To begin, I ask to pardon the "rant" style of this post. I don’t intend to get on a tangent, though based on the topic I guarantee I will.
If there’s anything I’ve considered writing on my epitaph, it has been "Loved games, hated gamers." In fact, no other segmented population of video game players has rightfully been under persecution for being, well, total dicks. I mention a population segment, of course, to justify the notion that many game players aren’t forum-trolling fanboys (as are often the terms).
Frankly, we may need to find a grown-up term for "gamers" now. I know I don’t want to be associated with it. Which really sucks, because I love video games. I have a passionate lust for this growing interactive art medium. But gamers come around and treat it like simple entertainment products. Before you mentally interject, of course these are products, and games have an industry. But the faithful will always see the depth of these products, see the potential.
Enough about the philosophy. Why do I hate gamers, and what about E3? I’ve had the opportunity not to go to E3 itself, but to watch from the internet with the millions of eager people awaiting the thousands of news bits getting crammed into this short time. Unfortunately, at every turn I’ve seen comment sections flooded with misdirected anger. Even worse is that I’ve seen misdirected angst in the enthusiast press as well.
Take the coverage of the big three conferences as well. The Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony press conferences give off the combination of attempting to show up the competition while finally unveiling the 15+ games or hardware the company and affiliates have in store for us eager folks. But E3 continues to die each year with the notion that one of these companies must be championed, that gamers have a sworn duty to name the winner. It’s as if we’re, well dammit, playing a game.
Each conference had some eyebrow-raising moments. Each conference had some fantastic announcements to shoot my hype level through the roof. Demos, trailers, and techno music kept me going. Do I have to pick one conference? Why the hell should I?
Consoles are expensive, but using them as shields and weapons to justify their purchase via message boards is primitive. If there were console wars, gamers would be the armies. Do people that only eat Sara Lee bread feel the need to jump online and try reaming the crap out of a Wonder Bread fan? No. What if the bread costed over $300?
The coverage of the E3 conferences has lead to a ton of analysis and opinions from the games press. Most of it sucks. The writing has been fine overall (who the hell am I to judge that), but of the content I’ve read so far, most of the writers’ expectations and values have seemed misdirected.
Sure, I can’t expect everyone to be apathetic to video games. But claiming all Nintendo gave us were retreads of old IPs and yet drooling over Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Halo 3: ODST seems as misplaced as finally finding Waldo in your Little Critters book. I really wish I was making up this example, too.
But reading an expert’s opinion is different from that of gamers. I can stomach what the press has to say; it’s their job to analyze and report. Plus they speel well (I so did that on purpose). Gamers suck. Especially console-mongers. You know them, they cling to a single brand and probably would jump off a bridge on command from it. Devotees to the fullest. Hell, if Sony needs a real army someday, they may have one on hand.
Thanks toMatthew Floratos, we have real documented examples of gamers getting pissed. Raging against the simple fact that the Metal Gear series will see a release on a Microsoft platform, each comment gets worse. "WHY DID YOU SELL US OUT KOJIMA!!!!!!! YOU TRAITOR! YOU DISHONOR THE PS3" only emphasizes that console-based fandom is alive and well.
Why do gamers rage against a property expanding? If they treat games like a product, why can’t companies treat them like a product too? If I’m allowed another analogy, it would be like asking your favorite baker for a slice of cake, telling him how to decorate it (forcibly at that), and then insisting that "Guy That Frequents Other Bakeries" can’t be allowed to have a slice.
So where does that leave us? Well, nowhere new. And it sucks. Everyone gets to use the internet and have an opinion. Gamers with awful grammar get to have blogs, and the industry and its press slowly implodes. Regardless, I’m not afraid to admit that I hate many gamers, but I still love games. If E3 were to die, I know I wouldn’t mind for these issues alone.
Oh, and I’m probably wrong, too. For a preemptive counterpoint on my insistence that rabid gamers are everywhere, take Leigh Alexander’s"I, Gamer"article for a spin. She notes that game enthusiasts are more like the tip of the bell curve. To be fair, I barely explore this issue here. I hope to eventually fill in the holes in my swiss cheese argument.