Is gaming dead for you?

[Naeras]

What is going on with the current generation of video games? Sure, industries such as Sony and Microsoft have had their blunders in the past, but things seemed to have just spiraled out of control.

Every argument I hear now is about violence, sexism, and other forms of brutality, and while these arguments have always existed it does not excuse the current growth in the past couple of years. Take for example the reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise. Now, I've never really been a fan of the series but I do find the current comments about it to be incredibly irritating. First the games were too sexist. She was always the busty brunette treasure hunter with guns poised for combat. Now they're saying she's a victim, a shell of her former self and a punching bag for men. I've asked a few women on the subject of old image versus new, and a great deal of them didn't know what I was talking about, and the few that did either cared less or thought it was a sexist image.

The reason people complain nowadays is because gaming is evolving and people actually care and want more from their games than "big tits shoot terrorist power fantasy gunwank YEAAAAH". This is a good thing. Trying to do that 10 years ago wasn't as much of a problem, but it is now, because consumers demand better products. These aren't "blunders" as much as it is gaming growing up.
And while some people don't, well, of course not everybody care.

I was in the category of "I could care less," and you know why? Because it's a VIDEO GAME!!! You play them for entertainment and nothing more.

Just like I'd watch a movie for entertainment, or read a book. However, I'd still rather read 1984 than Twilight, and I'd rather watch Inception than Transformers: Revenge of Michael Bay gunwank on teh moonz0rz AMERICA FUCK YEAH. Why? Because they're thought-provoking and interesting works with a lot of thought put into them, while still being functional in what unique features their medium provides. It's for the same reasons I'd rather play Spec Ops: The Line than Kane and Lynch.

But it's not only that. Games are being released in less that satisfactory condition. A lot of them are in poor quality, have tons of bugs and glitches, and this is quickly becoming the norm.

Things aren't worse now than they were before, sorry. Also, thank god for patches.

Ugh, and don't even get me started on storyline and multiplayer.

Video games overall have better writing now than ever before, and they often integrate it far better with mechanics than it did ten years ago.
There are good multiplayer games around as well, although I'm not gonna name CoD and its knock-offs as one of those.

So I have to ask. Has gaming died for you or what?

Not really. There's still a lot of trash around, but overall games are evolving for the better, and I can't wait to see how it's going to go in the future.

 

[Lt._nefarious]

I think gaming is... Well not better so much as changing... Sure violence has become somewhat more graphic in the mainstream and dark and edgy (or grey and boring depending on how you view it) is in and colourful and camp (or dizzying and stupid) is less seen but in a way these changes are for the best and... Ugh, I really don't have the right words... It's not dead it's just different and whether that is good or bad is up to your personal tastes, It's definitely not "dead" though.

As for Tomb Raider always having been sexist I beg to differ because Tomb Raider taught that it doesn't matter what gender you are because with enough exercise and practice we can all kick ass and look good doing it...

 

[Gennadios]

Not gaming, but AAA gaming definitely. My last few game "purchases" were Kicksterters and GOG stuff from the 90's, don't see myself being particularly interested in AAA gaming for quite a while.

 

[DanielBrown]

Nope. I distance a bit from it though since I have to focus on real life, so I don't really buy new games at the moment.

However, I give in to temptation a bit too often still.

 

[Lt._nefarious]

I think gaming is... Well not better so much as changing... Sure violence has become somewhat more graphic in the mainstream and dark and edgy (or grey and boring depending on how you view it) is in and colourful and camp (or dizzying and stupid) is less seen but in a way these changes are for the best and... Ugh, I really don't have the right words... It's not dead it's just different and whether that is good or bad is up to your personal tastes, It's definitely not "dead" though.

As for Tomb Raider always having been sexist I beg to differ because Tomb Raider taught that it doesn't matter what gender you are because with enough exercise and practice we can all kick ass and look good doing it...

 

[Canadamus Prime]

No, I wouldn't say it's dead; but it sure isn't what it used to be. And no it has not changed for the better.

 

[natster43]

Not dead. It at worst is just stagnating due to a lack of risk taking in formulas as of late.

 

[Joby Baumann]

Nope, I've simply come to realize how stupid people are.

 

[TheProfessor234]

I could care less about main stream gaming and what's popular. I really hope we can move away from shooters but in the end, they bring lots of people into gaming as whole, even iOS games as well, and that only adds to the gaming community. People may hate, "fratboys," and, "casuals," but they still keep the industry alive.

Of course, I might end up eating my words if we get Angry Birds 15: The Reckoning and Battlefield: Eternity.


Sidenote;
As someone else has said, Kickstarter is a very interesting area in the gaming industry right now. If the few large titles that are coming out are successful and keep promises, then I can see that turning into a thing, more than it already is.

