What's the worst thing to happen to gaming?

[Lucane]

Ungratefulness and pessimism.

This or if it has to be an event or being the "Hot Coffee" scandal it probally set a few people back a bit on video games are trying to ruin my children thing.

Pfft. While all the reasons given are valid I have to facepalm for anyone not mentioning the one thing that almost killed the industry forever:

Spoiler

I still have one of the unincinerated remaining copies. It stares at me while I sleep.

Granted but without it we probally wouldn't have our current level of quality control/rating system.

 

[Chrissyluky]

The studio who created AOE being shut down


Or the "Pro gaming" groups such as MLG and what ever else there is..

mlg just makes our community look bad go to cevo.com much better site and the people there are far better than any mlg kids >.>. either way on topic worst thing to happen? halo 3 and et the video game i have to say they were probably the biggest dissapointments.

 

[Chrissyluky]

sorry double post

 

[Chrissyluky]

The terms 'casual' and 'hardcore' being introduced.

This and the elitist gamers who use these terms in order to make themselves feel superior.

i am less likely to hate these people because theyre right and more likely to hate people who hate people who label. because there is a line there and denial doesnt make it go away.(and crap right as i posted i remembered i could have used that accidental double post for this rant -.-)

 

[T-Bone24]

The death of fun and the introduction of realism. "War isn't fun, so in our game you get shot in the leg, you move incredibly slow. Good idea, right?"
"When you're involved in an explosion, you have to spend the next 3 years learning how to write your own name again! Good idea, right?"

No, no they are not good ideas. Realism killed GTA for me, whatever happened to fighter jets, monster truck and parachutes? No, it's an East European immigrant having a burger with his cousin. Or even worse, watching TV alone. In a dirty flat. Yippee, I want that game.

 

[Yopaz]

I'd like to sum up the worst thing in one thing everyone should agree on. Bugs! Falling throught the ground for no reason known in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. Xbox scratching discs and the ring of death, shooting through walls in CS 1.6, standing inside the wall on Soldier Fronts. All bugs or errors made by creators, and I'd probably set the massive problems with Xbox 360 scratching discs in big fat letters cause that happens a lot and they knew about it before they put it out for sale.

 

[Pegghead]

Morons who try to act like gamers by making out of place and often wrong references to games, talking in 1337 speak IN REAL LIFE! And acting as though owning the most expensive console and only a couple of games to boot somehow makes you out to be the king of gaming. So yeah basically the many ps3 (No offeense to ps3 owners but these guys are like an insult to sonys console) owning morons that I *Shudder* know. Also games slowly being bought into the mainstream, well not really more like being treated as mainstream like the little shit-faced kid in the upcoming insult to film "Aliens in the attic" Whos made out to be a gamer. I saw a trailer at the movies, the aliens turned off the...gravity 0_0 and the kid said something like "Oh they turned the gravity off like in Halo" I owned, played, re-played many a time and loved that game and there was no point where that ever happened. Also fanboys.

 

[Pegghead]

The death of fun and the introduction of realism. "War isn't fun, so in our game you get shot in the leg, you move incredibly slow. Good idea, right?"
"When you're involved in an explosion, you have to spend the next 3 years learning how to write your own name again! Good idea, right?"

No, no they are not good ideas. Realism killed GTA for me, whatever happened to fighter jets, monster truck and parachutes? No, it's an East European immigrant having a burger with his cousin. Or even worse, watching TV alone. In a dirty flat. Yippee, I want that game.

And yet I thought I was the only person to think army propaganda games were shite. Hooray!

*Sigh* I miss taking Cj up to the tops of the tallest towers and driving a code-activated monster truck off only to jump out and kill yourself on the ground. Also the missions in San Andreas were FUN. Flying onto a train on a jetpack to retrieve alien goo from the military, helping your nerdy friend win an rc war. In gta 4 It's just like "Visit your bitchface girlfriend" And "Kill this mobster guy". Wasn't there enough of the latter in the other 3-d gtas.

 

[LiftYourSkinnyFists]

mlg just makes our community look bad go to cevo.com much better site and the people there are far better than any mlg kids >.>. either way on topic worst thing to happen? halo 3 and et the video game i have to say they were probably the biggest dissapointments.

I didn't mean MLG as the group but just as an example of the commercialized tournaments and groups; it's these kind of things I dislike.

 

[Weaver]

I would say the mass commercialization of games.
They used to be an esoteric pastime for super nerds (not unlike myself). Now they're all about making money and appealing to as many people as they can... which makes them, more often than not, really suck.

 

[Chi Kong Lui]

Final Fantasy 7. It ruined a great RPG franchaise and set the trend of CG movie fest and graphical arms race.

 

[The Tommy]

Because games try to appeal to the biggest audience, originality and chance taking are frowned upon. Its prevalent in the music industry too. No one wants to cater to a specific audience. EA are the biggest culprits of this, especially the MOH series. They had a neat story line, and plenty of atmosphere starting out but after Frontline began relying on the name rather than taking care to release a decent product or nothing at all.

Nothing beats atmosphere, sound/music and the perfect storyline in a game. That's just my opinion.

 

[quiet_samurai]

the internet.

 

[Aesir23]

Definately casual gamers horning in on actual gamers lifestyle.

AND IT'S ALL NINTENDO'S FAULT!!

I could not agree more. I'm actually trying to remember why I ever wanted a Wii since even after two or three years I only own maybe four games for it. -_-

 

[EnglishMuffin]

EA and Bethesda.

 

[Mosstromo]

Only from truly bitter experiences: Steam.
Let me elucidate a little in which aspect of the multi-faceted offerings of this system I have my vexations.

It is not on the fact that they sell games for download. This is done by many other companies, and the idea is excellent (even if the results are sometimes less than optimal, such as games not working). Neither their ability to be siphons for gladiatorial events on the net with their matchmaking.
It is the fact, that the games purchased (or so at least in the ones I bought through the service) are incomplete. Indeed, incomplete.
One example
A year ago, out of nostalgia I bought "Half-Life 1 - Anthology". Not the download, but a CD which includes many other classics.
I installed it.
But it was not complete. It would not run. Only 90% of a game I had purchased was on the CD.
I was demanded an internet connection to Steam.
I did not have an internet connection at home, but after much fumbling to prepare my machine and the connection itself, I succeeded.
I connected.
I downloaded the last 10% of what was supposed to be mine already.
Disconnected. Launched. Nothing again.
Was told that I need to be connected each time to play.
Found that I could play off-line if I followed some procedure.
I did. It failed.
I contacted Steam's Help services.
They started a long list of recommendations and tweaks I needed to perform on my modern machine to be able to play that 1998 game.
After four days of this exchanges, I yet had to see Mr. Freeman get to work (and probably be fired for being 96 hours late).
So my game is sitting there unplayed.

It is similar to what Boober the Pig said in his response [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.131746.2921271] up there (see number 5), on the inadequacy of patches. You want working games. From the beginning.
If they figure this is a security measure that helps prevent piracy, they are super wrong. Maybe they even help to promote it in a way, by serving buyers a useless original product.

No benefits of such a system can outweigh its shortcomings, not with me, since the shortcoming was to prevent me to play. And there is no run around that.

 

[saintchristopher]

Online multiplayer is the biggest devolution in gaming. Before online multiplayer, how would gamers know just how racist and homophobic their fellow Halo fans were? How did anyone enjoy playing a videogame before the opportunity to be called any number of ethnic slurs by strangers? And where would the industry be without team-killing?

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Lag and host advantage.

Console wars.

Escort missions.

Martyrdom.