

Be proud of liking what you like. Don't hide it, apologise for it, or attack somebody for not sharing your frame of reference. If somebody criticises that thing you like, accept that they're the ones missing out. Save your energy for enjoying the thing you enjoy, and if people don't like it... fuck 'em. Their loss. You don't need them to share your likes and dislikes to make your personal experience right.

​The only thing that's definitive in this world is the truth, and that's about the most subjective thing there is.
FROM THE ARCHIVE:
​PLAYING GAMES ONLINE IS SAD AND TRAGIC - BY MR BIFFO
​
IF DIGITISER LAUNCHED TODAY... WOULD I HAVE BEEN A WHITE SUPREMACIST? - BY MR BIFFO
REMEMBERING THE OTHER INVENTIONS OF SIR CLIVE SINCLAIR
25 Comments
RG
29/3/2017 11:56:29 am

Mafia 3 - it's like they made a game specifically for me. I really enjoyed every minute of it. I loved the setting, the music, the visuals, the weighty physics of the driving, the gunplay, the way that some of the goons dramatically roll off balconies when they're dispatched... everything. I get that it was repetative, but I enjoyed the gamplay that was being repeated. 50th fun shootout? Oh, go on then.

It seems that everybody else universally loathed it.

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RichardM
29/3/2017 12:04:56 pm

I really like They Might Be Giants and most of Frank Zappa's stuff, but everyone just laughs at me. The only person I've ever met who was close to interested in Zappa elaborated to say that he liked Beefheart better: even worse. I feel the pain.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
29/3/2017 12:45:57 pm

Beefheart rules.

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DEAN
30/3/2017 10:22:31 am

I like Frank Zappa and would say that The Mothers of Invention debut is in my top 20 albums (I don't have a top 20 but it would probably be in there.)

I still love the image of a ship arriving too late to save a drowning witch.

Bruce Flagpole
29/3/2017 12:55:21 pm

I don't think I'd ever heard of Marillion before reading about them on this site, or knowingly heard any of their songs.
I keep meaning to listen to them, based on your liking them since I tend to share a lot of the same gaming tastes...but then I forget all about them as soon as I leave the site.

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RG
29/3/2017 03:05:33 pm

I remember picking up a Marillion CD in a shop when I was young and my friend laughed, "Ha ha, Marillion - put it back, dickhead". One day I should give them a listen and if I like what I hear I should track down this 'friend', look him in the eye and and say, "Yeah, Marrilion!"

Any recommendations for a good couple of songs to try Mr B?

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Mr Biffo
29/3/2017 04:41:53 pm

You have to tread carefully... They've been around so long that there's some right guff in there - especially during the late-90s/early 2000s. Also: you could do five completely different-sounding compilations...

So... uh... Generally, we fans think of their post-Fish stuff that Brave, Afraid of Sunlight, Marbles, Sounds That Can't Be Made and the latest one, F.E.A.R, are the best ones. My favourite longish track is The Invisible Man, but it's not the most accessible introduction. Um... well, what do you tend to like music-wise? That might help my recommendations.

A kid called Dave
29/3/2017 01:32:15 pm

Sensible Soccer. All the kids mocked me at school. Why aren't you playing Fifa Soccer '94, Sensible Soccer looks like rubbish! Cos it feels amazing m8! But it looks like shite! Yeah so what, I just took Scarborough FC to the FA cup final again. Yeah but does Sensible have animated crowds?! No, but I deftly lofted a 25 metre banana shot over the goalies head in't top corner. Felt amazing.

23 years later and the arguments are the same. 175 hours into new Zelda and it feels tip top. But it dips to 20fps in the woods! Yeah so what pal? Feels amazing!

Not amazing like being noshed off by your mum behind the bins of Istanbul kebab house, but getting there.

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Kelvin Green link
29/3/2017 09:14:02 pm

The thing is, you're not wrong about Sensi. You're not wrong now and you weren't wrong then. It's still the best foot-to-the-ball computer game ever made.

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Handsome Crab
29/3/2017 01:50:17 pm

You should try being a wrestling fan. Good Lord.

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Koozebane
29/3/2017 02:01:51 pm

You know it is fake don't you, don't you? Don't you know this?
Here is something you might not know, it is fake.
You must know it is fake,
I must tell you it is fake, you baby.

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Mrtankthreat
29/3/2017 04:56:55 pm

It's a strange thing really. I don't know why wrestling being fake is such a big deal. And I mean personally. I can't stand it because it is fake. As wrestling fans are keen to point out, and it's a totally valid argument that I have no comeback for, TV and films are fake and yet that doesn't bother me in the same way wrestling being fake does.

And it bugs me slightly that people find it entertaining in a way that it doesn't bug me that people are entertained by other things that I don't personally like. Like when people describe it as like a soap opera crossed with MMA. I don't like either soaps or mma yet it doesn't bother me that people like those things in the same way. The fact that adults like wrestling just baffles me.

