Topic: Gamer Negativity - Overwhelming

I'm feelin' it, you guys. It's getting to me after many years of being a gamer. I'm trying to block it out, but I just can't.

I just walked into my house, said "Xbox On" and had my Xbox One fire up my TV to the right channel and say "Hi, Ken!" on the screen. I say "Xbox, Go to my games" and up comes a list of my games. "Xbox Select....Dead Rising 3." Bang. Dead Rising 3 starts - a game where I'm fighting literally hundreds of zombies at a time using weapons of my own making. A game where I can fire up Xbox SmartGlass on my iPad, and have a second screen to control things. A game that's FUN and engrossing and that I'm enjoying immensely so far.

That just blows my mind. If I was 8 years old, I would think it was the absolute coolest thing in the world. When I was that age, a lack of funds (as I was a kid!) meant that I made 3-hour games last for weeks by playing them, then playing them again, then finding all the secrets.

But what we have now - comparative luxury - isn't good enough. Look at a comment thread on any major site. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. It's all you see. From those threads filled with people slating every damned thing that ever happens in gaming, through to big publications posting 3,000 word articles that pick and pull apart every single thing about a game, down to framerate tests and polygon counts and checking to see how many lines a game displays on a screen, it's all negative. Doesn't matter that the game looks amazing. Doesn't matter how much work has gone into it. Hell, it doesn't even matter about the overall experience anymore. Is the game fun? Nobody seems to give a rat's ass. All that matters are the numbers. And when it comes to your choice of console, all that matters is that everyone else agrees with your opinion. Or so it seems.

Has gaming lost its magic? Do people just plain not get it anymore? I know we've got some GREAT gamers on here that understand the magic of gaming, but it seems that the wider world is just a massive pit of negativity. You can't love Call of Duty without hating Battlefield. You can't love Forza without hating Gran Turismo. Why can't you love them both? You can't enjoy the PlayStation 4 without slating the Xbox One at every turn. I don't get it.

I truly don't get it.

Anyway, rant over.

A major part of the problem is review scores, and it always will be until you guys are able to find a system that works better. I don't review games for a living, Ken, so you can speak better to this, but imo it would help if reviews simply came down to a 'buy,' 'rent,' 'don't bother with this nonsense,' kind of rating system. Then you could discuss a game on its own merits and not get caught up in other stuff like metacritic scores and everything else. Sure there'd still be some hate, that's unavoidable, but it'd be lessened as people would be forced to actually read the contents of the reviews if they want to be taken seriously as somebody who has a clue what they're talking about. This kind of system would be awesome because it would take away much of the ammunition from the dumba$$ fanboys across North America who are too lazy to take 5 minutes to read a review.

As far as hating on systems... fanboys will be fanboys. I was 8 at the dawn of the 16-bit era and that's when I started to become aware of the 'console wars.' For my friends and I it was a friendly, fun thing to discuss but there were some people who took it damned serious, the thing is, the internet didn't exist like it does today for that stuff to be too big a deal. The internet is a great thing but unfortunately it's also a haven for haters and people who take things way, way too seriously.

Also you need to remember I can say anything on the internet without anyone knowing who I am or even the fear of a physical reaction.  Anyone can be a smarta$$ and do anything to stir the pot and there is really nothing that anyone can do about it.  I mean yeah they can get banned from the site but in the end they just take their crap somewhere else.

Its is sad really if you think about it.  I mean the internet had brought us alot of good such as the ability to converse with people all over the world at the same time but its a double edge sword.  Sad thing is the internet has brought out the worst in society.

Valid arguments and personal preferences are fine, just a shame that this doesn't seem to exist online anymore.

Its not just gaming, its right across the online space. Its awful that we have become a world where it seems like the cool thing to do to talk down to people. Hating has become the norm, especially when you can hide behind a phone/keyboard.

I know. If a reviewer wants to comment that something doesn't look perfect, like slightly rudimentary character models or a somewhat low FPS, that's okay, but it all comes down to gameplay. Some people want 2 more FPS over a better game these days. It's sad. And one of my favorite gaming sites, Game Informer has had an  influx of hardcore PS4 fanboys as of late. There was a user who trashed the Xbox One on 3DS news articles & made multiple accounts to get around bans & make his opinion look popular (like a 2nd account saying stuff like "You're so right. The Xbox One sucks," etc. It's annoying. You couldn't have said it better.

Not to mention whenever i go post something at Nintendo Life i am constantly bombarded by rude gamers with prick comments and the such. I honestly want to have a friendly discussion about games its a shame how some sites go downhill

@odd69, I hear you. That's why I only invest my time on coming here and commenting. The community here is quite friendly and that's a real blessing. Maybe you should come here more often.

There are people here like myself who also enjoy nintendo . 

I tried to enjoy the latest forza 5 game and it wasn't for me, I tried need for speed rivals and really enjoyed it. I guess I prefer arcade racers more.

The only thing in not happy with gaming Is the lack of RPGs on next gen consoles, then agian it always takes time for them to arrive.

