#GamingCulture #PreconceivedNotions #VideoGameQuality #GamerReviews
Gaming culture has been greatly impacted by preconceived notions and the idea that every game is for every person. It seems as though the rise of social media and online review platforms has given everyone a voice, and with that, comes a lot of negativity and harsh criticism. Gamers these days often complain about games not meeting their personal expectations, and this has led to a culture of excessive hate and unjustified negativity towards developers and their creations.
In this article, we’ll delve into the issues surrounding gaming culture, the impact of preconceived notions on game reviews, and how the notion that every game is for every person has resulted in an unfair and unjust representation of many video games.
##The Rise of Preconceived Notions in Gaming Culture
With the rise of social media and online review platforms, everyone has a platform to voice their opinion, whether it’s positive or negative. However, this has also led to a trend of excessive negativity and harsh criticism towards video games. Instead of providing constructive feedback, many gamers resort to complaining and spewing hate towards games that don’t meet their personal expectations.
###Examples of Exaggerated Negativity
– The amount of exaggerated negativity in reviews and online discussions about video games has cultivated a toxic environment within the gaming community.
– Many gamers are quick to dismiss a game based on preconceived notions and personal biases, without objectively evaluating its quality and entertainment value.
##The Fallacy of “Every Game is for Every Person”
One of the most damaging notions in gaming culture is the belief that every game is for every person. This has led to a false sense of entitlement among gamers, where they expect every game to cater to their specific preferences and playstyles.
###Impact on Game Reviews
– The notion that every game should appeal to every person has resulted in unfair and inaccurate game reviews.
– Gamers often criticize a game for not meeting their personal preferences, neglecting the fact that every game has its target audience.
##The Importance of Objective Evaluation
It’s important for gamers to approach game reviews and discussions with an objective mindset, instead of letting preconceived notions and personal biases cloud their judgment. Every game is designed with a specific audience in mind, and it’s unfair to judge a game solely based on personal preferences.
###The Need for Constructive Criticism
– Constructive criticism involves providing feedback that can help developers improve their games, rather than simply complaining about personal dislikes.
– Gamers should strive to evaluate a game objectively, considering its intended audience and design choices, before forming and expressing their opinions.
##The Impact of Differing Platforms on Game Performance
Another factor that contributes to preconceived notions and unjustified criticism in gaming culture is the varying performance of games on different platforms. With the wide range of PC configurations and console versions, games may run differently on each platform. This leads to complaints about optimization issues that may not be relevant to all players.
###Challenges with Game Optimization
– The varying power of PCs and different console versions can lead to performance discrepancies, which may result in unfair criticisms towards game developers.
– Gamers should consider the impact of differing platforms on game performance before forming harsh opinions about a game’s quality and optimization.
##Final Thoughts: Not Every Game is for Every Person
In conclusion, gaming culture has been greatly impacted by preconceived notions, exaggerated negativity, and the fallacy that every game is for every person. It’s important for gamers to approach game reviews and discussions with an objective mindset, considering the intended audience and design choices of each game. Instead of resorting to hate and unjustified criticism, gamers should strive to provide constructive feedback that can help developers improve their games.
In the end, not every game is for every person. It’s okay to recognize that a game may not align with personal preferences, without unfairly criticizing it for not meeting individual expectations. By approaching gaming culture with a more open and objective mindset, we can contribute to a more constructive and positive community for both gamers and game developers.
There have always been people who’ve basically said “I played popular game that’s a genre I don’t usually like and I don’t see why people like it.” It’s a small portion of the gaming population, and it’s no bigger now than it ever was before.
Ehh I think gaming culture has long since been ruined by toxic assholes abusing voice chat. By the time we got to catering for everyone the culture was allready in ruins.
15 years ago people didn’t have internet within fingers reach 24/7. I’d be willing to bet people bitched just as much, it just wasn’t as vocal.
Gamers, really fans of anything in general, have become super entitled since the rise of social media. They can express their pent up hate directly to the creators of things with the rage of a 30 year old man who’s accomplished nothing.
Add on to that corporations looking to squeeze every amount of profit possible out of every game and you get modern gaming culture. Luckily there still are great games out there, you just kind of have to ignore discussions around games which sucks.
Lots of people seem unable to realise or accept how big video games have become. With that, new target groups have been introduced into a hobby that used to be way more esoteric and niche. If you were a gamer in the 00’s you were the “majority”, or “dominant group” of that medium. Your opinion mattered the most, since you were the only one buying those games.
This has changed dramatically. Nowadays “core gamers” are not the “dominant group” anymore and some of them can’t accept the reality. There are new groups of people playing with vastly different preferences and ideas as to what a great game is. You can see that whenever someone writes “I have no idea why anyone would do […]”, like spend money on skins or play Fortnite for hundreds of hours and just be happy.
So for the old guard it feels like someone took the key to the castle away from them. Some of them are emotionally mature enough to just go “that’s ok, gaming changes and I don’t have to like all of it, there’s still plenty of fun to be had here for me”. Whilst others seem to be emotionally stuck in that “every game needs to cater to me specifically otherwise it’s trash” mindset.
Also keep in mind that the internet gives those people an instant way to publish their opinions or things. Bad actors have existed forever in games (and every other medium), we just weren’t confronted with them 24/7.
> but it’s so hard these days to know what is actually quality and what is shit because people will complain like it’s the worst game ever no matter what game it is.
