Gamers are the worst kind of people.

[Halororor]

And I present you with an opinion column from one of our local gaming journalists, that exactly mirrors what I've been saying for months now.

 

Are Gamers the Worst Kind of People?

Are Gamers the Worst Kind of People? - MyGaming Column

Chris Kemp throws his toys out of the cot…

 

Gamers have a pretty bad reputation across the board. Outside the gaming community, the daywalkers think of us as fat, lonely virgins, or anti-social geeks who would rather play with circuit boards than rugby balls. For ticks in the “pros” column, we’re usually agreed upon to be good with computers/electronics (mostly true) and possess Russell-Crowe-esque mathematics abilities (not true – I’m the guy who was stumped by a geometry problem with more than one shape in it).

 

Within the gaming community however, I’m not sure our reputation is that much better. If you asked a gamer if they think “gamers” in general are “nice people”, I think they may be hard pressed to honestly say yes – I know I would. Anyone who has had interaction online with fellow gamers in an even remotely competitive environment, would have had multiple encounters with people so obnoxious they could not possibly exist outside the anonymity of the internet. For every really awesome, chilled, well-mannered gamer out there, there seems to be another who never misses an opportunity to complain, insult someone or tell you why he’s actually the greatest player in the world, despite his 0.3 kill-death-ratio.

 

Of course I spend a ton of time playing multiplayer online games, so none of this is particularly surprising or new to me. What I have been thinking about lately is not just gamers’ behavior within the confines of the game, but outside of it. Within a game I can acknowledge that tempers can get a little flared, egos can get bruised and the fiercely competitive amongst us can get a little aggressive. Obviously what that has to do with my mother, my sexual preferences and the various STDs I supposedly have I’m not entirely sure, but I’m going to chalk it all up to that anyway.

 

Yet lately, and also not so lately, there’s been a lot in the news about “mistakes” companies have made, and the backlash that has followed. I often read these articles with a small measure of awe – awe at how video game companies today are pandering to their tantrum-throwing, outlandish customers. It feels like the whole gaming community has become a herd of whiny children moaning that the Ferrari Enzo they got for Christmas is red and they wanted the yellow one.

 

Although everybody knows it’s pimping in pink.

 

Just recently, we saw the Nintendo 3DS take a huge price slash, in the wake of Nintendo themselves taking a big quarterly hit in the profits. Anticipating that maybe early adopters would be upset by this since the console has only been out for about six months; Nintendo has offered people who have already bought the console TWENTY free games. Twenty. This clearly wasn’t enough, as Nintendo have now had to issue an apology to fans who may feel “betrayed” by this price cut.

 

Why does nobody feel “betrayed” when they’re unboxing their new iPhone 3 in front of the TV and see an advertisement for “soon to be released” iPhone 4? Year after year Steve Jobs adds half an inch to a screen and a USB port or something, gives every Apple consumer the finger and takes his Lear Jet to the tropics to plan which 2-year-old feature he’s going to add to the next model, which will no doubt be out in six months. I’ve never seen hordes of Apple buyers with torches and pitchforks, demanding free copies of Angry Birds or Plants vs. Zombies or whatever people play on Apple products.

 

My point is – Nintendo doesn’t have to give you free games, they don’t have to give you anything at all. People lower prices all the time, especially when investors are abandoning ship like they just realized Leonard DiCaprio is on board and its 1912. Nowhere else do you see this overblown sense of entitlement – the thought of a company giving away enormous amounts of free product as an “apology” for LOWERING their prices is so absurd it’s actually laugh-out-loud funny when you stop and think about it.

 

 

 

Now 33% cheaper! We’re really, really sorry about that.

 

Before the Nintendo fiasco of 2011, we had the Playstation Network fiasco of 2011. Now, granted, a lot of sensitive information was stolen, and when you give your information to a company like Sony you do so with what you would think is a reasonable expectation that they’ll keep it safe. That being said, the people who hacked Sony, stole your information and posted it on the internet got far less hate for it than Sony themselves. After trying desperately to stabilize their servers and spending millions on damage control, Sony then had to get on their knees and grovel for gamer forgiveness. Their offering of five games was spat upon and laughed at. These weren’t crappy games either, they were good titles, and all that 99% of people lost was hours spent on the PSN.I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now – Sony would have gotten less hate if they’d offered nothing at all. A vast majority of gamers saw the five free games offer as an opportunity to pounce on how inadequate it was.

 

Then of course every time a game company makes a decision regarding a game without taking an internet poll first, they get crucified. What the hell do you mean there’s no multiplayer/LAN/free DLC/Facebook integration? Of course then the mass boycotts are staged and petitions are created, and “like, everybody” refuses to buy a game – like Modern Warfare 2 when they took out dedicated servers, and the enormous gamer boycott brought Activision to their knees. Oh, no wait, it was insanely successful, made Activision another couple of billion or so and bought Kotick another island mansion. For once I actually have to praise Activision – for not bending to the will of the chorus of angry nerds vowing their destruction. They had an idea they wanted to implement and they did it how they wanted to do it, regardless of how many tantrums were thrown. Of course, they were wrong and “IW Net” was awful, but the principle is there.

