Your Gaming Cultureshock Experiences

[Bob_McMillan]

First off, let me state that I'm not sure that "cultureshock" is the right term. My personal definition in a gaming context is when you switch consoles or platforms or play a different franchise or genre, and are amazed/bamboozled/pissed off/confused about it. For me, it was the controller on Xbox. My gaming life goes like this: GBA, DS Lite, PS2, PS3, XBOX, XBOX 360, PC (in that order). So when i played an XBOX I was surprised AS HELL. The trigger buttons made my fingers SWEAT, and the absent L2 R2 buttons drove me crazy. Thats another little cultureshock as well, I had NO idea that people even used them, jeez when i search for PS3 controller related forums its mostly about the crappy triggers. For me, the R1 L1 system was the way to go, and it made way more sense to me.(Question: do you know a game on the PS3 that used the triggers to fire?) The joysticks felt weird and uncoordinated. The huge arse cable sucked more male genitalia then a French exotic performer from the 1800s. And worst of all... the weight, dear God, the weight! I swear my whole body was shaking in exhaustion as I played Call of Duty Big Red One. Why would anyone play like this? Till now I cant deal with it, thank God I managed to adapt to a keyboard. So when I (hopefully) get a PS4, pretty sure I'm gonna suck for quite some time.

Some smaller examples: playing an old FPS and being shocked at the iron-sight-less-ness of it all, the weird Halo controls, with fullscreen zooms, the Mortal Kombat, er, combat (the way you had to move the sticks as well as press the buttons was new to me)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

When I did the jump from 2D gaming to 3D gaming, obviously. I think it was on the PS1.

 

[Starbird]

Well..literal cultureshock - coming to Japan and realizing that outside of the big cities...PC gaming doesn't really exist aside from ultra casual stuff. It's all consoles, mostly handhelds. And everyone has a DS.

Gaming wise - the recent trend of Hardcore single player games. I completely forgot how it felt to reach a point in a game that I simply couldn't beat, or making a mistake that required me to start from scratch.

Oh - and in more recent years, the DBZ Budokai/Tenkaichi games, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm, Lord of the Rings: BFME and of course the Asylum series making me realize that adaption does not always equal horrible.

 

[Aerosteam]

When I was mainly playing on my Xbox 360 and I went to a friends house to play on his PS3.

Never have I been more confused with a button layout before. (The fucking X button is in a different location.)

 

[Mudokon]

When I did the jump from 2D gaming to 3D gaming, obviously. I think it was on the PS1.

I was gona say the same thing, the transition to 3D was mind blowing, it was ps1 and N64 for me and in my mind it was the best achievement in videogames, the one day i was goin from left to right and the next you had a whole world to explore in 3 dimensions but since then i havent yet experienced something like that.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

Hmmm...the first Commodore 64 game i had bought for me that was joystick only *gasps* 4 directions and 1 button and they couldn't be arsed making some keyboard controls...i think the game was called 'pneumatic hammer'

I had another culture shock when i upgraded from my NES to Megadrive...a control pad that didn't hurt my hands after 15 minutes of holding it!

I suppose the last has been creeping up on me for years but sometime during the last 10 years i started to notice that games weren't difficult anymore. Where once i could keep trying to beat a game over months and months, now i can finish most games in 1 sitting. Where once the leaderboards were something for other people to consider, now they are the only part of a game that holds any challenge. It's the harshest culture shock of them all...that something that once kept me occupied all the time can barely entertain me more than TV or films (which i find mostly boring) and that reading a book from start to finish takes about as long to complete but involves more interaction and concentration on my part.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

When I did the jump from 2D gaming to 3D gaming, obviously. I think it was on the PS1.

I was gona say the same thing, the transition to 3D was mind blowing, it was ps1 and N64 for me and in my mind it was the best achievement in videogames, the one day i was goin from left to right and the next you had a whole world to explore in 3 dimensions but since then i havent yet experienced something like that.

Right, for me it was the probably the N64 before the PS1. I never owned an N64 but I played on one repeatedly before getting my PS1. The more I think about it, the "shock" probably came either with GoldenEye or the Mission Impossible game. I don't think I ever made it past the very first room in that one, on any of the missions.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Well..literal cultureshock - coming to Japan and realizing that outside of the big cities...PC gaming doesn't really exist aside from ultra casual stuff. It's all consoles, mostly handhelds. And everyone has a DS.

Gaming wise - the recent trend of Hardcore single player games. I completely forgot how it felt to reach a point in a game that I simply couldn't beat, or making a mistake that required me to start from scratch.

Oh - and in more recent years, the DBZ Budokai/Tenkaichi games, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm, Lord of the Rings: BFME and of course the Asylum series making me realize that adaption does not always equal horrible.

Wanna give an example of those hardcore games? How would you define a modern hardcore (and singleplayer? are there multiplayer?) game? Cuz i cant even think of one haha.