Well there’s your problem, you’re listening to the gamers as a group. Find some reviewers who you agree with and listen to their opinions instead. Dont listen to the masses, the masses are fucking stupid.
To play a bit of devil’s advocate, I think part of the cause for this is the rise of indie games and the gaming industry’s own greed/incompetence. If you’re charging 60-70 dollars for a game that offers gameplay that isn’t substantially more engaging than what I can get from an indie title priced at 15 dollars, just with better graphics, than your game, by comparison, sucks.
I would also add that gamers defend companies like its their own mother. Companies can literally kick them in the nuts and charge them $24.99 and the fans will argue its fine.
I stopped watching reviews a long time ago, now I just look at raw gameplay and decide from there. Reviews became a joke to me when AC Odyssey suddenly became popular after Valhalla released.
this is how I feel when everyone wants dark souls or soulslikes to be modified to be more “accessible” when in reality they want a completely different game.
Accessibility is things like, color blind options, subtitles, or different ports for consoles, not making the game tailored to absolutely everyone.
Thats like saying “Dead island should have their dialogue censored and no blood because its not accessible for my 5 year old”
Or horror games are too scary for me, so I want the entire game to be completely bright and a warning timing down for when theres a jump scare.
Thats not accessibility, its just pandering. They are not the same
>logged into the game and tried it for hours, and then been pleased by a perfectly average game is astounding
The problem is the industry has moved toward WANTING every game to be “Average” in order to appeal to the largest audience. Look at the Assassins creed series, It’s devolved into generic, openworld, formulaic, inoffensive slop.
“I feel like 10-15 years ago, if someone didn’t like a game they were fine admitting “yeah it was alright but not for me”, whereas nowadays the exact same experience is met with a “the game runs like shit, horrible character models, so stupid you can’t do XYZ, fuck these devs”
The this game runs like shit is because we have far greater technology these days that should be able to run any game at a constant 60 fps But that complaint has always been there with pc gamers.
But 10-15 years ago I present to you Zone of the enders the second runner which released in 2003 and runs like shit and thats 21 years ago
Actually it’s a very different problem. I don’t think I have read a review ever. However, you can’t test games. Before you used to have magazines that did demos or could go into shops and test it.
Now, it’s rare without an open beta (which is normally hidden behind buying the game) you can’t test a game.
So what happens is someone buys a game that looks good. Doesn’t get what they want, and complains. Because why wouldn’t you? If you didn’t like what you paid for you should and have the right to complain.
It’s why if you can, watch a little gameplay rather than reviews 10/10 you know in your guy if you would like the game before you buy it.
This complaining on free to play games, are literally psychotic people.
People often tend to want to present their opinions as factual truth, for whatever reason. Generally speaking, any time someone says “this game is bad” you should mentally convert that to “I didn’t like this.” Because that’s all they’re really saying.
>I feel like 10-15 years ago, if someone didn’t like a game they were fine admitting “yeah it was alright but not for me”, whereas nowadays the exact same experience is met with a “the game runs like shit, horrible character models, so stupid you can’t do XYZ, fuck these devs”
Really? I remember differently.
a) People said that about everything back then. But especially anything Japanese or JRPG.
b) If you didn’t like it? People did **NOT** take it standing down.
c) 10-15 years ago was also when most of the internet would convert to Scientology if Yahtzee did. If you said you liked the game? People would emerge from nowhere to shit on you for it and insult your taste.
I think some of your examples of outrageous complaints are not quite like the others.
It’s one thing for people to expect every game to appeal to them. Even if this means compromising core fundamental design elements to homogenize it. I.e. a niche game being made more generic.
But it’s another to complain about a game running poorly. That’s a whole issue separate from people being mad about a game not being what they want in its content.
Not to mention, it is a valid complaint. A fair number of games do run poorly on modern hardware with really no excuse. Especially when you have studios using the same game engines with games running really well.
Publishers did this. They try to appeal to everyone and as a result we get a watered down mess.
People on the internet like to talk about things they don’t like. Drama sells. It’s exciting. This is not just exclusive to video games. Politics, music, movies. Outrage feels good.
Lol ironically you’re doing it right now with this post. You could have spent this time posting about something you liked, but you didn’t.
Has it helped? No. To say this is what ruined game culture is a stretch though.
To be fair, “game runs like shit” is a pretty fair assessment for a lot of games coming out that are just shit optimized
Reminds me of the elden ring craze. So many people were like “why is this game so hard! I don’t like it”. Homie, it’s a soulslike. That’s the whole point!
Same with everybody claiming non-open world games are bad, because there’d no “freedom”.
You think this is bad? Star wars fans are way worse.
I think you’ve touched on something that isn’t mentioned enough. The amount of factors involved in performance and stability in PC. Not everyone is evenly educated on their equipment. The self assembled are their own potential grey area of compatability. Drivers alone can make the difference in a game that’s taxing on the GPU.
But their unifying factor will be that the errors happened during this new graphically challenging game. “POORLY OPTIMIZED… for my specific bespoke blend of PC parts sourced from whomever on Amazon has the lowest price.” Should be their actual complaint. But they don’t understand enough about their chosen hobby to do adequate diagnostic testing.
The outrage and hatred for diablo 4 when people decided it was not an 5000 hour always online power grinding game but actually was a really good game for 30 to 40 hours. People just blindly parrot whatever youtuber opinion