Save your soul, where's the love gone?

[Wools]

I've got to a point now where whenever I read a forum post I just sigh.

When someone has such strong opinions and posts within seconds of a game's trailer something along the line's of "Looks terrible. The framerate is jerky and it dosent excite me. MSR is way better."

Does anyone rember when they were a kid they would just play games? You knew very little about them and took a chance in a shop and enjoyed, really enjoyed the experiance?

Why do gamers in general seem so cynical and aggressive towards their passtime?

I enjoy the banter, the intelligent discussions and general feedback about upcomming, released and retro games but the whole jadded talk really gets to me

Anyone else have this? Or Know how to chear up a grumpy bastard?

[fatbatch]

I have to say things are looking rosy to me in the gaming world: Fire Emblem and Shadow of the Colossus are winging their way across the sea; in the meantime I'm playing through Advance Wars DS and Final Fantasy IX and looking ahead to Dragon Quest VIII and Kameo next month.

[HaHaUK]

Does anyone rember when they were a kid they would just play games? You knew very little about them and took a chance in a shop and enjoyed, really enjoyed the experiance?

Before i started reading mags and all that it was just a spur of the moment thing, mostly ill informed choices, but 2 that stand out the most:

Theme Hospital when i was 13, the amount of time i spent playing that! Maybe i should have been a doctor 8)

GTA1, my dad didnt approve, but what the heck he went and bought it for me.

Gone are the days when i would just go into a shop and buy a game for RRP price that didnt get a good review. Maybe its cos of these forums

[Akihabara]

I couldn't agree more with ya master chief.

Take a look at the neo-geo.com forums, it's unbelievable how many people bash games they never ever played for example.
People are spoiled, yet they are blind for the fact that they have no idea what they are talking about and probably missed the golden age of videogames, where you -indeed- just play the game and be happy.

[Wools]

I think that's one of the reasons.

We're all spoilt.

You have funds to buy any game you want, have access to any game in Japan or abroard, emulators to play thousands of old games in a button press, access to a videogame trailer minutes after it is shown in Los Angels and can discuss your opinions to hundreds of other like minded inderviduals who share your passtime.

I still have that fire burning and love nothing more than talking and playing videogames with family, friends, work collegues and you lot But there seem to be so many people who are jadded about it and seem to enjoy discussing why a game is bad or give their opinion why a great game is not

Rember as a kid when you were playing your favourite game for the first time? Rember being astounded by the visual quality, hearing a great song play cherpily, being connected to the central character and using up all your free time to play it?

Why do you feel the need to criticise a game now? I have games I wont touch and have reservations over some but I do enjoy just playing with a new game! How come some of you lot dont even enjoy the process anymore?

[baad bwoy]

Does anyone rember when they were a kid they would just play games? You knew very little about them and took a chance in a shop and enjoyed, really enjoyed the experiance?

I've sort of done what you describe with ordering Wanda and the colossus, as I'm taking a chance with this, I'm not sure if its to my tastes but I am willing to give it a go...and hopefully it will prove to be enjoyable...and Imight even try to do this a bit more often, and just take more chances and ignore/avoid the naysayers who suck all the enjoyment out of the sense of expectation which can add so much to the game playing experience

[Akihabara]

emulators to play thousands of old games in a button

Probably the main reason gaming as we have known (and many others at this forum) it probably will never return. The ridicilous thing is, that people even dare to criticise the game after they played the emulator of it...

[Balou]

Well, we no longer live in the 90ies. The world is much faster today, and the internet provides a endless forum to voice ones opinion.
It?s not just video games - everything gets discussed on the internet; information on any kind of good can be obtained easily, which is very consumer-friendly, by the way.

The downside is that a certain atmosphere got lost in the process. However, if you are serious about this, you can still quit using any internet message boards or online video game magazines for some months. Then you can just walk in the store and pick a game that catches your eye.
The majority probably won?t do this because of various reasons.

It?s a very personal thing if you think it through. You can change it for yourself but probably not for the grand majority.

[eastyy]

To be honest i prefer it now then i did before.

Games mags during the 80/90's were the only way i could find out what games were like so i can spend the very little pocket money i had wisely.i got burnt several times buying games that were supposed to be good and they were not.

Now with internet access its not a issue you can see early footage of games.You can get a variety of opinions of games when there released.I never really take much notice of people who judge games before there released anyway.Like with that kof XI topic on neo-geo.com

[Concept]

That's why I stay here.

I'm not going to name forums, but for cynicism, bitterness and downright snideness, there's a lot worse than here. I remember Saurian quit posting to focus on more gaming a few months ago due to the haters, but if you look at NTSC-uk in context, on the whole people are remarkably positive.

This is also why I've pretty much more or less abandoned the print press as well. If you're going to attack main portions of your readership with generalised comments on them every month, then you're only going to push them away.

[Dogg Thang]

I think the cynicism isn't a bad thing. I mean, you're hankering for times when you'd accept any old **** that was presented to you. Many games simply aren't worth the money, some games are. Making that choice is not a bad thing and criticising games for not hitting the mark is not a bad thing either. With games being such a big business these days there is little excuse for expecting you to buy a half-assed buggy game that doesn't reach its potential. Just because there may be some enjoyment to be had if you can get past the problems doesn't mean we should be accepting this as standard.

If a game is ****, people should kick up a fuss and maybe the makers of that game might finish the job next time.

Having said that, many games were a couple of quid when I was a kid so it was easier to go for the impulse buy. The SNES and Megadrive days killed that stone dead - you had to know what you were buying or else you were throwing serious amounts of money away.

[Concept]

Why do gamers in general seem so cynical and aggressive towards their passtime?

I also think on the whole, it's the know-it-all syndrome. There are people here with vast expanses of knowledge and expertise, across all walks of life. And many thankfully don't feel the need to impress or dominate themselves on other people to make themselves heard.

Unfortunately, there are other people who feel the need to belittle, deride, have the 'last word' or prove someone else wrong. To me, it comes across as though they're either trying to make themselves feel better/justified or make the other person feel like **** in attempt to show them up. Either way you look at it, that kind of snide behaviour can be pretty sad.

Ideally, people should just be able to get along and accept what they say, or if they don't agree, not go wading in with a metaphorical shotgun at every turn. Life's too short for dealing with bull**** like that.

Like I said though, on the whole, the sense of community here is strong, and people don't pick each other apart to gain some form of narrow kudos/enjoyment.

Edit: Apologies, didn't answer the thread topic (entirely) correctly.

[eastyy]

Thing is with many people (including me).There are many many games that perhaps many people like but i dont.And nothing would convince me to buy them.

That is just personal preference.I can see its very frustrating though.For example there was a game i loved X2 the threat and i tried to convince a guy after the first 10hrs its great.But he would just not budge and only gave it around 2hrs play.

In the end though all people can do is talk about precisly what the like and dont like about a game and people can make there own choice

[Concept]

You see, that's why I think first-play works well (when I'm weighing up to buy a game if I've not made my mind up). You get a good range of opinions in a streamlined forum. Otherwise, you might just get 'I like X', 'I hate X' threads in general gaming.

[vertigo]

The ridicilous thing is, that people even dare to criticise the game after they played the emulator of it...

Yeh, I just love reading a user review that disses the game's bleepy bloopy sounds and music and jerky glitchy graphics because they're playing it on a ****ty emulator.
Oddly enough, these 'reviews' are universally written by teenaged Americans. ****ing idiots.