Hello, everyone! My name is Luiz Fernando, brazilian, avid gamer and student. Been hesitating in the last months about creating my own blog, due to the time constraints and the will to do so. Now that I finally decided to go ahead, hopefully I can get some experience with the time.
My blog is mostly about gaming, but this first month will mostly be a retrospective about this year, both about gaming and about some events both inside and outside virtual life. This has been definitively the worst year in whole life, and I'll tell you about it throughout the month. Tell what I can tell, within the confines of the "TMI" (Too Much Information) thing.
So, there goes a history about my involvement with rhythm games, which was certainly the highlight of my 12 years of gaming (plus the Master System 3 times).
I used to be a hardcore frequenter of the Guitar Hero/Rock Band related community called ScoreHero since 2007. There, I'm known as "tidus", due to me being an avid Final Fantasy X fan. The fact that this name was available for someone to choose for 1 year and 2 months since the site's foundation, without being picked, is still a mystery for me somehow, but it can be related to the intense hating against Tidus from FFX. To be honest, he being a crybaby and such is an overstatement. Time and time, I introduce this game to other people in my house, and no one had a fuzz with Tidus. The other reason why I picked such name is the fact that Yuna has been one of, if not my favorite female character.
If I was a girl, I'd definitely pick Yuna, but still, Tidus is bloody awesome! Well, returning to the talk about ScoreHero, my involvment with rhythm games, which was growing already, grew even faster. I was getting keen about posting scores, me with a measly Dualshock, playing GH2 due to the plastic guitars' rarity and expensiveness in the region I live in. I was becoming more and more competitive, and it would last throughout 2007 (co-op), and 2008 (solo). The interest wears out at late '08, and in early '09 I changed my ways, becoming a vocalist for Rock Band/Guitar Hero. The feeling of being able to do something actually great appeared, and I got even more respect.
Okay...some of you may ask what is this "DutchZooRebel" thing about? Firstly, an overview of the whole thing.
- 2010 FIFA World Cup. Quarter-finals, Brazil vs. Netherlands. After deserving to slap the Dutch around in the 1st half, but missing a whole lot of goal chances, the Seleção displays, by far, the most woeful performance in the whole Dunga era - which started after the 2006 World Cup - and conceed 2 goals through deadly defensive failures at free kick plays. Not only that, but pretty much lost the match to themselves: emotionally out of control, some of the brazilian players were preys to the dutch players' theater. Especially the defensive midfielder Felipe Melo, who stomped Robben and got the red card, messing up any possible tactical change for a draw attempt.
- After the disaster (I supported the '10 team with much more fervor than the '06 team, so it was more disheartening), I even tried myself to not have any grudge against the Dutch team, however, I've seen they've been bragging way too much about beating a Seleção which lost the Cup to the Seleção itself. And in the semi-finals between Netherlands and Uruguay, I had a somewhat unconscious positive reaction upon each Uruguayan goal. I decided then to hope that the Dutch don't win the Cup. Either a '74 repeat with Germany, or the tougher way around, with Spain, and its past of shock defeats in decisive matches.
- The finals came...and I had pretty much two main reasons to root for Spain: the aforementioned Dutch bragging, and my spanish descendence, making of Spain what would be my 2nd choice to cheer for. After the winning goal, I was really freaking out. I used to be unlucky for rooting for the losing side in many matches, so nothing better than rejoicing over such a rare luck in the format of a post, right? However, for a certain group of ScoreHero forum frequenters who had been discussing on a topic about the World Cup, these reasons were like nothing. Composed of English and American "nerds" who support the akin-to-american-football performance that the Dutch was putting up, the "Dutch Zoo crew" was there, after the end of the match, they've seen the rejoicing post, and I was there, getting bashed for that. Pretty much everyone in that topic and also on the IRC channel I was online at that moment was on the Dutch side. Unfortunately, there was nothing else for it. I've been labeled an immature bandwagonner, treated like a troll, (one of them was one of my regular Twitter followers, his action was probably a reaction upon the things heating up on the IRC channel due to my support for Spain), and seeing a forum ban from a close distance, delivered to the mercy of the moderators' discretion. Luckily, nothing happened, and I'm still a member. However...
- The time went by, and the more I remembered about the July 11th incident, the more rage I felt of those guys, especially because it happened on July, a golden month for me, SH-wise, in 2008, and can be treated as an advanced stage of decadence. Then this rage started to breed inflaming inspiration for ideas which could pretty well make up for one of the consequences of my involvment with rhythm games: strayed too far from the FFX roots. Ideas and more ideas with these rhythm games, designing original things that had a protesting sentiment hidden within them. And I was realizing how things were working at that day. How things work on the discussion area of the SH forums. How those people were respected and considered intelligent, making posts of quality, but uncapable of simply respect opinions and choices that are opposed to the popular point of view, worshipped for "inteligently" bashing me, and it so goes on.
- The concept of "Zoo" is based on what a friend of mine told me about that section of the SH forums. "A [censored] zoo". It works like this: if you're on the other side, you have to stay there, quiet, and like you were trapped in a cage. The football discussion was just like that. If you don't support the Dutch, shut up. Anything you say or do might be deemed unforgivable, just like it happened with me, when I was desperatedly begging for forgiveness, actually the only thing I regretted doing in that episode.
So, there it is. I, as a Spanish team supporter in that match, should've stay quiet in my "place" and say nothing, instead I've opened my mouth and gone beyond due to the victory, hence the "Rebel".
I'd like to disclaim that this is nothing against the Dutch people. They obviously support that team. My anger is with these specific people who promoted this "almost-oppression", treating the Dutch team like everyone's obligatory 2nd choice. I don't believe it's because of the Dutch football's brilliant past thanks to the "Total Football", but because of some players (especially in the midfield) who play really hard, being reckless sometimes, supposedly unlike the Spanish, who have been constantly accused of diving to simulate fouls in their favor. And this hard playing is heavily supported by the English (and perhaps Americans), ya know.
While I've been interrogated about a simple choice, I never went around to ask why there were so many people supporting the mediocre Dutch team, which was much too depending on those 2 talented players, Robben and Sneijder. It didn't take a genius to see such a plentiful support. Especially because the whole Africa was wearing orange, probably under the gratitude for Uruguay's elimination. The grudge was motivated this time by the 3-0 win against South Africa, which literally silenced the vuvuzelas, and especially by Suárez's handball against Ghana. It's like the world was becoming a "Dutch Zoo". And if these "nerds" wanted me to take an "american" attitude, I couldn't afford this time. That would be ridiculous. I want to be brazilian. Act like most of the brazilian acted. And if I was really to be a bandwagonner, then who had the longer undefeated streak? Who had the majority's support? I wonder if the whole "grow the [censored] up" thing, which obviously claims immaturity from my part, should be thrown by me.
Anyway, enough wailing. This is the whole history behind my nickname, detail by detail, so I don't need to say again. More later, sleeping time draws near...
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário