You're comparing Sony being a douche for a little while (which, admittedly, they were. And everyone knows it. ) To Microsoft being massive moneygrabbing assbags. Sony fucked up at launch and everyone gave them shit for it. It wasn't 'competition with the Xbox 360' that made their console better, it was the fans and the industry slapping them around and making them change their ways.

Now look at them. Their PS4 launch (while not pristine perfect), is near the exact opposite of the PS3. They are being humble, helpful, and have the better machine, for the lower price. Even when they did mess up (BBLOD), they're being much better than Micro$oft was about it with the RROD.

The difference is in the magnitude. Slapping someone in the face is not the same as gut-punching them and then stomping on their instep and kneeing them in the balls. Sony did one, last generation, and we beat them right back.

Microsoft did the other, this generation, and we are going to take our pound of flesh and hope they learn their lesson.

This isn't me on my high horse, this is me telling it like it is. I am not the only one saying this, I am not the only person thinking this. The majority of the industry thinks this. I am not superior, I am not better. Being a fan who says the honest truth doesn't make me some sort of console expert.

If Microsoft changes their ways and fixes their attitude and their policies, I will be happy to consider buying an Xbox Gen 9 whatever it is, when they release it in roughly a decade. Just like the industry was/is ready to forgive Sony (mostly, forgive but do not forget) because they showed they had learned their lesson. We will give Microsoft the same chance. Later.

I agree on the Steam Machine taking off, can't wait for it to release next year.

 

A gamer is someone who plays games as a major hobby. Someone who plays Angry Birds on the bus on their way to work, does Fruit Ninja on an iPad while riding the train, or who has two hundred hours logged into Farmville isn't a gamer.

The only people who use exclusively smartphones that would qualify as gamers would be people insanely, crazily addicted to it. And honestly, they would have probably bought a Gameboy or PSP by now if they were than into mobile gaming.

I keep trying to remind people how they've been fucked in the past. Apparently remembering that everyone in BioWare that was good is gone makes me some kind of troll or instigator.

Sorry for chronicling the failures of people selling things that look shiny, guys. My fucking bad, apparently.

 

I definitely don't agree someone who has put in two hundred hours into farmville is most definitely a gamer. Since when did the game you play decide whether your a gamer or not? If farmville was on a console and someone put 20 hours into it they would be considered a gamer but because they're playing it on there smartphone they're not a gamer? Gaming has evolved if you play video games everyday on the bus while on the way to work than your a gamer. That's my opinion.

 

Alright, agreed. But then you say:

Why not? Someone who spends at least an hour per day to videogames (which sadly, includes Fruit Ninja and farmville) can comfortably qualify as a gamer.
If they're playing a videogame on a regular basis for fun, then they are gamers. Simple as that. The gaming community is trying to shake the scorn of the mainstream media and be seen as legitimate form of media and entertainment. It's hypocritical to deny Farmville's status as a legitimate videogame while pushing for esports acceptance by mainstream media.


I can't believe you made me defend Farmville. You suck dude.

 

Is Farmville even still around, I haven't had a Facebook message asking me to play in like a year.

 

I think Raine meant as a hobby versus as a time-passer. I don't seriously think Farmville counts as a push toward a legitimate form of media and entertainment. From what I understand, you play Farmville when you've nothing to do. The game isn't to get you excited and engaged, but to occupy your mind for an amount of time. And that excited and engaged criteria is what qualifies it as legitimate or art or whatever.

 

Because Farmville isn't a video game. There is no skill, no forethought, and no strategy involved, which are the defining traits of any game, be it a video game or not. It's literally just an interactive vanity set for your social media page. And because if the only thing you do is Farmville, and you've only put two hundred hours into it, it doesn't qualify as a 'major hobby,' even if we agreed that it was a video game. I've put at least 200 hours into approximately six games over the past year, and those are just the games I've put over two hundred hours into, like Minecraft, Skyrim, and Terraria. And only playing one game doesn't make it your hobby either, much like how somebody who only drinks one kind of beer couldn't call themselves a beer enthusiast.

If you've only done two hundred hours ever, total, into a single game? Not a gamer. It's not a major hobby for you. That's not a thing you do consistently to unwind. Your numbers would be higher. You probably watch television or movies as your major hobby. 'Gaming' is just a minor one.

