To Fail or not to Fail
Posted by Stropp on January 12, 2009I was just reading Jason’s post, My Hopes and Dreams for 2009 and Beyond over on Channel Massive when one tiny little thing he said slapped me across the face and called me Susan.
Cease the Liberal use of “Epic Fail” When it Comes to Criticism
Since when has failure ever NOT been epic??? According to the MMO community, any perceived failure (no matter how trivial), is ALWAYS epic in scope.
One of the ways that we humans learn is by failure. We attempt something, perhaps getting a light bulb to work, many times without success before the big breakthrough. Other times we simply learn that what we are attempting isn’t possible. Both results are equally valid and valuable outcomes that show us where we’ve gone wrong, and where possibly not to focus on in the future. Edison wouldn’t have been successful if he hadn’t learned from his failures and insisted on using the same sort of strand each time ‘just in case.’
In fact one of the definitions of insanity is knowing an action doesn’t work, but repeating it anyway. Perhaps we can say that behavior provides a good definition of ‘Epic Fail’ too.
There’s been a whole bunch of failures in the MMOG space in the recent past. Some of them have even been called epic.
While these failures are disappointing to developers and players alike. I reckon that as long as the industry, and perhaps the players as well, learn from those failures it might actually be a good and valuable thing that they occurred.
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I think the article over there was less about learning from failure, and more about removing the hyperbolic “epic fail” rhetoric. In fact, I suspect that they want to remove the “epic fail” terminology from the common language precisely because it is an impediment to learning. Those who rant and whine about “epic fails” (not “failures”, as would be proper English) are typically leet speaking elitists who want to condemn, not learn.
Anything that parses so much of our time and energy is often perceived by us or rationalized by us as something that should be epic – otherwise – why are we working so hard? Let’s face it – failure is becoming more and more of a social lever. Can’t find something to talk about to strangers – talk about the failure of others. Businesses, political and entertainment personalities, friends, etc, etc. If it bleeds it leads – and if there’s failure – there will be blood!
@Tesh — absolutely. I was just coming from a different angle and refering not the the cited article, but to the people making the Epic Fail comments in the first place.
I wouldn’t agree with the elitist tag though perhaps some are. It’s probably much more a case of disappointment breeding bitterness. I know I’ve been disappointed a few times by the failures of eagerly awaited games, you feel let down.
@Windpaw — yep, that’s gossip and always a good way to direct attention away from our own failures. But like I said above, anger and bitterness play a part too. There’s a lot of that on gaming forums!
Honestly, I was drunk when I wrote that article and don’t really remember what I meant. I’m just glad there are sober people in this world who can try to interpret what I write.
Anyhoo…thanks for reading!
Jason (resident drunken idiot of Channel Massive)
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