Indie Kids
Preface
I am not criticizing indie games or those who play them. I love indie games, myself. I am critical of one small segment of the population. Still, I understand that this is probably going to stir up some controversy.
End Preface
I’ve been thinking about “indie” recently, and realized that indie game fanatics are very similar to indie music fans in many respects.
Both turn their nose up at anything mainstream:
Indie Music: “Oh, you listen to… John Mayer? Hmph.”
Indie Games: “Oh, you play… D&D? Hmph.”
Both like to wave their obscure media of choice in your face.
Indie Music: “This band on my shirt? Oh, you’ve probably never heard of them. They’re not… Mainstream. Hmph.”
Indie Games: “This RPG we’re playing? Oh, you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s not… Mainstream. Hmph.”
You yourself may play indie games, or listen to indie music, but their media of choice is more obscure than yours, and therefore, more worthy of their time. These are the kinds of people who only liked Savage Worlds before “it got popular,” or won’t even look at any game made by Wizards, Green Ronin or FFG, simply because they’re “popular.”
It’s arrogant, and, frankly, stupid.
Can you imagine anyone else in the world doing this?
Indie Doctor: “I know other doctors have said you should be on this particular drug, and you’ve seen it on some commercials, but I’m not going to put you on it. I won’t sell out to the corporations. I’ve got a drug from a small, independent company you’ve never heard of. We’ll put you on that.”
Indie Stockbroker: “I know you’d like to invest in Microsoft, but aren’t they too… corporate? I’m going to get you some stock from this small, independent company. If they ever start to get popular, we’re going to drop the stock. We wouldn’t want you to go… mainstream. Hmph.”
As you can see, it’s patently ridiculous. Nothing should be ignored and thrown out simply because it happens to be made by a larger company. I’m all for Fiasco, My Life With Master, Dogs in the Vineyard and the like (though even mentioning them is removing some indie cred from them), but I think you should also mix it up with some games like D&D, Dark Heresy and Mutants & Masterminds.
Keep rolling 20′s, or whatever it is you indie kids use to indicate success or failure these days.
Dice are for. . .mainstream peoples. I prefer mainstream objects used for independent purposes, like determining failure with a Jenga tower. That will really stick to the Jenga-man, mixing popular “family games” with my Interactive Party Systems (RPGs)
But isn’t it the case that the prejudice runs even more strongly in the opposite direction? That is to say I think there are likely many more games that wont give DIY “indie” games the time of day because they aren’t from one of the larger companies. You are right that “one true way” arrogance is immature, but it seems to me that it cuts both ways.
Oh, I agree. I think “one-true-wayism” is absolutely ridiculous. I should write a post called “mainstream kids.”