Increasing Gamer Hate

[Li Mu]

I apologise in advance as this has become a bit TLR.

I am old enough to remember the rivalry between Sega and Nintendo. I remember being a staunch Sega fan. I loved the Sonic games, I loved Earthworm Jim, they were pretty damn cool. My friend had a SNES and I have to admit that I felt a little superior to him; compared to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 the graphics of Mario were terrible. But even so I frequently played with my friend and could appreciate how enjoyable many of the Nintendo games were.

Skip forward a few years and Sony released the Playstation. Between myself and my friends we had all the main systems (PS, dreamcast, N64) For sure, the N64 was the most fun games system to play when you had a group of friends. Mario Kart 64 and Golden Eye beat everything on the other platforms when it came to multiplayer. But PS did have FFVII as an exclusive, which certainly made the PS worth having.

But whatever system we had we bore no hatred towards the other systems. Nintendo had it's good games and Sony had it's own. There was of course a small rivalry between the Sony fanboys and the Nintendo fans, but it was friendly enough. There is no hatred directed at any particular game or system and certainly no insults directed at the users.

You would never see people claiming, "Mario Kart 64 is fucking shit and anyone who buys it should die".

Skip forward to today.

Diablo 3 comes out and I check youtube to see some gameplay videos made by players. I then look at the comments and see endless hatred directed towards the game and its players.
I'll quote a few;

"D3 looks like the worst game ever. Fuck Blizzard for being fags"
"Lookz like a shitty knockoff of WoW to me...total garbage"
"COD is better than this shit"
"boooring, i want gta 5"
"ppl who play this should jst die"

I like these next two...

"same shit as Diablo2"
"Blizz changed everything this is shit"
I see...so it's totally the same but also completely different?


This is just an example of a few posts on D3 videos, but we all know that such comments can be found about other games.
Why are we now living in an age when there is such hatred directed at games and their players? I remember getting real shit in school because I liked games. To buy a gaming magazine was considered geeky and could result in you getting beaten up. Now gamers are the worst enemies of other gamers.
There has developed a bullying culture in games where anyone with a different opinion or taste in games will be persecuted by others.

Maybe I want to play Diablo 3. Maybe I play it and enjoy it. Should I really suffer abuse for enjoying a game? In the comments I posted above you'll see people posting about GTA5 and COD. This is also an interesting development in the gaming market; the rabid Fan.
Spreading fanboyism and hatred into threads or topics about completely unrelated games.
Is GTA5 even slightly comparable to Diablo 3? Nope. They couldn't be any different and yet this one guy felt the need to insult D3 players whilst cheering on GTA5.

It's become something like supporting a sports team. You can ONLY support 1.
I would happily enjoy playing Battlefield3 and COD4. Personally I don't see why I have to chose just one and not play both. But currently we seem to be in a world where you have to chose allegiances. You play COD4 OR BF3 and not both.
I'm a gamer and I like games. It doesn't matter what platform the game is on or who made it; if it's a good game then it's a good game. Why is gaming suddenly filled with politics? We have people demanding boycotts of games.

If a game rips off another game and does it better we should be happy that we now have an even better game. If COD4 has a better single player while BF3 has a better multiplayer why not buy both and enjoy everything they have to offer?
But mainly, why are so many gamers angry?

I would like to hear from people who spread hatred on youtube or in forums. Are you one of those people who hate BF3 players just because you're a COD4 kind of guy? What makes you want to do this?

Is this a generational thing? I tend to find that the newer kids who grew up in the PS2 era seem to be the focus of this hatred. In the older system days we were all just happy to have a great game to play. Gaming was somewhat new and magical for us, whereas now it's an industry where demands and expectations are higher.

I have few answers, but perhaps the combined wisdom of the Escapist forum can help shed some light on this...BEFORE IT DESTROYS US ALL!

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

You know, I don't think that it's a generation thing, or that any of this didn't exist beforehand, more than anything I think that it just wasn't as noticeable until the internet age.

If anything though, people on youtube are just insufferable pricks and should be ignored.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Like you said fanboyism was always there, it's just the internets uncanny ability to exaggerate things.
A rude comment in real life is dismissed and forgotten two minutes later but the same thing on internet is etched into databanks for years to come, be dragged out and discussed as if it is a statement of any significance... it is just a strange real - virtual communication transition that makes things awkward.

