Today's gaming community and what's wrong with it...

[Ninjabba]

I'm sure you've read about it already, but I can't get my head around today's "next-gen" community.. death threats to the devs of No Man's Sky for delaying it a few months:

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/05/29/the-fan-reaction-to-the-no-mans-sky-delay-is-inexplicable-and-inexcusable/#5330b68f470d

 

I know there's a perfect explanation for this behaviour called John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory:

 

http://i2.wp.com/subby.slynk.com/files/2009/05/20040319h.jpg

 

Of course it's just a small group making threats, but at the end of the day, one death threat leaves more impact on a person than a 100 people telling you that you did a good job. Job well done internet trolls.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Ninjabba

[BydoEmpire]

The tendency is to say "oh, just a one off" or "obviously he's crazy" or something dismissive to make it easy to ignore any fault in the industry or with ourselves. My (probably unpopular) thoughts:

 

The gaming community has tried too hard to make games something other, bigger, more important than fun way to spend some time. Players try to justify their time by making games an "important" thing - they don't need to. The industry tries to make itself important so they can get away with more. IMHO a lot of people forget the 'game' part of 'video games'. Yes, there are some 'serious' games in the indie community, and IMHO that's really encouraging, but it's an incredibly small sliver.

 

It's disturbing how often I see little kids - toddlers - with their faces buried in an iPad, while their parent's face is buried in a phone. It seems like (I'd be interested if it's actually true) In the 70s and 80s when I grew up video games (and TV) were much more offset by going outside to play, playing pen-and-paper games, and other ways to get social interaction experience. Kids growing up in the age of cell phone aren't getting the social experiences we used to have. Kids don't really separate fantasy from reality until their about 7, and a lot more kids are spending a lot more time in fantasy land earlier and earlier - this isn't a video game thing, it's a whole media/marketing thing. This is combined with the fact that we've poisoned our kids to where one in seven has a developmental disorder of some sort (CDC stat) is disturbing. They need more social practice, and our lifestyle is giving them less. Time will tell if there's actually any impact, hard to say from a point in time.

 

Not going to get into the "violence debate," but all forms of media push the boundaries over time. TV has changed a LOT in the last 30 years, and so has everything else.

 

Of course, if it weren't for the anonymity of the internet, this stuff probably wouldn't happen much if at all... it's also too easy to say "thing X is the problem" when you can't really separate the 1000 pieces of the puzzle.

Edited May 30, 2016 by BydoEmpire

[Lost Dragon]

This has sadly happened before, when Halo became a then Xbox exclusive and also when Rare were bought by MS.

 

I think Hideo Kojima made comment about receiving death threats over saying no more MGS once Snake Eater was finished, but memory is hazy.

[leods]

This is not a video game thing. You go to any demographic now and people will be going way ovberboard on the internet. Go to a christian video and you'll find 100 atheists disproving god and calling the christians dumbasses. Go to an atheist video and you'll see 100 christians calling them devil worshipers, condeming them to hell. On the fitness community I have seen many death threats on youtube. There's also doxing and all that stuff.

 

I can bet most other larger communities suffer from similar problems.

 

And from what I saw youtube isn't even as toxic as twitter can get.

 

We don't see people as human beings throuhg a computer screen. "What? this guy disagrees with me? DIE!" There's no context. You don't know the person's background, where they're comming from, why they say what they say.

 

Look right now. People attacked James Rolfe (the Angry Video Game Nerd) for his video on why he won't go watch ghostbusters. Now he's being called a mysogynist, because he didn't like the trailers and where the whole movie seems to be going. Those people attacking him are largely not a part of the gaming community. They probably don't even realyze the AVGN is just a character. But why would they check who the guy is, and what his points are? If your feminist friend toll you there's this douchbag, who's angry because Ghostbusters now has females in it, just damn the guy to social media hell.

 

Actors, politicians and all kinds of celebrities are used to this kind of stuff for ages. They have people payed to take care of their social media, fan mail and all that.

 

Now I'm not playing the "it's OK, it's just the internet" card. I think this is horrible. I think people have to actively learn to realyze other people on the internet are real people. They're not virtual people. We should try to say things as we would to someone we're facing in the same room. But at the same time this lack of perceivable consequence actually has the advantage of making people be more honest. People can express themselves in a way they wouldn't outside of the internet. That's not 100% bad. People should just realyze there's no reason to go everboard.

 

Now I love wht BydoEmpire said. And curiously enough I am a huge defender that gaming is a serious hobby, and more people could take it seriously as both a game, and as an art form. But it's very clear that what he said is true. Companies want to elevate gaming to an artform, not to improve the medium, but to justify charging 60 dollars plus season pass, plus micro-transactions for their games. After all, it's not "just a game". It's a work of art. So now CoD is a work of art? Most games are just mindless entertainment. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But so people can justify spending thousands of dollars on gaming hardware, and hundreds a month in software, they want to market this status. We hear about "enthusiat grade" products. "colletcor's editions". That's all just obviously a self proclaimed title that lets companies charge a premium.

 

And then the guy who get's overly angry at anyone who doesn't play the same games as they do, or at any company that makes a decision they dislike now have this perception of defending a bigger ideal. They're telling people to kill themselves, or harassing them, but it's for a noble cause.

