Lets be Cynical.

[sam42ification]

I feel like complaining about things so i'll start by getting all my complaints of my chest then you can join in. If your feeling optimistic then you can dissagre and call me or who ever else who is complain or being cynical a massive twat and tell us to get over it. What ever you want to do.

I'll start of with the future of gaming which doesn't look too good. Games are becoming less and less and fun and less and less inovative. I know it a big risk for the triple A to make games that are different and fun but they can at least try. I must admit that there are still different, inotive and fun games around but they are becoming less and less. I'm also a supporter of the games are art argument but i think we are going about this the completely wrong way. I watch extra credits but i don't agree with it often. Especially when they talk about moving the medium foward. I feel like thats not the right way to do it. I'm sure i can't come up with anything better but i still don't think they really know either. I feel that game companies are trying to get out of making fun and interesting games by making hardware inovation instead of game inovation. Consols like the xbox 360 and the ps3 don't need anymore inovation they have the processing power and and memory and everything else we need to play the games we have wanted to make for years but no ones seem to be taking advantage of it. There are still games i like but there is less and less of them now.

Now to music. As huge fan of rock music the future of music looks extreamly dull for me and a lot of other supporters. Rock is starting to disapear behind the sewage system that is mainstream music. Jazz is also getting effected which ruins my second choice in music but i guess it was rock music that kicked jazz off the stage. I like weird and different music but there just isn't enough of it any more. I like musical inovation just as much as i do game inovation but now almost everything sound the same as somthing else. You listen to a song and you can say somthing like well that sounds like .... with some .... and the worst elements of ..... .

Life is another thing thats getting dull. Once your childhood is over you just slip into a really fucking boring ruitine. Get up, go to work, work, come home, go to bed, repeat intill the weekend swings around but thats still not very good. It's like you have to constantly work in a mine or somthing then occasionally leave the mine and watch some bats inside the cave for an hour then go back to mining.

All in all every thing is turning to shit maybe it's just my ignorant self but i think the future is only going to hold more and more shit. I didn't actually get all my complaints off my chest but i feel if i keep going i won't stop.

So what do you think?

 

[Togs]

meh life is a house of mirrors- look for bad stuff and that's all you'll see

And to be honest it seems like you've fallen into the biggest geek trap of all time- the rose tinted spectacles of nostalgia

 

[Mr Thin]

I think you need to read this [http://www.cracked.com/article_18983_5-complaints-about-modern-life-that-are-statistically-b.s..html].

Not all of it's relevant, but the general vibe you should get from it is that people have been bitter and cynical about the state of the world during the time they spend in it since forever.

Everything is not turning to shit, the future is now, we live in a magical ****ing time with holograms and lasers and talking robots and super-suits and jetpacks and all sorts of awesomeness.

The world is totally awesome, especially for young white people (which I'm assuming you are).

I have more reason to be bitter than most young white middle-class males, and I'm no optimist, but I'm more positive than you, so quit your belly-aching and, I don't know, hug a teddy bear or something.

 

[Phlakes]

Developers (or actually publishers in some most cases) will grow out of this whole "make clone get money" phase. Once the indie community, with things like Minecraft and Limbo and ilomilo, starts to rub off on the major developers, we'll start seeing some interesting shit.

Music is almost all bullshit to me, that's why I mostly listen to video game soundtracks. And Miracle of Sound.

Life is also bullshit, but the best thing to do is try to start doing something you want to while keeping your old job for a bit. If you become successful enough with your side whatever-it-is-thing, you can quit your job and expand that into a career. That's what I did.

 

[Dr Jones]

Triple a titles like CoD are ruining games? I think not. Right now they have an immense fan base, and prolly will for like, forever. But still, i get the feeling that stuff you are saying is stuff that every generation says one time or another, stuff like "Theres no good music left, all the movies were better back then" and so forth. CoD will remain king for lots of years, but eventually other publishers will realize they cant beat CoD, and then maybe will start making new interesting ip's.

I think it's just a fase.

 

[sam42ification]

I'll start of with the future of gaming which doesn't look too good. Games are becoming less and less and fun and less and less inovative. I know it a big risk for the triple A to make games that are different and fun but they can at least try. I must admit that there are still different, inotive and fun games around but they are becoming less and less. I'm also a supporter of the games are art argument but i think we are going about this the completely wrong way. I watch extra credits but i don't agree with it often. Especially when they talk about moving the medium foward. I feel like thats not the right way to do it. I'm sure i can't come up with anything better but i still don't think they really know either. I feel that game companies are trying to get out of making fun and interesting games by making hardware inovation instead of game inovation. Consols like the xbox 360 and the ps3 don't need anymore inovation they have the processing power and and memory and everything else we need to play the games we have wanted to make for years but no ones seem to be taking advantage of it. There are still games i like but there is less and less of them now.

