As I'm sitting here waiting for my 360 to finish downloading the Omega DLC for Mass Effect 3, I'm once again finding myself having angry, troubling conversations with fellow video gamers online about how Mass Effect 3 is a crap game, and about how the new Devil May Cry reboot is nonsense, and how AAA games all suck, and Nintendo makes games for babies, and I'm getting tired of it. It's not like I have an issue with people having opinions about things, or even the notion that they are audacious enough to present these opinions as if they were well-established facts, or that they berate you for having a different opinion in order to make themselves feel better, because I'm pretty much numb to that shit now. My issue is fundamental; these people seem to enjoy hating video games more than actually playing them.

It's great that you're being critical of big games. It's awesome that you played through it all and had a lot to say about it. We don't have to be fed dookie if we don't want it. But please, give me an example of something you like, or else I won't be convinced that you actually enjoy playing video games. It's pretty common knowledge that people who talk a lot of shit about everything are just trying to appear intelligent, but it comes off as being just as impulsive as munching the feces you immediately claim you love.

I find I don't have time to argue with these people, because I'm spending it playing video games, since that's my favourite part of video games. I know some people will read this and think I'm just getting mad about "trolls", but it's a bigger problem than that. Sometimes trolling puts people out of a job in the games industry.

Check out this image:

Look at the extreme contrast between the user score and the critic score. I'm not trying to defend journalists too much here, since a lot of them are pretty lazy, but they are most certainly better informed about the game than these metabombers who typically haven't played it fucking up the user score. Most of the time, the games that are being attacked like this are actually quite good and worthy of playing, but there's just SOMETHING about them that made fans too angry and rather than take it up with the company in a civil manner, they have to make it their mission to destroy and defame the hard work of hundreds.

It's just upsetting to me since all of these games had a lot of care and time put into making them, and while they all have aspects that may be less than appealing for some, it's a terrible look for gamers to be so immature with the way they express concerns. We really need to shake that reputation of being angry, antisocial male nerds that are hooked into computer screens and are unable to have empathy for anything except for what they're playing at that very second. Video games are mainstream now, and we need to accept that there's a much broader audience than just us, and they may need a bit more accessibility than we're used to.

However, there's a whole host of indie developers making awesome, hardcore games like Hotline Miami and Super Meat Boy that satisfy that carnal desire to build your skills and then proceed to destroy. So why not bring that stuff into the spotlight? Nah, let's just make fun of them too.

So this is clearly a parody video, but look at the top comment:

I can't believe it. The defense of trolling just doesn't work anymore; you can't sit here and tell me I'm simply not in on the biggest, longest, and least funny practical joke of all time. The discourse and disparity of opinion between journalists, game developers, and gamers is simply appalling, and we all need to grow the fuck up.

One last thing I want to touch on is how people behave while they play video games. Growing up, I was always pretty chatty. I liked to sit down with my cousins or friends from school and play video games, but I also liked to have casual conversation, not unlike playing a game of chess or poker. However, people seem to treat gaming like they're playing a professional sport; they devote every iota of their focus onto it, and tell you to shut up if what you're saying has nothing to do with winning. Excuse me, but last time I checked, we were sitting on a couch smoking weed and eating Doritos, there is nothing professional about what we're doing. Gaming should be stimulating, but also a stress reliever; if you're finding yourself getting overly stressed while doing something that is supposed to be fun, either you're doing it wrong or you should find another pastime.

I'm not saying that there should be zero element of stress or frustration, because there will be, and that's part of getting better, getting through the game. I'm not telling you to give up as soon as you hit a roadblock, because nothing gets done that way, but please don't stop being a good, polite friend just because we're throwin' down in some Smash Bros. I love an intense match as much as anybody, but sometimes I like to wind down with games, and nobody seems to be with me on that.

Okay, looks like my downloads are done and I gotta fight the Reapers or something. Let's all go play something we enjoy eh? :)

I think we're all tired of the wave of cynicism that has washed over the gaming landscape (or at least seems to have washed over the gaming landscape). I'd say part of the problem is that the games are largely scapegoats for something else. "HOW DARE YOU CHANGE SOMETHING SO BELOVED!BUT DON'T SHOVEL THE SAME BULLSHIT DOWN OUR THROATS!" Maybe it's some type of projection.

I don't understood how anybody can get so angry over something meant to be fun"It's a Hobby".It's pretty simple.If you don't like a game,then don't play it.I think we all can say we play games as something meant to be enjoyed.People need to learn to be respectful toward others.I know that seems "Craazzyy" to ask of the internet,but it's not impossible.You can be passionate about something without being a dick.

@AsKo25 said:

My issue is fundamental; these people seem to enjoy hating video games more than actually playing them.

It's just the human condition. We all like to complain. Go back 20 years, if a TV show was good how many letters did they get ? Close none. However if it was bad they would be flooded with complaints. It's just the way the world works, the only difference is that globalization brings it all out in the open. I bet you can sit down in any random coffee shop and listen in on peoples conversation and the vast majority will be people complaining about something.

