Did you ever stop following the gaming scene?

[TailsAlone]

I don't want to be "that guy" who rants about how crappy all the new stuff looks. I mean, I could do that, but it's usually not much fun for other people to read. Since I've got to get it off my chest somehow, here is a short story I wrote yesterday about why I stopped following new games. (Those without a sense of humor may abstain.)



*Ahem* Around the mid-2000s, I was playing away and really enjoying myself, waiting curiously for what the next "generation" of games might bring. One night when I was about to doze off, with happy visions of Soul Calibur II still in my head...a strange, repulsive little man jumped right through my window (which was closed) and landed on my bed.

"HI!!" he shouted in a really loud, annoying TMZ-style voice. "I'm an allegorical character for the near future of video games! You can call me Mr. 7!!"

"Um...hi," I said nervously, glancing around for something I could use as a weapon. "Look, that's interesting and all, but can't it wait until morning?"

"EH-EHHH! Can't stop can't wait gotta tell you now now now! " Mr. 7 looked and sounded as if he'd just cleared out all the Red Bull at the nearest gas station. He twitched crazily and hopped around the room. He was designed with graphics so slick they looked downright gaudy, and his hipster outfit was so bright it vibrated. In the brief moments when I could focus on him, it stung my eyes even worse.

"The seventh generation is upon us, and here's what it's gonna be like!" Mr. 7 continued. "Remember when playing video games felt special?"

I stretched my arms and yawned. "Yeah, what about it--"

"PSYCH!!! Not anymore!! Now everybody's gonna be doin' it! The word 'gamer' will lose all meaning! RPG's are gonna go online! So every character is a real person and every 'mission' will be OgreDikk69 and biebers_afairy_xxx hitting on female characters and insulting each others' mothers while the enemies kill you!!"

"But I play RPG's to get away from reality. Why would I--"

"I NO RITE?!?! And it gets even better. First the PlayStation 3's gonna come out."

"...What, already? The PS2 is doing fi--"

Mr. 7 was enjoying this way too much. "And Sony's gonna act like a bunch of arrogant a$$es and start it at FIVE HUNDRED BUCKS! With NO interesting launch titles and a Blu-Ray player!"

I frowned. "I don't want a Blu-Ray player. The discs are too expensive."

"SUX 4 U LOLOLOLOLOLOL! Then the Xbox 360 will come out, but like, way different from Xbox. Instead of a decent system with boring games, they'll have decent games but on a really CRAPPY system. With a 50% failure rate!"

"Fifty percent? And people will buy it?!"

"Aw yeah! And when they break down you'll call Microsoft and they're all like 'wut-EVER, just give it back and we'll like, just send you another broken console that will die in a month.' It'll take 'em four years to put out a decent version of that thing!"

"I don't like that, Mr. 7."

"SHADDAP! We're just gettin' started," Mr. 7 was now slapping his own butt and doing cartwheels on the wall. He seemed to get more obnoxious and crazy with each passing minute. "Then there's the WII!"

"The who?"

"The Wii, stupid! The new Nintendo machine! And it's ALL GROWN UP." As I looked on in horror, Mr. 7 pulled a plastic white thing with buttons out of his pants and started jerking it around. "AWWW yeah that feels good..."

"Oh Jesus! Get that thing away from me!!"

"It's called a Wiimote, duuuude! And your whole family can play with it all day!"

I covered my eyes in disgust. "Oh Lord, get that image out of my head. Look, Mr. 7, I don't think the future of games looks very interesting. No offense, but I need you to get out of--"

"WAIT THERE'S MORE! Once respected developers will be cranking out sucky remake$ and sequel$! Final Fantasy will go online and spiral into mediocrity! Sega will run the Sonic franchise into the ground! The exact same shooting game will come out over and over! Game systems will turn into computers! But thatz okay CUZ LOOK!"
Mr. 7 cackled and lifted up his shirt. "BOOBZ IN HD!!! "

"Okay, that's it," I said. "I didn't think I'd ever have to do this, but you leave me no choice." I hit a button on a remote control. My closet door opened to reveal a gray plastic robot.

