Just something ive been thinking about recently.

[Necromaniacal]

Okay so ive been platform hopping like crazy recently, and finally settled on the PC as my gaming platform of choice, and in making this decision i sold my 360, and before that i was a PS2 kid, ive always had access to all consoles (dont worry just some background info to put the post into some perspective)

All this hopping around and forum rerading (now im on PC i tend to frequent forums more) i've realised how much hate their is for "mainstream" games.

I can't quite understand this and was wondering what The Escapist community thought?

Stuff like the Final Fantasy sereis, while I whole heartedly understand some people dont like the Japenese culture (which I love but im trying to be objective) to simply say "I've never played it, but i hate it cause everyone else does" sounds like a cop out to me, if you havent even got the time to play a game, why pass judgment, sure you may not like the look of a game and think "im not buying this" but then to slate it in any type of intellegent discuscion is just biggoted and arrogant imho

Also such games like WoW and other MMO's, sure their a turn off to some people, iove recently grown bored of the 1-70 grind through every gank happy server ever, but to say its "bad" one 1% of THE WORLD!! play it? I mean sure its not to some peoples tastes, but surley theirs a constructive reason why? not just "everyone plays it" surely thats a good thing for an MMO, if their were only ever 5 people logged into a server nothing would ever get done!

I understand that people wish to be beautiful and unique snowflakes (i watch fight club to much meh!) but liking something that other people like isnt being a sheep, liking it BECAUSE everyone likes it is, good games are generally liked by everyone, because their good, thats what good things to, they attract love and stuff!!!

But then again hating a game BECAUSE everyone hates is also just as sheep like?

What do you lot think, give some examples to, for instance Halo, i thought they were to short, but the multiplayer was mindless enough to be fun for an hour or to, nothing amazing, but definatley fun.

Enlighten me some

 

[captainwillies]

hah nice argument and i totally agree with you. i like final fantasy but that doesn't mean i like all JRPG's. but then again FF series is the only JRPG series of games i have ever played (or care to remember). and ill have to agree with what you said about WOW aswell i really only got into WOW because my friends got into it. i didn't hate it but then i didn't like it, hell i probable would still be playing now if i could pay those damn monthly fees. but i cant so i sold my copy and got on with my life.

there will be 3 types of people who will respond to this post you've started.

1. people like me

2. people who dont like MMO's and JRPG but for a valid reason (they played it and didn't like it)

3. 15year old Yahtzee fan boys who cant even remember the days of commodore 64. who think there superior game critics just because they quote yahtzee line for line without having tried any of the games them selves.

 

[GothmogII]

Here here! Though...this stuff only matters if you're willing to listen to it right? Or read it as the case may be. People can't in any way -force- you do...well, anything really. If you want to play or not play something, good. But...if you're going to open up criticism whether negative or positive you should at least take the time to play the game you're trying to hype up or put down, and surround this with genuine reasoning.

And, even when you have a bad experience, which for WoW as an example a lot of players seem to have had, it does not in any way mean the game itself is so totally flawed that everyone who plays it is either a socially maladjusted 12 year old or shut in. Nor that because -you- didn't find fun with something everyone else mustn't play it on account of that. Not that valid criticism isn't welcome, just, maybe don't be so quick to try and steer people away from 'bad' games because of your own personal preferences, i.e. present your points, why you like or dislike something, and leave it at that eh?

 

[captainwillies]

And, even when you have a bad experience, which for WoW as an example a lot of players seem to have had, it does not in any way mean the game itself is so totally flawed that everyone who plays it is either a socially maladjusted 12 year old or shut in. Nor that because -you- didn't find fun with something everyone else mustn't play it on account of that. Not that valid criticism isn't welcome, just, maybe don't be so quick to try and steer people away from 'bad' games because of your own personal preferences, i.e. present your points, why you like or dislike something, and leave it at that eh?

well said

People can't in any way -force- you do...well, anything really.

ive always hated that saying no offence but if a 7-foot muscled bound man comes into your house breaks, one of your fingers and says "from now on your gonna do what i say or ill break the other nine and if i run out ill start on your family". your gonna do atleast i couple things he says before you get a chance to call the cops.

 

[Dody16]

Necromaniacal, have confidence in your opnions and don't put ? marks at the end of some of your sentences. I say this not only because I agree with what your saying, but also because if you read it out loud it sounds weird? (just to give you an example).

Anyway, yea I hear you. This is true for a lot of things and not only video games. I am a Halo hater, but I don't hate halo because everybody playes it, I hate it because I gave it a chance 3 different times and I couldn't help but to think that there are better games I could be playing. I don't know if that is a good example but I'll just say that at least in my mind I agree with what your saying.

By the way, for the record, I've tried a few MMO's and I didn't like them but I blame it on my personality because I can understand why people would like them. I grew up playing JRPG's and it is my personal opinion that JRPG's are better than western RPG's but again that's just me.

 

[L4Y Duke]

I never, never pass judgement on a game without any information whatsoever.

I mean, sure sometimes I'll have an opinion on a game before I start playing it, but that's usually because I didn't like others in the series, I heard some criticism about it that I would also find to be negative (I played Bioshock after watching Yahtzee's review, and I did find that the audio logs were too much of a distraction in places where proper attention prevented respawning), or I've watched someone else play it.

