Poll: How do you feel about Mainstream Games?

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

I don't mind the CoD series. What I DO mind is every single company with maybe one or two exceptions trying to be the ones to make the next CoD by out CoD-ing CoD.

But the REAL big thing I dislike is that the Hype Machine decides what games are successful and which aren't. Back in the day, you had to make you game stand out from all the others. You had to do something different. You had to be your own damn game to be successful. Nowadays, you can be the blandest, unoriginal, samey, generic, uninspired piece of cookie-cutter copy-pasted FPS and still sell better than many of the more original titles out there so long as you have a shit-ton of money behind your game's marketing. There are exceptions, of course, and dozens of factors behind why things are the way they are.

Still, there is a nice variety. Yes, there are dozens, if not hundreds of bland, boring, samey brown and "realistic" FPS games on the market, and dozens of RPGs claiming to be original when all they do is change maybe one or two details of the established Tolkien norm or just set it in space. But you still get your adventure games like Zelda, your action games like God of War, your stealth-action games like Assassin's Creed, your quirky games like Portal and so on.

Damn. Could not have been said better.
They're fine... to an extent. The fact that most mainstream games are the same thing with a different name really pisses me off. It wasn't like this before...
And the game's quality being replaced by how much cash the publisher can spend on advertising really irks me.

 

[WOPR]

I feel I should start this by saying "I don't care what you think, I'm NOT a hipster"

that out of the way

I've been playing games ALL my life
and was always ahead of the curve until around the PS2's coming
then I fell greatly behind

being stuck on older consoles games cost a lot less for me
so I could get more
having no internet I didn't let "reviews" influence me and I formed opinions on my own

all that being said

After playing ODT, Unreal Tournament, Duke Nukem, DOOM, HeXen, O.N.E., Aliens vs Predator, Tribes, Medal of Honor, System Shock 2, Half-Life, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and many other FPS games...

When the time came for me to finally try my hand at Halo, I wasn't impressed, didn't see the big deal, and was honestly shocked at how much people liked it (the main things I hated were the regenerating health and the 2 weapon limit)

that being said, I've kinda hated most mainstream games (MOST, not ALL) ever sense, because to me they feel like people are throwing $60 jerky strips at the public because they're too stupid or lazy to dig around for that magical $5 Sirloin Steak and/or they just don't know any better...

 

[AndyFromMonday]

I hate the fact that it's mainstream. It seems that creativity and innovation are being pushed aside in favor of recycling the same concept game after game and remaking old glories just because the latter generates more revenue. The indie scene seems to be the only one that is still based upon the idea of just making a good game.

 

[RazeElement]

Its like when people say a song is "Too mainstream for me". It just pisses me off, the popularity or the funding or what ever else shouldn't effect if something is likable. I love Battlefield, Shogun 2, Team Fortress etc and I also love Mount and Blade, Frozen Synapse and Magicka.

I like the game because of how good it is, anyone that doesn't like something just because of its origin (I'm sorry) is mentally retarded in some horrible way.

No reason to apologize. You are completely entitled to having your own opinion especially if you use sound reasoning. You're completely right in the sense that someone shouldn't dabble into a video game because it is too mainstream. However, mainstream success does affect a video game and whether that success is positive or negative is completely up to the discretion of the consumer.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

Its like when people say a song is "Too mainstream for me". It just pisses me off, the popularity or the funding or what ever else shouldn't effect if something is likable. I love Battlefield, Shogun 2, Team Fortress etc and I also love Mount and Blade, Frozen Synapse and Magicka.

I like the game because of how good it is, anyone that doesn't like something just because of its origin (I'm sorry) is mentally retarded in some horrible way.

Sounds about right. Some of the things that have been happening with "mainstream" games (periodic stagnation, trend following, blatant cash grabs, and generally treating customers/fans poorly) bug me, but there also have been and continue to be plenty of great big budget, popular games targeted at large audiences. There are plenty of awesome indie games that are obscure that hardly anyone's heard of, too. There are also a whole lot in both categories that are terrible. It really comes down a lot more to each individual game and personal taste more than anything else.

That said, with the games themselves out of the picture, I'm perfectly comfortable saying rude things about the majority of major publishers who release those mainstream games, after the shenanigans they've been pulling in the past few years. While many of their games may be excellent, some of their business practices sure are shady, and they could hardly do a better job making their customers resent them if they tried, at least without pissing them off so much that they'd go out of business.

 

[loc978]

Plenty of 'em that I love, and plenty that I dislike. Mainstream, indie, core, casual, whatever. There's plenty of creativity still out there and being utilized by all of the above... but there is a huge amount of shovelware being tossed around in all of the above as well.
So I voted I don't care, because being mainstream doesn't make a game good, bad, ugly or indifferent. There are a lot of factors involved, but that's only one of them in a very indirect sense.

 

[azukar]

I liked mainstream games when they were still underground.

 

[Gigano]

I like many of them.

A game doesn't need to consist of revolutionary and alien concepts to be enjoyable, being a highly polished work that takes a few baby steps every now and then can be good enough. Uncharted 2, TES IV: Oblivion, God of War, Portal 2, all are examples of mainstream games that did plenty right to earn their popularity. Only a pretentious fool would dismiss them based merely on such well deserved popularity.

