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Entitlement

Love/Hate, and WWE

Okay, I admit it, there was a span of about seven years of my life that I used to watch WWE. Religiously. Early nineties kind of time. Back when the original DX was cool: before X-Puke. Back when the Rock was booed and a complete sissy. Back when my mouth would drop open in astonishment every time Vader did a moonsault. Back when they were the WWF. Back when WCW was its own vehicle (and before the joke that was the NWO)…Back when…

Okay, you get it ;)

That is where the love part of this post is. In my memory of the soap opera athleticism that was WWF.

But I just can’t get into WWE anymore. It just seems even more preposterous than before.

Okay, maybe not more preposterous…I mean, what was more preposterous than Goldust???

But it is more…gratuitous. Cheap. Shallow. And I don’t mean the sex, although it is quite gratuitous, cheap, and shallow. The Divas don’t bother me. It’s the violence, the blood. I don’t dislike aggression, or blood. I love the UFC, even watch boxing now and then, and rugby absolutely makes me drool. But there is a major, major difference. The blood and violence of those is a side effect of the stress and aggression of the sport. It hasn’t BECOME the sport. (though for a little while I was worried about UFC)

Back when I was watching WWE, and well before, blood was rare on WWE. The impact of seeing it was HUGE. I remember Mick Foley’s wife sincerely sobbing at the extreme abuse he was putting himself through for the show. Now it is obligatory, and taken for granted. It is there about every show. The blood is there because it is ‘supposed’ to be, and not as a side effect of a particularly hardcore moment.

WWE has become a parody of itself, which is really a feat, as it was a parody of the roots of wrestling as it was.  Wrestling was always scripted; the wrestlers have always been characters, but there was still a sense of pride and sincerity of the art that was WWF.

But it has lost all heart. It has lost that pride, and become a cheap Hollywood sequel. It is a poor knock off, and a celebrity impersonator hired by your corporate big wigs to impress.

*sigh*

But I still am playing WWE SvR 2007.

And, like the show, I have a love/hate kind of relationship with the game. I love the nifty new features, the stamina, the crowd in fighting, the environment, the create an entrance, and the reversals are SPECTACULAR.

But the character creation has been nerfed terribly. The wrestlers look wonderful. I LOVE the way the perspiration increases subtly on the skin as the match progresses, and the movements are extremely fluid. And the superstars have been captured perfectly. The facial morphing is very good. But the costume choices have been severely chopped.

And this is the part that really, really annoys me most. I can not play a female wrestler in season mode. I can’t get experience to progress her without tag teaming her with a male.

In a prior version for the PS2 (I think , I can’t remember which WWE game it is) you were able to designate your wrestler as ‘other’ instead of male or female, and then your female could play through anything a male could. 

Why not now? I can’t imagine any male WWE player would be disturbed that he was able to play a sexy female wrestler, and watch her body sweat through a season, instead of a big manly man. The majority of female toons I have met in the multitude of mmorpgs I’ve played were played by males, just for that reason. It was more fun to watch a female on the screen.

And I don’t think it is a huge issue regarding realism (it’s WWE, for cripes sake). There have been females that have fought males. Take Chyna, and Jazz. And this is a video game, a fantasy. It’s already built into the system that a low weight character can not use certain grapples and throws if his opponent is too much heavier than him, so what is the problem?

I know as a female I am the minority in the gaming world. But maybe the minority wouldn’t be so small if the female gamer was considered more often? I don’t think the compromise of letting female toons play in season mode is going to upset the male majority.

But, as annoyed as I am, I won’t give it up like I did WWE. I won’t say good-bye. I’ll keep playing.

Not. Gonna. Do-it.

So…I am a gamer.

There is no question about that.

But, I have come to the realization I am not a hardcore gamer. I am more the Cinemax After Dark kind of gamer.

Maybe that is why I will never, ever, buy a PS3 at the current price point. (lottery winner status excluded)

I suppose I should preface my further comments by stating that I am not a fanboy for any system. I have no Sony hate.

I love my psx and my ps2. I still play on both consoles. Just the other day I plugged Persona into the psx and made the little demons do their “Sexy dance. Sexy dance. Sexy Sexy Sexy dance”.

I even remember back in 1995-ish, two weeks after buying the 3DO how we realized what a mistake we had made. We sold the 3DO and the games we had for about 75% of what we had paid, took the financial hit and bought the Playstation. Never regretted a moment of it.

But I simply do not need a PS3. I can not in good conscience justify $600 for a gaming console. The titles so far really don’t get my heart a pumpin’, and even if they did, I still wouldn’t buy it.

I don’t care how wonderful it is, how powerful it is supposed to be, or any of that.

For 600$ it better make sure I am satisfied first (twice), make me breakfast in bed the next morning, and call me everyday for a week just to tell me how wonderful I am.  (Although if the PS3 came out with a game that did that, I might just consider deleting this and buying one, tee hee)

The one thing I like about the PS3, and this might be the girl in me, is the sleek and attractive design. Very nifty. I have a thing for metal finishes. ;) But that is not a reason to spend so many $$ on a console.

And there are no rumble controllers  That might seem like a silly issue, but I like my rumble. I like that feedback in my hands, telling me what a crap player I am.

And I know, I know, this is supposed to be so much more than just a console. It is supposed to revolutionize and blue ray and blah blah blah.

But it is what it is. A 600$ console with a crappy starting lineup.

Ah, CoH, why won't you let me go...

So, it’s a double xp weekend for CoH.

CoH. I have such a plethora of mixed emotions about this mmorpg. I love it, I loathe it, and I keep going back to it, just to remember why I left it in the first place.

I keep going back for the eye candy. The combat effects are wonderful, but mostly it’s the character creation that gives me optical cavities. No game yet has matched the flexibility and the creativity that CoH allows a player when they create their visual identity in the game. It is nice to be able to be an individual, and to recognize another character on sight, just by their particular suit. It’s nice to be recognized on sight.

I am disappointed that in WoW every tier 2 rogue looks like every other tier 2 rogue. I hate that when I was leveling I looked like I got dressed in the dark and walked out of the house with a blindfold on. At least in UO there were leather dye tubs, and colored ore. (If only UO had never implemented neon and flame gear *shudder*)

But once the novelty of a couple of hours of playing Barbie dress up with my toons wears off, I remember why I left CoH.

The Grind.

The Grind.

The Grind.

City of Villains helped a little. A little. But it is still a very, very basic level grind. Kill massive amounts of a certain type of ai mob. Rinse. Repeat. Level. Start all over.

Bleh.

Granted, most mmorpgs follow that simple formula, but in my experience there have at least been alternative ways to spend your time progressing in game…non combat skills like fishing and cooking, crafting skills, or the lovely, lovely housing system in UO (*drools* okay, give me a break, I am a girl, and I will not rebuke the stereotype). There have been quests that are not combat related, and little bits of fluff content here and there to soften the sharp edges of the mob kill for exp cycle.

In the well intentioned effort to create a simple, pretty, streamlined game, they neglected to think of the depth of the environment. CoH could be so, so much more.

And yet, even after all of that, I still look at the email sitting in my inbox, and think about going back. Just for a little while. Just to play Barbie dress up.