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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Casual gamers have it right. Have we lost our path?(long read/rant)

When a casual gamer picks up Carnival Games from the local Wal-Mart and plays it, he thinks it's fun and worth the purchase. When someone asks him, "Hey, why do you like that game?" He says, "Oh, it's fun."

When you ask a hardcore gamer about their game, or to be more specific, the "real" hardcore gamers, they will tell you, "Oh, this game got a 98/100 on gamerankings. It's the best game of all time."

I contend that core gamers put far too much faith in these numbers and it, as much as anything, is killing the very spirit of the gaming industry and its core fanbase.

...but more than that, core gamers feel the NEED to justify the games they play, or the systems they are playing them on. It's that mentality that has made us who we are, for better or worse. Justification. Ownage. Getting up on the next guy by being as good as we can possibly be.

Case in point, Ninja Gaiden 2

Since the game is rated 0.3 points lower than the epic "AAA" status on IGN, the game is no longer worth playing, and now can be forgotten about, crossed off our list, and we can move on to the next game, which hopefully will be a "must purchase."

0.3 points. That is life and death to a hardcore gamer. 3 out of 100.

The inspiration for this thread, in fact, was when I heard another poster proclaim, "Well, it got an 87, so maybe at least some of the hardcore fans can get something out of it."

THAT should give you pause. THAT just breaks my heart. To think we've been so wrangled in by such a single-minded belief system is beyond my ability to comprehend or accept.

Sure we could argue it away by saying, "There are so many games to purchase, that I can only buy the AAAs." That, unfortunately for us all, is simply not true. Unless of course, you want your entire hardcore library for your Xbox 360 to consist of 10 or so games. The count is considerably less for the other systems.

What's even worse is that the games, the good games, with marginal flaws, the original games, are the ones who feel our new found scepticism the harshest.


My favorite games this gen:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney = 81 metacritic average

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn = 78 metacritic average


Some of my largest dissapointments:

Gears of War = 94 metacritic average

Halo 3 = 94 metacritic average


Do we, as a group of core gamers, really go by these scores and only these scores when we decide which games to purchase, and which games to scoff at? Is this the bar?

Tell me, friends, who has it right? The hardcore gamer who disregards their own judgment of a game for the average judgement of a larger group? Or the casual gamer, who picks a game s/he thinks s/he'll like from factors like trailers, genre, boxart, title, maybe a review or two, brand, or developer?

I know I'm not the only one who sees where we went wrong, somewhere along the way, with our modern-crypic black and white judgment of games, slammed shut by a gavel of elitism?

Is this the envisioned endgame when we were first booting up our NES's with our fresh copies of Zelda? Would it have really been as fun if we couldn't keep the fact out of our heads that Zelda scores a 89 on metacritic instead of a 90?

Is this the true ugliness of our obsessive-compulsive "hardcore" natures? Is this why the XBL community isn't civil? Is this why gamers are looked down upon by society and destined to never go mainstream in our purist form? When we can't even help ourselves, who else can help us?


If a kid came up to you on the street and said, "Hey, I've been playing Dark Sector, it's AWESOME!" Wouldn't the first thing that went through your mind be, "That game sucked, what a n00b," even though we've never even played it. So, are we better than casual gamers? Do we really deserve to have this industry focused on us? I can't answer that anymore. Can you?



I don't need your console war.
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor.
You're power hungry, spinnin' stories, and bein' graphics whores.
I don't need your console war.

NO NO, NO NO NO.

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millions of people eat at mcdonalds each day, does this makes it great food?

Just because alot of ppl like bad games doesnt make them good.
these ppl play 2 hours a week, maybe they think carnaval games are fun because they dont know any better.

however if you force me to play that rubbish like as much as lets say devil may cry 4, after a week i will probably be mentally broken.



To quote me from another thread.

Me - fact of the matter you guys say "360 is da best" and i say r&c, uncharted, warhawk, resistance, heavenly sword are better than halo, mass effect, crackdown, gears of war, viva pinata, shadow run, hell raising, and bioshock

Gebx - Bolded part is the problem... it's not us 360 fanboys on these forums.. its the F**King INDUSTRY!! The critics and reviewers!

Games that have a 75% or higher average on metacritic.com

360 - 152

PS3 - 69


Me - HAHAHAHA you think I give a fuck what some dude I've never spoken to before thinks about games?

The only thing that matters is my opinion. not an "industry" so dont throw that desprate bullshit at me. and In my opinon the games I listed rank higher than the 360 games.

