Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. I'd like to return these sneakers, sir. Don't say we didn't warn you.

I'm of two minds on the PSO v2 thing, and you lucky readers will get to see them both below. So let's dive right in.

Let me get this straight--companies should listen to us until they come up with good reasons not to? I think what you're failing to take into account is that they may have good reasons in the first place.

This letter illustrates one of my biggest peeves about the whole issue, which I'll go into more a little below: what Gilbert is saying here is that he doesn't like the direction that Final Fantasy series is taking, and therefore Square should heed his expert advice to stop making it like the Army Men series, or whatever he's going on about. It's the idea that the gaming community as a whole knows what's best, and they're not going to shut up until you give them what they want.

And I'm not done yet, not by a long shot ...

George Carlin once dismantled this same argument more effectively and eloquently than I could, although he was talking about sports fans instead of videogame fans. Responding to smug idiots who said "sports are really all about the fans," he pointed out that sports were really about the dozen or so guys out there playing the game. Fans came second, and were (and still are) entirely peripheral to the existence of the game.

If you took the fans away from sports, the game would still be there. No stadiums, no national televised matches, no eight- and nine-figure contracts, but the sport would survive. What would die is the sporting industry. Similarly, games don't need fancy graphics and hundred-plus development teams to exist, or even to be good. Fans of RPGs' strong plot and characters could get by with text adventures in a pinch. Twitch action junkies don't strictly need anything more complicated than the original Gradius. You get the idea.

But the attitude that Mch and Gilbert, as well as those who sent nasty letters to Sega, are really expressing here is something much more insidious and bad. It's the idea that game companies owe them. That, by purchasing a game here and there from a company, that company is now obligated to cater to their whims. Sega owes its fans a $20 PSO v2 with no monthly fees, dammit. Atlus owes us all a localization of Persona 2: Innocent Sin. (I have seen forum posters here and there who resolve never to buy an Atlus product again unless this particular bit of wish-fulfillment comes true.)

They owe us nothing. We have no right to videogames. A "right" is something given to every citizen in the country, and the ability to play games just doesn't fall under that category. Companies release the games, we pay money for them (this "I have the right" line of thinking is coincidentally one of the main rationalizations for piracy), and the transaction ends there. Anyone who expects more than that from them can come round my place for a more graphic version of this lecture, with extensive use of props.

Well, calming down a little, I sort of disagree. I don't think there is a "correct" or "intelligent" way to whine at companies. I realize that many games are released with some glaring flaws, but what people must remember is that every letter a company gets, praise or flame, is just someone's opinion. I don't go around stuffing Capcom's feedback box with cries to end Resident Evil's control scheme, though I certainly bitch about it enough elsewhere. The reason is that in the end, I am aware that what I think doesn't especially matter. Lots of people enjoy and can deal easily with RE's controls--who am I to believe my opinion is the "correct" one? Wait, don't answer that.

Okay, but I don't believe for a second Square released those PSX ports here because people asked for them. A more likely scenario is that they saw the success of the Lunar rereleases, did the math, and released the two simplest games they could. (FFV had already been translated for a planned PC release, remember, and FFIV's would have had to be retrofitted for the Hard Type, which was apparently too much effort at the time.) And in a year when the Bouncer and Final Fantasy X are all Square has for us at all, we get Final Fantasy Chronicles to bulk up the release slate, however slightly.

If you think about it, if Square was really doing what we wanted, we'd have our American WonderSwan Colors in grubby little hands, playing the Final Fantasy remakes in English. So long as we're dreaming, you know.

Remember when I said I was of two minds about all this? Here's the second part.

When you put away the general "I deserve" issues and focus on the specific matter of Phantasy Star Online ver. 2, I can't muster up much feeling about it one way or the other. Most of the negative things people have been saying about it seem pretty justified to me, and in fact I do believe the price could stand to be a bit lower.

That said, I would have bought it for $50, and I'll tell you why. I never got to play the original due to my peculiar Internet situation. As a college student in a relatively high-tech university, I get free access to not just one, but two ethernet ports in my single-occupancy room. It's a great setup most of the time, but it left me without a dialup account, and I didn't want to get one just for one game. So I bought Sega's broadband adapter ... and it didn't work. I tried more than one of the hacks to get it functional before I bought the game; no dice. As a result, I was really looking forward to version 2, since it supposedly worked with the BBA.

My only real take on the version 2 thing is I'm a little irritated that I might not get to play PSO at all until the true sequel comes out, but I can live with that. Thus, apathy.

I do wonder how much of this problem might have been avoided if Sega of America had charged for PSO from the get-go the way that Sega Japan did. Charging full price for the tweak might still seem a little sketchy, but most of the complaints I've read have more to do with the $3/month fee than the retail pricing. Which seems odd to me, since that's about how much I pay to follow just one comic book every month.

I'm only printing this as a reminder that Phantasy Star Online 2 is indeed coming, so those of you angry about only minor tweaks rather than an entirely new game just need to be patient.

But while I'm on the subject, I might as well rant some more. Are any of you familiar with the phrase "voting with your wallet?" It means you don't buy what you're not interested in. There's no need to waste your breath or your stamps complaining to companies when they do something you don't like--just sit back and let inaction takes its course.

At last, someone who agrees with me on every count! Er, which makes coming up with a reply sort of difficult.

But since you bring it up, I do sort of wonder how smart a move it would be for Sega to bring PSO v2 out now. No matter how much they talk about the Dreamcast still having plenty of life left in it, the momentum's just not there anymore. As far as I can tell, the last major release on the platform is Shenmue II, which is a long way off. Other than that, Sonic Adventure 2 and Crazy Taxi 2 are already out, with not much except sports games between now and the end of the system. Sniff.

Closing Comments:

I'd be pretty shocked if no one had anything to say to me after reading all that, so tomorrow is a free topic day. Enjoy it while you can, since as some of you undoubtedly noticed, I'm a stickler for staying on topic.

-Nich Maragos, bracing himself