Why the hate?
I thought about writing this article for quite some time. Being a gamer in my late thirties, I have to admit that I really have issues with the modern-day gamer.
Maybe I am just getting older? Maybe I am just stuck in the past?
I am going to try and give my own personal views between the gamers of today and how it was for gamers twenty-plus years ago.
Back in those days it was Peace, Love and Mario. Now we have War, Hatred and Call of Duty Sucks!
The Internet opened doors to may gamers to give his or her own point of view. The problem is that a majority of these views are slanted and negative.
In the early 90′s we had the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. We had magazines like EGM, Nintendo Power, Game Informer and Game Fan (which launched in 1992). These magazines acted as a gateway for gamers. If we needed news we would turn to EGM and Game Fan. We did not have the Internet telling us what we should and should not like. We also did not have the line of negativity that we do these days.
As far as fanboyism was concerned we had the Nintendo camp and the Sega camp. The farthest a war would go was commercials saying Nintendon’t. We didn’t have these articles saying that a game company was doomed. Sure we had our share of horrible games, but those days were much different. We as gamers didn’t have the form of anger and hate that most modern gamers now seem to have.
Back in the 1980′s and early 90′s we found out about game systems through friends. The school yard was the place to learn about upcoming games. Back in those days if you brought a Gameboy to school you were cool. If you went to the local Electronics Boutique and Babbages, you would head about the upcoming games.
Those were also the days where I did not have to worry about some 10 year old kid calling me words I never even though they would know at that age. I also did not have to worry about racism or hatred being broadcast on my living room television. You can blame both Xbox 360 and PS3 for these type of issues. I’ve heard it all on both systems over the past 5 years.
Where are we going as gamers? Where are we going as a gaming community? Where the hell did all of this negativity and hatred for others likes and joys come from? Sure you can have your own opinion about someones favorite game or system. But don’t they also have the right to enjoy what they want without it being bashed and skewered to no end?
Gaming 20 years ago was like night and day compared to today’s gaming community.
Those were days that I really long for. These days there seems to be too much negativity online. Everybody and their grandmother seem to have a blog or website. Sure, Gaming Console Network is just another website as well. Basically our words are just another opinion in a sea of growing opinions.
But I am starting to get away from what my point is. If you look online you will find a wealth of negativity. This ranges from games to game companies and game systems. How many “The Nintendo Wii U system is doomed” articles have we witnessed in the past six months? Who knows how this system will sell? The same was said almost six years when the Nintendo Wii was introduced.
The same was also said when the Playstation 3 hit the market. The extremely high price tag resulted in countless negative articles. But many years later the Playstation 3 system saw a few price drops and is selling extremely well on a monthly basis.
You can also throw Microsoft in the mix. I can remember countless negative articles about Kinect. Yet the peripheral is selling extremely well for Microsoft. I am personally not a fan of Kinect, but there are millions out there that seem to love it.
We can also look at Duke Nukem Forever. The game took forever and a day to finally see the light of day. Once it was released it got totally hammered by the gaming press. Yet the game is really not as bad as the scores it received. The game received countless “1 out of 10” scores. I always look at game reviews as a term paper that you do for class. Anything below a 6 or 60 is downright horrible. If you receive a 1 or 10 out of 100 that game should be classified as “unplayable”. Last time I checked Duke Nukem Forever was a playable game. It was far from perfect, but it was at least somewhat enjoyable.
These day’s people just love to trash things, whether it be a game company, game or developer. It is like this century is the century of negativity. Like it is the “in” thing to hate or bash something. You can look at the Call of Duty franchise to see what I mean. The franchise sells millions, yet there is a undying hate among the gaming community.
Gaming in the 1980′s was pure and simple! Those days kicked ass!
I know most of the younger gamers don’t get the point of this article. I lived through the Atari downfall and the rise of the NES. I also lived through the days when the Arcade was a thriving place that was always fun to go and hang out. Games like Pac Man and Donkey Kong were awesome and fun to play.
We never complained about the amount of pixels in a game.
We never complained about being noob tubed.
We never complained about campers.
It was a simpler time for gaming and gamers. And I honestly miss those days.
Now we have “The Wii U will fail” and “Battlefield/Call of Duty Sucks”. We have countless “The Nintendo 3DS is doomed” articles. We have everyone trying to squeeze their own opinion into spaces around the internet. We have websites that compare every pixel and frame rate on games for the Xbox 360 and PS3. We have websites counting how many games and systems are sold every week and month.
Maybe it’s just me, but I miss the simpler days of gaming. When it was all about just having fun and staying up until 3am trying to beat a game. There seems to be far too much negativity in gaming these days. Sony fans hating Microsoft fans, Microsoft fans hating Sony fans. And for some reason it seems that everybody hating on Nintendo these days. With all of the negative press about the 3DS and the upcoming Nintendo Wii U, it’s just disheartening for an old-school gamer to take.
