Anyone besides me beginning to cringe at certain terms because of Video Games?

[Canadamus Prime]

The thing is if video games get too realistic they become too frightening to play, esp. the really violent ones. I remember looking at screenshots for this game, I forget what it was called, but it was some RTS about an invasion of America or some shit, anyway my reaction was "No way, this is way too real for me." So it baffles me that we are trying to achieve total realism.

You probably didn't mean this but your post gives the impression that people should make games for you personally. The reason we're trying to achieve total realism is because it isn't frightening to the majority of people.

Of course I don't expect them to make games for me personally. I was actually going to make reference to Jim Sterling's video on violence in video games, the one where he shows the clip of the politician commuting suicide on national TV. Namely the fact that real life violence is frightening and disturbing so why are we trying to achieve this with our games?

 

[King Billi]

You know what? Forget specific words, I find lately that I often try to explain myself in overly elaborate and confusing ways purposely forgoing any kind of generalising terms purely because I don't want to hear THIS inevitable response that always follows...

"You know, I don't think you fully understand what that word actually means."

And the ensuing arguement that always follows this which completely neglects whatever point was originally being made.

 

[Dryk]

The reason we're trying to achieve total realism is because it isn't frightening to the majority of people.

We're not trying to achieve total realism though, we're trying to achieve movie realism. There's a huge disconnect between the two and lots of people would find that frightening.

 

[Vault101]

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Christ I hate that phrase. It gets thrown around with such frequency that it's lost all real meaning now, because most people use it synonymously with 'streamlined' as if the two things are one in the same.

your post is a bit dumbed down

I mean its barley even a paragraph...and where are the foonotes? the citations? titles letter heads

gah...posts thease days

 

[SextusMaximus]

Immersion - most useless, overused and meaningless term in video games today.

"That game uses a red screen to show damage - that totally kills my immersion".
"That game uses a red screen to show damage - that totally adds to my immersion".
"Having to deal with a multiplayer aspect kills my immersion".
"Having other people in my game is so immersive".

Meaningless tripe.

Immersion is the level at which you are able to enter into the game world without it being broken up or interrupted by reality. So yes, all of those phrases are applied correctly.

Duh gee - I sure didn't know what the definition of "immersion" is. Thanks for the help - hyuck!

Sarcasm aside - how is your post relevant in the slightest to my cringing at the over and poor usage of the term "immersion" and how it is one of the most annoying and useless buzz words of the last 5 years.

You sure proved how intelligent you were by using that hilarious "hillybilly"-speak. Thanks captain.

"Meaningless Tripe"
- no, not meaningless. It has a meaning, which I pointed out.

I hope you understand my post now, thank you.

 

[Rachmaninov]

Immersion: If you honestly have any moment in a game where you forget you're sitting at your desk/couch with your hand on a mouse/controller/overpriced mobile device then I will take you to a psychologist. I never get immersed in a game at all. I have a healthy disconnect between what I'm actually doing, and what my characters are doing in a game.

We all have those moments. You do, too. Unless you're sitting repeating "I'm sitting at my desk" to yourself over and over again.

You don't have to be thinking "I AM COMMANDER SHEPARD!" to be immersed. And with any art that tells a story, immersion is the whole point. Making you care about fictional characters who you rightfully shouldn't care about. Making you tense or afraid, when it's your character who's in danger and not you.

There's no good reason to let escapist art make you feel anything, but immersion makes you forget that, if only for a little while.

If you've never felt that, then the appropriate feeling should be loss - not this apparently militant "I will take you to a psychologist" attitude - because you're seriously missing out.

Intrusive DRM: This term implies that there's such a thing as Non intrusive DRM. There isn't. Also, DRM is the direct result of rampant piracy. We wouldn't have this problem if people didn't keep stealing shit.

Yes, DRM is a response to piracy.

But the "Intrusive" part of that terms comes from game publishers punishing paying customers, and ironically not punishing those who download a cracked version, most of the time.

It's like if your local video game store had a guard at the door who searched your pockets every time you left, regardless of whether or not you're even remotely suspicious. But more often than not, the guard is blind enough to let the real thieves get away, while he's busy searching innocent peoples' pockets.

You wouldn't accept that from a store, would you? Even if other people had been "stealing shit"? Because it's not your fault. And because they're not actually hurting the people they intend. Well, that's how we feel.

OT:

"Addicting": It's not a word. But that doesn't seem to stop people from repeating it in place of "addictive".

"Real fan": Often used to say "You're not a REAL fan of game X unless you buy ALL of it's sequels!" Ridiculously divisive reasoning, which is punishing the video game industry as a whole, because people continue to support bad games just because they're part of the same series.

And it's not a word, but;

"It's just a game."

That's my chief hate. When I get told I shouldn't care about a game, just because it's a game. Usually by people who care about movies, or music, or other forms of art. Games these days tell stories as good as any you'd find in a movie or a book, and they should not be so lightly cast aside.

 

[shrekfan246]

DumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddownDumbeddown

Christ I hate that phrase. It gets thrown around with such frequency that it's lost all real meaning now, because most people use it synonymously with 'streamlined' as if the two things are one in the same.

your post is a bit dumbed down

I mean its barley even a paragraph...and where are the foonotes? the citations? titles letter heads

gah...posts thease days

Egads, how could I make such a mistake.

