I can’t help but reflect on a recent story Jace told me, regarding the creation of the I play WOW music video. For those of you not familiar with the video, you can check it out to the right, for the other nine million of you that have the song stuck in your head and “favorited” on your YouTube Channel, I invite you to keep reading. Some of you might be curious to find out the video which made World of Warcraft cool (or should I say, exposed those for thinking it wasn’t) almost never was.
The idea was pitched originally to music executives, who had almost nothing positive to say about the idea, or the world in general, for that matter. What did they say about arguably the most popular video game of all time, and making it into a music video? Eh, the game is a novelty…it won’t work.
Novelty?
“But look at the success other artists have had in producing videos in a similar style–Eminem for example,” Jace pointed out.
That went over like a lead balloon; in one ear and out the other of the execs. Who was Eminem, anymore? To the executives, he was as much a novelty as a video game created some fifteen years ago. Even though Eminem was the best-selling artist of the decade and World of Warcraft was the most subscribed online game in history (over 12 million subscribers). Still, both were apparently, “novelties.”
Fast-forward months later: Eminem drops Recovery to the biggest debut in almost two years, dishing out nearly 800,000 copies. Jace’s World of Warcraft video compiles nearly 9 million views, and counting, on IGN’s YouTube channel.
Novelty!?
Like White Castle, or root beer floats? Songs like Don’t Stop Believing or movies like Back to The Future (1, 2, maybe 3)?
What is a novelty, and why are they bad again?
It seems rather simple, actually. Calling something a novelty is just another way of saying, “I don’t understand it.” The fact of the matter is, when you believe in something, when you know instinctively that it has meaning and that it can have a dynamic and mass impact on an audience, it doesn’t matter if something is a “novelty,” it matters if people care about it and are emotionally affected by it. We so often think that new is better, because people haven’t become tired of the concept or idea. It’s the new car that you haven’t taken for a spin yet, or the newest computer gadget that you haven’t explored every one of its apps. We assume everything has a shelf life—that everything will eventually be consumed and eventually we will have to move on. People will inevitably try and define what that shelf life is, calling everything, soon enough, a “novelty.”
But if we trust our instincts, never allow others to affect the things we enjoy and what we know has meaning to us, novelties will fail to exist. Novelties will simply be excuses by executives who lost the ability to emotionally connect with audiences a long time ago, the moment they purchased a 200 hundred-dollar tie and put their initials on their license plate.
It’s not about believing you are smarter or believing you are better than anyone else, it’s simply about believing in one thing: yourself. If the example of Jace tells us anything, it’s that adversity and resistance confronts everyone, be it a high school freshman or an Executive Producer. Conflict doesn’t discriminate, but resiliency and optimism do; both are a choice that we have to make. Every time someone shoots down an idea for being a novelty, every time someone criticizes something we enjoy because they don’t understand it, is just another opportunity to remind ourselves why we enjoy the things we love and to appreciate what makes us different. Something like World of Warcraft or a person like Eminem, activities and people who continue to be misunderstood, are what make the world unique. They keep us honest and ultimately are the ones that define what is and isn’t a novelty: things that have meaning to others, which some people just don’t understand.
Paul Nyhart – who has written 891 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Paul Nyhart is the Head Editor and Writer of JaceHallShow.com covering everything from game reviews and previews to the cultural impact of video games.

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