A new golden age for gaming?

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Seriously how can anyone feel anything but dismissive cynasism and dispassionate loathing for gaming these days?

Some of us play games on the PC. That is basically the answer, there. There are a shit-ton of great indie games on the PC (and even console), that you don't even have to dig far to find.

But even then most PC games are just ports of the console version, or are so poorly optimized with locked graphics that the expensive hardware doesn't matter. You get the console gaming experience for 5 times the cost.

Like... None of that is true? Most PC ports nowadays are pretty damn good, and almost all indie and mid-tier games are made with PC in mind now. The bad ports of yore are mostly the exception to the rule now. Gaming is more than just AAA on console. :\

What are you talking about?! The entire history of mainstream PC gaming for the last 5 years has been console quality ports, and broken at launch titles!

Indie games sure, I'll give you are 'made with PC in mind' but they're still indie and almost always run just as well on console, 'cause they're not top-tier graphics powerhouses to begin with.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Seriously how can anyone feel anything but dismissive cynasism and dispassionate loathing for gaming these days?

Some of us play games on the PC. That is basically the answer, there. There are a shit-ton of great indie games on the PC (and even console), that you don't even have to dig far to find.

But even then most PC games are just ports of the console version, or are so poorly optimized with locked graphics that the expensive hardware doesn't matter. You get the console gaming experience for 5 times the cost.

Like... None of that is true? Most PC ports nowadays are pretty damn good, and almost all indie and mid-tier games are made with PC in mind now. The bad ports of yore are mostly the exception to the rule now. Gaming is more than just AAA on console. :\

What are you talking about?! The entire history of mainstream PC gaming for the last 5 years has been console quality ports, and broken at launch titles!

No... ? There have been some, but they are not the majority at all. Most AAA games on the PC nowadays are quite good.

Indie games sure, I'll give you are 'made with PC in mind' but they're still indie and almost always run just as well on console, 'cause they're not top-tier graphics powerhouses to begin with.

Indie and mid-tier is like 80% of the market now, if you haven't noticed.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Micro-transaction and pre-order culture is infecting ever corner of the industry to the point I don't think I'm gonna be buying a new game for the rest of the year. Not one game is on my radar that I just to be both a full, finished title worth full price, and to actually work at launch, or be an active game 4 weeks after or not be riddled with micro-transactions and DLC.

Name one game, ONE, on a PS4 or XBone that couldn't have been on the PS3/360, 'cause the only one I can think of is Order: 1886, and that game was shit on every level, graphics aside.

Seriously how can anyone feel anything but dismissive cynasism and dispassionate loathing for gaming these days?

I haven't played a game with microtransactions or DLC the whole year including 2 AAA games. I never had a game not work at launch on console. The vast majority of games stay active enough to play, I played Battleborn for at least 6 months. In fact, I'd rather play with a smaller community than millions that don't know how to play the game and offer no competition. My online game of choice now is MGO2 on PS3 that now has fan-run servers with less than 1,000 players, it's better than any current shooter community because I can hop on and join pretty much any room and have top-notch competition.

Have you not seen the PS3/360 ports of Watch Dogs, Dragon Age, Shadow of Mordor? You can do a lot more with consoles because they actually have RAM finally. PS3 has 256MB of system RAM, that's megabytes!!! The Order 1886 in fact does nothing that couldn't be done on PS3, the train sequence in Uncharted 2 is more hardware demanding than any gameplay segment in The Order.

How can I hate gaming when such games from mid-tier devs like Divinity Original Sin, Shadow Tactics, Hob have come out along with some AAA games without microtransaction BS like Horizon, Dishonored, The Last Guardian? The fact that Arkane Studios exists in the AAA landscape and can make 0451 games is definitely a positive sign. Lastly, the following...

I think most of it has to do with just how easy it now is to make and distribute a game. That really prompted the emergence of the indie game market in 2008 (similar to the emergence of indie film in the 70's), and I think that is a lot of what is fueling the current trend of just a ton of good/great games coming out every month.

This is exactly pretty much my point, there's actually better alternatives to AAA games now. You don't have to deal with AAA bullshit to get equal and better experiences.

I think we're more likely headed for an '83-style Crash and Dark Age, myself. The big thing for me is all this political bullshit.

