Hello,
My good friend Skrundarlow has written an article discussing the gaming community's reactions to the Xbox One announcement and I felt the need to share it here despite this not being his forum of choice. Here it is:
tl:dr? If you read the article you'll realize that I don't care anymore.
Wednesday March 23rd, 7:00 AM
Melbourne, Australia
It’s three hours after the announcement of the Xbox One. I’ve just woken, up, and I’m excited. I jump online to read up on Microsoft’s latest home console.
“Where are the games!?”
“Xbox One reveal a disaster!”
“Microsoft sure stuffed this one up”
“Why would anyone buy this shit, Microsoft deserves to die”
“The Playstation 4 announcement blew this out of the water”
“Consoles are still shit, omg this crap is already outdated, PC master race”
I'm confused by the articles, particularly the comments, and their overwhelming negativity. There are gifs, photoshopped pictures and videos blanketing the internet with furious hate for the Xbox One. What did Microsoft do that was so terrible? I wonder. I do some further reading. It seems that most people are complaining about online requirements and used games. Some are complaining about Kinect. It’s being called universally ugly. Surely the online requirement isn't that bad, I think to myself. I've always thought Kinect was pretty cool stuff. I think it looks ok, but I’ll reserve my judgement until I sit down and watch the conference.
Later that day, I finally had the opportunity to sit down, and watch the conference from start to end. The further I got into the video, the stranger I began to feel. My confusion from earlier in the morning had returned. I watched it all, through the unveiling, the sports, the TV, the Call of Duty, and by the end of it I was angry. Angry enough to write this piece. Angry at the gaming community.
Right now, I hate the gaming community.
I was excited as I sat through that conference. I saw that Kinect would come included with every console. ‘That’s awesome’ I thought to myself, ‘Every Xbox One owner will have a Kinect. It will really be able to live up to its full potential’ I thought. Blu-ray drive, games being installed to the hard-drive, and being linked to my account ala Steam. ‘This will be very great for a lot of people.’ It seems a small thing, but being able to launch a game without requiring the correct disk is a massive convenience. Then we get to EA sports. I could not care less about sporting video games, but the demos shown were cool. I started to think about how this technology will benefit the games that I love to play. I was excited because this was new, awesome technology that will enhance our experiences as both consumers and gamers. And yet just this morning I had had to sift through an ocean of hate to get to the Xbox One news.
I stopped thinking about the Xbox One and I took a step back to look at the gaming community as a whole. I did not like what I saw.
Because although it’s probably the worst response I've seen, it’s not just the Xbox One. The Playstation 4 announcement was attacked for several reasons, including not showing a console. The Wii U was attacked because people thought the gamepad was a waste of space, time and money. The Vita was attacked because the community felt it had no reason to exist. The 3DS was attacked because the gaming community called 3D a gimmick.
Very rarely do I remember seeing someone take a step back and say ‘hold on guys, think about how cool this is. Think about what new things we can do with it, and how it will enhance our gaming experiences.’ And I see this as a problem. I feel that regardless of what Microsoft had announced at that conference, it would have been torn apart, because that is what our community has become. Criticism can lead to innovation, and it is a very valuable tool that must not be discounted, but we have reached the point at which the gaming community has become so critical, and so hostile, that we have lost sight of why it is that we became gamers in the first place. We have become a community that is stifling innovation, a community that I’m not sure I want to continue to be a part of.
The Xbox One has its share of problems. I could write an entire article about how many of them are of little consequence, and have been over-dramatised by technology websites across the globe. I could explain why Microsoft’s decision during the unveiling event to focus on the console, and entertainment, as opposed to games, was a good one. But why should I? It will just be responded to with hate and disgust, as I’m sure will this one. I could try to change the community, to inspire everyone to just appreciate awesome technology for what it is,
But I’ve just about given up on you, ‘gamers’
This article was also posted at the following links if you'd like to see other comments:
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/the-xbox-one-and-why-i-hate-the-gaming-community.453049501/
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=190294
Now I would like to offer my personal opinions on the issue at hand.
I feel that Microsoft did the correct thing at this event. Microsoft had a strong focus on entertainment that does not include games and I see that as a very good decision. This is because E3 is within a month and that is the big video game event of the year. Microsoft have gotten all of the boring software and hardware capabilities out of the way at this relatively small event allowing for many of their "15 exclusives" to be shown at E3. Games belong at E3, and if they hadn't have announced the console and all the 'boring' TV features we wouldn't be able to enjoy seeing all of those games at E3. I also think that bundling Kinect (Still prefer the name Natal) is a great thing for the console as it encourages developers to make use of it in new and creative ways (See Ryse with Kinect). I look forward to what the 8th console generation will bring to video games when in full force (I love ya Nintendo, but you're hardware just doesn't match up in power).
Thanks for reading
Edit: I'd also like to add that in contrast to the enormous amount of hate that the video game community provides, the board game community is almost always full of positivity.
