Is it me or it getting harder to not look at games/gaming in a negative light?

[Vegosiux]

Well, these days, a game is either broken, bad, or racist. Or maybe it's a "bug-free, good, politically correct; pick two" thing.

There's a lot of cynicism around these days, and as a cynic, I must say I don't actually mind...

 

[Myrodin]

To me games have ended up being an element full beyond measure of untapped potential, that has the capacity to explore ourselves as community and individual as we consider our capacities and the reasoning behind our choices. It has gone untapped due to eyes that cannot penetrate beyond the shallow, faiths that don't question the worth of a closer look, and imaginations more interested in recreating things passed than entrepreneurship. Games are preyed upon by the greedy, and admired by the misguided whom have stronger foci on being part of what they see as great than what they can bring in benefit. Games are important to them, otherwise they wouldn't war over it, but much is lost from the downgrade to written miscommunication, and so we fight with further emphasis on our disinterest to improve, and rather on the vehement lust to be right.

The last part has nothing to do with gamer culture, and not even internet culture. People talk shit when they think they can get away it, so they do it behind peoples backs just as much as behind their screens. Both you and them just spend more time on the internet where you tend to walk in on the gossip and mudslinging.

It depresses me, so time to bust a nut and hit the hay.

 

[Alarien]

Generally I am a very positive person; try to find the good in everyone and everything. I really try to live by the adage; "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." That said, games and gaming have really pushed me past the point of being positive and seeing positives to the point where I notice all the flaws and negatives of a game or gaming and will be more willing to talk about those rather than the positives.

Personally, after all the shenanigans of EA, Ubisoft and Activision, DRM, overhyped games, day one DLC and clone after clone of popular games I can honestly say I've become very cynical about games. This is amplified by watching mediocre games, like CoD, set sales records year after year. There have been some stand out games that have restored some hope in the industry such as BioShock; Infinite and Forza 5 and AC4BF (somewhat) but, for every outstanding game there are literally 20-30 overhyped, not worth the disc they are printed on, games. My question to you fellow Escapists is how many of you have started to experience this?

It's very hard to have a lot of hope in an industry that keeps pushing out broken games at launch, such as BF4 and SimCity. Or the always online insanity of Diablo 3 to the way games journalism has gone ga-ga for Titanfall, completely ignoring any faults the game might have. Seriously if you've followed that game at all it's been billed as pretty much the second coming of Christ. Things like this make it even harder to look at modern gaming in a positive light. Next question is what can we, as gamers and fans of games, do to stay positive about our hobby, in the face of an industry that views us, increasingly, as just wallets?

Honestly, and I hope this isn't an insult:

"Welcome to getting older."

Variations of the same crap (and it is awful crap) have been around for as long as gaming. You just happen to have a lot more interest and exposure as you get older. You note the negative more than you simply enjoyed the positive when you were younger. So, now, you see what has been there the whole time.

The names, faces and circumstances change, but it's always been about one thing: a quick buck.

In the '80's we had the Atari glut, which ruined gaming for several years. It was... awful. I remember staring at Atari cartridges in a KayBee toys, by the hundreds, and not sure if a single one of them wasn't another ET.

At the end of the '80s and early '90's, we had the console glut. 3D0, Atari Jaguar 64, Sega's CD and 32X, some others that I'm sure I've purposefully forgotten. The PS1 brought us another glut of horrifically developed crap games, we just tend to "forget" that, because there was a good number higher profile good ones.

Hell, the issue has plagued the PC for 20 years. Unfinished games that require patches. Games that have significant hardware conflicts that were almost undiagnosable. Let's not even talk about the 3dfx era of PC gaming.

Yeah, so, not to be condescending at all, but it's mostly just more obvious now... to you. It's always been there, though.

 

[ZorroFonzarelli]

It is not just you, but I'm probably a bad example. I'm in my 30's and buy very few games, but play the ones I do pick up for years. As I get older, I'm not finding more hobbies that interest me, but the games coming out frankly just don't.

Even the franchises I do love are stagnating or making bad decisions (I see no reason for Elder Scrolls Online - yet another fantasy MMO - when they have something unique in Single-Player), etc.

Honestly, I'm on the fence about where I'm going to go as far as systems, and the answer seems more and more back to PC because I'll have one around anyway.