On one side, you've got the types that look at anything with attractive characters in it and demanding they be uglied up. Then you've got the people that suggest that the former types make their own games, and end up getting called Nazis just for disagreeing. You've got Western devs and gaming news outlets that actively despise the very people they expect to buy their products or read their websites. And worst of all, you've got social media, that gives the dumbest people voices far beyond anything they've ever had before; and the social media sites are all too eager to ruthlessly censor anyone that doesn't agree with a specific narrative.

All of this combines to make it where it's impossible to have an honest discussion about games and what they should be. I'm not going to suggest that games like Gone Home shouldn't exist; they have every right to. But claiming that just because a Gone Home or Depression Quest failed financially means that all gamers are Nazis cannot be tolerated.

A crash isn't going to happen, too many people play games now. It's like saying the movie industry is going to crash. All this political bullshit you talk about is probably like 1% of the gamer community. Nobody cares [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AERwgNvgMmc] about this Gamegate or SJW bullshit that goes around on forums. It's so stupid someone posted in the Star Trek Discovery thread here asking if SJWs ruined Star Trek, it's complete nonsense. MGS2's future prediction basically came true, we need the Patriots

What are you talking about?! The entire history of mainstream PC gaming for the last 5 years has been console quality ports, and broken at launch titles!

What about Divinity, Pillars, Cities Skylines, horror resurgence from PC games? And most console ports do work just fine, it's just that PC hardcore community loves to complain about games not being perfectly optimized. Sure there's stuff like Batman Arkham Knight, but that is not even close to the norm. I'm not even much of a PC gamer and I know that. I prefer the console for it having less issues, which PC will always have because of millions of different possible hardware configurations, and I prefer the controller more. But with much much much better controller support since just last-gen along with consoles having x86 architecture with actual RAM, the difference between playing a game on PC or console is very small while both platforms retain their specialties. Just a few years back a game like Divinity or Shadow Tactics would be considered only playable with a KB/M but that is obviously not the case.

 

[PapaGreg096]

I think we're more likely headed for an '83-style Crash and Dark Age, myself. The big thing for me is all this political bullshit.

On one side, you've got the types that look at anything with attractive characters in it and demanding they be uglied up. Then you've got the people that suggest that the former types make their own games, and end up getting called Nazis just for disagreeing. You've got Western devs and gaming news outlets that actively despise the very people they expect to buy their products or read their websites. And worst of all, you've got social media, that gives the dumbest people voices far beyond anything they've ever had before; and the social media sites are all too eager to ruthlessly censor anyone that doesn't agree with a specific narrative.

All of this combines to make it where it's impossible to have an honest discussion about games and what they should be. I'm not going to suggest that games like Gone Home shouldn't exist; they have every right to. But claiming that just because a Gone Home or Depression Quest failed financially means that all gamers are Nazis cannot be tolerated.

No offense but thats a small small part of the gaming community, sure people who go on forums know this stuff but I doubt the average gamer would know or care about it.

 

[BreakfastMan]

I think we're more likely headed for an '83-style Crash and Dark Age, myself. The big thing for me is all this political bullshit.

On one side, you've got the types that look at anything with attractive characters in it and demanding they be uglied up. Then you've got the people that suggest that the former types make their own games, and end up getting called Nazis just for disagreeing. You've got Western devs and gaming news outlets that actively despise the very people they expect to buy their products or read their websites. And worst of all, you've got social media, that gives the dumbest people voices far beyond anything they've ever had before; and the social media sites are all too eager to ruthlessly censor anyone that doesn't agree with a specific narrative.

All of this combines to make it where it's impossible to have an honest discussion about games and what they should be. I'm not going to suggest that games like Gone Home shouldn't exist; they have every right to. But claiming that just because a Gone Home or Depression Quest failed financially means that all gamers are Nazis cannot be tolerated.

No offense but thats a small small part of the gaming community, sure people who go on forums know this stuff but I doubt the average gamer would know or care about it.

Pretty much. I work with a number of people who play games, and we shoot the shit about games all the time. The term "SJW" has not come up once.

 

[American Tanker]

No offense but that's a small small part of the gaming community, sure people who go on forums know this stuff but I doubt the average gamer would know or care about it.

The fact that the political bullshit isn't known by the average gamer is why it's going to continue to spread, until all actually worthwhile games are replaced by "artistic" "experience" walking simulators loaded down with so much propaganda bullshit that you're basically forced to accept, because if you question it the media will immediately brand you a Nazi for not agreeing with their every word.