 

Just because they’re trolls, doesn’t mean they can’t be right.

 

The most baffling whiners however are the ones that are so hypocritical they’ve actually become self-righteous. Every time a game announces its DLC measures, it is immediately “boycotted” and labeled “oppressive”. While this sometimes may actually be true, the real irony is that those complaining the loudest are the same people who were just going to pirate the damn thing anyway. The best part is, those people actually seem to genuinely feel hard done by, it’s like that sense of entitlement in the community has become so powerful that pirates have started to sincerely feel it themselves.

 

Game companies the world over need to put a stop to this. The fact is, you don’t have to fold to every unreasonable demand the community makes. It’s important to listen to the good ideas, take heed of the constructive criticism and be in touch with what your customers want. As long as you’re making a good product, you’re not going to lose customers over it. Every overblown massive outcry I can recall has had very little effect on sales – Modern Warfare 2 being a good example, lack of LAN in Starcraft 2 being another. Companies don’t need to be giving away enormous game bundles every time the community gets upset – make apologies if mistakes have been made, and give compensation when it’s actually necessary.

 

As gamers we have some serious attitude adjustments in order. It seems every day gaming becomes less and less about actually having fun – and it’s the gamers that are doing it. The community has become a mass of whining, sniveling brats and I think its high-time Daddy fetches the cane. Spare the rod, spoil the child.

 

Source

 

Gamers suffer from a major sense of entitlement issues, and it's been grating my nerves the last few months. This article probably won't prove anything, but it was just nice for me to see that I'm not the only one who feels that the only people spoiling my hobby are the ones participating in it.

Edited August 8, 2011 by Halororor

[brokenergy]

Finally! This human... he understands.

[Maggotspew]

The effect of living by means of escapism over the long term has it's price. The angriest people are those that gave up the most to persist in the game environment, lost a lover, grew distant from family, dropped out of school and supplement those losses, yet becomes less and less effective over time making a boiling pot of disfunctional people all forced into the same room together. As a gamer I do not exclude myself from that either, but there is a dark side to everything if you want to drag it out into the street and shine a big light on it, the rest of the non gamer world is no better to one another or the companies that serve them. Look at all the frivolous law suites, how insanely unreasonable the people who get a pickle on their burger at mcdonalds are when they didn't want one, the item return line at best buy.. the backlash at sports icons when they prove themselves flawed human beings.

 

It's not just the gaming community who is feeling overly entitled these days, it's modern society and it's disconnect with one another, internet escalates it and empathy between us all is on a huge decline.

 

 

One reason I like these forums however, many of the posts here remind me of the internet community when I first started using it in early 2000's, before everyone was so jaded and angry. I have to agree with the article as for most part, tho I wish it were not true.

[ub3rman123]

Sad to say, but gamers are indeed destroying their own hobby. Ever hear of Project Zomboid? Some script kiddies wrote a program that allowed people access to the online servers of the game without even paying the ridiculously low price for it. Because of all the people playing on the company's servers for free, it actually cost the company money to keep them up. They had to shut it down.

[LadyMilla]

A good article, I agree with a lot of things it says, with certain corrections.

 

Are Gamers the Worst Kind of People?

 

...

 

For every really awesome, chilled, well-mannered gamer out there, there seems to be another four who never miss an opportunity to complain, insult someone or tell you why he's actually the greatest player in the world, despite his 0.3 kill-death-ratio.

 

...

 

Yet lately, and also not so lately, there's been a lot in the news about "mistakes" companies have made, and the backlash that has followed. I often read these articles with a small measure of awe – awe at how video game companies today are pandering to their tantrum-throwing, outlandish customers. It feels like the whole gaming community has become a herd of whiny children moaning that the Ferrari Enzo they got for Christmas is red and they wanted the yellow one, even though admittedly it is not an infrequent occurrence that the box in the fancy wrapping contains a worn-down Pinto in spite of the Ferrari logo and the matching price tag.

 

...

 

That being said, the people who hacked Sony, stole your information and posted it on the internet got far less hate for it than Sony themselves. After trying desperately to stabilize their servers and spending millions on damage control, something that could have been avoided if they had made the effort to keep their servers up-to-date in terms of security holes. Sony then had to get on their knees and grovel for gamer forgiveness. Their offering of five games was spat upon and laughed at. (I think this is the weakest part of the article: how would you feel if you trusted your credit card details to a company, only to figure out later that said company saved costs by neglecting the proper maintenance of the servers that were supposed to be secure. Not to mention that Sony was not averse to using distasteful tricks - for example, they released the Mustafar expansion to the soon-to-be-closed Star Wars Galaxies and soon after its release, they introduced changes to the basic game mechanics that were so profound that the gameplay experience was completely changed: when the players complained about it - of course, there were a lot of gamers who complained about the changes themselves, but in this case, I mean players who complained about this 'bait and switch' trick -, Sony first dismissed their claims, citing the Terms of Service that said they were entitled to alter gameplay experience any time, but later, grudgingly, under threats of a class action lawsuit, they agreed to refund the price of the expansion - apparently, their lawyers convinced them that it would be difficult to refute the accusation that they withheld essential information that would have likely influenced the players' decision to buy the expansion. On top of that, they claimed the reason why they were unable to offer 'classic gameplay servers' was because 'they lost the old code' during the transition to the 'reformed' game. So when the author said that Sony's offer was spat upon and laughed at, instead of blaming gamer attitude ONLY, he should have also examined the other side of the coin.)