 

If the internet taught me that if enough people take something seriously, anything can have extremist blind fanatics. That's just how the human brain works. We set the rules of our world by our day to day life and standarts, and once we've spent enough time obsessing about something, it literally becomes more important than other people's lives. Or even our own lives. And it realls doesn't matter wether that's a god, the choice of food you eat, your means of transportation or just videogames. That much is irrelevant. It's all about a state of mind.

[godslabrat]

"Gaming" has gotten to the point where it's not content to simply be a hobby, it's now a full-fledged lifestyle. People define themselves by being a "gamer" the way they'd label themselves with a religion or political ideology. I've seen gamers take themselves more seriously than vegans.

 

And I am, 100%, NOT on board with that. As someone who loves games and always has his favorites within reach, I still don't consider it important enough to wax poetic about "gamer life". I have lots of friends who don't play games at all. With them, I do other stuff.

[TPA5]

People are what's wrong with the gaming community. Things are usually fine until they show up.

[Flojomojo]

Let's not give any more traffic to crappy old Forbes dot com, okay? My mind slammed shut when I saw that link. Nothing good comes out of there except for made-up controversy and click bait.

My reaction to NMS being delayed was "ugh, summer ruined." I would not have minded an on-time release with a patch when ready.

[MotoRacer]

Its this and MANY other factors (ie: the games these days aren't that fun compared to older generations, for the most part) that made me go the PC route for my modern games, but focus primarily on older systems. I've been happy, with I get my "fill" for social interaction with other like age/mature gamers here on AA.

[Unbeliever]

This was NEVER a factor "back in the early days" of gaming, but I'm sure most of us realize that here. It's a whole new "animal" emerging, and frankly, it scares the hell out of me. The idea of "hiding" behind your keyboard to insult/degrade/insert appropriate word here other people is downright appalling. I would never consider this action plausible back let's say, 20 years ago. And to think we've all watching this "monster" evolve from our early days in the computing and gaming world.

 

For an example, I will say how much flak Blizzard Entertainment received with Diablo 3 upon it's release and subsequent "problems" weeks into the game. I watched with horror the words slung by the community in Blizzard's direction, and how much of a slugfest it degenerated into. "OH MY GOD! IT'S ONLINE ONLY! DIE, BLIZZARD, DIIIIIEEE!" That type of thing made me shake my head in pure disgust. Really? Yes...it says it on the box. WHY are you so surprised?

 

Well, that was just an example, but to me, the online community has fallen into the very pits of the 3rd level of Hell. Scares the crap out of me most of the time. Not all online communities are bad (case in point, AtariAge is one of the BEST online communities I've belonged to), but the majority seem to be filling out too many corners these days.

[Gamemoose]

To me it seems, from my viewpoint, that some gamers (the really LOUD ones that get attention from any "news" source, it seems) have, as others mentioned, integrated gaming as their personal identity. With that these folk have also intertwined that mentality with a sense of extreme entitlement, another trait I seem to see from my rocking chair on the porch. The concept is toxic with no real middle ground in terms of debate or acceptance.

 

Today I read that there is/was a protest going on in Hong Kong over Nintendo's choice to use simplified Chinese for all the Chinese regions as opposed to tailoring the language to the region for Poke'mon Sun and Moon. There were signatures collected (something like over 6,000), online protests and even a small group of people standing outside Nintendo's Hong Kong offices. The protests do have a somewhat legit tie to a perceived issue that mainland China is teaching Cantonese less and less and there may be a threat that the language could be killed off. However, I don't know if PokeMon is really the vehicle of a potential conspiracy theory to get kids to go with Mandarin. To me it's the developer saving time and cash. The point in my mind on this is:it's a game. If it's not made how you like it, don't buy it. Why stage a protest, online or in the flesh, for an *entertainment product*?

 

I'm glad the console wars are done. As my dad used to say about situations like this: "take things to their illogical conclusion andvwhat do you get?" With that in mind and seeing how wrapped up people are with their posessions, I swear a console war would have blood in the streets of gaming soldiers defending the honor and cred of their brand of choice....

[Bakasama]

For an example, I will say how much flak Blizzard Entertainment received with Diablo 3 upon it's release and subsequent "problems" weeks into the game. I watched with horror the words slung by the community in Blizzard's direction, and how much of a slugfest it degenerated into. "OH MY GOD! IT'S ONLINE ONLY! DIE, BLIZZARD, DIIIIIEEE!" That type of thing made me shake my head in pure disgust. Really? Yes...it says it on the box. WHY are you so surprised?

uh, didn't Blizzard get flak even before it got released? There were people complaining about the how bright the games colors were.

[98PaceCar]

People are what's wrong with the world. Things are usually fine until they show up.

Fixed.

[TPA5]

Fixed.

 

I 100% agree.

[xenomorpher]

If I was in charge of No Man's Sky, I would delay it for a year or just cancel it. That or find a way to prevent those who made the threats from ever playing the game. It's probably mostly kids or people who don't have jobs that have nothing else to worry about or do besides harrass people online anonymously. They need to get a life.

