Are gamers getting stupider?

[Worgen]

Fucken seriously are they? Cause with e3 it seems like some really dumbass people have wormed their way out of the woodwork.

We have people pledging to buy the last night, not because it looks good, but because it will make Zoe Quinn mad.

We have people complaining about killing nazies in the new wolfenstein.

We have people bitching about Life is Strange for existing and apparently being the dreaded sjw.

What the fuck. I thought we got past all this retarded bullshit?

EDIT: relevant

 

[Thaluikhain]

Surely that's not a gamer thing, it's a society thing? People are getting more pro-Nazi than even a few years ago, not just gamers.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Heh, haven't heard about The Last Night and Zoe Quinn. Ahhh, Zoe Quinn... memories.

To answer, no, I don't think so. At least, it's not just gamers. The whole world has seen some crazy shit happen lately.

 

[Redryhno]

I'd say less stupid and more...wary. Overly so in some cases.

But I will say that The Last Night looks like a decent game, if nothing else it'll be pretty. And they aren't buying it because Quinn, they're buying it because some shitheads stuck their shitty heads into the past and decided to go play their own version of "WSJ vs. Pewdiepie". It's the same tactics, the same bullshit. And as usual, people that they called friend threw them under the fucking bus because instead of taking those tweets as 3-year old tweets, those people with the fecal-covered heads decided "I haven't keyboard warrior'd my way into Nazi Bashing Stardom yet, here's my chance!".

Also I've seen alot more people orgasming at the mere thought of shooting supremacists than I have with people having reservations(Far Cry 5 box art people? I know more than a handful of people in this community immediately went off the deep end of excitement off that damn thing alone, you know exactly who you are)...Most comments I've seen have just been about Nazis being about the lowest hanging fruit you can pluck off the "You can maim and torture me without reservation or conscience" tree. The Wolfenstein franchise name isn't really the discussion I've been seeing.

Also, no. We will never get past this retarded bullshit, not until whatever olive branches are extended don't end up being beatsticks. Not until people can stop immediately jumping to Nazi conclusions simply because they say something tame like "Trump's not doing much that can't be reversed". Not until game narratives can stop being hijacked by ego-masturbators(either by the writers or by the audience). Not until every minority character that gets introduced stops being introduced as the minority character and somehow depicted as immediately more capable, whether it be physically, emotionally, morally, or mcguffin-y, than the not-so-minority characters.

We will not get past this retarded bullshit unless people start respecting one another as people again. Not until we stop dropping each other in boxes based purely on a handful of political beliefs. And that's not going to happen anytime soon if this site is any indication.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Hmmm, I'm torn. On the one hand, I want to say "Nope" because anyone looking at a tenth of the comments on some popular gaming thang going back to 2000 will have been saying "Oh Jesus Christ, we as a collective are fucked", and not only have we as gamers somehow managed not to boost the world's population of Satanic, drug-smoking, life wasting, school-shooting, misogynistic, white supremacist rapists single-handedly, gaming has come up with some snazzy stuff over the years that belies mass stupidity (subversive anti-militarist shooters, post-modernist deconstructions of gaming conventions, increasingly mature stories when you're up for that, more realistic jiggle physics when you're not....).

But on the other, I want to say "Yep" because ever since the imaginary battle lines were drawn between self-proclaimed redeemers/defenders of gaming culture, there does seem to have been an upsurge in ideologically motivated dipshits shrieking at one another and the world in general over every perceived slight to their sensibilities. Of course, that might just be the *appearance* of things, because anyone and their dog can jump onto the internet and make a blog about how horrendously problematic, or hideously feminising everything is; I suspect in terms of actual numbers "People who yell on the internet" are vastly inferior to "People who just play the game".

 

[Hawki]

Honestly, it seems less that "gamers" are stupid, and more that stupid people in general just exist.

 

[pookie101]

i dont think they are stupid.. . more angry, more likely to define themselves by what group they belong to and more likely to see anyone outside their little tribe as the enemy. its not just gamers, its everyone at the moment

guy makes asshat responses in 2014 on twitter, few years later he no longer apparently believes those things. people grow and if its true and not merely because hes got a game coming out then i applaud him for for exactly that.. growing as a person

 

[stroopwafel]

I think internet echo chambers created this climate of people having long toes and short fuses, and this climate somewhat metastasized to wider society as regular media tries to extrapolate internet hate mongering and political correctness to compensate for their increasing irrelevance. As a result both the media and society have become very polarized.