I honestly cant think of a single adaptation I actually hated though... huh.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Hmmm...the first Commodore 64 game i had bought for me that was joystick only *gasps* 4 directions and 1 button and they couldn't be arsed making some keyboard controls...i think the game was called 'pneumatic hammer'

I had another culture shock when i upgraded from my NES to Megadrive...a control pad that didn't hurt my hands after 15 minutes of holding it!

I suppose the last has been creeping up on me for years but sometime during the last 10 years i started to notice that games weren't difficult anymore. Where once i could keep trying to beat a game over months and months, now i can finish most games in 1 sitting. Where once the leaderboards were something for other people to consider, now they are the only part of a game that holds any challenge. It's the harshest culture shock of them all...that something that once kept me occupied all the time can barely entertain me more than TV or films (which i find mostly boring) and that reading a book from start to finish takes about as long to complete but involves more interaction and concentration on my part.

I guess you're one of those guys who love difficulty, huh? Never understood that myself, I confess to playing all games on easy. I see a video game as something that gives me pure satisfaction, and a little role-playing I guess. I cant imagine how finding something less entertaining after a long while doing it, I've been a fan of everything I am currently a fan of for years, the closest i can relate to is when a game you really enjoy and find it one of the best you ever played, then just get lazy and stop playing it for some reason. Thats what happened to me with Far Cry 3.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

When I did the jump from 2D gaming to 3D gaming, obviously. I think it was on the PS1.

I was gona say the same thing, the transition to 3D was mind blowing, it was ps1 and N64 for me and in my mind it was the best achievement in videogames, the one day i was goin from left to right and the next you had a whole world to explore in 3 dimensions but since then i havent yet experienced something like that.

Right, for me it was the probably the N64 before the PS1. I never owned an N64 but I played on one repeatedly before getting my PS1. The more I think about it, the "shock" probably came either with GoldenEye or the Mission Impossible game. I don't think I ever made it past the very first room in that one, on any of the missions.

I'm just 15, so i kinda have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll try to imagine fully realized virtual reality and compare that to modern gaming so i can try to relate.

Question though: What about the gameplay? When I first played CoD 4, I was horrible at it. I didn't even know how to coordinate the look stick with the move stick. Now, FPSs are my bread and butter. But I dont really consider that a cultureshock, because it wasnt something amazing or completely foreign. So what part of the transition between 2D and 3D shocked you? The gameplay or the 3D-ness of it? Sorry if this sounds slightly incoherent, but this font confuses me a bit.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

When I did the jump from 2D gaming to 3D gaming, obviously. I think it was on the PS1.

I was gona say the same thing, the transition to 3D was mind blowing, it was ps1 and N64 for me and in my mind it was the best achievement in videogames, the one day i was goin from left to right and the next you had a whole world to explore in 3 dimensions but since then i havent yet experienced something like that.

Right, for me it was the probably the N64 before the PS1. I never owned an N64 but I played on one repeatedly before getting my PS1. The more I think about it, the "shock" probably came either with GoldenEye or the Mission Impossible game. I don't think I ever made it past the very first room in that one, on any of the missions.

I'm just 15, so i kinda have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll try to imagine fully realized virtual reality and compare that to modern gaming so i can try to relate.

Question though: What about the gameplay? When I first played CoD 4, I was horrible at it. I didn't even know how to coordinate the look stick with the move stick. Now, FPSs are my bread and butter. But I dont really consider that a cultureshock, because it wasnt something amazing or completely foreign. So what part of the transition between 2D and 3D shocked you? The gameplay or the 3D-ness of it? Sorry if this sounds slightly incoherent, but this font confuses me a bit.

Well there were definitely "2.5D" games before the 5th gen, but as the name suggests they didn't fully control the way 3D games later did and still do. After being raised on the very 2D SNES, 3D platformers became hell for me, because all of a sudden depth perception was another thing I had to take into account. Throw in a Y axis, tank controls and forced camera angles and maybe you can imagine the 3D shock at least I experienced back then. Characters and their movements weren't suddenly as "reliable" as they used to be. I also recall being unable to decypher menus and inventory systems and the "pause world" in general.

 

[Alex Baas]

I was on a hockey team a few years ago of guys who seemed to know each other quite well. After about the third practice I am starting to get assimilated into the team dynamic when the question came up for my Xbox Live account so I could play COD with them. I answered truthfully and said I dont have one and do not play COD I almost broke their brains.

They then asked me if I played on PS3 in a manner in which it seemed like I was being interrogated for treason. I told them that I do own one, but I prefer to play on the PC. They had never heard of PC gaming. They then all gathered around me wanting to hear what PC gaming was like. At first they asked me mocking questions (under the assumption that the extent of PC gaming was Minesweeper) but then grew more and more intrigued.

