Here’s a thought experiment for you: imagine the mid-1990s, just before Super Mario 64 was due to be released for Nintendo’s new console, the Nintendo 64. Having read all the buzz in the games magazines, and having seen the screen shots and read the eyewitness accounts, gamers worldwide are frothing at the mouth in anticipation.
Now imagine a petition landing on Shigeru Miyamoto’s desk, demanding the game be scrapped.
It’s signed by thousands of fans of the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES. They treasure their memories of that classic, and they don’t want a new game to come along and spoil them.
They have a very particular view of what the Mario experience should be, and consider his new 3D world to be an affront to the dignity of the franchise. They insist that Super Mario 64 be released in 2D, or not at all.
Think that’s crazy? Think it couldn’t happen? Then think again. Only update the scenario to the present day, and replace ‘Mario’ with ‘Diablo.’
There is a vocal fan petition online right now that deplores the new graphical look being developed for Diablo III. It has over 50,000 signatures. This gist of it is that they remember Diablo being a colourless, grainy experience played mostly in the dark, and that’s the way they want it to stay. They don’t want exaggerated character designs with huge shoulder pads. They don’t want colourful, light-filled dungeons.
And they certainly don’t want what one fan describes as ‘WoW Gayness.’
These fans are devout — hopelessly loyal. In a way, you can sympathise with them. They have used Photoshop to alter the screenshots Blizzard has released to bring them closer to the darker Diablo of their precious memories.
So what’s the problem? The problem is that memory, however precious, cannot be trusted.
Pete Hines, project manager of Fallout 3, is in the same boat. Not only is the fandom for Fallout 1 & 2 strong, it is inconsistent — and there’s no way all those views can ever be reconciled:
“…I’ve had people say ‘I have a fan who is a hardcore Fallout fan, and he says what he remembers most about Fallout is X’, and whatever he says ends up being slightly different or completely different to somebody else.
“Everybody takes something different from every experience. Our thing is we’re going to try to make the best possible Fallout game that we can…”