Look no further then those stupid system wars forums for really dumb shit like this. Its a entire bunch of people there for the sake of being snarky and making factless statements. I really hate how poorly the internet portrays people who play games.

Negative vocal minorities always ruin the fun for everyone. I can guarantee you that for every asshole who votes on Metacritic against a game they don't like, there are 100 decent gamers who love that game, but don't feel the need to make the world know they love it. Or they simply like it enough to play it, but don't make a fucking deal about it.

The best thing anyone can do is ignore the "haters". Taking a shit in everything you don't like is a terrible way to live your life. But it's their loss, not yours, so fuck them.

reviews are not a good influence, and even if they were, metacritic isn't even a good site at compiling reviews! I see no harm in defacing it. As far as making gamers look immature to fans of other mediums, being that they lack experience in gaming, they can't really speak on the matter.

That said I'm surprised the user scores for those games are so low, I thought metacritic screens all user reviews? Those scores make it seem like the site lets anything through.

@AsKo25: I agree entirely. These "vocal minorities" as some like to call them have been ruining this hobby for the past year. Sure there's always been naysayers and some of them get downright loud, but it's only been with Dragon Age 2 and onward that it's gotten completely out of control. Even on Giant Bomb it feels like you're only allowed to like certain games released by certain developers. Indie games get a protective shield from all possible criticism (like for example Dust: An Elysian Tale) because HEY MAN IT WAS DONE BY ONE GUY.

It's just. Blah. When I get more fulfilling and compelling conversations out of the clerks at EB Games the internet has done fucked up somewhere. Real bad.

@TheManWithNoPlan said:

If you don't like a game,then don't play it.

Only how would you know if you don't like it if you didn't play it already?

@Oldirtybearon said:

Indie games get a protective shield from all possible criticism (like for example Dust: An Elysian Tale) because HEY MAN IT WAS DONE BY ONE GUY.

To be fair, I think Dust represents everything right with gaming at the moment; it has the perfect amount of old-school nostalgic appeal crossed with contemporary streamlining of systems that are usually complicated. Dust has some of the best inventory/loot management I've seen in an RPG. I agree that it shouldn't be shielded from criticism though.

I play videogames as much as anyone and I SOMEHOW manage to avoid all this Neogaf Metacritic whining bullshit entirely. Ask me anything about PS3 exclusives vs Xbox 360 exclusives in aggregate over the passed generation of consoles: heads up I have no idea.
 
Then again maybe I am a warlock?

I think you are missing the simple explanation here. People that are mad or that want to be a dick, will be louder than someone who is contempt. If you look at the user rating counts in your images, you will see that the numbers are very low compared to even 10% of the people that bought the game.

People get way to wrapped up in some sort of sense of entitlement to their favorite game franchises. Like with the new DmC the game is a remake, not a sequel even, yet people are flipping out because Dante doesn't look like original Dante? I thought the DMC games were all about the combat I didn't realize people needed Dante to look and talk a certain way. And why should he have to look that way? Why not try something new? Angry gamers seem to think they have a right to have the games come out however they want it. And it's all really funny because they always want the games to be like the older games. I hate Diablo 3 why isn't like Diablo 2! I hate Devil May Cry why isn't it like the original! Then games like Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty that stick to the same formula every year come out fairly similar with some minor changes and people yell, You are making the same game it sucks make something new! People need to just except that, most of the time, the original game in the series, or the game you played as a kid, will always be better than any sequel because it was the first and you have fond memories of it. People also need to accept that video games need to sell to other people besides themselves and that the more people that buy games, the more games will change.

Been thinking of this song way too often lately. Just a lot of unjustified bitterness and cynicism among video game culture.

@AsKo25

yeah I hear ya.

well here's the thing man,this problem is everywhere, it's grown way beyond games. Games might get the worst of it given who plays them, their age and how internet savvy they are. But man it's everywhere, politics, movies restaurant reviews, product reviews you name it.

The internet and in particular the social media revolution has seemingly given people the false impression that everyone's opinion is worth the same on any topic (it isn't) and should be shared as loudly as possible. Which has created this horrible snob culture where people think it's cool to hate and that if you are positive about something than you are either a phony or a fool. Which is just as bad as the reverse (where criticism is viewed as evil). Both are equally inaccurate in wholly opposite biases.

And it's created a whole host of other problems on civic discourse on in depth matters. E.g. the Global Warming political debate is a perfect example of this. You have people who are way out of their depth on both sides of the debate, who both feel they are 100% right about an incredibly complex (and evolving knowledge) topic when really they don't even have the background to remotely accurately what their own level of competence on the topic is. So they get into these un-winnable turf wars based on things far removed from the facts.

Call me crazy but I would suspect the PhD Climatologists, Statisicians, Atmospheric Scientists etc probably are going to know a hell of a lot more about this than Washington bureaucrats, activists, business leaders or ditto head media personalities. Not saying those people's opinions don't matter, they do and they can provide great insight, but they should not be treated as equivalent to a professional's. You wouldn't ask a janitor whether you need open heart surgery, so why does anyone think Media personalities understand the science of Global Warming?