I think a lot of the future lies with games made by medium-sized teams over shorter periods of time. Studios with 50-ish employees in a couple of teams. Those are big enough to get things nice and shiny and don't have to work as hard to keep create the kind of creative environments that historically have been behind some great games and studios. Sure, massive productions manage to be great once in a while(I loved Assassin's Creed, for example) but when you think about how every awful Triple-A game needs the money and commitment of, like, forty Machinarium [http://machinarium.net/demo/]s then I at least get the feeling that maybe smaller is better. I don't mean that being connected to a publisher is bad, just that maybe the hollywood-esque mega-productions aren't the best format for games.

The good news is that a lot of the gaming industry is "growing up" and realizing that everybody doesn't like to work at huge mega-studios. A lot of industry veterans are starting their own studios that they make a point out of keeping small in order to stay afloat and be able to work on the stuff that they want to do. Digital distribution has opened brand new vistas for smaller companies in that the cost of distribution is negligible; meaning that the amount of sales needed to break even is a lot less, meaning that it's easier to get money from publishers than it ever has been.

So yeah, in regards to the gaming industry there's certainly a bright future there if you look for it. It's maybe not exactly the future we thought it would be back in the 90s. I certainly didn't think back then that I would ever believe that the key to making great games wasn't to think big. But honestly, I'm totally fine with games not being huge. Portal comes to mind, and the aforementioned Machinarium, and others.

Now to music. As huge fan of rock music the future of music looks extreamly dull for me and a lot of other supporters. Rock is starting to disapear behind the sewage system that is mainstream music. Jazz is also getting effected which ruins my second choice in music but i guess it was rock music that kicked jazz off the stage.

I like weird and different music but there just isn't enough of it any more. I like musical inovation just as much as i do game inovation but now almost everything sound the same as somthing else. You listen to a song and you can say somthing like well that sounds like .... with some .... and the worst elements of ..... .

To be fair I already felt like this had happened back in -95. Maybe it's a growing-up type of thing. Maybe we only thought the music of our time was interesting because we hadn't really been around enough to see the patterns. I don't mean to make an assumption of your age here, though, it's just an idle thought.

For what it's worth; check out House. I come from a similar musical background that you do and that's where I ended up after a long journey of intermediate musical styles. I think there are a lot of interesting things happening there in the last decade or so. Get Spotify if you haven't got it already, listen around to some of the radio broadcasts. Can't hurt.

Life is another thing thats getting dull. Once your childhood is over you just slip into a really fucking boring ruitine. Get up, go to work, work, come home, go to bed, repeat intill the weekend swings around but thats still not very good. It's like you have to constantly work in a mine or somthing then occasionally leave the mine and watch some bats inside the cave for an hour then go back to mining.

You got me there. Work can be very dreary. My experience is, though, that if the dreariness gets to you it's because you're malcontent with something on the social level, either at work or because you're bored with your life outside of work, which you pretty much said you were.

This is, both fortunately and unfortunately, textbook stuff. More or less everybody has to deal with this. I don't remember where I heard it, but I'm fond of the phrase that it's "in the ABCs of growing up". It's unfortunate because it sucks, but at least you're not alone in feeling that way and what's more you're an adult now with more options to change your own situation. (I just love this one; http://www.xkcd.com/150/ )

It's harder to keep your head above water sometimes. It's easy to get stuck in a rut, but what you've got to realize is that that's all it is. Try something new. It doesn't have to be huge. I joined a weight-loss program the last time I was sick with my situation. Doesn't sound to exciting, I know, but it made me feel like I did something at least. And it got me out of my rut, which indirectly lead me to applying to and getting a job and made me try indoor climbing as a hobby. It didn't profoundly change my life, but it kept me moving. Which I think is important.

I'm coming off as a bit of hippie here, aren't I? I just felt that I recognized myself a lot it your post, and I just wanted to throw my way to deal with it out there; Now it's yours to ignore, if you wish.

No today you will not be ignored. I've taken in what you have said. I havn't stoped being cynical but i did some how improve i don't know how.

Triple a titles like CoD are ruining games? I think not. Right now they have an immense fan base, and prolly will for like, forever. But still, i get the feeling that stuff you are saying is stuff that every generation says one time or another, stuff like "Theres no good music left, all the movies were better back then" and so forth. CoD will remain king for lots of years, but eventually other publishers will realize they cant beat CoD, and then maybe will start making new interesting ip's.

I think it's just a fase.

I never actually said triple a is ruining gaming. Ok it is on one count that it won't let independent game devolpers have any funding. One part of extra credits i do agree on is that games will become a whole lot better when the idependent developers join with the triple a. CoD will not be the king for very long. the only reason people keep coming back is the because of the multiplayer and people will bore eventually it's a matter of months not years. CoD games aren't even that fun. I finished world at war in a few hours on the normal difficulty then and all i could do was play the zombies which really gets boring. Zombies only really becomes good around round 15.