"LOL WUZZAT?" Mr. 7 slobbered as it rolled towards him, arms outstretched.

"It's a vintage Nintendo ROB, Mr. 7. Your very own Robot Operated Buddy. And he wants to play with you." I smiled fiendishly. The peripheral's red eyes lit up as its clamps reached out for its prey.

"Wait, get away from me dood! I'm a G*MeRRR! You can't--NO! AAAAARRRGH!"

I waited until his screams finally stopped, then petted ROB on the head. "Good boy. Wanna go play Gyromite?"




So there it is, I opted out of things 5 or 6 years ago. Minus the obnoxious little man, did the same thing ever happen to you?

[16-bit]

I was pretty excited for this generation of games, I bought a 360 back in 2007 for Bioshock and Halo 3 specifically. I'd never actually played Halo 2 a whole lot, but I really loved the first one and I thought that three was going to be just absolutely amazing the way that people hyped it. Well, both Bioshock and Halo 3 turned out mediocre, and for the longest time the only thing I played on it was Team Fortress 2. I traded it for a PS3 sometime in 2009 and I'm not too fond of that either, Sony just plain sucks plain and simple. Sure there are some cool exclusives, but right now I don't feel like giving Sony money due to company policies, the EULA that strips consumers of their rights, pointless lawsuits etc.

Then I discovered the beautiful world of PC gaming. Sure I can't buy used games, but Steam has very nice sales about twice every year and the games that I buy often last a whole lot longer than anything that I played on consoles thanks to things like free mods and DLC. Are there as much exclusives as on consoles? Well there's more indie games I suppose, and I suppose that's allright but I'm not a guy who gloats over how much better they are than big budgeted titles, because let's face it, they suck just as much as they do. But for me the PC's provided most everything that I want from this gen, and it's probably going to do the same with the next.

[NeoZeedeater]

Nope, I have never "opted out" of gaming. There hasn't been a single year without a bunch of great new releases I wanted to play (or old games to go back to).

[Gogogadget]

Some of your comments are accurate, but Sonic Colors & Generations are more finely tuned than 6th generation efforts.

[KillerBean2]

I have never been following the gaming scene. Never owned a current gen console. All of my current gen gaming has always been taking place on my PC.

But it won't be long before I quit current gen gaming all together. I could live with the industry's retarded attempts at stopping pirate gaming, but now that they have decided to stop me from reselling games that I have paid for and therefore rightfully own, they can just go #¤#¤ themselves.

[Hidden_Darkness]

when it comes to the gaming scene, the one I don't care about is the upcoming gaming scene (ps4, xbox 720, wii u). the whole used game lockout thing rumored to be happening with the new xbox and ps4 pretty much seals the deal that I will not be getting either one, I rarely buy a game new and I mostly get used so that just doesn't work for me.

I mean I just got a ps3 a couple years ago so I haven't played much of this generations games yet so its still all new to me. i've also got a wii and it's ok I guess, theres actually quite a few games on it that dont rely on motion controls thankfully and the games are very cheap to buy. I don't pay too much attention to the current gen of gaming but there are still titles being released that i'm interested in and I wont deny that. would I pay full price for the current games though? I don't think so, $50-60 per game gets real expensive real fast.

theres still games worth playing in the current gen of games but theres alot of crap to sift through just to find the gems, also theres the issue of some games getting limited print runs these days which makes some newer games hard to find. the one thing I don't like about the current generation is the multitude of fps after fps, i'm just not interested in fps's but to each their own. anyway, for now the wii and ps3 are probably going to be my last new systems if the used game lockout goes into effect.

for me the golden age of gaming will always be the 8-bit/ 16-bit era all the way up until the ps2, after that its really been a mixed bag as far as the quality of games and i'm not a fan of having to pay for extras in games when back then the extras had to be unlocked by completing certain objectives in games.