Of course, virtually unknown niche titles with little commercial presence can certainly be good too [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.301706-Visual-Novel-review-Swan-Song]. But obviously not because they're not particularly well known. Popularity and quality are largely unrelated concepts, you'll need to look at the game itself to actually gauge anything about its worth.

 

[RazeElement]

Sounds about right. Some of the things that have been happening with "mainstream" games (periodic stagnation, trend following, blatant cash grabs, and generally treating customers/fans poorly) bug me, but there also have been and continue to be plenty of great big budget, popular games targeted at large audiences. There are plenty of awesome indie games that are obscure that hardly anyone's heard of, too. There are also a whole lot in both categories that are terrible. It really comes down a lot more to each individual game and personal taste more than anything else.

That said, with the games themselves out of the picture, I'm perfectly comfortable saying rude things about the majority of major publishers who release those mainstream games, after the shenanigans they've been pulling in the past few years. While many of their games may be excellent, some of their business practices sure are shady, and they could hardly do a better job making their customers resent them if they tried, at least without pissing them off so much that they'd go out of business.

*Cough* Kotick *Cough* Completely agree with you there, I can understand why him and others are turning these games over for a profit. The thing that kills me with Kotick in particular is he indirectly through his actions shows that he doesn't care about the future of the industry as long as he milks out a profit, and that's only the indirect things he has shown through actions.

Plenty of 'em that I love, and plenty that I dislike. Mainstream, indie, casual, whatever. There's plenty of creativity still out there and being utilized by all of the above... but there is a huge amount of shovelware being tossed around in all three as well.
So I voted I don't care, because being mainstream doesn't make a game good, bad, ugly or indifferent. There are a lot of factors involved, but that's only one of them in a very indirect sense.

I get what you're saying. Seems to be how everyone here feels about the subject in a logical sense.

 

[MolotoK]

I don't dislike games just because they are mainstream (I spend most of my time playing TF2, which is the most played game on Steam), but I do hate games like COD and the "community" and "culture" that surrounds them.

The exact same game released every year with 0 innovation and 15$ map packs.... and the community just accepts that and calls it "the best game evar".
Are today's 14-20year olds that stupid and afraid of change?

The worst part is that these people are often referred to as "hardcore gamers".

 

[RadioactiveMicrobe]

I play Halo. I play it because I like it.

I play Amnesia and Killing Floor, I play them because I like them.

If people really just play the game because it's mainstream or not, they aren't gamers, or self sentient for that matter. *looks at CoD community*

 

[Miggiwoo]

I think these days gaming has evolved to a point where a game needs to be mainstream to be considered a full experience. I know a lot of indies are doing good things, and there are obvious exceptions, but as a consumer I reject the idea that graphics that don't matter, I expect a game to be of reasonable length, difficulty, an attempt at a story, and something that sets it apart from another game in the genre.

Granted, most games tick all of these boxes, but in my experience, games from large studios are more polished, and tend to hit more buttons for me.

Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of the simpler indie games, however I think that realistic comparison between a game like super meat boy and COD is moot, they are not even vaguely the same sort of thing.

 

[Soxafloppin]

I don't like COD or FIFA, thats because I don't like FPS's in general and I'm not into football that much.

I do love Assasins Creed which is probably considered mainstream.

 

[b3nn3tt]

I have no strong feelings about mainstream games, to me games are games. I don't think that games now are any better or any worse than they ever were, but nostalgia has a way of blinding us to the bad in the past. Really, you can always find a game that appeals to you, there's something for everyone on the market. In fact, because the market is becoming broader, more and more people can easily find the games that they want to play with little difficulty.

 

[Gluzzbung]

I think the only "mainstream" game that I like is GoW and, at a squeeze, Halo, because i can play it with my friends and make maps, but really, either of those could be said to not be mainstream because they're Xbox exclusive. On the other hand, I loathe CoD, Assassins creed, and another half tonne of games that could be argued as mainstream, but notice these games, especially those I've mentioned, use the same engines and rinse and reuse the same campaigns wheres as GoW and Halo, though there are marked similarities, always try to include new things in the Campaign that actually alter gamplay unlike Assassins Creed's poison or Cods un-altering guns. GoW ads new grenades and gameplay mechanics and Halo new guns again, that actually change the way people play the games, and new ways of playing multiplayer etc.

Overall, I'd say I dislike mainstream gaming but only because of the games that are unarguably mainstream are terrible for those who don't like them becuase they realise that their audience is large 9and stupid) enough for them to just put out the same game over and over again, but it's what they want, I suppose. Doesn't stop me disliking it.

 

[Vault101]

I have no strong feelings about mainstream games, to me games are games. I don't think that games now are any better or any worse than they ever were, but nostalgia has a way of blinding us to the bad in the past. Really, you can always find a game that appeals to you, there's something for everyone on the market. In fact, because the market is becoming broader, more and more people can easily find the games that they want to play with little difficulty.

*appluase* very well said

anyway I somthing of a maintream whore as Ive never had access to "indie" games untill now (except for stuff thats in browser)