Daystar Clarion said:
If I'm honest?
I wish gamers in general would play more 'artsy' (I hate that word) games, mostly because it gives the impression that we're into more than 'pwning noobs at CoD'
To be fair I doubt that the sort of people who make such judgements about gamers are actually going to take the time to look into what games people actually play (Bioshock, L.A. Noir and Fallout: New Vegas are all pretty removed from the typical 'pwning noobs at CoD' model and they were all very widely popular too).
The sort of people who make wide, sweeping statements about gamers tend to be the sorts of people who have already made their mind up about what we're like and as such no amount of setting good examples is going to sway them (also to note, there's nothing actually wrong with people who just like to play CoD, so what if that's someone's favourite gaming activity?).
Stuff like Okami, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus are all games that deserve more than they got.
And I'm certain that all of those do have large followings and were more than likely loved by critics (Shadow of the Colossus definately does) so, like the often touted example of Psychonauts, it isn't really much of an 'underappreciated gem' despite the fact that it doesn't find it's way onto every gamer's shelf/hard drive.
I don't intend to come across as pretentious, because I believe that's just as annoying, if not more annoying. Games are about fun, first and foremost. So it's great that the games I've mentioned are also some of the best games I've ever played.
While I mean no insult by this, this sort of stance sort of
does make you pretentious. I have played lots of great and horrible games throughout my life and to be fair I can safely say one thing. The level of intellectual value and merit behind a game has got absolutely
no influence on whether I overall thought a game was good or not. I've enjoyed very mentally engaging games such as Silent Hill, Baldur's Gate and the Fallout series but I have also enjoyed comparitively 'mindless' games like Painkiller, Call of Duty and Alien vs. Predator (if I had to spend a long time making a list of what I believe to be the best games I've ever played then I think you'd find a mixture of 'intelligent' and 'stupid' games throughout).
A game can be made more interesting by it's artistic or intellectual value but by the same token I wouldn't say that a game is any worse or less memorable because of a lack of these qualities. A game that makes you think doesn't inherantly hold more value than a game that let's you switch off and vegitate.
Just listen to this.