I never have my opinions set in stone when I've got unsatisfactory evidence to go on. I'll play it, then I'll judge it.

 

[captainwillies]

I never, never pass judgement on a game without any information whatsoever.

i guess sometimes it could be warranted *cough*kane&lynch*cough*

 

[Singing Gremlin]

The hate of the mainstream is a knee-jerk reaction. When something becomes popular in the mainstream, by order of law you end up with rabid-foaming-mouthed fanboys. And if you're ever unfortunate enough to listen to their never ending praise for the game in question, many people will find themselves looking on the game with a far more judgemental eye, and end up thinking the game is shite. And because this is done out of a stubborn defiance towards the fanboys, if you call them out on it they just become more stubborn. We've all done it in some factor of life.

 

[OurGloriousLeader]

Exactly! If we take Halo, and look at it objectively, we find it's a very solid game. Its AI is good, excellent graphics. It's not possible to hate it. Certainly you might not like it, fine. But people who hate it do so purely because a lot of people love it. It got hyped.

To me, people who hate something because it's hyped are just as idiotic as those who hype it in the first place.

 

[captainwillies]

Exactly! If we take Halo, and look at it objectively, we find it's a very solid game. Its AI is good, excellent graphics. It's not possible to hate it. Certainly you might not like it, fine. But people who hate it do so purely because a lot of people love it. It got hyped.

To me, people who hate something because it's hyped are just as idiotic as those who hype it in the first place.

very true but there are some people who dislike FPS altogether(not because they suck just because they dont like'em). and their are some like Yahtzee who just play for the single player. and while halo1 was a masterpiece halo2 was a gigantic failer. then they picked it up in the 3rd(halo3) but by then the experince was stale making it an average game. it had awesome multiplayer all the way threw though which makes me wounder what Yahtzee would of said if he played it for and extended period on Xbox-Live (without a head set).

oh and if you like halo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lnCi2PpkkY

 

[_Serendipity_]

Saying 'it's not possible to hate X' seems a wee bit presumptious.
I, for one, hate coffee, but there are many people who love it. It would be stupid of me to say that there was no way they could not hate is, and it would be equally stupid of them to say there was no way I could hate it.
The thing about personal taste is that it's personal.

Personally, I don't hate Halo, it's a solid sci-fi shooter. But, I can see that many people could get swept up in the trying-so-hard-to-be-epic feeling of it, and love it forever. Likewise, I can see those raised on Half-Life despising it, or at least it's fans...

 

[OurGloriousLeader]

I don't have a decent internet connection so I only play games for the single player too just now.

Halo and coffee are different. Coffee has a very bitter, awkward taste that really is love or hate. Halo, as a piece of entertainment, does everything well. I'm not actually a die hard fan, I didn't even play Halo 1 and 2. The only way someone can hate Halo, is by mixing the game with the context - the hype, the fans, the arrogance (Halo is arrogant, best selling game eva can do that).

I totally agree about personal taste. But that is simply a case of not liking. If someone sat down and played a few levels of halo, and just said 'nah, not impressed. I prefer Half-Life 2', excellent. I think I also prefer Half-Life 2, although there were a few dreary sections (that long driving bit). It's the people who sit down, and you can see they hate it already purely based on that a lot of people like it.

 

[Lord Krunk]

The only reason why there is hate for mainstream in the forums is that console-users generally don't use forums. Myself, I support mainstream because every console supports a game better than another (Yes, inclusive of the PC).

Just get along.

Unleash the gaming hippie inside you all!

 

[GothmogII]

ive always hated that saying no offence but if a 7-foot muscled bound man comes into your house breaks, one of your fingers and says "from now on your gonna do what i say or ill break the other nine and if i run out ill start on your family". your gonna do atleast i couple things he says before you get a chance to call the cops.

*kaff* Yes...there is that. I should have specified that you can't be forced to -think- a certain way...although, is brainwashing, or you know, just generally going through your life being told 'this is so' because...this is so. That is a particular problem I find with religion...and actually any way of thinking about anything...is that it seems based less on any sort of understanding the individual has come to, and rather, 'that's just the way things are' or 'I've been told or read that this is so' etc. y'know?

 

[Prozoquel]

It's definitely true that hating games just because said game is popular is a huge cop-out, and you may be depriving yourself of a good gaming experience. But goddammit, when you talk to enough rabid fanboys, it gets pretty hard not to hate some games. An example would be a typical conversation I've had many times with my rabid Halo-loving fanboy friends:

Fanboy: OMG dude, have you played Halo 3 yet, it's like the most amazing game ever!!!
Me: Yeah I beat it, it's a solid game.
Fanboy: What do you mean solid?! It's the f***ing best game! I wanna have sex with Bungie cause they rock so much!!
Me: Well they rapped the story up nicely, and the online multiplayer is enjoyable and a huge step above Halo 2's multiplayer, but there were some really boring sections in the campaign, and the multiplayer is still unbalanced.
Fanboy: God you're retarded dude, just shut the f*** up, you don't know what you're talking about, you're just stupid! Bungie is god!

And so on and so forth. I guess what I'm saying is that I know that we shouldn't hate games for no reason, but I can definitely understand why people grow bitter and start hating on popular games.

EDIT: Also, it's sometimes hard not to be a fanboy about your personal favorites. I know when someone disses on Earthbound, I have to try hard not to get out my beating stick and start busting some heads.