If you are looking for some encouragement, though, the Game Industry is like all others. Sure, when the big names (Bioware, Blizzard) start going down the tubes due to corporate BS and greed, the dawn breaks upon companies like CDProjekt, etc) that look to carry the torch of innovation.

Innovation is what ultimately drives the bus here, but catering to the innovations the market (ie: the customer) selects. Gamers seek alternatives, and if Microsoft or Sony start screwing customers over, that creates a new market for a company like Apple to put forth their own game product.

It's like the Circle of Life without the song. Capitalism - it's on your side!

 

[EHKOS]

Yeah, I've gotten pretty cynical about games too. Living in the past now, I don't think I'll ever get a PS4. Maybe a Wii U if there are enough exclusives, some kind of Majora thing and a Metroid game would be nice. Plus Tropical Freeze. But I have yet to find a game I care about on either the PS4 or Xbone.

 

[scorptatious]

Just so we are clear the problems have always been there the only thing that has changed for most of us is that we more informed and now we can see the bullshit and due to internet we are also informed of even more bullshit.

It's the same as always, either you go with ignorance is bliss or look for the diamonds in the rough.
What you absolutely not do is wallow in grief while still playing shit, there is plenty of choice out there even when you avoid all the major cesspools.

Pretty much this. Thanks to the internet, I can make more informed choices when I decide what kind of games I want to purchase. Sure, the ugly side of gaming is a lot easier to see now, but I feel the positives outweigh the negatives.

I think it's a case of "They are negative, it's taking me off my buzz".

Example, I always get the horrible feeling at the back of my head that whenever I'm playing Black Ops II that right now I'm being stereotyped and associated with the worst of the worst. I have fun when I play it, but once I stop I can't shake that feeling. Technically I've been called a "neckbeard" for the crime of buying a game I genuinely like and bought based on the thought that it would be good (well, above average for mediocre games of it's time).

I really liked Dead Rising 3, but the fact that there is an Xbox One in my house because of it practically condemns me to a public burning.

Oh hey, glad I'm not the only one who gets this feeling when playing certain kinds of games.

I personally don't plan on buying the Xbox One, but I have no problems with the people who purchase it.

I've pretty much given up mainstream western gaming. It's honestly not going anyone, if not backwards. I only really play indie games.

If I could have 40 COD clones or just have Skullgirls back on Xbox Live/PSN (I outright refuse to play a fighting game on a keyboard. Not for me) guess which I'd pick, or anyone who wasn't obsessed with 1st person shooters.

Skullgirls has been re-released as "Skullgirls: Encore" on the consoles just recently.

 

[Dandark]

Yeah it is really easy to become cynical in any industry but especially the games industry. However i'd recommend trying to ignore all of the shit that makes you want to stop gaming like anything that EA does and try to find a few games you like from decent developers and play them.

I don't know if you only use consoles or not but PC is a great place for gaming right now with all kinds of great games coming out for decent prices. The AAA industry is in an awful state but other parts of the gaming industry are still good so don't worry too much about it. Just buy games you enjoy and ignore those you either don't enjoy or have bullshit you can't abide(For me this is nearly every EA game).

 

[electric method]

Thanks for all the responses. Absolutely not quoting otherwise I'd have the Everest wall 'o text to follow.

Some things I didn't mention in other parts of this post; I actually lived through the gaming crash of the 80's and played the truly terrible E.T. game. Of course when your 8 to 10 years old the chance to play any game is cool. Quality is not something you are terribly fussed about. I am sure my parents took exception to paying a lot of money for what has amounted to one of the worst games ever. Of course I have some rather fond memories of games like Gorf, Pitfall, Space Invaders, Pacman and Oregon Trail. Unlike some, I'd rather not go back to that era of gaming as the ability to tell stories and build worlds was, shall we say, limited at best in those days.

As I have gotten older I've tended to view my purchases as investments. Not just in terms of dollars, but in time. One can always get more money, we can't ever get back time.

Heh, misanthrope. LOL. I am certainly not that. Jaded, Cynical, quite weary of the business practices surrounding gaming? Absolutely. I am not on a soapbox preaching the doom of the industry, predicting another crash. Honestly I believe younger generations of gamers have never had it so good. They have the entire back library of close to 30 years of gaming and all the new stuff coming out to get through.