 

As gamers we have some serious attitude adjustments in order. It seems every day gaming becomes less and less about actually having fun – and it's the gamers that are doing it. (Only the gamers? How about trying to strike a balance and mention of a few cases where the players' attitude was reasonably justified. ) The community has become a mass of whining, sniveling brats and I think its high-time Daddy fetches the cane. Spare the rod, spoil the child.

 

Yes, because Daddy is always doing what is in the best interest of his spoiled children?

 

My thoughts: the article correctly describes a certain kind of bad attitude but the author generalizes, and fails to subject the other side - the game developers/publishers - to the same scrutiny. There are quite a few reasonable statements (' The fact is, you don't have to fold to every unreasonable demand the community makes. It's important to listen to the good ideas, take heed of the constructive criticism and be in touch with what your customers want. ') but the question always boils down to the problem: who is qualified to decide if the community's demands are reasonable or unreasonable.

 

 

[sendo75]

Finally a balanced perspective to this thread, thank you LadyMilia. I'll add that this classification of gamers has its merits but is unfair in its judgement. I'll focus on why gamers complain about the game products.

 

The discussed behaviour mainly involves gamers complaints because it irritates those that disagrees. Were there actual violence arising from gamers towards game companies? These complaints are a channel for consumers to vent their frustrations on what they think to be an unfair procurement of their entertainment in exchange for hard earned money. This is definitely not limited to the gaming industry. I hear complains ranging from transport services to public healthcare to government services all the time and the channel for such complains doesn't only exists on online forums. This is what everyone does, not just gamers. Whether the complains are justifiable or not, I myself find it hard to judge.

 

But I want to point out another group of gamers who have been impatient with these complains the same way they are impatient with inexperienced gamers asking noob questions. To me, gamers complaining about the whining are just the same as gamers complaining about their games. The complains are not directed at any gamers but for some reason, they feel irritated when reading it.

 

Have we not seen how game companies will do whatever it takes to protect their interest? Will they cut corners and save on costs and sell you products of inferior quality? Will they bribe initial reviews to mislead customers? Can't say for all but some certainly are guilty of it and it is usually these scenarios that spawns an outrage from the customers. Is it surprising that those who bought it are angered because they didn't get what they paid for? Should we sympathize such a consumer or the game company who got paid?

 

To be fair, some gamers can be over zealous in how they express their discontent or even be over demanding. But will the game companies bow down to demands against their own interests? I do not believe so.

Edited August 9, 2011 by sendo75

[Kovzac]

I do not understand rude "ppl", you just don't shitface others out of nowhere, you just don't. I don't play online anymore and never again will because I don't want to play with morons.

 

About whining... to me constructive criticism is worth around 1000 dollars per post that's why I don't understand developers without a feedback subforum.

[Flintlockecole]

Everyone in general is bad these days. There is no such thing as a community anymore, I remember when I was a child I knew all my neighbours and the things they were up to and I wouldn't have a second thought at lending a hand in a time of need. Mind you I'm on a new continent but still where is the sense of an actual community gone.

[dwellufool]

I like this article, but you have to think for a second... gaming is a spoil itself, isn't it?

 

No wonder you'd get the snobbiest low lives who bask in the anonymity of the online world. The gaming world isn't for humble gentlemen, it's for teens and young adults who have excess and generally want an escape from the world.

 

Let's look at the 90's. Gaming was awesome.

N64, Zelda, Mario, Metroid, those were great games in their day. Some still are.

 

Now, let's look at my key differences between gaming now and then.

 

I only knew how to play the game in the 90's, and only heard of good games by word of mouth or looking around for things that looked cool.

 

Today, we know all of the competing titles. We know a lot about how gaming works, what to look for that makes a good game, and we have the internet as a source for all gaming reviews/speculation etc. We know what to expect, so our expectations can be greatly raised.

 

As well, if we see a game that trumps the game we're anticipating in one way or another, (i.e. the Dark Elves armor Bethesda released recently), we'll complain that those graphics aren't as good as they could or should be for the generation.

 

I don't remember any of that when I was growing up. All the kids on my block had one gaming system or another, and I never heard any of them go "This game's going to suck that's coming out because the AI looks bad", or "This one will be bad because <insert company> is making it."

 

Conclusion; blame media and knowledge.

[Michlo]

Great article but as others have said, it isn't gamers, it is PEOPLE. The internet is just giving them the anonymity to express their sense of entitlement.

 

Alas, some people have taken to the streets with their sense of entitlement in the last few days.