 

[Sovereignty]

It's normal to see the past through rose-tinted goggles. Unfortunately we forget how crappy things were. The console elitism was just as bad (If not worse.) depending on the circles you ran in. This could be (in my case) due to me having to go to specialty stores to buy games... Which meant being near other gamers who were also passionate about their hobbies.

Ultimately I think it's always come down to who is in your circles with hate. And if you try and use the interwebs as a barometer of how bad fanboi-ism is, well... That's like trying to find something that smells nice in a pile of feces.

 

[TehCookie]

Obviously it's because games were better in the past. Even if you liked Sonic more, you could still have fun with Mario.

 

[Galletea]

I wonder if part of it is down to age. In the sonic generation is was considered still to be mainly for children and youths, and now gamers are getting older and angrier. Also the internet lets people be dicks a lot easier.

 

[DoPo]

I wonder if part of it is down to age. In the sonic generation is was considered still to be mainly for children and youths, and now gamers are getting older and angrier. Also the internet lets people be dicks a lot easier.

No, I'm pretty sure thirteen year olds still exist. Your argument for age is therefore invalid.

The internet thing is true though. AS mentioned above it's more noticeable now. OP complains about YouTube comments. Well, setting aside the fact that those are YouTube comments, I don't recall being able to tap into YouTube for opinions on games back in Diablo 2. Not only to the fact that YouTube didn't exist but because a whole lot less people went to the Internet to share their opinions and catch up on everybody else's. Me included. And OP includes, as he pretty much said that the opinions were confined to his circle of friends and acquaintances - the Internet wasn't a factor in his past retrospective. Well, for me too - I had a limited pool of knowledge about games to use - my friends and other people I knew who were into gaming. We were not a lot, less than a hundred in total in my town. With time, the gamers grew, we got easier and more reliable access to the Internet, and thus access to more and more voices on the matter. And tell you what - the voices weren't really that different than before. There was some rampant hate from even before then. The things that changed was the quantity - instead of 2 out of 20 people calling something shit, it was not 200 out of 2000. And depending on where you go, you'd come across either on those 200, the rest 1800 or a mixture of them.

The hate hasn't increased. You're just able to experience a greater amount of it while ignoring the rest. We call that confirmation bias.

True, the Internet tends to exaggerate things but so do most other gamers I remember talking with in person. There is nothing new. I've seen fights started (well, just started, not going full blown...most of the time) because of a similar gamer hate you're describing. On the Internet it's just a few more angry comments.

 

[Li Mu]

So what you're saying is that assholes have always been around, but now they are able to be more vocal to more people.

That makes sense.

 

[Nouw]

DoPo says it the best.

So what you're saying is that assholes have always been around, but now they are able to be more vocal to more people.

That makes sense.

Where I come from we have a saying that directly translates into
"The empty barrel will make the most noise"

I think a amount of empty barrels are the same. The internet just gave them an echo chamber.

Where do you come from? Just wondering .

 

[Zhukov]

As already mentioned, that's mostly just the internet effect.

To illustrate: how often have you seen people making those sorts of comments face-to-face? I'm guessing not a lot, if at all.

 

[Vault101]

"D3 looks like the worst game ever. Fuck Blizzard for being fags"
"Lookz like a shitty knockoff of WoW to me...total garbage"
"COD is better than this shit"
"boooring, i want gta 5"
"ppl who play this should jst die"

!

they probably werent even serious..they were just trolls....

the COD comments make me wonder though

 

[Rastien]

So what you're saying is that assholes have always been around, but now they are able to be more vocal to more people.

That makes sense.

Where I come from we have a saying that directly translates into
"The empty barrel will make the most noise"

I think a amount of empty barrels are the same. The internet just gave them an echo chamber.

My interpretation of that is the one left with nothing will shout about it? but its not a saying im familur with just my interpretation.

It's intresing but... some games seem more socially acceptable in some circles than other, which is spilling over onto the internet. For example where i work theres a group of guys all play COD but won't touch anything RPG like with a barg pole. They won't rag on you for playing these games but won't hesitate to say "diablo 3? nah its shit".

Victory on my part on that front i have a small 4 pc network setup at home, they came round the other day got mashed sat around playing diablo 2 4 player for 3 hours and loved it x).

