I think Gamers need to calm down

[Bobbity]

Very, very true. Thank you for helping draw attention to this, and I hope that more people can adopt your attitude.

When people are bitching about Valve[footnote]I mean, for fuck's sake! They're VALVE![/footnote] for some tiny, little, almost unnoticeable DLC, you know that the hysteria is going too far.

In the last two months, I've seen people ***** about DA2[footnote]Okay, that one was justified, although people review bombing it was not.[/footnote], Skyrim[footnote]Skyrim!? It's the fucking sandbox Western RPG with dragons! This is fucking ridiculous![/footnote], and Portal 2, to name a few. When games from some of the most beloved developers in the industry are raising an outcry from petty and stupid gamers, something is very wrong.

Here, FalloutJack said it best.

Say it with me, people.

[HEADING=1]UNPLEASABLE. FANBASE.[/HEADING]

And more's the pity, because it wasn't always like this. When were heard what sort of combat Jade Empire would have, we certainly didn't go up in flames, but we'll ***** about the changes to ME2? Come on!

 

[teebeeohh]

because we know what "tweaked for a larger market" means(recently thats either motion controls or be like cod)
and because we just had the disaster that was DA2

 

[silasbufu]

Some people are just taken out of their "comfort zone" when any change is made to their stable little lives.
That is all.

ME 3 will be good btw.

 

[Trogdor1138]

Calm down?

Man, this thread used to be cool, but now it's RUINED FOREVER HNNNNGGGH!

I... I think I pulled something...

I lol'd. It pretty much sums up gaming forums, which is kind of sad :/

 

[Racecarlock]

Well, at least players are blaming the publishers and not console gamers like me. I do enjoy FPS games, but I don't expect every game to be one. I do hope Mass Effect 3 will be the best mass effect to date for, well, mass effect fans. Me? I'll be playing Saints Row games and maybe some rail shooters. One more thing before I go though. Wanting simple controls that don't take an hour to figure out doesn't make me an idiot. It makes me a person who doesn't want to go through a bunch of inconvenient bullshit just to play a game.

 

[Zay-el]

snip

No offense, but I think 'dumbing down" the skills was perfectly justified. If this were any other RPG, I'd understand your reasoning, but ME relies on actual aiming, not point & click. A fair amount of enemies you can mow down just by putting bullets through them, REGARDLESS of class. I did not feel any stronger when putting a measly point into those skills.

In the ME2 system, there's less of it, but anytime you DO place a point, you really get to feel the effect. I see no point in having a too elaborate skill system in a game where you CAN play it through by simply pressing on the left mouse button often enough.

 

[Vault101]

snip

everything you just said is wrong, based on one tiny little fact.
you generalize. you take gamers as a group, and say they collectively have to calm down.
that's like saying 'muslims need to stop doing acts of terrorism". there's only a small minority of extremists who actually have any influence over the matter, both terrorism and calming down.

sorry mabye I could rephrase that...

I find that there is often this trend where alot of people freak out over rumours or "leaked" details as if they have decided then and there said change is going to compltley ruin the universe the game

plus I really only generalised in the title, I mean this kind of thing affects gaming forums alot

 

[Titan Buttons]

I really don't get the obsestion over speculation, no one is going to know if a game is good or crap untill after it is release, it's the exact same as movie

thats the thing though people think they DO know because of some quote from some article

That is true and I believe I did at one point, well I never ragged on about it, if I heard a main gameplay feature was removed in a series that I like was being replace in a sequal or a movie that I thought I'd enjoy got a bad review I would then not want to buy the game or see the movie. I only found that I was wrong because a friend took me to a movie that got mainly bad review but I thought was awesome.

I think there are 2 reasons people believe a game is good or crap. Firstly, they accept the speculation as fact because they are posted on lagitament sites that make it there business to review games.
Secondly, because people don't like a lot of change to come with their favourite games, hell that is Nintendos entire best seller list with Mario and Zelda. The same just in a different packaging, I mean they are fun to play but choose any of them and you will alway see the same red cap plumber who loves mushrooms and jumping on the heads of his enemy, or a sword weilding Blondie in a green tunic with a boomarang.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

It's my hobby and I care about stuff, I reserve the right to consume caffiene and freak out. That is all.