 

[Wyatt Wilkerson]

what you have to realise is that the world is a complex place full of grey areas yeah EA are a bunch of jerks trying to squeeze money out of everything and one and there are plenty of bland generic games setting sales records but at the same time there are games coming along that make people feel things in ways that are unprecedented for the medium of video games the indie scene has never been bigger or more open to entry and even some big developers are starting to catch on. the fact that we are having this conversation means that there are people who care and that is as good a sign as any that the industry still has as much life and meaning as ever.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I think there's a lot of bad stuff going on in the industry these days, so it's easy to be pessimistic. I will also say that i have a harder time finding good games these days, there's just a lot of stylistic trends and overreliance on Storytelling over interesting game mechanics that bores me. I defineately have an easier time finding good games in some genres when i search for old ps1-2 games (or Ds/3Ds those platforms kills the ps3 and xbox360) and stuff like that, but i still managed to gather around 50 cool ps3 games through the years.

Despite all the EA idiocy, free to play, empty pseudo game mechanics and Dlc madness going on i do think the generation has brought some very positive things with it. These days it's much easier to play a broader range of games, because psn, Xbla, Gog, VC and the like makes a lot of classic titles available. We aren't stuck with current titles, there's a much bigger variety now than there ever was, because of this. It's a good time to be a gamer, even though there's also a lot of stuff to be angry/bored about,

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

the key is to try and be a realist, yet not be cynical, vote with your wallet and dont hate those who lap up the hype.
I usually wait until after release to see how a game is reacted to, and usually wait for a price drop too.
there are exceptions, I've pre-ordered Dark Souls 2 for example.

You've seen thru the hype machine, and it can leave you feeling deflated, but as @tippy2k2 said, its in every industry, so much lowest common denominator entertainment out there. Just do your research, and take the common denominator stuff for hat it is, wait til its cheap, and you may actually enjoy some of it.

 

[Something Amyss]

Maybe it's just what I play then because for the most part, the only redeemable codes I ever see now (since $10 died) is for multiplayer fluff content (like skins, cards in Madden, a new gun, etc.). I have never seen any game with any substantial content lost if you never used them. I'm sure they exist but I think you're looking at the minority and painting the industry with it.

Can you name a movie that locks even "fluff" on the disc behind a registration/paywall?

I'd be seriously interested if you could.

 

[suitepee7]

Well I agree with most of what both Tippy and BakedSardine have said. However, Tippy... the other entertainment industries aren't charging 60 bucks an experience. It is one thing to go into a movie knowing it's going to be Michael Bay's next "explosions, moar splosions and boobs" movie as the out of pocket expense is 10-15 bucks. It's something else entirely going into a game that has a $60 buck entry fee and is probably going to have an additional $50 in DLC coming with it. So, if you end up getting a stinker of a game you are out $60 bucks, more if you got a season pass.

no, but if you take it upon yourself to make informed choices, you still get a damn sight more for your money than you do with other mediums. for example, lets say you spend $60 on CoD, and maybe play it for 20 hours (which is pretty low in comparison to how much it will be played by many), that's around $3 an hour. if i went to the cinema it would cost me a minimum of around £8, usually closer to £12 depending on the cinema and time of day, which would be roughly $12-$20, for a 2 hour viewing, once.

at the very least you're going to get a similar amount of gameplay time per £ or $ as you would a movie, but you can
1) play it as much as you like or
2) trade it in (unless it's for PC ofc) and make some money back

the responsibility for buying a terrible game lies with the consumer, if you choose not to read reviews and just buy a game randomly then you wasted your money, but you could just have easily done 10 minutes of research, bought a game you think you're likely to enjoy and got considerably more entertainment for your money.

also as a side note, not every game costs $60, and some of the cheaper ones end up being better anyway. personally i don't see gaming in a negative light, not as a whole anyway. there are aspects of gaming i do not like, but clearly there are other people who do and it's not my place to dictate what people enjoy. if i don't like a particular business plan, then i don't support it, but it is not bad enough to taint the entirety of the gaming scene for the practices of a few greedy publishers

 

[lacktheknack]

BioShock Infinite has been counter-attacked because of all the praise both critics (kind of like them, for the MOST part, not seeing a flaw in TitanFall honestly, so that doesn't help your case either) and players alike gave. People called it pretentious, said its depictions of both racism and the time period were caricature-esque at best, its understanding of time travel and the multiverse basic and simplified if even the slightest bit correct at all, and the gameplay nothing groundbreaking let alone much of an improvement from the last games in the series, some even called it a downgrade. People thought Elizabeth's AI while intended to help ease the usual escort problems actually created something worse.