The other issue I that gaming has grown so much In the past few years that people only like mainstream games as that's all they know about they are not informed nor do they invest the time to try new game or read about new ones.

These people who purchase just the yearly sports games and nothing else. I believe they are cheating themselves over a lot of great gaming opportunities by limiting what they play.

Ive lurked for a week and figured the community was nice the response is always good, infact i believe some users come from both pushsquare and nintendo life (the good ones anyway) i would love to post here more often if i dont get banned from NL

i agree, i do hope more gamers open up to the indie craze, they would be well rewarded

I use to visit and comment alot on Nintendolife but sadly the last six months not so much.  The community just gets on my nerves there and now I can only take it small doses.  Most of my favorite users from back in the earlier days of NL have all gone and the users that have replaces them are well to be blunt immature, rude kids. 

Thats why I spend most of my time now either here or on Pushsquare.

I'm sorry you guys have had this experience on Nintendo Life. Sad to hear it. I'll see if I can do anything to help alleviate the situation.

In the meantime, we're still trying to build our community, so feel free to jump in over here. I'm going to try to be more present in the forums (it has taken a bit of a backseat sometimes as there are more people talking on our Facebook and Twitter than in here) in the future, so hopefully we can get things going a bit.

If you want to see real gamer negativity just go to IGN. My god Fanboy's of all three main companies are there up in arms,that's why i stopped going there this site,Nintendo Life and Push Square.For me are the only sites which have nice community's in my experience.

Well, we're glad that you're here. Welcome

@midnafanboy, i feel the same, the community is great hear. i hardly ever go to the other sites. you would figure people would spend there spare time playing games instead of staring out flame bait or trolling.

@Emanouel But i assure you the other two website's have good people i know that for a fact.And @SuperKMx I'm happy to be here.

While I appreciate the notion Ken,  I am not sure if there is anything that can be done with Nintendolife, its just the way sites go when they get that big.  It just seems to me that most users over at NL just want to start arguments over the silliest things.  ANd as I said most of the problem with that site is most of the people I did enjoy have left and that's more of a personal decision to leave so I can't see you doing anything about that. 

I will say even though I dont post much here I do lurk around here and read the posts.  The biggest reason I dont comment much here is well not your or the staffs fault it just seems that more of the articles and forums topics pertain to Xbox One now which I understand is the industry not you guys.  Since I dont have an Xbox One its hard for me to be a part of the community when you guys are all taking about the latest games like Sunset Overdrive for example.  However I do keep an eye on multiplatform games like Destiny or WWE 2K15 for example and like to hear what you all think of the Xbox One version to compare to the PS4 version it just interests me.  Plus I figure stuff that works on the PS4 version can work on the Xbox One version. After all in the end we are all gamers.

Im done with NL and today is the boiling point. I just cant get along with other users. I dont call people names and i am civil until provoked, but when i go off i am labeled as hostile. I dont belong anywhere in the gaming community, i thought i could join others and talk about the things i love and that is gaming and be able to have my opinions, why should interacting with a place ive been going to ever since the start be so stressful?

This post explains it all. and im just done. its my own fault really i should just stay lurking in the shadows like i always have and always will. Im on to better sites and better things, my hobbys is just that its my hobby and my opinions like most are just that opinions. I am silly to think that there is a place where people could get along, my hopes of that are gone. Once this site gets big enough it will suffer the same fate. Its a shame that users like me are ignored and remain unrespected by the community because we are always the first to jump in and support. but i guess its whatever, after today once i do get banned i wont have to the privilege to discuss anything here as i think all the sites are linked together.Even though i deleted most of my ramblings the ban hammer is inevitable.

end/rant

@odd69: Sorry to see you go man it was always a pleasure having a conversation with you. 

It is really sad that by doing something on NL gets you banned on all three sights as the reason you are banned may not be valid on the other two sites.  Still I can see the point of getting banned from all the sites as well too.  Still the reasons for getting banned like being rude to users is more likely to happen especially with the user base at Nintendo Life, which is why I don't go there to much anymore.  The user base just wants a fight thats all.

Send me an invite on PSN if I dont have you already. 

Eh its okay thank you for the comment, it made me smile.  and i wont ever post at NL again obviously. i got the ban hammer after almost ten years of supporting them, just like that...

Well, hopefully as this site gets bigger, my absolute non-tolerance of people being idiots or being insulting when they slightly disagree with someone will help.

Either that, or I'll make things ten times worse and it'll turn into a large battleground. Still...we'll do our best.

I'd like to think that there's still hope. Only time will tell, I guess!

@SuperKMx:  Yep that's right only time will tell.  For the most part I dont see that happening here either and if it does I am sure you guys will put a handle on things. 

I think part of the reason NL is so bad is just the age of the user base their.  It seems that they get alot of teenagers to early 20s there who think they know it all and when you try to tell them different they get mean and rude about it.  I mean honestly we have all been there I remember acting the same way towards teachers and adults when I was that age.  The only thing is though on the internet they are free to say and do what they want without the fear of repercussion.