Today I came across a weird case of entitlement and flawed logic… on a gaming Reddit.
Shocking, right?
But here’s the situation. I’ve been lurking pretty hardcore on the Injustice 2 Reddit. I’m curious whether or not the game will become a major Esports hit, and I am also curious to see how my students see the mix of the gear system AND traditional fighting game mechanics. Also if you live under a Phill rock and haven’t encountered me before, I’m a huge games and comic geek, and my original gamer competitive street cred came from hustling people at Mortal Kombat, the predecessor to the Injustice games (the brother of the Injustice games) over at NRS.
The game has been out less than a month and already DLC is being announced. One of the first characters announced is Sub Zero. For anyone who knows nothing about fighting games and Mortal Kombat, Sub Zero is, along with Scorpion, the face of MK as a franchise. Also rumored for later DLC addition is Mortal Kombat’s resident lighting god, Raiden.
The announcement that those two characters might come to the game has been met, generally, with entitled angst. I am not currently sure that those people complaining are even in any sort of majority; there’s just a bluster from those who are upset.
This is a perfect example of entitlement in a place where it might not seem as scary as it does in political or educational spaces. These fans, however, seem to think that the only opinions that matter are theirs and that the studio should do whatever it takes to please them, specifically. And they want no more MK characters! Scream it in the streets! Raiden sucks!
But there’s a second logical flaw, and it’s funny how it works, so watch closely. They feel that the MK characters are taking spots that could have belonged to other DC characters. This is merely an assumption, a thought that presumes three things that no one really knows to be true outside of NRS:
- There are only a set number of download content characters that will be made (we know that there were only 9 total sold with the most expensive version of the game, but that doesn’t automatically preclude more being made later)
- That once the studio decided there would only be nine characters, they had nine blanks on a page and had to fill them in.
- There wasn’t a plan from the start to have the two MK characters
The most likely truth, as someone who studies games, is that the developers were dying to get at least one MK character in (those who work on both teams would want to see how their characters work in the updated, slightly different engine). It’s possible they had a narrative hook for Raiden, too, and wanted to utilize him in this space. Raiden is the first of the MK characters to move from universe to universe, so he fits exceedingly well with the Injustice universe. Also Injustice scrapped an electric-powered character, so there was some work done on that front.
But the bigger problem with the assumption is that there was a nine character limit set on the DLC, or that the two MK characters weren’t already considered a “bonus” to what the Injustice team planned to make.
And lastly, there’s the issue of assuming that because some don’t like a character, the character doesn’t belong. I don’t like Swamp Thing. At all. Not as a character, not in the game, not his style of play, not the looks of his gear. That doesn’t mean I think Swamp Thing should be purged from every copy of the game, of course. I can just not pick him. Easy solution. Plus I also understand that games aren’t made just for me.
The reason I find this interesting is that it’s actually quite logically similar to “they’re taking our jobs!” Assuming that immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans counts on the following assumptions which, it turns out, cannot be made:
- That it’s actually happening. It isn’t, because the “jobs” being “taken” are jobs that white Americans won’t do. And they actually aren’t being taken. As I mentioned in a post last week, you can literally drive from one errand to another in my hometown and see numerous stores and fine dining establishments (okay, maybe not fine) who are hiring. Then you can hit the (is it really) private community Facebook group and see at least ten people looking for work. Only they’re felons, and can’t lift more than six pounds, and have to work from no earlier than 9 am to no later than 2:30 pm, etc.
- That there’s a limit on the number of low-wage jobs. Turns out there really isn’t. That’s how capitalism works.
- That anyone who comes from another country is trying in any way to unseat an American. No one comes here and says “I think I’ll take that person over there’s career!” They’re taking the jobs we don’t.
- Lastly, the one that will sting some people a bit– there’s an assumption from the people who say “they took our jobs” that the “our” here has the skills to do the job. Odds are if it’s in a tech field they don’t. We don’t do really well as Americans in the STEM fields. Sort of like the over-used Gretsky quote “you miss 100% the shots you don’t take,” you lose 100% of the jobs you aren’t qualified to do.
The entitlement has to stop. We live in a large, varied world. Not everyone can get exactly what he or she wants. But if you complain a little less and try a little harder, you can avoid Raiden and get the Constantine DLC you keep hoping for.