I remember the late '80s and '90s as being way more relaxed. I feel somewhat sorry for adolescents growing up in this period. Espescially social media has done people no good. Statistics for mental illness are higher than ever. Our brains simply aren't designed to be 'connected' all the time and I think people collapse under the overload of information and grief of comparing themselves unfavorably to others and as such need an outlet to vent their frustration ie. implode on the internet behind surrogate issues.

 

[pookie101]

I think internet echo chambers created this climate of people having long toes and short fuses, and this climate somewhat metastasized to wider society as regular media tries to extrapolate internet hate mongering and political correctness to compensate for their increasing irrelevance. As a result both the media and society have become very polarized.

I remember the late '80s and '90s as being way more relaxed. I feel somewhat sorry for adolescents growing up in this period. Espescially social media has done people no good. Statistics for mental illness are higher than ever. Our brains simply aren't designed to be 'connected' all the time and I think people collapse under the overload of information and grief of comparing themselves unfavorably to others and as such need an outlet to vent their frustration ie. implode on the internet behind surrogate issues.

oh i totally agree with you.. yeah the 80's and 90's had issues but yeah it was definitely more relaxed

shakes fist.. damn you internet and social media!

 

[Leg End]

Fucken seriously are they? Cause with e3 it seems like some really dumbass people have wormed their way out of the woodwork.

That happens every year.

We have people pledging to buy the last night, not because it looks good, but because it will make Zoe Quinn mad.

That's their money. Still a good game too.

We have people complaining about killing nazies in the new wolfenstein.

Actual idiots.

We have people bitching about Life is Strange for existing and apparently being the dreaded sjw.

That's been a thing since the first game, though some of the game kind of sets itself up for it, mostly with the secondary main.

What the fuck. I thought we got past all this retarded bullshit?

We never did and probably never will.

Honestly, it seems less that "gamers" are stupid, and more that stupid people in general just exist.

This to a T. Gaming is mainstream so expect mainstream idiots.

*snip*

Congrats on going blue!

 

[stroopwafel]

oh i totally agree with you.. yeah the 80's and 90's had issues but yeah it was definitely more relaxed

shakes fist.. damn you internet and social media!

Yeah, though I'm not really against social media per se but I think similarly as fastfood and drinking every day is bad for your physcial health so too is social media bad for your mental health when not taken in moderation. Nowadays people seem to be buried in their smartphone 24/7.

 

[loa]

That's not gamers, that's outrage culture.

 

[Kyrian007]

No, its everyone in general not just gamers. I think the oversaturation of media and technology right at everyone's fingertips seems to be having the effect that people don't think learning is important, because everything can be looked up in seconds.

I'm a journalist at a local news outlet. Old school journalism; who, what, when, where, and why. Don't tell the listener/reader/viewer what to think, tell them what happened and let them think for themselves. And the reason that is a dying breed of journalism... people want to be told what to think. It's just another labor saving advancement. We do a story about the effects of bill "a" in the state legislature. We get an expert to comment on what effects the bill will have. Listeners fall into 2 groups. Group A is the party supporting the bill, group B is the opposing party. If the expert says the bill will have beneficial outcomes, group B says we're a shill, a tool of the party supported by group A. If the expert says the bill will have negative consequences, then group A says we are being unfairly negative and are showing a bias.

Again, in this example (which happens very often) WE (the news outlet) aren't saying anything but what the bill is and what someone else is saying about it. But according to a majority of people... WE are wrong. Evil. Fake News. "The Media." And its because a majority of people... are fucking stupid. And they diss "the media" because there exists in this day and age an "alternative" type of media. Sources they trust... because they are sources saying things that fucking stupid people WANT to hear.

And it doesn't matter what bias someone wants, it exists out there somewhere. Whether it's more mainstream like FOX or MSNBC or its more out there and fringe and stupid like Breitbart or InfoWars, or totally bonkers like tinfoil hatter conspiracy nonsense... someone out there wants to make money off of morons. And these "news" outlets wouldn't exist and thrive like they do if there weren't morons giving them a voice. Raising their consumer numbers and getting those ads sold.

Basically, "fake news" isn't the fault of journalists. Its the fault of media consumers who frankly, are so stupid all they want is fake news. As long as its fake news they agree with.

And that's a tangent, but it has gotten systematically worse over the last couple of decades I have been observing it. So, people in general are just getting dumber, not just gamers.

 

[wizzy555]

Oh I thought this was going to be about the dumbing down and casualisation of games to appeal to the widest market.

I would also point out a new trend, competitive games seems to be either going down or downplaying the competitiveness since gamers can't stand losing now it seems.

