The problem with having gaming as a hobby and actively persuing that interest means that I often come face to face with the fact that gamers love to complain and do it often and loudly. I know that the most vocal of gamers are a small constituent, but when you’re active in the places that these people frequent, it sort of seems like there’s a wall of complaining and moaning that hits you like an incessant tidal wave.
Complaining about people complaining is like pissing in the wind, but if there’s any safe place to do it, I feel that it’s here on GamerSushi. While we may disagree on a lot of issues, there isn’t any one topic where everyone is overwhelmingly negative or against a certain thing. Honestly, it’s like a breath of fresh air compared to some of the places that I lurk and I’m always thankful that we’ve managed to carve out an island of stability amidst the turbulent waters of the Internet.
That said, I really can’t identify with a majority of the people who claim to be “gamers” anymore. If these people aren’t freaking out over some small thing in an upcoming video games, then they’re waxing nostalgic about how great games used to be back when we only had 32 pixel consoles and controllers that weren’t designed for anything other than giving you a hand cramp after two hours.
One of the more recent trends that have really sent me over the edge is the tendency that these people have to blow everything out of proportion. Seriously, if Gabe Newell sneezes these gamers might see that as a reason to boycott. Not everything is worth throwing a hissy fit over in my mind, but I guess these folk are less rational than I am.
Battlefield 3 really seems to be getting the short end of the stick in this regard, because a few days can’t go by without the collective masses of the complainers jumping all over DICE and EA for some small fault. While the Origin/Steam schism was a little silly, the ripples that this caused in the community could be equated to Moses parting the Red Sea (a lot of ocean metaphors in this feature already) for all the grief people had over it. Origin is still a new service, but it seems that it was expected to perform as well as Steam does now right out of the gate. It’s so easy for us to forget that Steam had a lot of growing pains; there was a time not too long ago where I avoided Steam if at all possible. Now that Valve has ironed out most of the kinks (there was an issue recently with Steam Guard keys not being sent to my Hotmail account that infuriated me to no end) Steam is a great content service to use and I’m sure Origin will be like that, given time.
It’s really hard to fathom where this sense of entitlement comes from, because in no other medium, aside from George R. R. Martin’s fanbase, are people this needy and verbose. Every time a developer says that they’re appealing to a wider range of players, it’s being dumbed down for the console kiddies. If a game will have map packs or microtransactions or launch-day DLC, then we’re being gouged unfairly. I guess that it’s easy to forget that gaming is a business, but as much as any given studio or publisher would like to have us believe that they’re making cool games for us to enjoy, they still have to make money. For such a young industry, this sort of experimentation is natural. Even well established forms of entertainment, like music and movies, are feeling the pinch of transitioning to the digital age. Expecting gaming companies to do it right out of the gate for whatever reason is short sighted and juvenile thinking.
I hate to sound like I’m dumping all over people who have legitimate complaints, but I’m not. There are a few worthwhile causes I can get behind in a given year, but most of those seem buried by stupid crap that really shouldn’t be a problem in the first place. It makes me feel bad for developers like Notch, who has been thrust into the limelight thanks to his incredibly popular indie game, and now people expect him to develop on the scale of a big studio with hundreds of employees. True, Notch is probably biting off more than he can chew between launching Minecraft fully this year, developing Scrolls and publishing Cobalt, but apparently taking part in an ongoing Beta test has certain demands that he must meet no matter what.
This kind of turned in to a rambling tirade, but I’m honestly just tired of the comments on forums, or articles or whatever else I look at these days. I’m tired of the MW3/BF3 fight, I’m tired of console fights, I’m tired of people sticking it to developers for any small reason they can find. I’m especially tired of people constantly going on about how awesome gaming was twenty or so years ago. That’s great; you can go back to that any time and leave the stuff coming out in the next few months to us. I’ll happily play Skyrim, Gears of War 3 and Uncharted 3 while you’re replaying Mario Bros 3 for the fiftieth time.
The solution to my own issue with these complainers is simple: just don’t read the things that infuriate you. That may solve my issue with it, but it still doesn’t help the fact that anyone in the gaming industry who looks in on people who are supposedly their fans will get hit with a wall of vitriol for random, meaningless “transgressions”. I suppose that developers have learned to filter out the noise by now, but it must be tough reading massive amounts of hate interspersed with the odd comment confirming that there are still people out there that enjoy video games.