I bought black opps again finished in a matter of hours and then went on the multiplayer to 'Pwn some NooBs'. That is what i hate about multiplayer the people. Don't say i didn't like the multiplayer because i was crap at it because i wasn't i got to prestiege in about a week and stopped playing. To say CoD is king and nothing will be better than CoD is like saying balls are the tastiest food of all. They don't actually taste that good and they don't give any of the nutrients you need plus your left feeling hungry afterwards. Hungry is definatley how i felt after playing CoD. There definatley can and there should be better games than CoD. I can think of one halo. I don't even own an xbox but the original halo or even the combat evolved halo was much better than CoD. So there you go ps3 owner who likes halo over CoD. Thats not to say i love halo it too has many weaknesses there are better games than halo. You can't say CoD and WoW are the best games ever because look at how many people play them. A lot of people that play CoD aren't gamers they just like to play CoD in there down time. I think i'm going to play assassins creed again. A game that has a half decent (note the word half) and fun gameplay.

 

[Spade Lead]

I think you need to read this [http://www.cracked.com/article_18983_5-complaints-about-modern-life-that-are-statistically-b.s..html].

Not all of it's relevant, but the general vibe you should get from it is that people have been bitter and cynical about the state of the world during the time they spend in it since forever.

Everything is not turning to shit, the future is now, we live in a magical ****ing time with holograms and lasers and talking robots and super-suits and jetpacks and all sorts of awesomeness.

The world is totally awesome, especially for young white people (which I'm assuming you are).

I have more reason to be bitter than most young white middle-class males, and I'm no optimist, but I'm more positive than you, so quit your belly-aching and, I don't know, hug a teddy bear or something.

Pretty much this. Also, if there is something cool that you want to see but doesn't exist yet, invent it, code it if you are a gamer, whatever. That is why I write science-fiction. I want ships that outmass buildings cruising around at the speed of light hurling millions of kiloton nuclear weapons at each other, I just make it happen. And trust me, I do. Take up an art form. if you can paint, create your own world that way, if you write, do that, if you play an instrument, do it. Whatever makes you feel better.

 

[LCP]

In summary all my criticism can be summarized to

"People are goddamn stupid"

 

[Gurk]

Life is pretty dodgy for me at the moment. Going through a family members murder trial, boyfriend of six months dumped me for his mother dearest, coming out of a depression only to realise I have very few friends left. I have good reason to be bitter, and I am about 60% of the time. Today I'm feeling relatively good, and cynicism doesn't get you anywhere. Then again, neither does being nice to people.

All in all: shit happens.

 

[zehydra]

"What good is being Optimistic when you can be cynical instead?"

lol, optimism is underrated.

 

[Chased]

Now to music. As huge fan of rock music the future of music looks extreamly dull for me and a lot of other supporters. Rock is starting to disapear behind the sewage system that is mainstream music. Jazz is also getting effected which ruins my second choice in music but i guess it was rock music that kicked jazz off the stage. I like weird and different music but there just isn't enough of it any more. I like musical inovation just as much as i do game inovation but now almost everything sound the same as somthing else. You listen to a song and you can say somthing like well that sounds like .... with some .... and the worst elements of ..... .

I used to also be very cynical until I heard that song. When the vocalist said, "Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die," I personally came to the realization that everyone eventually is going to die and we might as well live every moment we have to the fullest.

 

[Taerdin]

I keep discovering new awesome bands all the time...

It seems like most people are happy with the mainstream crap, and never look outside the mainstream to experience the true range of art and expression music can bring. But even the people who can't stand the mainstream can't be bothered to look outside it, and tend to only look to the good music of the past... they care enough about music to complain about the crap, but not enough to actually find the gems!

Basically people don't try very hard when it comes to experiencing music, but I guess that's probably mostly because the majority of the people don't actually adore music, it's just a neat thing they can put on in the background. For me, it will always be something that moves me, makes me think, and makes me feel, for others... it's the soundtrack to their drunkness and debauchery.

Isn't music diverse!

 

[Antari]

Most of it is age. The game industry doesn't have the slightest idea of what an Adult gamer is, and likely never will. I've pretty much given up on new release gaming, nothing coming out even remotely appeals to me. Mainly because I'm outside the demographic they are shooting for. So its time for a new hobby on the side.

 

[Erana]

I just read a newspaper clipping in which the writer tries to point out how femenism isn't an evil thing, refrencing the author's contemporary defines femenism as, "'a socialist, anti-family pollitical movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."' This all seemed so disturbingly accurate sentiment of all too large a number of people these days and how little progress we've really come to true equality of the sexes.

Then I read the date, and realised that at the time this article, I was six months old. I'm 19. An article written almost 20 years ago fits perfectly today.
Fuuuuuu....