I'd rather have a Crash on the scale of 1983 happen than see that dystopian future come to pass.

 

[BreakfastMan]

No offense but that's a small small part of the gaming community, sure people who go on forums know this stuff but I doubt the average gamer would know or care about it.

The fact that the political bullshit isn't known by the average gamer is why it's going to continue to spread, until all actually worthwhile games are replaced by "artistic" "experience" walking simulators loaded down with so much propaganda bullshit that you're basically forced to accept, because if you question it the media will immediately brand you a Nazi for not agreeing with their every word.

I'd rather have a Crash on the scale of 1983 happen than see that dystopian future come to pass.

You would rather see the entire game market die than see walking simulators or games with politics you don't agree with become popular? You do realize how you sound right now, right?

 

[DefunctTheory]

Spoiler

No offense but that's a small small part of the gaming community, sure people who go on forums know this stuff but I doubt the average gamer would know or care about it.

The fact that the political bullshit isn't known by the average gamer is why it's going to continue to spread, until all actually worthwhile games are replaced by "artistic" "experience" walking simulators loaded down with so much propaganda bullshit that you're basically forced to accept, because if you question it the media will immediately brand you a Nazi for not agreeing with their every word.

I'd rather have a Crash on the scale of 1983 happen than see that dystopian future come to pass.

You would rather see the entire game market die than see walking simulators or games with politics you don't agree with become popular? You do realize how you sound right now, right?

It's kind of amusing in a way - You don't usually see that kind of spite outside of dictators who'd rather burn their country to the ground than see an invading army find anything useful there, citizenry be damned.

 

[American Tanker]

You would rather see the entire game market die than see walking simulators or games with politics you don't agree with become popular? You do realize how you sound right now, right?

I'm not saying that I don't want them to become popular, I'm saying that I don't want to see games like DooM and Dead or Alive cease to be made.

I also don't want to see a games media industry that's more obsessed with shoveling political bullshit down its readers' throats than informing them in a balanced manner. Again, I'm not suggesting that politicized opinion pieces should cease to exist, but writers need to keep the politics out of their reporting and focus on the facts first and foremost.

If that's not going to happen, I'd rather see us go back to '83 than watch video games die a slow and painful death. I'm already playing fewer games as it is because of the political fuckery, and very few new ones at that.

 

[BreakfastMan]

You would rather see the entire game market die than see walking simulators or games with politics you don't agree with become popular? You do realize how you sound right now, right?

I'm not saying that I don't want them to become popular, I'm saying that I don't want to see games like DooM and Dead or Alive cease to be made.

I also don't want to see a games media industry that's more obsessed with shoveling political bullshit down its readers' throats than informing them in a balanced manner. Again, I'm not suggesting that politicized opinion pieces should cease to exist, but writers need to keep the politics out of their reporting and focus on the facts first and foremost.

If that's not going to happen, I'd rather see us go back to '83 than watch video games die a slow and painful death. I'm already playing fewer games as it is because of the political fuckery, and very few new ones at that.

So you have almost stopped playing games because Kotaku exists? I still don't get it. What sort of "political fuckery" do you think is so prevalent in games nowadays?

 

[American Tanker]

So you have almost stopped playing games because Kotaku exists? I still don't get it. What sort of "political fuckery" do you think is so prevalent in games nowadays?

You know what kind of "political fuckery" I mean. And it's usually from outside "critics" like Anita Sarkeesian rather than people that actually play video games and understand them. Before her, it was Jack Thompson, but at least he was laughed off for the quack he was. Unfortunately, the same thing never happened with Sarkeesian: The media circled the wagons around her, decrying anyone that dared question her ideologies as "sexist", "misogynist", "intolerant", "Nazi", etc. etc.

We don't need outside "culture critics" trying to inject bullshit into our games. We need to stand up and knock that shit down. I was glad when Hulk Hogan won that lawsuit against Gawker, and I was glad to see Gawker get taken down a peg. But Vox, who own Polygon, are still going strong, forcing bullshit anywhere they can.

We need a good purging of the industry itself, too, because too many devs are accepting this political bullshit and forcing it into their games. We need more Yoko Taros, who aren't afraid to admit directly that they just like pretty girls in their games. Maybe I need to play more Japanese games, I dunno. Not that I've really found many Japanese games that even look interesting.