Sorry about going off like that guys, but I need to get these things off my chest. Like I said at the beginning of the article, I’m glad I have GamerSushi as kind of a soapbox to stand on where people will read this without immediately leaving comments questioning my sexuality. What do you guys think about this? Am I being overly-sensitive, or is this constant negativity a real problem? Anything you’d like to sound off on?
I totally agree with you Mitch, I constantly get infuriated when I look at forums and comments on gaming sites that contain constant bitching about anything and everything. Here’s just a list of the stuff I’ve noticed lately that drives me insane: Console fanboyism, MW3 vs. BF3, Dragon Age 2 sucked and was dumbed down for consoles, PC elitists, PC players who refuse to buy games not on Steam, how dare game companies make money, damn Kinect it’s not aimed towards the hard core so it should never had existed, priced DLC complaints, Valve makes stuff for free so that means anyone who doesn’t is a terrible company who doesn’t care about their fanbase, Valve is the best developer ever and everything they touch is gold and they do no wrong and everyone should be like them, etc. I could go all day. Gamers are probably some of the whiniest people on the Earth.
Completely agree Mitch. This is the only gaming site on the entire net that I visit with any sort of frequency (read: damn near every day). I’ll read a few articles on Kotaku, have a bit of a look over the forums at the Escapist, but the only stuff I really comment on is in the Off-Topic section. Gamersushi often seems like the last remaining stronghold against the wretched hive of scum and villiany that is the rest of the web. I’m tired of watching every story/thread/video descend into a flame war as gamers go to town on each other. I think a lot of people need to rewatch Kevin Butler’s speech from E3 last year – We are ALL gamers. We should have more in common than should tear us apart.
Everything you mentioned is why this is the only site I get any of geeky stuff from. I don’t like wading through comments, I like to see a few people here who post often enough to be memorable. It feels like a real community and not a random wall of poor graffiti. I certainly can be a complainer, but sometimes some back and forth can be nice rather than people reading the articles you guys work so hard on just to say “yeah, cool, I agree with everything.”
<3
I like the responses to this, as well as the article itself. I tend to agree with this, but I feel like its just so commonplace now that I kind of am used to it. I find myself also complaining about things like Halo CE Aniv possibly being too much like Reach and not enough like CE in things like play-style and weapon physics. I look to see if I should get MW3 or BF3 and listen to people give me an opinion instead of just getting the one I want without bias from others. Gamers seem to complain about a lot and have the means to complain. Gamers are into technology, they are able to complain and I think they do that just so they can feel as though their opinion really matters (or that they are right and X is wrong). Maybe its just 1st world problems? We have an industry that shoves content down our throats yearly and we always seem to bitch about something. We are impatient, whiney and spoiled. In the end, you play Black Ops anyway, you complain about it while you do and until that one guy who you respect calls you out on it, you keep complaining and giving your two bits. The console fanboys still hate and put their own idols on pedestals and the PC enthusiasts cry foul on everything that doesnt use a keyboard. It goes on, regardless of what happens. I think we are just all so spoiled about the whole ordeal.
GamerShushi also offers a very nice view that strays from the mainstreams of gaming websites. Its nice to have a smaller community where there arent forum topics 100 pages long debating about why Valve is the devil or how the PS3 is the best thing since sliced bread. It offers a more real experience. While all the complaining will go on, at least we have a place like here where we can agree to disagree and get on with the gaming.
I cannot agree with you more Mitch. If you took a non-gamer and threw them onto some of the gaming discussion forums they would probably assume that we are all spoilt, pedantic brats. Needless to say, that is not the image we want for our medium.
The BF3/MW3 fanboy war has been getting on my nerves with all BF3 fanboys accusing anyone who likes MW3 of being a whiny 12 year old (Interestingly , the people complaining are the same people who complain about BF3 looking like Bad Company 3. Nothing wrong with that BC2 was an awesome game). I hate MW and love BF3 but I am hating some of my fellow fans at the moment.
Phew, rant over. Seems that I really needed to get that off my chest.
This issue always makes me think about that line from “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” when Affleck’s character says “The internet has given everyone in America a voice and evidently everyone has chosen to use that voice to bitch about movies.”