Viva Pinata - Incredibly annoying.
Halo - Whats that? starcraft FPS? NO WAI!
Crackdown - I found myself climbing ferris wheels and staying in the off road arena rather than completing the game.
Gears of War - Overrated. Weak story. 4 on 4 multiplayer. Small maps. Not only was it a weak story but it did not explain a god damn thing. Being left out in the dark is fine... unless it's something really big being left out.
Shadow Run - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Hell Raising - Fun for 30 minutes. Had the same problem as crack down. I found myself doing ridiculous things with zombies than finishing the game.
Bioshock - just wasn't for me
Mass Effect - Doesn't interest me
I think the only game I finished on my list was Gears of War... Now tell me that those games are triple A's for me.

I'm not starcraft. I'm not YOU! I don't get brainwashed from a company because they are force feeding me garbage and telling me I SHOULD like it. I'm not gonna allow something I don't like forced down my throat and then with a smile on my face ask for seconds just because it's expensive gourmet cooking that all the people who are somebody's has to like (I'll keep my hot dogs over caviar any day). NO THANK YOU I HAVE A BRAIN! "Hey cool Microsoft crippled me and I cant walk anymore! What's this Microsoft? Crutches? No way! I needed these ever since you broke my legs! Thank you so much!!!!! I love you guys"


So basically I agree with you.



Thanks for the responses, lol. PooperScooper, that example was amazing.

Was Hell Raising supposed to be Dead Rising?



I don't need your console war.
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor.
You're power hungry, spinnin' stories, and bein' graphics whores.
I don't need your console war.

NO NO, NO NO NO.

ZenfoldorVGI said:
Thanks for the responses, lol. PooperScooper, that example was amazing.

Was Hell Raising supposed to be Dead Rising?

Lol... I feel a little silly.



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PooperScooper said:
ZenfoldorVGI said:
Thanks for the responses, lol. PooperScooper, that example was amazing.

Was Hell Raising supposed to be Dead Rising?

Lol... I feel a little silly.


LoL, I'm the king of slippage foibles. Literally, the king. I have a crown, throne, and vassles that remind me to keep calling Twesterm, TwesterN, and Pachter, Patcher.



I don't need your console war.
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor.
You're power hungry, spinnin' stories, and bein' graphics whores.
I don't need your console war.

NO NO, NO NO NO.

well, i think only brainless people follow the scores. i was brainless a couple of times, leading to purchases of RE4 on the Wii and Castlevania for the DS, neither of which i played more than 10 minutes. yes, my purchase was purely based on the fact that the scores were good.

so i learned from my mistakes and now i just buy games i know i have a good chance of enjoying. so, i passed on SMG, Brawl, MP3, MarioKart, etc. instead, i got games that i gather from the review article would give me a good time, like etrian odyssey and luminous arc, both for the DS.

another example would be me passing on Lost Winds and instead going for Star Soldier R instead for my 1st WiiWare purchase.



the Wii is an epidemic.

wartaal said:
millions of people eat at mcdonalds each day, does this makes it great food?

Just because alot of ppl like bad games doesnt make them good.
these ppl play 2 hours a week, maybe they think carnaval games are fun because they dont know any better.

 Your arguement doesn't wash.

 We consume food for nutrients and for enjoyment. The enjoyment part is purely subjective, so in that respect McDonalds is as good as any other food. It's nutritional value (or lack thereof) is the problem.

 However most of us play games for fun, nothing else. If you don't like Carnival Games, that's fine, it's your opinion. But if someone esle enjoys it they are not wrong either, regardless of how many hours a week they play or don't play video games.

 



"It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever." - Spinal Tap

It's also kinda funny that starcraft claims the GTA4 360 game is better than the Ps3 version because it has a better score.

But of course that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that different people have different tastes and reviewing different platform at all.

It's all about the e-peens now a days



Oh come on: You totally mix up two things.

The fetishism for gamerankings on this page, which is pretty idiotic.

And the fact that people who have played more than one game hate crap like Carnival games.

If you like Fire Emblem more than Halo even if it has lower scores that doesn't mean that you are less hardcore. It means the contrary you like a genre (SRGP) that is the bastion of hardcore gamers and just a niche, so it will not get as high scores as games like Halo that have much higher production values and speak to more people.

You are totally allowed to disregard crap like Carnival Games for its bad scores though. Many people also have fun with Adam Sandler movies. That doesn't mean that they deserve good scores or that people with taste should like them.

/rant off