Editor's Note: Editor's Choice

Russ Pitts

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May 1, 2006
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Editor's Choice

The gaming population is growing broader by the day. So why aren't gamers becoming any less narrow-minded?

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Marowit

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I really enjoyed reading that.

The only thing that stood out to me, as difficult to swallow, is the connection you make between sales and quality. All one has to do is look at the best selling movie at the box-office to see the how that isn't always true, it's Titanic by the way.

Also, in an attempt to answer the question you pose in your post, I think gamers certainly have become less narrow-minded, and people have become less narrow-minded about gamers. The popularity of the medium now can attest to that.

The problem arises when you look at a narrow-swath of gamers you'll see on sites like this one...after all, we're sitting around debating pretty meaningless, but fun, topics. It's like going to a Trekkie convention and lecturing them on the futility of debating Picard vs. Kirk...at the end of the day that's what one of our hobbies entails. Some people do it with literature, some people do it with politics, but what it comes down to is your personal interests.
 

lasersandbearsohno

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Everyone loves to have something to defend or attack for that matter, and alot of people want to justify the money they spent or the money they saved. its been that way forever
 

Russ Pitts

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May 1, 2006
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Marowit said:
All one has to do is look at the best selling movie at the box-office to see the how that isn't always true, it's Titanic by the way.
Adjusted for inflation, it's Gone with the Wind. Titanic is 6th[footnote]http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm[/footnote].
 

Marowit

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paulgruberman said:
Marowit said:
All one has to do is look at the best selling movie at the box-office to see the how that isn't always true, it's Titanic by the way.
Adjusted for inflation, it's Gone with the Wind. Titanic is 6th[footnote]http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm[/footnote].
Thanks for the heads up.
 

PlasticTree

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May 17, 2009
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Great article. Not just an introduction to the other articles.
A big part of your text isn't really something new, but it's definitely well written, and 'updated' to the latest news in the game industry.

Personally, I definitely see myself as the nerd kind of gamer. Hell, I check this site every day for more than just Zero Punctuation and I manage to get decent scores on the quizzes, of course I'm a 'nerd kind of gamer'. That doesn't mean that someone like me has to fit into the stereotype, though. I, and with me a lot of other nerdgamers, manage to lurk in topics about ninjas and zombies, while also pretending to be 'normal' in that other strange world. You know, the one outside our pc. Heck, we actually aren't pretending at all. There will probably always be people who do fit into the gamerstereotype, but to be honest, I come across more gamers who can survive in the real world than I come across basementlurkers.

Even gamers, the most conservative group of people since, eh, conservatives, are learning to adapt themselves. 20 years ago that was a lot harder, because gaming was still relatively unaccessible for non-techies/nerds, and because we didn't have a lot of games that were also liked outside 'the scene', like Halo, Call of Duty and sportgames. But now it's 2009, and 'our world' has hugely changed. I always hear the press talking about how Nintendo changed non-gamers to casual gamers, but the game industry also changed it's own hardcore gamers: they now know how to survive in a pub.
 

pernastin

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Though it most certainly is among the mootest of points, I'd like to point out that me and several other stubborn gamers (Like, maybe even more than two people! Maybe.) are still happily missing out on MW2 just on principle.

(Oh don't mind me, just knee-jerk reacting to the "you do" not aimed at me.)
 

saintchristopher

Goes "Ding" When There's Stuff.
Aug 14, 2009
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Frankly, your last point hit it on the nose, and was what I was waiting to read (and would have pointed out if you hadn't.)

Its like when your favorite bar suddenly gets trendy. Suddenly it's cool to go there, but nobody cares that you've been going there forever. In fact, you won't even be treated as a regular, since the establishment will try harder to cater to the hip trendy crowd and all their money than the one guy who's been giving them steady business for years.

And the gaming industry is most certainly catering to their new trendy, mainstream clientele. Everything from shovelware on the Wii to be bought by people who don't know any better, to making the same game over and over just to maintain the "you-liked-it-when-we-did-this-right?" status quo, the industry at large seems to be skirting towards a precarious place as we enter a new decade.
 

Chaos Marine

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I consider Microsoft the sole reason why gaming is going down the shitter for bringing in the sideways wearing hat yokels with monotonous tripe like Halo.
 

Hexenwolf

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Chaos Marine said:
I consider Microsoft the sole reason why gaming is going down the shitter for bringing in the sideways wearing hat yokels with monotonous tripe like Halo.
And I consider you rather narrow-minded. One company and one game?

But forgetting all that, I take particular offense to this: "gaming is going down the shitter".

I disagree. There are plenty of excellent and innovative games out there. The Left 4 Dead series is fun and innovative. Hard Rain looks it too. Assassin's Creed was quite different, Bioshock was amazing, here's hoping the second will be too. Starcraft II whenever it comes out. Really, who says gaming is going down the shitter?
 

