Waffles13

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/17/greenberg-teases-xbox-reveal-says-e3-is-all-about-the-games/

"We're really going to tell one story across two events. So we're going to start on the 21st and really that's about revealing the next Xbox platform..."

"E3 is all about the games. At E3, I mean, if you're a gamer, it's going to be tons of exclusives, world premieres and obviously even beyond that we have a lot to share between then and this holiday."

So, granted, they didn't say "This event isn't about the games," but rather said "This event is about the console, E3 is about the games." Which, you know, makes sense, seeing as how E3 is a games conference.

On top of that the Giant Bomb guys have emphasized this point multiple times over the last few weeks. I'm far to lazy to dig through the last few Bombcasts for time codes, but I'm fairly certain that they have repeatedly said that this is a short, one hour presentation for TV, don't expect games, expect the console and the services end of things.

They literally said before the announcement that they would NOT have many games. Every indication before the briefing was that it would be hardware and interface/service based, which is exactly what it was. They showed you the system, showed the controller, gave a decent idea of the specs, and then went ahead and appealed to the 15-40 year old male US demographic. Since, you know, it was broadcast primarily on Spike TV, that US network that is targeted towards males ages 15-40. You got exactly what Microsoft, the press, and common sense said you would get. If you're, say, upset at the name or the look of the system or the look of the interface, that's valid (although complaining about the name or physical appearance is completely absurd in my opinion), but to say "I wanted games" when they said "Expect little to no games" is literally crazy.

For me it's two things.

First, it's the fact that Reddit more or less co-oped the term "meme". It used to be the idea that there's this obscure, funny and/or really dumb story that took on a life of it's own, and making a reference to it is fun for the involved parties because they (usually) understand the context and it's a fun inside thing. Note that this doesn't mean it's some super secretive exclusive thing to be "in the know", it's that there's a community of people who understand the stupid shit that get's said online and it's cool to be a part of it.

At this point, though, a "meme" is basically just a silly, one note character who is solely represented by two lines of text separated by a picture of something's head with a kaleidoscope background (or alternatively an image from a movie/game with the same text). There's nothing wrong with that necessarily, but the joke is always so immediately obvious that after three or five image macros, it has already worn out its welcome. Of course, who gives a shit if the term "meme" simply refers to something different than it used to; the issue in my mind is more that there is now a template for creating humor, and it means that "real" memes seem much more rare and anytime anything legitimately funny occurs, it is IMMEDIATELY converted into some form of advice animal because it's easier to go to Quickmeme than to be original and clever.

My other issue with Reddit is, as others have said, the circlejerk for internet points. It's most obvious in very specialized subreddits; go to literally any sub for a game franchise, movie or TV show, and 75-90% of the entries will be screenshots, gifs or videos from the subject matter, with the topic line being either "One of my favorites parts of X" or a quote from the scene in question. It's the same thing with top Youtube comments on 90% of videos, and its the same as that annoying friend you have who sees something funny and then just repeats it verbatim immediately afterwards for no particular reason. It adds nothing to the conversation, but the sad part is that somehow there are hordes of people in EVERY subreddit who apparently think "I remember that part too! Upboat!"

Now, I've gone to a number of game franchise-specific subs and had really good, in depth conversations about story beats, plot holes and speculations from the future, but any time I've ever thought of subscribing to those subs, my homepage is littered with these stupid, meaningless posts that are nothing but clutter.

It's also part of the reason that the atheist community is so terrible there; the vast, vast majority of the posts on /r/atheism have always been pictures of Patton Oswalt, Penn Jillette, George Carlin or other outspoken atheists with anti-religious quotes superimposed on them. And then, some Redditor thought they were being real clever and said "Hey, we don't need celebrities to tell us to be atheist!", and then everyone started posting shitty webcam pictures of themselves with terrible atheistic quotes that they came up with, and everyone was so on board with that idea that it literally became the only thing on that entire sub for months and months (and probably still is, for all I know). It just makes everyone look like self-serving assholes and ruins the whole idea of having a thoughtful, welcoming community when everyone can just vomit out bullshit onto a subreddit and it will be upvoted to the top over other actual articles and insightful content that requires reading to be understood.