 

[BreakfastMan]

So you have almost stopped playing games because Kotaku exists? I still don't get it. What sort of "political fuckery" do you think is so prevalent in games nowadays?

You know what kind of "political fuckery" I mean. And it's usually from outside "critics" like Anita Sarkeesian rather than people that actually play video games and understand them. Before her, it was Jack Thompson, but at least he was laughed off for the quack he was. Unfortunately, the same thing never happened with Sarkeesian: The media circled the wagons around her, decrying anyone that dared question her ideologies as "sexist", "misogynist", "intolerant", "Nazi", etc. etc.

We don't need outside "culture critics" trying to inject bullshit into our games. We need to stand up and knock that shit down. I was glad when Hulk Hogan won that lawsuit against Gawker, and I was glad to see Gawker get taken down a peg. But Vox, who own Polygon, are still going strong, forcing bullshit anywhere they can.

We need a good purging of the industry itself, too, because too many devs are accepting this political bullshit and forcing it into their games. We need more Yoko Taros, who aren't afraid to admit directly that they just like pretty girls in their games. Maybe I need to play more Japanese games, I dunno. Not that I've really found many Japanese games that even look interesting.

Where are people "forcing it into their games"? Like, what games/devs do you think have this problems? And you seriously want the games industry to crash just because a person you don't like has opinions you don't like?

 

[American Tanker]

Where are people "forcing it into their games"? Like, what games/devs do you think have this problems? And you seriously want the games industry to crash just because a person you don't like has opinions you don't like?

Right off the top of my head, there's the new Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, with additional stuff like this, this and this.

One that's probably better known was Overwatch and how Blizzard decided to reveal Tracer as a lesbian for no discernible reason. There was no value to it, it was just showing her as a lesbian because they needed to check another thing off from their diversity quota.

 

[PapaGreg096]

Where are people "forcing it into their games"? Like, what games/devs do you think have this problems? And you seriously want the games industry to crash just because a person you don't like has opinions you don't like?

Right off the top of my head, there's the new Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, with additional stuff like this, this and this.

One that's probably better known was Overwatch and how Blizzard decided to reveal Tracer as a lesbian for no discernible reason. There was no value to it, it was just showing her as a lesbian because they needed to check another thing off from their diversity quota.

Going by the Wolfenstein articles, apparently the author is mad because a game about Nazi killing is having the MC killing Nazi and for some reason having 2 black people in the game is pushing a diversity quota.

As for the tracer being a lesbian thing who cares if Blizarrd wants to make Tracer a lesbian.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Where are people "forcing it into their games"? Like, what games/devs do you think have this problems? And you seriously want the games industry to crash just because a person you don't like has opinions you don't like?

Right off the top of my head, there's the new Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, with additional stuff like this, this and this.

One that's probably better known was Overwatch and how Blizzard decided to reveal Tracer as a lesbian for no discernible reason. There was no value to it, it was just showing her as a lesbian because they needed to check another thing off from their diversity quota.

I feel like you're either deliberately trying to undermine your own position, or aren't paying attention to what you're posting.

EDIT: The first link is... oh, who the fuck cares.

The second link on Wolfenstein has the author deliberately misinterpreting a statement (The developer wasn't asked why Nazis were evil, but why Nazis are the ultimate bad guy in general) and basing an entire article off of that and a bunch of youtube troll comments.

The third video is the author claiming the cast is deliberately going down a 'diversity checklist,' amusingly ignoring that its actually a checklist of groups of people Nazis historically wanted to kill.

And the forth is simply laughable - Out of curiosity, how many white dudes would have to take lead in three DLCs for it not to be artificial diversity? Two out of three?

As for Tracer... That's just a joke. Overwatch is 50% waifu simulator - the characters that aren't canon lesbians are more notable than the one that is.

EDIT: Whoops, missed a link.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Where are people "forcing it into their games"? Like, what games/devs do you think have this problems? And you seriously want the games industry to crash just because a person you don't like has opinions you don't like?

Right off the top of my head, there's the new Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, with additional stuff like this, this and this.

One that's probably better known was Overwatch and how Blizzard decided to reveal Tracer as a lesbian for no discernible reason. There was no value to it, it was just showing her as a lesbian because they needed to check another thing off from their diversity quota.

So, what you are saying is... Shooting Nazis and KKK members is "accepting this political bullshit and forcing it into their games"? And that someone being homosexual is also "accepting this political bullshit and forcing it into their games"? That is just so... bizarre.