By the same token, "Syberia" was high-minded (PRETENTIOUS!), depicted a young American woman on a journey through an increasingly insane East Europe (RACIST! CARICATURES!), had some very odd situations that don't make much logical sense (DO YOU EVEN REALISM?), and was a 3D point-n-clicker (DERIVATIVE!), as well as having other "flaws" (All the women are sane, all the insane people are men! MISANDRY! The game is about a girl chasing a guy! MISOGYNY! The original plot for the game had to be split into two parts! F**KING PUBLISHERS!).

And yet not only is it remembered as one of the best adventure games of the 2000s and received near-universal acclaim, but it suffered no backlash (until, you guessed it, recently).

Why?

Because gamers are more negative. Bioshock: Infinite is not a worse game, the players are increasingly picky and irritating people.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Was there ever really a time of unbridled positivity in gaming?

Could you really say that technology for these games is advancing as rapidly as it once was, and that technology is really that impressive anymore, compared to good design?

Times are never going to be the same as anyone's 'golden age of gaming' because the internet has permanently changed how games are distributed, funded and developed. It's not going to look the same, but variety is starting to creep back into the market.

If anything, it feels as if it's about to blow up with a million niche markets again.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Everything that you've just mentioned can be seen in every other entertainment industry ever. For every Firefly, how many cheap and shitty reality shows do we get? For every Schindler's List, how many soulless EXPLOSIONS! and BOOBS! movies do we get? For every truly good musical artist, how much poppy "I sound like everyone else but I'm hot so I get a record deal" groups do we see?

It's easy to look at all the shit in any form of media and lose track of the diamonds in there. Frankly, I'm too busy playing greatness to care about all these problems in the industry. I've been hearing "Well it's a slippery slope! One day all games will have micro-transactions and day one DLC and small pox with every game! You'll care then!!!" but I've been hearing that an awfully long time and I still see greatness coming out. If people want to give themselves ulcers worrying about things they can't do anything about, go for it but I for one will stop worrying and learn to love the bomb play what I want to play without worries.

Those would be wise words but we've gotten to the point (well, I have at least) where I'm looking at all three consoles and thinking, why the hell am I going to bother when I need a pc in my home anyway? I'm just going to stick with that and get those few games that will be really good.
But I agree with the rest of what you said: that all media has mostly "shovelware" and we just need to appreciate the diamonds we can dig out of them. Unfortunately, I don't think that's OPs problem. He seems more worried about the predatory practices of the industry: trying to nickel and dime us at every turn they can which you have to admit has only been happening for the past generation. Games & consoles have always been a little expensive but you used to kind of know what you were getting.

 

[white_wolf]

For me I think its due to age I've been gaming since I was 6 once you've seen the same ideas, troupes, mechanics, and character arcs over and over again it gets harder to ignore all the stagnation, rehashing, and old ideas and mechanics being packaged like they're new. Its harder to ignore it and stay positive. Combine that with the whole idea that the medium is about critiquing and you get loads of nitpicking that won't end because if you don't tell the devs what to make or what you want to see or how they're doing it wrong or in some cases right they'll keep looking at antiquated things and going thats what the people want. Then the devs and game backers don't listen and it repeats fans get discouraged and leave while new players come in thinking the old is new. The industry striving for max dollars is hurting itself and they have to stop it to save it new concepts, mechanics, stories, and arcs need to come in and its reaching a boiling point so no OP you aren't the only one its just how many more like you will it take to have them get the point.

As far as what can be done to remain positive? Try to find the gems out there research instead of listen to paid hype avoid magazines and reviewers that keep giving 9/10s to games that actually are 3/10s and demand that game stores change their policies and not just call out but hammer game devs for lies or over projections. Why game stores? Because once you buy a game they cut off you returning it for I didn't like the product, you have to keep or trade at a very low value your game back to them which is crap you can't test drive a game anymore like in the past you have to take the word of devs, reviews, and clips which are all designed to make their product look the best looking and are are two separate things. Hammering devs makes them understand they can't just make crap up to sound good ME3 has taught BW somethings about false advertising and as ME4 is getting made they're way more cautious well see how well their jackhammer to the face has either straightened them out or dug in they'll be as the product makes its way into market.