Maybe if that certain developer was more reassuring we would be quiet. Did you notice that everyone was totally okay with it being delayed and then the sentence of doom was released to the stockholders. We only get upset when there is a need to worry. No one wants a repeat of 'The game that shall not be named 2'

 

[Legion]

Say it with me, people.

[HEADING=1]UNPLEASABLE. FANBASE.[/HEADING]

Thank you.

So true, just head on over to the Gears of War 3 Beta forums right now, Jesus Christ it's almost as bad as the Bioware ones after Dragon Age 2's release.

snip

everything you just said is wrong, based on one tiny little fact.
you generalize. you take gamers as a group, and say they collectively have to calm down.
that's like saying 'muslims need to stop doing acts of terrorism". there's only a small minority of extremists who actually have any influence over the matter, both terrorism and calming down.

A valid point, but a little pedantic. It is fairly obvious a gamer is not talking about every single gamer unless they explicitly state it, or else the OP would come under the people who need to calm down, and obviously the OP does not consider themselves to be one of those people.

 

[AbstractStream]

Say it with me, people.

[HEADING=1]UNPLEASABLE. FANBASE.[/HEADING]

Thank you.

Unpleasable. Fanbase.
It's sad. Fanbases ruin all kinds of games.

 

[repeating integers]

There's a thread similar to this on the RelicNews forums, I'll quote some guy from over there.

Personally, I don't approach this topic as "gaming has been dumbed down" anymore. It's too general of a statement. This isn't a monolithic playerbase. Every game/franchise/company has their own set of fans with different tolerances for complexity. At best one can make an argument that an existing company has made a move from a more complex to less complex for sake of expanding their audience, creating a feeling of betrayal from the a subsection of their fanbase that specifically preferred their games for sake of complexity all else be damned.

But that's something you review on case by case basis. With added dose of "did that complexity really do something for the quality of that game?" considerations.

For example, ME1 --> 2. Examine simplification of the skill system and the inventory system. Quite frankly, when comparing finished product to finished product, nothing of value was lost. ME1 item system was mindless. Mindless item pick ups, mindless progression, illusion of choice. The only thing that was even barely interesting about the ME1 item system was were weapon/armor mods, and it pretty much came down add damage, subtract heat or stack regeneration to reduce downtime. Skill system was similar as well - the only choices of consequence were "did I pick up my class's uber skill" followed by "did I pick up Persuade/Intimidate?"

Yes, theoretically, ME1 had greater complexity. Practically, almost no complexity was lost. Yes, ME2 could have attempted to fix all of that and make the existing complexity into real choices. Practically, Bioware is horrible at balancing the choices they give, so I am glad they acknowledged their limits and simplified the system to something within their capabilities to create real choices in. The result of that decision? ME2 trimmed away the rot, iterated on making the classes feel distinct, powers more balanced, core gameplay more interesting. And now that they solidified their basics, in ME3 they are bringing what looks like useful complexity (look the promised changes up: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_3).


So, in other words - the dumbed down argument needs more support beyond wounded cries of hipsteresque "it's popular now it sucks." For one, I would love to see evidence that the casual overflow is legitimately strangling the numbers/quality of complex games. For two, it would be great to see examples of truly great games where one could truly make the argument that the simplification in terms of complexity was followed by simplification in terms of game depth. I know UT is one such example, and I heard something about Civilization? Etc., etc.

I think he's got some quite good points.

 

[mireko]

The new way the karma bars worked encouraged extremism in either Paragon or Renegade.
In the old game you had to focus your skill points into diplomacy, which allowed you to play a morally grey Shepard and still be effective.
In Mass Effect 2 you had to be either a Saint or Devil in order to be good at diplomacy.

Not completely accurate. To unlock further ranks of diplomacy you had to get more paragon points. To unlock ranks of intimidate you had to get more renegade points. Effectively you still had to be a saint or a devil to attain the highest ranks in either skill.

What the ME2 system did was that it cut out the middleman and used paragon/renegade points to directly act as those skills in conjunction with the main class skill (for some reason).

[sub]Agree with the rest of your points, though.[/sub]