[HEADING=2]Dumbing Down - A Dissertation By Shrekfan246:[/HEADING]

Endemic to the culture of gaming is the simplification of elements present within the interactive entertainment. It can be seen in many different locations; Titles published by a singular entity, focused tighter into specific series of games, or sometimes in completely unrelated circumstances. This simplification is colloquially referred to as 'dumbing down'.[footnote]e.g. The removal or streamlining of complex elements so as to make a game more accessible to the layman.[/footnote]

'Dumbing down' is commonly spoken with negative connotations. It denotes a broadening of the target demographic, demonstrating a less focused experience for the dedicated consumer which leaves them feeling disappointed and disgruntled. Despite this, many accusations of 'dumbing down' seem to be rather far off-base in reality, and more typically describe a situation in which something has changed not in accordance to the person's liking.

I'd continue, but it's late and I should probably be asleep instead of posting on The Escapist.

 

[Vault101]

snipt.

now THATS more like it

 

[Gunner 51]

Ugh, you've all got my day started on a note of irritation. I'm now going to have to share (OK, purge) it with you.

Entitled: Usually bandied around by corporate apologists when someone has the rightous temerity to ask for their money's worth when they pay for something. Not only is their original arguement invalid because most countries have some form of law (woefully under-enforced) prohibiting companies from ripping folks off - but they used the word entitled when they mean to say 'spoilt.'

Epic: Dante's Inferno, The Illiyad, Holy Books were epics. These are stories that were not only magnificently large in their in-story scopes but they have also stood the test of time and still capture hearts and the imaginations of people hundreds of years into the future. Winning a round of Call of Duty is not epic in any way, shape or form - epic. (I'm glowering at you Jessica "for the epic win" Chobot....)

I'd better leave my post and take a shower to cool my ravaged nerves.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

...making the game easier to cater to the lowest common denominator, impossible to die, etc - like in say, Prince of Persia 2008...

Hang on a sec, how was the checkpoint system in PoP 2008 "dumbed down"?

You screw up a jumping sequence and fall off, the game returns you to the start. You screw up a fight and lose of your health, the fight resets.

In other words, exactly the same as in every other game with checkpoints. The only difference being that the animations following your screw-ups were of Whatshername saving your arse rather than of you dying.

See, this is why the whole "dumbed down" thing pisses me off.

It was nothing like any other game, let alone the same as all of them. I would leave the game unpaused while I would be occupied elsewhere, and returned to the console to find the cycle of hit, whatsherface grabbing the hand, repeating ad infinitum. A game that can't be lost, and it wasn't an EA game! Never went back to it. Boring, poorly thought out, terribly voiced cash grab.

Dumbed down is a thing whether you like it or not. You can see the difference markedly between DAO: and ME and their respective sequels, being as they were straddling the EA buyout; EA, the most vilified publisher for whom dumb down is a mantra. American teenage boys are the reason the rest of us have to put up with every game harping on about Marines, staying frosty, checking sixes, LZs, and be comprised of QTE laden set pieces instead of actual game. The morons who play Halo on Live! are the reason we have regenning health in everything, multiplayer in everything. And EA are the reason why every game plays precisely the same, distilled down to bland, generic shooter with half-arsed throwaway plots.

 

[AVeryClassyCat]

"OP" is waaaaaaay overused. Everything that has ever killed you is OP. Every time someone gets to the top of the boards is not because of skill, they're just abusing an OP strat, build, whatever.

 

[porous_shield]

Melee, generally refers to disorganized close combat involving a group of fighters. A melee ensues when groups become locked together in combat with no regard to group tactics or fighting as an organized group.

The "close combat" refered to above doesn't refer to hand-to-hand. Ships used to engage in melee using cannons. Melee weapon =/= hand-to-hand weapon. A siper rifle or a cannon can be a melee weapon (and I'm not talking about beating someone with them) the same as a sword or axe can be a melee weapon.

 

[xplosive59]

I don't really have problems with game speak other the obvious (troll, camper, artificial difficulty etc) but I strongly dislike memes and text speak like LOL and ROFLMAO, not really a video game problem but I felt like vomiting when somebody posted this on Facebook:

 

[aguspal]

I don't really have problems with game speak other the obvious (troll, camper, artificial difficulty etc) but I strongly dislike memes and text speak like LOL and ROFLMAO, not really a video game problem but I felt like vomiting when somebody posted this on Facebook:

< Is scared of this video, what it is exactly?

It is something really gruesome or just gory? I can stand gory all the way, but gruesome is usually stronger for me. But its a challenge and I like em.


EDIT: Nevermind I just ended up whatching it as excepted...


I dont get it. Meh.

 

[Voxgizer]

I think I'm starting to hate the word "nerf". Basically means reduce some aspect of something to make it less powerful.

This mainly stems from me spending so much time looking at the Bioware forums for ME3 multiplayer. Every time a new DLC hits a thousand and one "nerf threads" pop up complaining about this or that (go ahead and check there now, going to be a lot of nerf threads in the first few pages). It's gotten to the point where I basically eye roll every time I see the word in a thread title.

Right there with you, for the exact same reason. It's like the BSN can't handle people having FUN.