And clearly some of these people don’t remember what the “good old days” were really like. The quality to crap ratio was WAY worse back then and it wasn’t uncommon for high profile releases to be not just bad, but broken and unplayable. Furthermore, a lot of those games didn’t really have the replayability that people think they did. We played the same games over and over again because we were kids and couldn’t afford to go out and buy new games all the time.
Humorously, most of the people clamoring for the “good old days” weren’t even alive during the 16 bit era. It’s like listening to teenagers who discover Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and then declare that no music recorded after 1980 was any good.
I’m with you, Mitch. Thanks for trying to keep things civil and sane here at GS.
“One of the more recent trends that have really sent me over the edge is the tendency that these people have to blow everything out of proportion.”
I recall the release week of Gran Turismo 5, and the fanboi base on a GT fansite discovering that there were two types of car models (Premium & Standard), and that on the majority of cars (Standards) you couldn’t customize rims.
I swear, there were individuals who had a hypertext hissy fit and not only declared the game was “ruined”, but that they felt “ripped off” for even buying it.
Because you couldn’t choose what rims to put on your car.
I assume this would be akin to, 30 years ago, complaining you couldn’t customize Donkey Kong’s barrels, or choose your favouritre Soiuth American country as the originfor his bananas.
You can cry on our shoulder Mitch lol.
As soon as GamerSushi really started going with frequent post and more back-and-forths between everyone I just severed all ties with any gaming forum I was on for these exact reasons. I’ve also stopped going to any gaming sites due to how angry the comments make me (1up and G4TV being the only exceptions as 90% of the time their editorial is able to make up for any shite other similar sites make me put up with and I love their podcasts). You guys are also able to keep me well updated on gaming news so (I usually follow the links and am always impressed with the quality articles you bring up) there’s rarely the need to stray from this island paradise.
PS: I would like to thank you guys for keeping me from becoming one of ‘them’. As Sean said, “you complain about it while you do and until that one guy who you respect calls you out on it, you keep complaining and giving your two bits”. You guys were the ones I respected and I don’t think you ever had to call me out on anything but I respected you so I followed your example. There’s a high probability I could have remained a rabid Sony fanboy for so long had I not been here lol.
Right there with ya, Mitch. Kids need to stop complaining. That can be said about pretty much everything in life. I agree that it’s especially virulent, or at least nagging, in the video game community, but I go on Gamersushi and enough other good forums to know that video gaming is not just a cesspool of annoying brats and crappy games. Thanks to you guys, including all the fans of Gamersushi, I can actually enjoy gaming wholeheartedly.
Thanks guys, glad to know I’m not alone! *sniff
Also, @GT5Canuck, your banana analogy slayed me. Good stuff.
Case in point – Today Kotaku published an article bringing together a bunch of reviews for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. the intro to the article read –
“In the year 2000, Ion Storm unleashed the perfect marriage of futuristic shooter and skill-based role-playing in Deus Ex, a game so unique that even its own sequel couldn’t replicate its success. Can any follow-up possibly do it justice?
Deus Ex: Invisible War took the award-winning formula established in the first game and dumbed it down to the point where even Mass Effect 2 fans could play it. Players that reveled in the complicated skill advancement of the original were offended. Game reviewers were disappointed. It felt like the end of the Deus Ex series. Judging by the review scores rolling in for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, we’re lucky that wasn’t the case.”
As expected the comments lit up in both attack and defence of ME2. In the “featured threads” part of the comments it was not until right at the bottom that I saw any mention of DE:HR. And that alone says more about most gaming fans than I care to know.
Sigh
I really can’t stand the way many people act online when complaining about games, and all that other nonsense they complain about. Some of this stuff is unbelievable (a friend of mine refused to buy Halo Reach because he heard that the game had drivable forklifts that wouldn’t go into Forge, he was serious too) I just don’t worry about it, if everyone ignores them and they have no audience they will seem completely idiotic, and replying to them about what they think will only cause problems and encourage them. People need to realize that these game companies are COMPANIES, they do this to make money! Not to please whiny consumers online! It’s nice when a company is very community-based, and they listen to feedback, but they are still companies that are trying to make money first and foremost, they don’t need people complaining to them about the tiniest things, like “Diablo 3 is too bright and colourful!” I simply don’t read comments on most game websites anymore.