I don't mind kids liking it. I used to like it myself as a kid. And I don't even mind adults doing or watching other things that were designed primarily with kids in mind. I find Bronies are more acceptable than adult wrestling fans for example. And of course I'm more than happy for wrestling fans to enjoy wrestling, more power to you but I'm gonna continue to think it's weird. I'd would love to be able to put my finger on what it is about it though. I know myself it doesn't really make sense.

colincidence link
1/4/2017 10:41:00 am

The machismo?

Picston Shottle
29/3/2017 02:20:57 pm

I love Marillion, but the Marillion that probably got them their bad rep - the Fish era Marillion. I love the pretentious lyrics and the idea that you can put on the live version (because, lets not forget, if you can listen to a live version of a track, at least in Marillion's case, it is so, so much better than the album version) of Misplaced Childhood and it is a single 45 minute track.

I have tried to get into "new" Marillion (yes, I know this version has been around for close to 30 years, but it's still new to me!) and I can't. I mean, there's nothing wrong with Steve Hogarth, and the music is still great, but I dunno, it just doesn't push the same buttons.

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Clive Peppard
29/3/2017 02:37:17 pm

I don't mind inter tribal "bantz" if biffo wants to gush off about a zelda game whilst ignoring Tom Clancy's wild lands that's his call. If an egg boxer wants to debate relative console merits I'll engage (and win, PS4 yeah babay!!)

Musically, what evs. everybody likes their own thing and no one can judge, one man's marillion is another man's mansun is another man's mudhoney is another man's michael jackson is another man's mahler (I'm out of M artists at this point)

What really grinds my gears is when I'm compared to a child for liking computer games. this is usually from baby boomers and i have come to the assumption that these are the types like my parents whose first understanding of computer games was buying new fangled gadgets for their kids (thanks for the spectrum mum and dad) and so developed in the 80's a conceit that games were solely for kids.

This is so very badly wrong its laughable except im not laughing because even folk my age think that now!! (I'm late 30's) why is it so many people conflate growing up with acting like the generation that went before them? that's not growing up tha'ts getting old in a weird way.

next time someone says "arent computer games for kids?" to you berate them accordingly, Generation X are the spokes-generation for adult gaming and we need to get the message across.

(the best thing about Marillion is that Fish cant pronounce Katie Melua's name and it sounds like Kitty Maloo)

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colincidence link
1/4/2017 10:42:03 am

Thanks for mentioning Mansun, as they are the true best band.
- Mansun convention attendee

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Darren link
29/3/2017 08:21:48 pm

As a Marillion fan, I've learnt two things:

1) I would rather eat my own genitals than be in proximity to other Marillion fans. Did a weekend in Minehead back in the day. It was like dying slowly but with Marillion albums played loudly in the background

2) Don't be overly critical of their album on YouTube because that REALLY pisses them off. But then don't do the same to Fish either as he'll private message you on Facebook telling you that you are banned from his gigs (like I'd ever pay to see HIM).

But yeah, fandom...it's a funny old thing.

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Mr Biffo
29/3/2017 09:41:17 pm

Darren - interestingly, as the common factor in both these stories... is there any chance that YOU might be the problem...? ;-)

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S Hawke
29/3/2017 10:32:02 pm

Fish was on Pointless a while back. Richard Osman pinned him to the ground while Alexander Armstrong sang some Marillion songs in a smug, self satisfied manner, and everybody was laughing. Poor Fish.

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moguri
30/3/2017 03:06:05 am

I love- that is, I *love* - Far Cry 3 and The Levellers, both of whom are only good by accident.

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Acid_Arrow
30/3/2017 11:37:34 am

I have Marillion's main song "Kayleigh" on my Top Gear Driving Anthems Bumper Rock Special CD. I'm sure the rest of their music is similarly catchy and about having it off in a park and so I definitely plan to attend the next festival.

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Gordon Nook
30/3/2017 04:49:27 pm

I'm a big Mike Oldfield fan (in that I like Mike Oldfield a lot and I'm extremely vast), and he's someone with a few duds under his belt that I'm well aware of. However, few things give me more joy than laughing at other Mike Oldfield fans who inhabit his multiple official Facebook groups (and prior to this, message boards, and even earlier the Dark Star Fanzine). I could never go to an Oldfield-themed event as these are the people I'd be there with.

Also, he was pro-Brexit.

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Roy (Stuart N Hardy fan)
31/3/2017 04:02:32 pm

I love Simon and Garfunkel.
In particular, Homeward Bound. A song Paul Simon wrote whilst waiting for a train at Wigan station....I'm sure any one of us who doesn't reside in Wigan could've written that one!
I've been to Wigan so I know. And I grew up around Fort Neef!
Anyways, I digress.
In the car I have to listen to the boys' stuff - Drake.
Or her stuff - Scissor Sisters or stuff of that ilk.
I'm better than both of them in my opinion.

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Roy (Stuart N Hardy fan)
31/3/2017 04:17:22 pm

I love Kayleigh too.
And Lavender Blue......dilly dilly.

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Roy (Stuart N Hardy fan)
31/3/2017 07:55:45 pm

Having said all that, my mp3 playlist consists mainly of Shalamar and that lot that sound like Shalamar.
And The Sun Always Shines On TV by Aha. An underrated classic in my view.

In retrospect, I'm not better than her and the boy.
I still stand by my Aha appraisal though.

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