PlasticTree

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Oh, something important that I forget to mention: Editor's Choices rule. Really. I understand it can't be used too many times, of course, but it's definitely a keeper. If I would make a top 10 of every article I've read on the Escapist, at least 5 would come from a 'Editor's Choice'.
 

jtesauro

Freelance Detective
Nov 8, 2009
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Hey Russ, thanks for the article this was a really interesting read. Between being a primarily console gamer and a New Yorker, I've been involved in more senseless hatred arguments then I care to count ( Consoles VS PC's, Mets Vs Yankees, etc etc ) and really they all feel like a waste of time to me.

Personally the fervor over Call of Duty reminds me of the fervor some people, ( even some in this very thread ) seem to have against Halo and Microsoft in regards to their adaption of the FPS genre from PC to console. Look, yeah maybe alot of people who enjoy Halo are casual gaming, beer drinking morons, but I don't see why that means I can't enjoy it too.

Sometimes I'm in the mood for Halo. Sometimes I'm in the mood for Planescape: Torment. Why do I have to be one or the other to be accepted in gaming culture?
 

Chaos Marine

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Hexenwolf said:
Chaos Marine said:
I consider Microsoft the sole reason why gaming is going down the shitter for bringing in the sideways wearing hat yokels with monotonous tripe like Halo.
And I consider you rather narrow-minded. One company and one game?

But forgetting all that, I take particular offense to this: "gaming is going down the shitter".
Because Halo is the main game responsible for bring in the slack jawed idiot jocks into gaming who will accept any old trash generally lowering the bar for what's needed to make a great game.

Hexenwolf said:
I disagree. There are plenty of excellent and innovative games out there. The Left 4 Dead series is fun and innovative. Hard Rain looks it too. Assassin's Creed was quite different, Bioshock was amazing, here's hoping the second will be too. Starcraft II whenever it comes out. Really, who says gaming is going down the shitter?
I won't deny that there are good games, but for the majority, a lot of them are getting terribly simplified and you can thank consoles for that.

Case in point, look back to the original FEAR. That was, sure it suffered from a little too many office sections (Though it was mainly set in an office so what would you expect?) mainly developed for the PC and then ported to the consoles. Look at the sequel. It's so ridiculously different in almost every respect from the change of real-ish looking, near future weapons to plasticy, bright and shiny guns, with the entire Replica army getting an armour design face lift which was particularly jarring since they dont at all fit in with the original design scheme, particularly with their glowing I'm here shoot me! design. The sequel was supposed to occur literally minutes before the end of the first game and just about everything in the game bar a few names, characters etc are completely different. For all intents and purposes, you could have named it anything else and changed some names and it could have been it's own game entirely and unrelated to the original FEAR.

Then you have the difficulty which was absolutely reduced. Granted the first, even on the hardest difficulty setting was very easy to beat, the second wasn't even a challenge. I barely even needed any of the health items.

CoD4MW2. Enough said. And the game isn't even that good! It's actually worse than MW1 and the only great game who's sequel-was-such-crap-compared-to-it's-seequelwas Mechwarrior 3 with Mechwarrior 4 literally looking far uglier and playing horribly.

Deus Ex, the original is a rightly venerated PC classic and is one of the best all time RPG/FPS games and nothing else has come close to besting it. Then Deus Ex2 came along with tiny maps because the consoles at the time (PS2) were so limited in their ability to run it and every single thing about it was dumbed down from the universal ammo to the plot and choices.

But back again to Halo. That game is one of the most bland, uninteresting, dull, boring, monotonous shooters I've ever played. You basically play as a drugged turtle and I don't mean of the ninja variety either. The only thing, and I stress only thing, that the Halo had going for it was it's score which is pretty damned fantastic and it succeeded in giving the game a pretty epic feel. For as long as it took for you to realise that the gameplay was never going to even come close to the music. That is such a pity too.

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Good Hades did I hate this game. It is so ridiculously bad it's a veritible slog to get through and everything seemed so clumsy and poorly done. From oversized and under ranged units to the cringeworthy FMVs. The first RA was gritty with a slightly loopy tech base which was grand for the setting, the second had slightly crazier units and some camp characters and the third was suffering from intense ADD. Though I would suppose you could credit that to EA.
 

Lord_Ascendant

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Ugh, I hate talking about "mainstream" games. I play what games i find interesting and keep me interested. I play, on average, 2 hours of CoD4 on the PC every week. 16 hours of Team Fortress 2 every week on the PC. And the majority of my other gaming time is spent in Guild Wars on on the 360 playing Left 4 Dead, Rock Band, Halo 3 and Lost Odyssey. I play a few matches of C&C3 online every once in a blue moon, but other than that I'm pretty even between PC and the 360 and I see no difference. I play games because they distract me, some more than others (thus 16 hours of TF2 a week!). "Mainstream" just means which one has sold the most units, it has nothing to do with status. It's the fools who make themselves feel bigger because they are playing all the latest games.

Also, Russ. When you sign your name it looks like Puss Pitts and not Russ. Just thought I should mention that bit of silliness.