Trends in video game criticism come and go as quickly as trends in any other media.  The “angry” reviews were all the rage not too long ago.  Many people tried to ride the wave of popularity that the Angry Video Game Nerd created by being, well, angry.  Many of the wannabes failed horribly, but a few became popular, such as Noah "Spoony" Antwiler and Angry Joe.  Then we had the “happy” gamers that wanted to express their love of games rather than focusing on the bad ones.  Examples of this are the Happy Video Game Nerd and Roo from Clan of the Gray Wolf.  From that movement, came the “critical thinking” authors such as the Game Overthinker and Extra Credits, who discuss and explain the more difficult aspects of our industry such as issues of race, gender and sexuality. 

That leads us to the current flavor of the month: the Glenn Beck-wannabes that are out to “expose” the BS in gaming.  My personal favorite, Laron Von Baron (aka Gamersgettingplayed) has recently thrown in the towel on his video series.  He cites a “lack of any good games” as the reason for him no longer being interested in gaming.  I’ll let that soak in for a bit as I arrange my preorder tickets for Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim, Saints Row: The Third, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Mass Effect 3 and Uncharted 3. 

So why are these jackasses getting any sort of traction and gaining a following of their own?  It’s the same reason that the Tea Party came into being and ended up screwing over the USA:  there are a lot of stupid people out there. 

That news should be no surprise to anyone that hangs out on the internet or happens to view Fox News at any random time, but yes, there are more stupid people than smart people.  It’s stupid people that love to latch onto someone else that says what they’re thinking.  Are you afraid of the scary black President?  Well, the Tea Party has some great BS “arguments” to spew out to your friends to show them that you’re not some shallow mouthbreather, but instead, a critical thinker that knows about politics because you listen to the propaganda of Fox News instead of the reporting on real news networks.

Some of the names growing in popularity on Youtube are the Black Buster Critic and JaktheBomb who’ve released video after video talking about what they think is wrong with the industry and how they’ve been playing games since the “old days,” which for them means since the 16-bit era.  They’ll further prove their “expertise” by showing off their gaming rigs and game collections, since we all know that owning a bunch of games is an indicator of one’s great credibility and knowledge as a gamer. 

I want to call these guys flash in the pans, but that may be giving them too much credit.  They’ve sadly amassed a following of slack-jawed gamers that’ll sign any online petition against a popular game only to turn around and buy said popular game once it’s released.  Fortunately, a lot of the gaming public has realized how laughable they really are.

Now you may be asking yourself “O.G. what can I do to fend off these solidified piles of douche in human form?” There is the “ignore them” strategy that some people have suggested, but I say to hell with that.  

When you see someone make an absolutely asinine remark about gaming, like: “Microsoft told Namco to make Ace Combat: Assault Horizon more like Call of Duty!” (Oh, how I wish I could say I made that up), then take their ignorance and stuff it back in their face with interest.  Mock them profusely for their idiotic remarks and make them think twice before posting a similar thought in the future. 

Yes, what I am advocating may be harsh, but unless you tell someone that they’re wrong about something, they’ll continue to think they’re right.  We must fight these jackasses off because if enough of these ‘wrong thinkers’ get together, gaming will become infested with its own bunch of crazed fanatics like the Tea Party or the Scientologists.  We need to show everyone that the arguments from these self-proclaimed ‘experts’ are as empty as Al Capone’s vault.