Why can't we shoot Nazis and KKK members because it is fun and everyone hates those guys? I mean sure, it is a political statement... But the political statement behind killing Nazis is one probably 99% of the population can get behind. One that has been present in dozens and dozens of popular movies.

Why can't characters just be lesbians, why does there need to be some justification to it? People in real life are lesbians too, you know. Being homosexual isn't an inherently political act.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I think we're in an... interesting time. AAA developers are kind of at their worst right now and it's creating a power vacuum for indie/middle market/niche games, but I personally feel like we've made a lot of GENUINE advancements in presentation and polish that these games can't achieve. To me a lot of them feel like one of those cult classic games from 2002 that your friend insists that "you gotta play" or a half baked early xbox 360 title. A lot of people here probably have more of a stomach for that than me, and I can really only speak for MY tastes, but my read is that there's one market wallowing in gaming's previous golden eras, and another that's focused on money making schemes. Neither one of which I see genuinely pushing the medium forward at the moment.

I don't expect to be calling anything new "the best thing I've ever played" any time soon. But I do think we'll be seeing some really interesting lower budget stuff that might EVENTUALLY get us there.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Where are people "forcing it into their games"? Like, what games/devs do you think have this problems? And you seriously want the games industry to crash just because a person you don't like has opinions you don't like?

Right off the top of my head, there's the new Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, with additional stuff like this, this and this.

One that's probably better known was Overwatch and how Blizzard decided to reveal Tracer as a lesbian for no discernible reason. There was no value to it, it was just showing her as a lesbian because they needed to check another thing off from their diversity quota.

Firstly, you should look up 'confirmation bias' because you're purposefully looking for stuff that agrees with your own beliefs. Secondly, you'd have to prove a dev has the intent to push an agenda with said character(s), not just list characters that aren't white men. It's literally been proven that publishers have forced devs to put white male leads in their games for years. That's not a good thing and it's literally proven. I very much doubt publishers are forcing diverse characters because I very much doubt there is any data pointing to diverse characters selling more games, that's all publishers care about, they don't care about politics or pushing agendas. And, the lead of Wolfenstein 2 is a freaking white guy that should've died last game yet it's being ruined by SJWs? That makes no sense. Since when the fuck are Nazis as the enemy pushing an agenda? Nazis are and will always be the "safe" go-to enemy forever.

Lastly, that site you linked is horribly biased, it just so happens to be biased in your favor. It's just like FOX news. When has IGN, Gamespot, etc. ever had articles that slanted?

 

[PapaGreg096]

Where are people "forcing it into their games"? Like, what games/devs do you think have this problems? And you seriously want the games industry to crash just because a person you don't like has opinions you don't like?

Right off the top of my head, there's the new Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, with additional stuff like this, this and this.

One that's probably better known was Overwatch and how Blizzard decided to reveal Tracer as a lesbian for no discernible reason. There was no value to it, it was just showing her as a lesbian because they needed to check another thing off from their diversity quota.

Firstly, you should look up 'confirmation bias' because you're purposefully looking for stuff that agrees with your own beliefs. Secondly, you'd have to prove a dev has the intent to push an agenda with said character(s), not just list characters that aren't white men. It's literally been proven that publishers have forced devs to put white male leads in their games for years. That's not a good thing and it's literally proven. I very much doubt publishers are forcing diverse characters because I very much doubt there is any data pointing to diverse characters selling more games, that's all publishers care about, they don't care about politics or pushing agendas. And, the lead of Wolfenstein 2 is a freaking white guy that should've died last game yet it's being ruined by SJWs? That makes no sense. Since when the fuck are Nazis as the enemy pushing an agenda? Nazis are and will always be the "safe" go-to enemy forever.

Lastly, that site you linked is horribly biased, it just so happens to be biased in your favor. It's just like FOX news. When has IGN, Gamespot, etc. ever had articles that slanted?

Oh and I got this gem from one of the articles

"MachineGames used this opportunity to focus the story on a multicultural group of diverse heroes featuring men and women fighting against the Nazi regime. Long gone are the days where B.J. Blazkowicz was allowed to be the lone hero."

So yeah the author is mad that we have a series where men and women and all people from different walks of life band together to defeat an totalitarian regime and is forgetting that B.J is still the protagonist.