Letting companies go around the publisher and strait to the consumer is a great idea but in this early stage it can still fall flat on its face.

 

[Unsilenced]

While there are undeniably great games in the past, I think people really, really tend to underestimate how much utter shit there was. Same goes for movies.

You can probably list a dozen or so movies coming out this year, and most of them will be mediocre, but if I gave you an earlier year, you'd only be able to tell me the biggest box office smash hits of that year. Why? Because we forget shit. You have any idea how many movies have been made of the Titanic? Me neither, but holy fuck is it a lot. Even the Nazis made one. But you only remember one, right?

Can you name any films from 1912? Probably not, but there were an asston of them. They just weren't great, so we forgot them. Most stuff of that period was, in fact, mindless fucking tripe.

Now tell me all the movies you can think of from 2012.

You think anyone will give a fuck about most or even any of them in 2112?

Fuck no. They'll just remember one or two from the entire decade that were considered the best of the best, and they'll look back at right now as the golden age of film making and they'll moan and wail about how companies are so caught up in 5d that they can't make good films like they used to and how commercialization has ruined film in the 22nd century and oh god why couldn't things be like they used to back in good old 2012.


Going back to games... Good god, I hope you realize what utter shit many old games were. The gaming industry nearly choked and died from it. ET became famous for being shit, but there was plenty of shit that was shitty enough to be shit but didn't achieve legendary shit status. Seriously.

There was a lot of shit.

There were also a lot of games that were just O.K. Games that were decently playable but not memorable. Most games are, were, and will always be just mediocre. We don't remember those either.

We look at the past and see only the shining paragons of gaming. The games that withstood the test of time and became classics. We don't remember the release bugs, or the controversies that happened over a decade ago. We just don't care.

I'm pretty young, I'll admit, but for as long as I've been able to track, the entertainment industry has been "failing." Constantly. It never fails, just stays failing. Next years films and games will be always be horrible. Any good ones last year were the last of their kind. We believe this year after year, on and on, apparently to the end of time.

If the sky is falling, it's been doing it very slowly.

I don't think we should be worried.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Well I'm currently in a gaming forum, meaning I care enough about games to make stupid post on the internet about it so... no. If you're so bothered, then stop playing games and stop visiting this forum. It's just a hobby and one that people here are interested. You can find a new hobby.

 

[[REDACTED]]

Well, my xbox library consists of Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim, Minecraft and Portal.
So... NO. Good games are being made in the present, and good games were made in the past. The only difference is that they're prettier now.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Hell no.
For me, gaming is the best it's been. So many good games are being released, and stuff like Steam makes finding and playing new games really easy and convenient.
I hate when people nostalgia it up and say how gaming was better in "the old days" because there was still a fair amount of shit back then, we just remember the good stuff.

This fine person speaks truth. Stop all the gloom and doom, there are tons of good games being released, and great new IPs coming out every year. For me personally, there are very few games over 10 years old that I can still enjoy. Gaming really wasn't better in those days.

Sexism? *shrugs* Bugs and glitches? There were just as many (if not, more) glitches in those days. And in the time of cartridges and before internet, there was nothing you could do about it. I'm happy stuff can actually be patched or modded these days.

"I could care less,"

*cringe*

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Gaming is worse now than it was before because more suits have moved into positions of power throughout the industry - and that is always an objectively bad thing for any creative industry. This generation has given us an endless loop of military fpsers, gears clones, yearly rehashes, tacked on multiplayer, on-disc DLC, buggy/broken premature releases - all because a board room full of non-gamers decided these were the best ways to separate us from our money.

There are obviously bright spots. Valve, Bethesda, some of the medium-size console devs. But for the most part, the big corporate maws have been swallowing up the best studios and spitting out the same boring, soulless garbage for years. They're sucking every last morsel off the bones of AAA gaming before the inevitable collapse, and then they'll move on to some other burgeoning industry to siphon off whatever they can with the same unsustainable ideas.

 

[lord.jeff]

Gaming isn't dead and your orginal post shows it, we wouldn't be having this new focus on violence and sexism without the increasing fanbase bring new prespective, also every medium has stages like this at some point remeber things like the comic book code and tv never having a king bed.

 

[DioWallachia]

Not dying but removing the Cancer know as EA and Activision may help the patient to look a lot better.

But if you really look around you may find that there is plenty of games that not necessarily will die as soon the mainstream AAA dies.

 

[Olas]

For a site that pretty much revolves around gaming this seems like a weird thread. No gaming is not dead for me, otherwise I wouldn't be here. If new games stopped coming out, period, I still wouldn't say gaming is dead for me. I replay games I like all the time and there are still thousands of games out there I've never played or tried before.
Way to not be negatively dramatic escapists.

 

[Kyber]

Not for me, i love gaming, in my opinion better than ever, and i think they'll be even better in the future