Kids' Say the Darndest Things

As promised in the post yesterday, I'll include some comments from a couple of my 'adoring fans' about the 10 best scary video games of all time posting. Well I'm about to share some of the e-mails that I received at my work account. The guy obviously didn't understand that concept, I didn't say that they were the 10 scariest games of all time, just that they were the best 10 in the opinions of me and my co-author, who has just launched a blog yesterday.

Anyway, without further delay, I give you the first 'fun' e-mail from said person:

So when you write an article in October of 2011, and you neglect to put "Dead Space" in your Top 10 Scariest Video Games of All Time, then I seriously question the validity of the information provided, as well as the testicle size of the writer in question.

Maniac Mansion, seriously?  The scariness of an 8-bit point & click?  I fail to see it.

House of the Dead?  What's the very thing that would make me feel safe in front of an undead horde?  How about a gun in my hand and an endless supply of quarters?

Original Resident Evil, and not RE4?  What is scary about the original is the control scheme and camera angles.

How about Fallout 3, where you turn around only to find a gigantic monster about to scratch your face off everywhere you go?

Here's a suggestion, add every Madden game since 2005 to your list to make it complete.

While he's obviously attempting to troll me, you'll see that he wants me to add sports games to a list of scary games... Not sure what to say there. I did respond with this though:

The Deadspace games weren’t that scary compared to other games released around the same time.  Sorry you didn’t like the list, but that’s the beauty of opinion, this one was mine, and my co-writers.

Obviously he didn't like my response as he came back screaming about how I was wrong, well I can take criticism, or else I wouldn't be in the business that I am in.

Really, what games are those?  Because none of those made your list either except for Left 4 Dead.

Look, I appreciate your nostalgic view of video game culture, but you're so far out of touch that you lumped an 8-bit game in with PS One titles, without even acknowleding arguably the scariest games ever on modern consoles (Bioshock, Gears of War & Dead Space, which was scary dude so don't act like you know more than me because you have some douchey blog).  Why don't you add in the original Super Mario Brothers?  That Bowser dude was totally scary in 1988.

Don't get all upset that I'm calling you out over obvious omissions.  You mad bro?

At this point, while I wasn't mad, I was laughing quite loudly in the office, and had to share with my co-workers. We all had a good laugh, so I told him that I would be posting some of the e-mails as a blog post. He gave me permission.

Go ahead.  Nobody reads your blog, and everyone who does would agree with me...so why should I care?

I'm not trying to be a troll, you just put together a list that anyone older than 15 would disagree with. 

 I also explained why there were not ommissions on my list, as the list in only opinion, not anything definitive.

They are only obvious omissions to you because they are your favorite games.  I looked at all games, I didn’t throw in modern bias like most people tend to do.  In the end though, it’s my opinion, no one is saying that it’s perfect, just the opinions of mine and my co-writer. Thanks for reading. -Dave

Of course he wouldn't let it end there either...

So your illogical bias is acceptable but you're dismissive of everyone else's rationale?
How old are you?  40?  Are you 40 years old?  I bet you're 41.  Maybe 42.
 

And you still haven't named those "other games" that came out around the same time as Dead Space, but are waaayyy scarier.  I'm waiting with bells on.  But I'm headed to a concert now, because I have a life.  So don't expect my drunken reply until about 12:30 Saturday  

There were a few other e-mails from this guy, and a couple from others. I'm writing this Sunday night for release Monday morning, so I haven't checked my work e-mail to see if he has responded more since. I do however feel the need to thank this guy, as he shared the link to the story, even if he did so with malicious intent, to other websites that got the story about 20,000 page views over the weekend, so I obviously can't be mad, he's earned me a sticker from a co-worker.

Oh, and I offered to let the guy write a letter to the editor that we could print in the paper, but he has declined, so there is no way that I was being 'dismissive' of his opinion, I just didn't agree with it. But no 'bro' I'm not mad.

14,000+ Page Views, on Back-To-Back Days.

   This could also have been titled "Neat-O: Part 2 Electric Boogaloo" in response to one of my early posts where I blogged about meeting Legendary Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr, and having Congressman John D. Dingell share a link to one of my stories on his facebook page. Today I'll tell you about how I got 14,000 page views on two different stories, on back to back days. There were also another few thousand hits yesterday on the popular one from Friday.

   I'll start with the Friday piece, "The 10 Best Scary Video Games of All-Time." At least one of our reader's blatantly did not like the list, he e-mailed me at my work account several times about it, clearly attempting to start a flame war, but being that it was work related, I had to bite my tongue and not respond the way I would have liked. Instead I thanked him for reading, and told him he was free to write a letter to our editor, which he got confused and thought I meant of the blog, but that's a story for another posting, I'll even share some of the e-mails.

  

   Long story short, he shared the post on Fark.com, where he attempted to get more people to make fun of the list, they had to link back to my story though, also I don't know if it were him or not but the link was shared on another site where they attempted to better the list as well. I haven't ever been to that site (Hardocp.com) before. All told between the two days, the story got over 20,000 hits, and it's still doing well today, and I'm certain that it will continue to do well into Halloween.

   The same day that the video game story was posted, a Top 10 Stephen King Books for Halloween article was posted. It did OK, but not as popular as I had hoped it would have been. Yesterday morning I decided to cross post that article as a blog post here, then I was gonna share the link a few places, one of which being the Stephen King Facebook page. I went to the page, and what do I find there, the page had posted a link to the original article already. The last I saw on that one yesterday showed nearly 16,000 hits, I won't know the exact numbers until tomorrow when our web editor shows them off, but I am completely shocked at all of the hits it's gotten. I know it's not through anything I did personally, at least not intentionally, but damn it if it isn't so cool. The only problem now, is trying to find some way to replicate these results next month.