Basically, "fake news" isn't the fault of journalists. Its the fault of media consumers who frankly, are so stupid all they want is fake news. As long as its fake news they agree with.

No it's the click ad revenue model. It doesn't matter if you believe the news as long as you clicked on it to see what it was on about.

 

[Elijin]

I see the new mods have no sense of humour or awareness.

 

[Guffe]

I actually think gamers are getting smarterer. Society is getting stupiderer.
Why the dumbfucks who want attention decide to do it in gaming conventions etc is because, gaming as a whole attracts a lot of attention, especially when you do something negative related to gaming, so they get more attention this way. All publicity is publicity.
This is what I think, they are just using our favored medium.

 

[maninahat]

No, its everyone in general not just gamers. I think the oversaturation of media and technology right at everyone's fingertips seems to be having the effect that people don't think learning is important, because everything can be looked up in seconds.

I'm a journalist at a local news outlet. Old school journalism; who, what, when, where, and why. Don't tell the listener/reader/viewer what to think, tell them what happened and let them think for themselves. And the reason that is a dying breed of journalism... people want to be told what to think. It's just another labor saving advancement. We do a story about the effects of bill "a" in the state legislature. We get an expert to comment on what effects the bill will have. Listeners fall into 2 groups. Group A is the party supporting the bill, group B is the opposing party. If the expert says the bill will have beneficial outcomes, group B says we're a shill, a tool of the party supported by group A. If the expert says the bill will have negative consequences, then group A says we are being unfairly negative and are showing a bias.

Again, in this example (which happens very often) WE (the news outlet) aren't saying anything but what the bill is and what someone else is saying about it. But according to a majority of people... WE are wrong. Evil. Fake News. "The Media." And its because a majority of people... are fucking stupid. And they diss "the media" because there exists in this day and age an "alternative" type of media. Sources they trust... because they are sources saying things that fucking stupid people WANT to hear.

And it doesn't matter what bias someone wants, it exists out there somewhere. Whether it's more mainstream like FOX or MSNBC or its more out there and fringe and stupid like Breitbart or InfoWars, or totally bonkers like tinfoil hatter conspiracy nonsense... someone out there wants to make money off of morons. And these "news" outlets wouldn't exist and thrive like they do if there weren't morons giving them a voice. Raising their consumer numbers and getting those ads sold.

Basically, "fake news" isn't the fault of journalists. Its the fault of media consumers who frankly, are so stupid all they want is fake news. As long as its fake news they agree with.

And that's a tangent, but it has gotten systematically worse over the last couple of decades I have been observing it. So, people in general are just getting dumber, not just gamers.

I agree that the audience will always accuse even the most neutral and balanced paper with bias (the BBC is either communist propaganda or the right's secret weapon, depending on who's commenting), however I worked in a local newspaper for a short while, and can't pretend that traditional journalism is blameless. Even when print journalists aren't explicitly telling people what to think, the choice of story and how to describe it is going to provide implications for the readers. It sells more papers to describe the most sensational situations, it sells even more if that situation appeals to the emotions of a core readership. It's why we end up with so many photos of old people, looking angry. [https://apiln.co.uk//]

The problem with Breitbart or Infowars is that, unlike print journalism, it has low enough overheads to afford targeting a very specific demographic and mentality (very angry bigots). Traditional journalism might have biases and agendas, but they still have to be written to a standard, whilst being politically muted enough to appeal to a larger audience.

OT: Also, I didn't know that about The Last Night. It's a shame, it looked quite good, but a story about an "evil feminist, progressive corporate government" is going to let it down. Let's hope the dev's tweets aren't an accurate reflection of the final product.

 

[stroopwafel]

Hitler even looks like a 1940s emo.

This made me lol. Though I think we're talking more about the Zeitgeist here which is more untangible than historic events or incidents. In absolute terms ofcourse people are better off today with higher standards of living, better healthcare and more people being educated. But at the same time society has become this pressure cooker thanks to advancing technologies that instead of connecting people seem to only divide them further. Obviously this isn't the fault of technology but rather fits in an existing trend of increasing alienation and rapidly eroding social cohesion. Everyone withdraws on their own little island with more and more people falling through the cracks thanks to 'performance culture' that diminishes any compassion. Loneliness and mental health issues are also worse than ever which is the opposite of what you would expect with improved circumstances and unlimited technological means for people to connect. Demagogues also capitalize on this which is where I think the real danger begins.

 

[09philj]

People have always been stupid. It's just that now they don't know that.