I'm not saying people shouldn't have or express their opinions, but I do think everyone would benefit from a little humility, open mindedness and courtesy. Chances are you don't know everything and that the guy who has spent 30,000 hours doing this for a living knows more about than you do. Yeah he could be lieing, yeah he could be wrong, but his chances of being right are a hell of a lot better than yours.

And would it kill people to realize that eventhough you personally may not enjoy something, that if it does something well that other people might really enjoy.

e.g. personally I don't like Call of Duty games, but can I see the appeal for other people? Definitely.

Mass Effect 3 made one crucial mistake in my opinion, which was to promise a very specific experience to its' customers and then not to make a real effort (or at least one that looks more like they made one) to deliver it. That's it, but that's a very big one. It's a basic rule of business that you try to live up to your promises. If the Mass Effect team realized they were not going to be achieve their goal, then they should have changed their marketing to reflect that. But they didn't, so game players justifiably feel cheated out of an experience they didn't get.

But that definitely is the kind mistake that deserves all the criticism it gets. On that one the Journalists got it very wrong.

DmC Devil May Cry OTOH is the kind of game people should weigh with an open mind. If you don't like it you don't like it, but it almost seems like people decided to hate it before it ever came out.

@Video_Game_King said:

I think we're all tired of the wave of cynicism that has washed over the gaming landscape (or at least seems to have washed over the gaming landscape).

true

Video games are fun, it's like people forget that sometime. Games could certainly do things better, but that doesn't mean they are bad.

People need to go and play some actually BAD FUCKING GAMES and then they can still try and call a game like Mass Effect bad. There is far far worse than ME3

@JoeyRavn said:

Negative vocal minorities always ruin the fun for everyone. I can guarantee you that for every asshole who votes on Metacritic against a game they don't like, there are 100 decent gamers who love that game, but don't feel the need to make the world know they love it. Or they simply like it enough to play it, but don't make a fucking deal about it.

The best thing anyone can do is ignore the "haters". Taking a shit in everything you don't like is a terrible way to live your life. But it's their loss, not yours, so fuck them.

Couldn't agree more. People are more willing to tell you how much they hate something over liking/loving something.

@Video_Game_King said:

@TheManWithNoPlan said:

If you don't like a game,then don't play it.

Only how would you know if you don't like it if you didn't play it already?

Eh, I don't think that's a valid counter-argument. Everyone has their own taste and preferences when it comes to games and it's really not that hard to have some sort of idea of whether you'll like a title or not based on previous experience, either with the same franchise or similar games. You didn't like Civilization IV? Chances are Civilization V won't be your cup of tea either. Thought Bayonetta was great? DmC may be up your alley. But there's a world of a difference between that and being completely dismissive (and borderline idiotic) towards a game "because it's not what I want/what it used to be".

The former is a completely normal and logical way to distribute your time and money regarding your hobby; the latter is just another outlet for the stupid and senseless entitlemente that a good portion of spoiled gamers seem to have developed in recent years.

@AsKo25: The "fanbase = assholes" issue goes beyond games, but it does seem "angry" gamers are particularly vocal with their cynicism, ennui, bitterness, or whatever you want to call it. End of a console cycle where the big-gun games all seem to be getting funneled into the same "casual" bucket has put some people up in arms, and the mad ones are always going to be loudest.

If you get angry or pay any attention to this at all those people win.

I too am frustrated with all the hate and "trolling" that has become common on the Internet. For example, the Devil May Cry reboot has gotten a huge amount of backlash, and that's mainly because the lead hero, Dante, looks completely different than he did in the original games, even though game critics have been giving the game very good reviews. Now, granted, I have never played any of the DMC games, but I feel this negativity on the game has gotten way out-of-hand, and I wish everybody whose a fan of the games, could calm down, and give this remake/reboot a chance.

I admit, I was one of those people who was very upset or angered over the original ending of Mass Effect 3. When the game ended, I just stared at the end credits with my mouth open. It confused the heck out of me, and I felt it was a sloppily made ending, as if the choices you had made over the course of 3 games, hadn't made much of a difference. However, the extended cut greatly improved the game, because it fleshed out the scene where you meet the Starchild, and the explanation of why the Reapers commit genocide on the organic species. Better yet, the ending I chose, Synthesis, where humans and Reapers merge together, was powerfully done, and it finally explained how Joker and the crew crash land on that tropical planet. It brought tears to my eyes, watching that ending. In my opinion, Bioware realized the mistake they had made, and redeemed themselves by fixing it. Because of that, my faith has been restored in that great company. I still firmly believe they should have put the fixed ending into the original version.

That's my honest opinion, and all I'm trying to say, is that I wish people weren't so judgmental about video games. After all, they're one of my favorite types of entertainment, and always will be.

sorry I had to flag that last comment... too many spoilers for ME3. I respect what was being said, just figure maybe some people wouldn't want to see that.