EDIT: I should point out that I don't hate Reddit, and after culling down your subs to a very short list, it can be a good (if biased) source for news and a quick look at what's going on on the internet at any time. But as I said, straying even a tiny bit outside the most broad subs (/r/worldnews, /r/technology, etc) will rapidly devolve into circlejerks-ville, and for me it completely defeats the purpose of having a website built to let you customize your content when the topics you care about are all caked in a thick, crusty layer of image macros and garbage posts while the good topics all sink down into pages 10+.

And on a certain level, if I want pure, raw internet directly into my eyeholes, I'll just go to /b/. At least there no one is under the pretense of having intelligence discourse, and I can respect that.

If Gearbox didn't put out Duke, there would still be a huge contingent of the internet convinced that it was going to be the greatest game ever made, and who though Duke Nukem was actually a great character worthy of a comeback. The game is obviously complete trash, but Gearbox didn't do anything other than make it a technically functional video game, and they bit the bullet to put out a game that everyone desperately wanted to see despite the terrible history surrounding it. It made great business sense and they didn't actually have anything to do with the content of the game.

Yes, Borderlands 2 (and by extension, B1) have a pretty terrible sense of humor, but the games themselves are fantastic to play and Gearbox themselves have made much more serious games successfully.

And to everyone bitching about "Oh, I guess we are getting a Homeworld FPS now": You realize that developers have the ability to expand and change, right? The press release even directly says that they are looking for outside help in developing a new game, if they decide to, which could be anything from gathering up a few RTS veterans to lead a team on the project to giving the IP to a third party RTS developer and just throwing some cash at them. The universe and story of Homeworld is interesting, but the appeal is that it is basically the only well-known, actually 3D RTS out there, and anyone who thinks Gearbox is dumb enough to try and make it into an FPS is just determined to ride that Aliens: CM Hate train all the way to the station.

They made one bad game, guys. So have 95% of other developers. Worst case, they make a shitty Homeworld 3 and we get the old games on Steam. Best case they make a good Homeworld 3 and we get the old games on Steam. Either way, it's a win for fans, the only difference is how much money Gearbox spends on it.

The only worry I have is if Cataclysm is getting the short shrift. It's not mentioned in the press release, and I'd argue that it's more fun and has a better story than Homeworld 2.

@Snail said:

@Dallas_Raines said:

Good would be enough for Star Wars, seeing as how there is only one film in the series that's universally recognized as 'great'.

Episode IV and Episode V are two acclaimed movies. Also, while many people have issues with the Eewoks in Episode VI, it's ridiculous to say it isn't a great movie. Even if it weren't accurate to say that it's recognized as being "universally great" it would because of vocal nitpicking fandom. I think that movie was recognized as being great at the time it was released, and still is.

Also, taking into consideration the cultural impact of Star Wars, your comment comes out as kind of crass.

I'm one of like four people that are of the mind that Episode VI is the best. Sure, Ewoks are dumb, but the final lightsaber duel is incredible and I played a shitload of Rogue Squadron, so the space battle is also amazing.

My biggest worry with the new films is that it will ruin my perfect view of the Star Wars films: They are ranked worst-to-best in order of Episode number, with Phantom being worst, Jedi being best, etc. I have no investment or real interest in the new films at this point, but I really don't want to cram VII in between III and IV.

@Veektarius said:

I think BF3 will hold up too well in early 2014 to justify a new installment.

While I agree that BF3 will still be perfectly fine in 2014, by that point the new consoles will be out. And without the console hardware holding development back, imagine how much better the PC version will look, and how much bigger the maps could be or how much more destruction the game could handle.

The "announcement" may be bullshit, but BF4 could be completely insane without the shackles of console parity.

@Nightriff said:

@Waffles13 said:

@Nightriff said:

Good to hear, I thought the expansion idea was dumb and can't wait for Saints Row 4. Should be awesome

Just let him come in and focus test every couple weeks.

Also, don't hire any other focus testers.

Can't tell if you are making fun of me or not....

I'm dead serious. Everything Jeff liked about 3 are the same things I loved about it; I want to see what happens if he had complete creative control on a game of that type.

@Nightriff said:

Good to hear, I thought the expansion idea was dumb and can't wait for Saints Row 4. Should be awesome

Just let him come in and focus test every couple weeks.

Also, don't hire any other focus testers.

It's gonna be Paul vs Johnny, right? I mean, right?

That statement doesn't seemed hostile or pointed to me at all. Sure it's not as supportive of the team as it could have been, but it seems fine to me.