bullet_sandw1ch said:
this topic is confronting the fact that gamers are now divided. on one half, the multi player crowd loves COD/Battlefield, OMG SKYRIM SUKS!!!!!.
on the other side, the pretentious bastard pc/single player group who believes anything that is not skyrim sucks, or believes that pc games are instantly better, and hate on ps3/xbox games.
what do you guys/girls think?
The divide is more along the lines of casual gamers vs. serious gamers. Platform has less to do with it than you think. The FPS crowd gets so much flak because they consider themselves hardcore due to "all the violence and blood" when really your dealing with something generally equivilent to "Farmville" just aimed at a differant audience. A point illustrated in arguements by the simple fact that an 11 year old moron can figure out how to play one of those games and do fairly well at it, with the experience being simple enough for them to seek it out despite the rating... it has a very low "mental age level" as opposed to other games which repel people like that due to being too intellecual and "boring" because they don't want to have to say think or *gasp* read. This is not to say that serious gamers do not play FPS games or things like "Farmville" as well, it's more about your predominant choice and how seriously you take them. A serious gamer considers something like "Call Of Duty" a form of intellectual slumming, entertaining, but hardly meaningful or worthy of much thought or effort, and thus detests those who think that is anything more.
The PC Vs. Console divide largely exists because consoles are designed to largely deliver casual games in an easy to understand and control format, so any mouth breather can be a gamer. While there are deep experiences on consoles, the development of there being one in every home has lead to an increased focus on low-end entertainment for the masses delivered through that platform.
Things have become so heated (as you can see in my post) because while in theory the industry is big enough to make games for every taste, that isn't what we generally see. The industry has become corperate enough where it sees the huge numbers of casual gamers on their approchable consoles, and that is who it wants to cater to because they can move more units to a less demanding audience and make more money. This means serious game development, which is profitable, but not AS profitable winds up being neglected.
Skyrim has mixed responses actually, it appeals to the serious crowd because it's actually one of the more "serious" games developed recently in a general drought of titles. You'll find that serious gamers are quick to judge it based on how it's been dumbed down to be more appealing to casuals (far less options, skills, etc...) and how the primary focus seems to have been on developing it for consoles with a control scheme your typical FPS player could figure out... which has lead to interface issues on the PC platform, as the interface (even invoving control wheels and such) fairly clearly shows it's console origins and focus as a number of people have pointed out.
Rather than an arguement, I'm just explaining things, even if I'm taking the opposite tone from you. Honestly despite my irritation I'd love to embrace a degree of gaming solidarity, but for that to happen game developers need to shift away from the "mountains of money" casual development and produce a lot more games for serious gamers despite the more modest (though still substantial) profits. When you see as many serious games like really in depth and complex RPGs coming out as you do shooters, facebook games, and mindless time waster apps, there will be peace. Sadly I don't think that will happen any time soon because very few publishers (and devs) can resist the temptation of watching the chaos and conflict from a thrown atop a giant pile of money while nomming on the most greasy drumstick they can find.