[old man]

I don't want to be "that guy" who rants about how crappy all the new stuff looks. I mean, I could do that, but it's usually not much fun for other people to read. Since I've got to get it off my chest somehow, here is a short story I wrote yesterday about why I stopped following new games. (Those without a sense of humor may abstain.)



*Ahem* Around the mid-2000s, I was playing away and really enjoying myself, waiting curiously for what the next "generation" of games might bring. One night when I was about to doze off, with happy visions of Soul Calibur II still in my head...a strange, repulsive little man jumped right through my window (which was closed) and landed on my bed.

"HI!!" he shouted in a really loud, annoying TMZ-style voice. "I'm an allegorical character for the near future of video games! You can call me Mr. 7!!"

"Um...hi," I said nervously, glancing around for something I could use as a weapon. "Look, that's interesting and all, but can't it wait until morning?"

"EH-EHHH! Can't stop can't wait gotta tell you now now now! " Mr. 7 looked and sounded as if he'd just cleared out all the Red Bull at the nearest gas station. He twitched crazily and hopped around the room. He was designed with graphics so slick they looked downright gaudy, and his hipster outfit was so bright it vibrated. In the brief moments when I could focus on him, it stung my eyes even worse.

"The seventh generation is upon us, and here's what it's gonna be like!" Mr. 7 continued. "Remember when playing video games felt special?"

I stretched my arms and yawned. "Yeah, what about it--"

"PSYCH!!! Not anymore!! Now everybody's gonna be doin' it! The word 'gamer' will lose all meaning! RPG's are gonna go online! So every character is a real person and every 'mission' will be OgreDikk69 and biebers_afairy_xxx hitting on female characters and insulting each others' mothers while the enemies kill you!!"

"But I play RPG's to get away from reality. Why would I--"

"I NO RITE?!?! And it gets even better. First the PlayStation 3's gonna come out."

"...What, already? The PS2 is doing fi--"

Mr. 7 was enjoying this way too much. "And Sony's gonna act like a bunch of arrogant a$$es and start it at FIVE HUNDRED BUCKS! With NO interesting launch titles and a Blu-Ray player!"

I frowned. "I don't want a Blu-Ray player. The discs are too expensive."

"SUX 4 U LOLOLOLOLOLOL! Then the Xbox 360 will come out, but like, way different from Xbox. Instead of a decent system with boring games, they'll have decent games but on a really CRAPPY system. With a 50% failure rate!"

"Fifty percent? And people will buy it?!"

"Aw yeah! And when they break down you'll call Microsoft and they're all like 'wut-EVER, just give it back and we'll like, just send you another broken console that will die in a month.' It'll take 'em four years to put out a decent version of that thing!"

"I don't like that, Mr. 7."

"SHADDAP! We're just gettin' started," Mr. 7 was now slapping his own butt and doing cartwheels on the wall. He seemed to get more obnoxious and crazy with each passing minute. "Then there's the WII!"

"The who?"

"The Wii, stupid! The new Nintendo machine! And it's ALL GROWN UP." As I looked on in horror, Mr. 7 pulled a plastic white thing with buttons out of his pants and started jerking it around. "AWWW yeah that feels good..."

"Oh Jesus! Get that thing away from me!!"

"It's called a Wiimote, duuuude! And your whole family can play with it all day!"

I covered my eyes in disgust. "Oh Lord, get that image out of my head. Look, Mr. 7, I don't think the future of games looks very interesting. No offense, but I need you to get out of--"

"WAIT THERE'S MORE! Once respected developers will be cranking out sucky remake$ and sequel$! Final Fantasy will go online and spiral into mediocrity! Sega will run the Sonic franchise into the ground! The exact same shooting game will come out over and over! Game systems will turn into computers! But thatz okay CUZ LOOK!"
Mr. 7 cackled and lifted up his shirt. "BOOBZ IN HD!!! "

"Okay, that's it," I said. "I didn't think I'd ever have to do this, but you leave me no choice." I hit a button on a remote control. My closet door opened to reveal a gray plastic robot.

"LOL WUZZAT?" Mr. 7 slobbered as it rolled towards him, arms outstretched.