For the rest of the season I was treated with some weird sort of reverent awe. I was an exotic gamer who had found this weird haven to game that was beyond comprehension. They could not grasp the concept of mods (they though I was lying) or the kinds of shooters I was playing. They were amazed by the team size of Battlefield 3 team size. It was when I talked about emulators that they found out that video games existed back in the early 2000's and earlier.

Not only was this a culture shock for them, but for me as well. I didnt know that there were that many people like this out there in such close proximity.

 

[Starbird]

When I did the jump from 2D gaming to 3D gaming, obviously. I think it was on the PS1.

I was gona say the same thing, the transition to 3D was mind blowing, it was ps1 and N64 for me and in my mind it was the best achievement in videogames, the one day i was goin from left to right and the next you had a whole world to explore in 3 dimensions but since then i havent yet experienced something like that.

That's the good thing about PC gaming. We made the jump a long time back .

Although generally not all that well. Ah...memories of Tomb Raider 1. Such a good game that aged so badly.

Well..literal cultureshock - coming to Japan and realizing that outside of the big cities...PC gaming doesn't really exist aside from ultra casual stuff. It's all consoles, mostly handhelds. And everyone has a DS.

Gaming wise - the recent trend of Hardcore single player games. I completely forgot how it felt to reach a point in a game that I simply couldn't beat, or making a mistake that required me to start from scratch.

Oh - and in more recent years, the DBZ Budokai/Tenkaichi games, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm, Lord of the Rings: BFME and of course the Asylum series making me realize that adaption does not always equal horrible.

Wanna give an example of those hardcore games? How would you define a modern hardcore (and singleplayer? are there multiplayer?) game? Cuz i cant even think of one haha.

I honestly cant think of a single adaptation I actually hated though... huh.

Generally a 'Hardcore' game to me has elements of permanence - ie. you can screw up and set yourself back permanently, leading to having to restart the game. Or a game where death is permanent. Or just rock hard.

A few that are worth playing:
- Resident Evil: Code Veronica.
- Binding of Isaac.
- Dark Souls, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 2.
- Ninja Gaiden Sigma.
- Touhou.

Regarding adaptions - there was a long spate (mostly Ps1->Ps2 era) where basically every big name movie and franchise had at least one game purely made for the fans. And often they were very, very bad or at best mediocre.

It still kind of is the case, but a lot better than it used to be.

 

[Liquidprid3]

Didn't know games existed in the early 2000's? They didn't about games growing up at all? I find that hard to believe, unless you're like 10 (which I doubt) but even then in sure they've heard of a PS2 or something. Kinda weird to think that people could think that PS3 is just part of the name, like Xbox 360. Wow. As someone who grew up with NES, SNES, and GameCube (as well as PC) I'd be just as surprised as you.

 

[theevilgenius60]

Every time I switch from my 3DS to any of my other machines. Just the switching places of the "confirm" and "back out" buttons takes me a minute. I almost have a little mantra I say to myself to remind myself,"OK, confirm is in outside corner now and back out is bottom of the diamond". Also the whole "x button" thing. On Xbox, it's inside corner, on playstation it's bottom corner and in Nintendo systems its at the top. Almost makes me want them to all huddle up and get their shit together(btw, heard that in Japanese PS systems X is back out and O is confirm, don't know if this is true, but it would seem, at least over there, they did huddle and get that squared away)

 

[Scarim Coral]

Bring a former Nintendo Fanboy, I was in shock and awe at HD gaming from the other console mainly when I first played Gear of Wars 2 when my bro bring his Xbox 360 during Christmas. I started to see the appeal of nicer graphics (however I still uphold that gameplay is important but good graphic is a nice bonus).

 

[Danbo Jambo]

Great thread/question.

The bizarrest one for me was when the PS1 came out. Firstly we'd gone from instantly loading games to having to wait for load times again which seemed very odd at the time. Secondly (along with the N64) everything was very much in 3-D now which - whilst interesting, fresh and exciting - didn't always make for the best games, and faithful classic were now often worse to play because of the switch to 3-D.

 

[the_great_cessation]

I have two big ones. My first would be the Wii and motion controls. To this day, I find Wii Sports no where near as intuitive as it is advertised to be and have a hard time coordinating myself properly. The second would be playing early PS1 games that use the d-pad for movement (Tomb Raider, Soul Reaver, Resident Evil, etc). Being introduce to 3D gaming with the N64 and Ocarina of Time, 3D movement has always been synonymous with analogue control anything else feels super unnatural to me.

 

[ExDeath730]

Easy. It was playing XCOM: EU for the first time. I didn't use a guide or anything like it, and i'm an avid strategy fan, so i decided to go with Classic right off the bat. I actually thrived even like this, but then i got to the second part of the game, where the aliens use the fast UFOS.

I didn't know about the alien fighter, and when i discovered i was already losing countries and in that moment i noticed. I couldn't win. In this age of gaming, playing something like 16 hours and noticing you can't beat is so...Different, i remember how i laughed at it, i mean, it was humbling and at the same time it was awesome. So yeah, i loved it.