My good friend Skrundarlow has written an article discussing the gaming community's reactions to the Xbox One announcement and I felt the need to share it here despite this not being his forum of choice. Here it is:
tl:dr? If you read the article you'll realize that I don't care anymore.
Wednesday March 23rd, 7:00 AM
Melbourne, Australia
It’s three hours after the announcement of the Xbox One. I’ve just woken, up, and I’m excited. I jump online to read up on Microsoft’s latest home console.
“Where are the games!?”
“Xbox One reveal a disaster!”
“Microsoft sure stuffed this one up”
“Why would anyone buy this shit, Microsoft deserves to die”
“The Playstation 4 announcement blew this out of the water”
“Consoles are still shit, omg this crap is already outdated, PC master race”
I'm confused by the articles, particularly the comments, and their overwhelming negativity. There are gifs, photoshopped pictures and videos blanketing the internet with furious hate for the Xbox One. What did Microsoft do that was so terrible? I wonder. I do some further reading. It seems that most people are complaining about online requirements and used games. Some are complaining about Kinect. It’s being called universally ugly. Surely the online requirement isn't that bad, I think to myself. I've always thought Kinect was pretty cool stuff. I think it looks ok, but I’ll reserve my judgement until I sit down and watch the conference.
Later that day, I finally had the opportunity to sit down, and watch the conference from start to end. The further I got into the video, the stranger I began to feel. My confusion from earlier in the morning had returned. I watched it all, through the unveiling, the sports, the TV, the Call of Duty, and by the end of it I was angry. Angry enough to write this piece. Angry at the gaming community.
Right now, I hate the gaming community.
I was excited as I sat through that conference. I saw that Kinect would come included with every console. ‘That’s awesome’ I thought to myself, ‘Every Xbox One owner will have a Kinect. It will really be able to live up to its full potential’ I thought. Blu-ray drive, games being installed to the hard-drive, and being linked to my account ala Steam. ‘This will be very great for a lot of people.’ It seems a small thing, but being able to launch a game without requiring the correct disk is a massive convenience. Then we get to EA sports. I could not care less about sporting video games, but the demos shown were cool. I started to think about how this technology will benefit the games that I love to play. I was excited because this was new, awesome technology that will enhance our experiences as both consumers and gamers. And yet just this morning I had had to sift through an ocean of hate to get to the Xbox One news.
I stopped thinking about the Xbox One and I took a step back to look at the gaming community as a whole. I did not like what I saw.
Because although it’s probably the worst response I've seen, it’s not just the Xbox One. The Playstation 4 announcement was attacked for several reasons, including not showing a console. The Wii U was attacked because people thought the gamepad was a waste of space, time and money. The Vita was attacked because the community felt it had no reason to exist. The 3DS was attacked because the gaming community called 3D a gimmick.
Very rarely do I remember seeing someone take a step back and say ‘hold on guys, think about how cool this is. Think about what new things we can do with it, and how it will enhance our gaming experiences.’ And I see this as a problem. I feel that regardless of what Microsoft had announced at that conference, it would have been torn apart, because that is what our community has become. Criticism can lead to innovation, and it is a very valuable tool that must not be discounted, but we have reached the point at which the gaming community has become so critical, and so hostile, that we have lost sight of why it is that we became gamers in the first place. We have become a community that is stifling innovation, a community that I’m not sure I want to continue to be a part of.
The Xbox One has its share of problems. I could write an entire article about how many of them are of little consequence, and have been over-dramatised by technology websites across the globe. I could explain why Microsoft’s decision during the unveiling event to focus on the console, and entertainment, as opposed to games, was a good one. But why should I? It will just be responded to with hate and disgust, as I’m sure will this one. I could try to change the community, to inspire everyone to just appreciate awesome technology for what it is,
But I’ve just about given up on you, ‘gamers’
This article was also posted at the following links if you'd like to see other comments:
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/the-xbox-one-and-why-i-hate-the-gaming-community.453049501/
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=190294
Now I would like to offer my personal opinions on the issue at hand.
I feel that Microsoft did the correct thing at this event. Microsoft had a strong focus on entertainment that does not include games and I see that as a very good decision. This is because E3 is within a month and that is the big video game event of the year. Microsoft have gotten all of the boring software and hardware capabilities out of the way at this relatively small event allowing for many of their "15 exclusives" to be shown at E3. Games belong at E3, and if they hadn't have announced the console and all the 'boring' TV features we wouldn't be able to enjoy seeing all of those games at E3. I also think that bundling Kinect (Still prefer the name Natal) is a great thing for the console as it encourages developers to make use of it in new and creative ways (See Ryse with Kinect). I look forward to what the 8th console generation will bring to video games when in full force (I love ya Nintendo, but you're hardware just doesn't match up in power).
Thanks for reading
Edit: I'd also like to add that in contrast to the enormous amount of hate that the video game community provides, the board game community is almost always full of positivity.