"It's a vintage Nintendo ROB, Mr. 7. Your very own Robot Operated Buddy. And he wants to play with you." I smiled fiendishly. The peripheral's red eyes lit up as its clamps reached out for its prey.

"Wait, get away from me dood! I'm a G*MeRRR! You can't--NO! AAAAARRRGH!"

I waited until his screams finally stopped, then petted ROB on the head. "Good boy. Wanna go play Gyromite?"




So there it is, I opted out of things 5 or 6 years ago. Minus the obnoxious little man, did the same thing ever happen to you?

lolwut?

[TailsAlone]

lolwut?

It was a list of grievances I had with the 7th gen, expressed in a story.
You know, like I said right at the beginning?

[MrMatthews]

To answer the thread title's question: Yes.

[David J.]

I think MS should have stuck with HDDVD... they would have limited/prevented piracy. But no.

Just something I noticed and thought of haha.

[eddiespruce]

I haven't followed the gaming scene in years. To me, the Gamecube was the last "great" console, although I do own a DS Lite, which has a few good games, but I haven't touched it in a couple of years.

[David J.]

But back to the subject at hand, sure...gets boring then exciting. Now I'm kinda bored agian. Meh.

[Splatterhouse5]

I've always been interested in the gaming scene, but I'm certain that the PSX/N64/Saturn era was the one that I least spent time with. Although I played many of the big releases on the PSX, I spent minimal time with a 64, and zero time with a Saturn.

The next gen would be the one that I spent the most time with - I spent a ton of time with each system.

[AD2101]

Oh I definitely have. I played my Genesis so much back in its heyday that I came home one day and my Genesis was no where to be found. I asked my parents where it went and they said it broke, and being a stupid 7 year old I believed them. I kind of fell out of gaming from that point (~1996) up until 2002 when I finally dug out my broken Genesis only to find that my parents pwned me for all those years. I had played other systems sparingly at friends houses in the meantime, but for the most part I missed out on the Saturn and Dreamcast, and didn't pop back into the scene until I got an original Xbox. I played that and my Genesis on and off until 2007 when I got my first job that wasn't being a dishwasher. Ever since I began making money for myself I've kept up with and spent entirely too much money on gaming. I still go through times of feast and famine in regards to how much actual time playing I spend, but I always check kotaku and destructoid and the like to see what's new in the industry.

[xelement5x]

Oh I definitely have. I played my Genesis so much back in its heyday that I came home one day and my Genesis was no where to be found. I asked my parents where it went and they said it broke, and being a stupid 7 year old I believed them. I kind of fell out of gaming from that point (~1996) up until 2002 when I finally dug out my broken Genesis only to find that my parents pwned me for all those years. I had played other systems sparingly at friends houses in the meantime, but for the most part I missed out on the Saturn and Dreamcast, and didn't pop back into the scene until I got an original Xbox. I played that and my Genesis on and off until 2007 when I got my first job that wasn't being a dishwasher. Ever since I began making money for myself I've kept up with and spent entirely too much money on gaming. I still go through times of feast and famine in regards to how much actual time playing I spend, but I always check kotaku and destructoid and the like to see what's new in the industry.

Your parents sound horrible. If mine had done something like that to me without explaining why and I found out later in life that they straight up lied to me for no good reason I can guarantee I'd have issues with my parents. Granted, I bought my own Genesis as a kid so if they'd taken away something from me that I had bought and paid for I'd probably be even more pissed.



Moving on though, I naturally gravitated away from gaming near the the end of elementary and middle school. In high school a lot of my friends were into gaming so that pulled me back into the fold for awhile, but as I started college I began to fall out of gaming again. Oddly enough my girlfriend at the time (now wife) pulled me back into gaming and anime in college and I've stayed interested until just recently.

Modern consoles are still pretty entertaining, but nothing still keeps my interest like the older stuff. Plus modern anime seems pretty crappy except for a handful of titles so I'll just become and old geezer and stick with the stuff I like.