 

Facebook games aren't video games. Sure they are by the strictest sense of the word, but they're to blame for the rash of free to play, microtransaction fueled garbage that's infesting the proper gaming world, due to them showing millions of retards will pay money for a shiny button, or a slight production boost in your game.

 

This is a tricky subject.

Personally, i think someone who's only interested is CoD or madden or fifa isn't a gamer either. It's all in how you define the term yourself, there's no 'real' definition.

The easiest and most accurate way to spot or label a gamer is to ask the person. If they think of themselves as gamers, then everything else is irrelevant.

 

I know people who spend hours and hours playing Fifa but don't consider themselves gamers at all and part of this hours of playing, is managing a team, buying new players. making the team better basically what Raine defined as a gamer but since they don't consider themselves gamers does it mean they aren't?

 

Yes. Being a gamer means more than playing video games. Just like watching a movie doesn't make you a movie buff.

It's about being a part of the culture, and identifying yourself as part of that culture is a massive part of what makes someone a gamer, i feel.

 

Thats true, and I feel where you're coming from. I'm always going to make fun of the Farmville and Casual idiots though, because to me, they're equal to the same frat boy filth that turned a majority of the gaming industry into regenerating health, small rapid skirmish, fps homogenized garbage after Halo came out. Developers see an easy buck making games for that crowd, and so they do. Quality games that take time to make, and 40+ hours to finish, don't get funded, so they can instead spend the cash throwning out to make the next casual platformer, or yearly installation of knife snipe duty.

Just my super bitter opinion though, I hate what the gaming industry has turned into trying to capture folks who have no business calling themselves gamers.

 

I wish I could put all that in a damn sig. Perfect explanation.

 

That's where my bitterness towards 'brogamers' comes from.

You go to GT or IGN and even the most hardcore of editors/ journalists will bemoan the hatred that games like CoD or Halo generate in the more traditional gamer, acting like we're immature idiots for thinking like that.

They're the idiots. The Residsnt Evil franchise being a perfect example of what these brogamers are doing to the industry.

I don't care if these games exist and that lots of people play them. More power to them. I do care when my beloved franchises turn into bro shooters, or just don't even get made because they're considered commercial failures when they don't sell Halo/ CoD numbers.

We see it more and more every day with the reluctance of Japanese developers to port their games over to the west because they'll only all 100k copies as opposed to the 10m+ CoD or Halo sells.

What's the message? If you wanna make that kind of money, make games like or just give up? fucking lovely.

Sorry, a bit ranty and totally off topic...

I WANT VALKYRIA CHRONICLES BACK!!!

 

That reminds me that I never did play the third iteration...

I loved the first one, even with the Awaken + Anti-Armor on Alicia for bonus challenge missions being just silly. :awesome

I played the second one, which was relatively entertaining, but certainly had it's issues. Several of which being due to platform-design limitations.

You know, after following some of the development of the third one... I haven't heard much about it since. Just randomly looked up on metacritic and there wasn't any reviews. For some reason I thought it was supposed to have come out, but maybe they delayed or dropped it instead. Then again, it would only reach it's former glory on an actual console again, rather than a hand held.

 

VC3? I'm pretty sure that game's been out in Japan for a while. It's just another one of those games that Sega will never, ever localize.

 

Yeah it has. No, they won't . VC1 was one of my favourite games of last gen.

 

Don't forget the gutting that's been going on in the FF series for years now. Big flashy cinematics, horrible as hell stale gameplay. I lived for Japanese RPG's back in the day, nowadays the closest I can come is Skyrim with a 100 mods adding stuff everywhere.

 

So try a JRPG other than Final Fantasy? The Shin Megami Tensei series is very good and has a lot of entries on PS2 for you to look at.

Also, let's be real, Final Fantasy's been heading in that direction since at least FF7.

 

Whatever, I'm sick of the FF hate. 9 and 10 were fantastic. 13 had an amazing combat system. 15 has me moist.

If you want old school FF Games (boring imo, in this day and age), go play them. They all still work. They're just as you remember them. Go play persona, go play ni no kuni or any of the tales games.

I applaud SE for at least trying to be different with every iteration, unlike pokemon, AC, CoD etc.

Was 13 just a massive corridor? Yep. Still enjoyed it and I fucking love lightning.

Can't wait for 13-3.