Quote Posted by dethtoll
If you want to make
that argument you need to pick something other than Oblivion, which even I don't like. It's also hardly the "model of AAA gaming" you seem to think it is, particularly since there are a zillion and one mods that set out to improve just about any feature of the game you might find lacking.
Okay, granted, obviously whatever I may claim is not necessarily the case for everyone, but I really shouldn't have to clarify every goddamn thing I say. I make sweeping generalizations- you know this, I know this, the entire forum knows this, I'm certainly not alone in doing it, so just for the sake of discussion, assume what I say to mean "most" or "some" or whatever other modifier you find pleasing short of "nobody" because that would completely negate what I'm saying and we have enough examples of poor debate skills- god knows "well your argument doesn't apply to me therefore you are WRONG" is bad enough.
Look, I think most of us agree that it's pretty much down to individual taste- you like some things, I like other things, Koki doesn't like anything. I really don't care if you don't like Oblivion because you think it's piss-easy, or Batman: AA because you don't like Batman or beat-em-ups, or whatever.
What really burns me is people carry these biases around- for example, that games from before X point in time are
inherently better than games from after x point in time. In a sense, that
is nostalgia, even if they only just played Thief yesterday, because they're nostalgic for a bygone period of time that they may have missed. (I certainly wish I had lived through the 70s.) There's nothing wrong with nostalgia in and of itself- companies like Capcom and Konami have made a mint exploiting nostalgia for their old series, and Squaresoft is probably going to make more money re-releasing FF7 on PSN than they would if they remade the game like everyone wants them to. The problem is when people let that nostalgia (or any other bias) actively get in the way of their enjoyment of, well, anything other than the small reference pool within their bias. They may deny it, they may embrace it, they may not even realize they're doing it. At some point it stops being about individual taste and it starts being about an obnoxious elitist, who can't just say "oh, well that game isn't for me" and moves straight to "THIS GAME MADE LAST YEAR SUCKS YOU ARE CLEARLY AN IGNORANT PLEBE YOU SHOULD PLAY THIS BULLSHIT UNPLAYABLE GAME FROM 15 YEARS AGO THAT ONLY 5 PEOPLE BOUGHT" (Hi, Planescape!)
(While I'm busy insulting Planescape I'd like to say that Planescape's writing is a load of pretentious, pseudointellectual wash that dumps 700 pages worth of text on the player in the hopes the player thinks density = depth.)
While it's true that I will insult someone for liking or disliking a game, this is how arguments usually go:
[person] I like x game
[me] I don't, terrible game, blah blah blah
[person] *gasp* HOW DARE YOU YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT FAG
[me] yeah how dare i, fuck off lucky star
[person, perhaps some other stellar individuals] SHUT UP TROLLLLLLLLL
[me] hahahaha what
Or...
[person] I don't like x game
[me] Okay, why?
[person] I DON'T HAVE TO ANSWER TO YOU FAGGOT
[me] just answer the goddamn question dipshit
[person] okay fine *lists a bunch of reasons, some asinine, some legitimate*
[me] okay well you're doing x wrong, i agree with y, z is completely fucking insane
[person] SHUT UP TROLLLLLLLLL
[me] hahahaha what
Either way, after that I pretty much stop caring about being polite because what's the point?
Obviously, this doesn't apply to everyone. As I mentioned before, though you may have missed it/ignored it, there are plenty of people here who do not act like that, and the scenarios I have presented do not manifest. We may not all enjoy the same things, but nobody cares because we're all capable of civil discussion- and perhaps more importantly, we understand when an opinion is sound- "I don't like Oblivion because I don't like fantasy"- and when it's completely fucking insane- "I don't like Doom because it doesn't have Rainbow 6-style tactical maneuvers." I really don't have a lot of patience for the latter.
I really have to wonder how old you are, given the fact that nobody has directly referred to you using that term yet it still keeps popping up in your rebuttals. It really reflects poorly on your maturity and undermines your argument, I must say.
That being said, I'd just like to point out that my reasoning as to why I feel the industry is taking a dive right now is very legitimate:
That's right. I'm not some nostalgic old fool sitting in his basement staring wistfully at his collection of PC boxes. I have to go in to the office every day, sit in design meetings, and listen to idiots discuss marketability and visual effects and how to tweak the already broken mechanics in the favor of both. Raise a point about design or flow as it applies to the high concept? Hahahaha. So you can brush it off all you want, I'm sitting here right now warning you from the front: The war is lost, and even you aren't going to like where things are headed in the next few years. :nono:
Lets have a hypothetical: Your doctor calls you in after your last physical. Turns out you have cancer and the Doctor thinks it might be best if you sought treatment. You, however, disagree and think it's just an odd lump that itches on occasion but is mostly benign. The doctor can't do anything as long as you choose to ignore the situation, much to his dismay. Your denial still doesn't change the fact that you have cancer eating your flesh, however.
Unfortunately, this seems to have turned into a massive pissing contest between the people who like having cancer and the people whom the cancer is annoying the hell out of, so I'll bow out now. Adieu.