 

[Rastien]

"D3 looks like the worst game ever. Fuck Blizzard for being fags"
"Lookz like a shitty knockoff of WoW to me...total garbage"
"COD is better than this shit"
"boooring, i want gta 5"
"ppl who play this should jst die"

!

they probably werent even serious..they were just trolls....

the COD comments make me wonder though

Sums up my view on most gobshites online x)

 

[Rastien]

So what you're saying is that assholes have always been around, but now they are able to be more vocal to more people.

That makes sense.

Where I come from we have a saying that directly translates into
"The empty barrel will make the most noise"

I think a amount of empty barrels are the same. The internet just gave them an echo chamber.

My interpretation of that is the one left with nothing will shout about it? but its not a saying im familur with just my interpretation.

It's intresing but... some games seem more socially acceptable in some circles than other, which is spilling over onto the internet. For example where i work theres a group of guys all play COD but won't touch anything RPG like with a barg pole. They won't rag on you for playing these games but won't hesitate to say "diablo 3? nah its shit".

Victory on my part on that front i have a small 4 pc network setup at home, they came round the other day got mashed sat around playing diablo 2 4 player for 3 hours and loved it x).

MovieBob made kinda the same point on his simpsons episode. The things that set us apart are much more apparent than the things that put us together with the invention of the internet.

It is cliquing all over again. Someone with a sociology degree might be able to explain this better.

Oh no i fully understand where your coming from dude, cliques are a big thing and they don't finish at school...

In our office the billing team are all women and any new comer into the billing team is persecuted and bullied beyond belief... i had a friend join there team she quit the company after 2 months because of them its a real issue : /

captcha- Hugger-Mugger what a delightful way to be mugged knife point gimmie your money hand over money get a hug, mugger runs off.

 

[veloper]

Only 2 out of those 7 bolded quotes could be attributed to gamer hate.

The other 5 are just negative remarks about D3. Probably coming from disappointed players.
Is it the word "shit" that's shocking the OP?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Always relevant in conversations like these:

Note that there is also a propensity for unchecked hyperbole. Often people will say "flaming sack of pustules" when what they feel is "meh". How many times have you, whilst completely calm, written up a post that makes you sound completely batshit? My guess is many times.

The internet is extraordinarily marvelous, but it's also a bit of a shite medium for meaningful communication.

 

[370999]

Always relevant in conversations like these:


Note that there is also a propensity for unchecked hyperbole. Often people will say "flaming sack of pustules" when what they feel is "meh". How many times have you, whilst completely calm, written up a post that makes you sound completely batshit? My guess is many times.

The internet is extraordinarily marvelous, but it's also a bit of a shite medium for meaningful communication.

Indeed, in fact I would say that because of the lack of non-verbal feedback meaning a lot of nuance is lost we have to compensate with hyperbole.

Which is silly as it then devalues the hyperbole putting us in a viscous cycle.

 

[Bloodtrozorx]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect

We simply never had a system for an anonymous interaction where a person's real thoughts can come out or the person can act in any way without repercussions.

On the whole, I don't hate gamers who use a different device then me, I blame the internet

 

[EvilMaggot]

Some people are just ignorant and wont really try something else than thier beloved 'franchise' like some WoW players wont try anything else than WoW because they think every other MMO suck. Or like some of the people ive met that play CoD they simply WILL NOT try anything else than CoD because in thier world its the best game EVER! but peace and happiness to them i my self have been on the WoW wagon some years ago and ive tried sooooo many other MMO's but kept coming back to WoW because it had a special fomular to it.. but i eventually got to bored of it Also been on the CoD wagon though stopped after CoD(4)MW the franchise was at its peak and thats that.

It ends up like OP says being.. you can only support this one game or developer. But im one of those types that cant..simply CANT be satisfied with one game, it gets to damn boring im soon hitting my 180 games on STEAM because i need a wide varity of games to choose from.

Where was i going with this ?...

People are becoming to used to big AAA titles and expect EVERY game to be like it..

I LOVE DIABLO 3 it fixes all the things that i kinda wanted fixed in D2 .. barbs using Mana in D2... <_< got anoying to a point so that they fixed it over to fury generation like warrior in WoW i thought SWEET!.

hurr durr... what was the point in my post.. not sure anymore.. lol

 

[Iwata]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I don't know why some people still play games. They seem to buy games just so they can ***** about it with other like-minded people. I'll just stay here and enjoy the games I like while everyone else gets entangled in crap, thank you very much.