Edited June 1, 2016 by xenomorpher

[Austin]

If I was in charge of No Man's Sky, I would delay it for a year or just cancel it.

 

Let me ask then, in this alternative scenario, how would you plan on paying the bills?

 

[xenomorpher]

 

Let me ask then, in this alternative scenario, how would you plan on paying the bills?

 

Sell the game assets and do something else. But I wouldn't seriously cancel a game, that was just a knee jerk reaction I have to any kind of bullying, do the exact opposite just to piss them off. A delay of a couple months isn't real bad. Prey and Duke Nukem Forever took years. I don't really look into previews of any kind, movie or game, unless it's going to be released in a couple of months at the most. Getting yourself hyped up for that long is painful, especially if the game is a disappointment like Fallout 4. This game though I'm mildly interested but won't be gutted if it's a disappointment.

[Unbeliever]

uh, didn't Blizzard get flak even before it got released? There were people complaining about the how bright the games colors were.

Yes, actually. They received flak from concept to completion, if I remember correctly. It was a big mess from day one, and the online community was constantly complaining about every little thing.

[Lost Dragon]

It'll be interesting to see how people react to PS4 The Last Guardian..after so much time,hype and a platform change, does it really stand a chance of living up to people's perception of what it should deliver?.

[teh_lurv]

The funny thing is NMS to me looks like its going to be another over-hyped, under-delivering game. The people who are devoting their whole identity to this game I think are going to be pretty disappointed.

[Ninjabba]

It'll be interesting to see how people react to PS4 The Last Guardian..after so much time,hype and a platform change, does it really stand a chance of living up to people's perception of what it should deliver?.

 

Good point. I been waiting for this game for like 9 years now with all the promises and delays. Maybe it's time to mail the devs a dead cat as a reminder

 

What strikes me as odd wrt other game related threats is that I can "understand" why people are bashing game devs after the release, it being a dissapointment or w/e. Ubisoft's The Division forums are a great recent example on how people go nuts over all these dev decisions while I continue to moderately enjoy the game without a problem.

 

NMS not being released makes it just plain weird for me. Then again, I shouldn't try to rationalize this behaviour.. it's just stupid human behaviour and that's all.. but it's sad that it mainly affects the very people trying to deliver.

[Lost Dragon]

Half Life 3 is another good example.

 

I love Half Life..played it on PC, PS2 and DC, along with Blue Shift, bought HL2 on Xbox, then Orange Box on PS3, then again on 360, fantastic series, but after so many years, false hopes etc, i really hope Valve do not try and make Half Life 3....

 

It's been far too long, my personal expectations would, i know have me sat there thinking..ok, is this it? this the best you can do? etc etc, which would be totally unfair on the developer as i'd of built up an unrealistic expectation of what i wanted from the game.

 

The ending of Mass Effect 3 was another massive WAHHHHHHHHH moment for many, was it not?

 

I was rather miffed the hype about choices i'd made in previous games (lordy the hours put into Mass Effect 1+2, plus the DLC on 360) had so little impact in the 3rd game and yes the ending was a bit bloody daft, but it was the developers game to do what they wanted with.

 

I'd enjoyed the ride, the ending was just like many movie endings, not what i expected, bit limp, but didn't detract from the overal experience.

[Mulletino]

Unfortunately the instant society in which we now live has created impatient nuckfards who want everything now.

 

Sit those feckers down in front of a tape loading game that errors at the end for the fourth time, see what happens then.

 

If I were the developers, i'd find out the gamertags of the people sending threats and make sure that when they played the game, any system they landed on became hostile if they were there for more than X minutes.

 

I was massively disappointed about the delay, mainly because i'd booked the launch day off work to play it and days off are hard to get. But oh well, it just gives me time to finish some of the other games on my shelf of shame.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Mulletino

[teh_lurv]

I'd recommend everyone go read the "Fandom is Broken" op-ed over at Birth.Movies.Death: http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/05/30/fandom-is-broken

[xenomorpher]

Half Life 3 is another good example.

 

I love Half Life..played it on PC, PS2 and DC, along with Blue Shift, bought HL2 on Xbox, then Orange Box on PS3, then again on 360, fantastic series, but after so many years, false hopes etc, i really hope Valve do not try and make Half Life 3....

 

It's been far too long, my personal expectations would, i know have me sat there thinking..ok, is this it? this the best you can do? etc etc, which would be totally unfair on the developer as i'd of built up an unrealistic expectation of what i wanted from the game.

 

The ending of Mass Effect 3 was another massive WAHHHHHHHHH moment for many, was it not?

 

I was rather miffed the hype about choices i'd made in previous games (lordy the hours put into Mass Effect 1+2, plus the DLC on 360) had so little impact in the 3rd game and yes the ending was a bit bloody daft, but it was the developers game to do what they wanted with.

 

I'd enjoyed the ride, the ending was just like many movie endings, not what i expected, bit limp, but didn't detract from the overal experience.

Yeah I can't see Valve releasing HL3 until they come up with some new amazing game mechanic for it that they know for sure will blow everyone away. That or it will be a VR title when/if VR really takes off and is in almost every home.