Maybe one of these days gamers will just go back to enjoying games, and not nit-picking every single detail about a game. Maybe people will praise other game systems instead of bash them to no end. Maybe the three game companies can exist without all of the fanboy hostility.
Maybe…
I love the image in your article where 2 kids are playing at the same time in a game you can only take turns. haha
If FFXIII sucked then what can I do? Why can’t Capcom include Megaman in MvC3 even though he won every poll? The fuck was wrong with Dante that they had to ruin it with that terrible looking reboot? I waited 10 years for GT5 and more than half the game was just recycled stuff from GT4 and Duken Nukem flopped real hard. Where are my Jrpg’s? My Xbox died so many time I had to give up on it. FFvsXIII is vaporware. Japanese werternization, faggy motion controllers and major focus on casual shit. I hate myself.
I have noticed the same thing when trying to compile stories for our show. It seems that even on the news side, the only news is bad news. I try to pick the more upbeat info, but you really end up missing the “big” stories when you filter them. It could just be our world right now, rather than specific to the gaming industry. People in general seem to be more irritable and impatient these days.
The hate and negativity in gaming is simple: People are realising that gaming is simply going down the toilet. I can think of these from the top of my head:
Shoddily made consoles
Games seriously lacking creativity and innovation
Horrible ports for multiplatform games that have bad controls and numerous issues
Games that are shipped with numerous bugs and glitches and are simply patched a few days after release
Games with paid DLC that is on the disk
Games that have “Day 1 DLC” that should have been on the disk
Online passes
Games which are solid at the start but are a complete trainwreck towards the end
i think it’s to do with gaming faiqtue. Everyone is always hating on something. One thing that p*sses me off the most is when a new game or IP comes out, people would call it a clone of this other game. Yet the moan about publishers milking their IP/franchises.
It’s so annoying man, I don’t care about fanboys words such as the idiotic BF3 pc fanboy constantly hating on COD just because majority gamers prefer it and reason why it sells.
The Gaming Industry is a f*king mess!
That is easy. Most kids today have no patience nor respect. They want everything fast and in a hurry. Its also the media. Today people thrive on others misery. Just look at the garbage on TV. Its sad when a 12 year old boy is telling me to fuck off when I play my PS3 online. Is this how todays gamers represent themselves? By telling adults to go fuck themselves because they got their butts handed to them in a videogame?
I agree with this article. Todays gamers are not like they were 15-20 years ago. I think online is a lot to blame.
No its the Media Corporations, the bloggers, the so called journalists.
They are the ones who post this flame bait articles, intrigues, lies, and negative publicity.
They are the ones who turn innocent unsuspecting gamers into fanboys.
Having skipped the PS2 era and entering this generation I was so shocked to discover how ugly the American video game scene has turned out to be!
As a form of mainstream entertainment with its multi million dollar production rivaling movies, along with this advancement, it also turn out to be the Next Rotten Hollywood. Full of politics, irresponsible journalism, sensationalism, intrigue.
The media has taken away the fun from enjoying video gaming just like they did in Hollywood. They want their magazines and articles to earn more dollars than the movies themselves.
They leave a bad taste in the mouth of gamers.
During the NES to the PS2 never have I seen this rotten form of journalism, never!
Sony, Nintendo and Sega may have locked horns in cutthroat mortal competition but there was honor among these Japanese companies. They answer great games for good games not not monthly sales figures and grand standings!
Fanboys are just victims.
But the obvious fact is the Sony PlayStation brand has received the most amount of negativity no doubt …. and now its Nintendo’s turn?
The gaming industry is under a threat and under attack…outside and inside. Its on the verge of total chaos! The whole gaming industry is a crisis, a cross road. And all they care about is fanboy bickering and flame wars and hits! And if history repeats itself the video gaming industry will suffer the same fate as Hollywood did.
Why not they of positive subject matters like what Sony and Nintendo do to save the Japanese gaming industry from the toilet or how they can adapt to the changing times of digital convergence lifestyle.
Competition should produce better results & products not negative creeps!
You are right, the net is full of bad journalism, even more so than the press.
Much of the “hate” journalism can simply be put down to the pressure to get page hits. Say something dumb, sorry, I mean controversial, of course, and you will get lot’s of people trying to put you right. You get hailed as a journalist who gets attention, the advertisers love you and your bosses will put aside professional criticisms, because you bring in the hits.
As for others in general, I find people are just less considerate of others in all, walks of life. Whereas I used to say “I’m gonna kill you!” to people who annoyed me, it was obviously a euphemism for “I’m pissed off with you”. Now you get people, often kids, saying “I’m gonna stab you in the face!”, and they sound as though they would if they thought they could get away with it.
I used to think it was a mis-placed nostalgia for a “goldenage” that just didn’t exist, but that isn’t true, people are nastier and less thoughtful nowadays than they were just a few years ago. I see it in all areas of society, the moral compass now is about what you can get away with, not what is right. I really mean that, there were always “cheats” and thieves, but now it seems a majority think in terms of “it’s me and mine against the world and damn the rules”.