I’ve been a “gamer” my entire life. For clarity, I define “gamer” as simply someone who enjoys video games. While one can refine and sub-divide that (what types of games someone likes, how often they play, to what extent they “care” about the subject) that’s not important here. What is is simply the idea of video games being a hobby that I have enjoyed for easily 30 years now.
To say that the hobby has exploded in popularity would be an understatement — it’s a multi-billion dollar industry rivaling, and in some cases, surpassing that, in value compared to television, movies, music, pretty much any other form of entertainment. Of course, it wasn’t always this big.
Really, it wasn’t up until about 2005 that gaming took off to the degree it has now. Oh yes, earnings were big before this, sure, but 2005 seemed to mark the point where it all really became truly “mainstream” in a sense at least from my perspective.
I say this because this was about the time I noticed a drastic change in the demographics of people who were vocal about gaming and pretty much every aspect of the subculture in and of itself.
Where once it was nerdy kids sanctuary away from the ridicule of normalcy had become just another thing for every jock on the block to argue over with their friends.
Where once the geeky kids carefully studied the pages of gaming magazines, clamoring for some kind of real information on upcoming hardware and software, today every moron with a smartphone argues tooth-and-nail over rumors of games and hardware that are years away, believing every lie told by everyone and anyone out there looking for a quick hit on their clickbait YouTube video or “gaming news” article.
Where we once rejected anything that seemed far fetched as absurd speculation, such is now taken as an absolute fact and any logical look at why it’s likely not the case is met with hostility as if you just “shot the sacred cow.”
Sure, there were childish arguments over which game system was “better” back when I was a child, but that’s just it — it’s when I was a child. That’s not withstanding that there were actually differences in hardware back in the day – significant ones, in fact.
Compare to today when there’s, in all principle, not a damn bit of difference between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, for example — let alone the games for them, and yet people argue, it seems, more intently than ever before, and with far less sensibility than even we, as kids, with the limited information on the subject of gaming hardware as we had in the 90’s, did.
Our petty arguments at least had some merit when hardware really dictated what a game on a given system could be. These days, it’s all software — the only difference between a console game and something on a PC is the brand slapped on the disc and maybe the processor type its compiled for. Otherwise, this crap is all the same and has been for nearly 20 years now, and yet people will argue and debate like it’s still the days of the Z80 vs the 6502.
Sensible discussion is dead. Completely dead. In the social media era, facts mean nothing — whomever has the most “likes” is automatically the correct one. Where we once were extremely particular about terms, classifications, and understanding the nature of this subject we loves, people now feign caring about the “past” so long as the whole “retro is cool” trainwreck keeps on sliding, flaming, along the digital rails of the internet.
To see a complete lack of comprehension on what the hardware actually is.. of how the software is written.. of how business works… to see a hoard of idiotic “memes” spawn attacking brands people hate for completely absurd reasons, while they simultaneously pledge an almost Nazi-esq loyalty to the opposition, as if a company even remotely gives a flying fuck about you as an individual is madness.
I’ve watched people fawn over games for literally years before their release only to be disappointed with them so quickly that within a week of release no one is talking about the game at all. Period.
I’ve watched products be sold as the “next big revolution” in gaming come crashing down in a glory only rivaled by that of the Hindenburg Disaster. Oh the humanity indeed, especially when there are voices out there like mine who truly care about the realities of this hobby so many claim to love so much try so hard to protect others from these lies, only to be told that we don’t know what we’re talking about. To be treated like we don’t have a clue, simply because we’re not buying what the newest snake-oil salesperson in the gaming scene is trying to sell. Ostracized because we truly care about gaming, and the gamers, in a sense.
The entire idea of truly caring about the subject is seen almost as a joke, unless someone agrees with the status quo; something formed by the opinions of dude-bro’s who set up their cameras in front of a wall of boxes which, for all the “individuality” people try to put in them all look identical, filled with the same (usually Nintendo brand) trinkets and gizmos to add some kind of status to their opinions. If you lack the cash to drop on these things or have a “face for radio” the the hell with your thoughts.
No one thinks for themselves anymore. Or, should I say, they do, but they apply the same criticality to this thought as the average soccer mom does to her children’s clothing selections – read, none at all. If they aren’t hopping on the next big, over-hyped mess of a trend they are letting others tell them everything to think, everything to feel, everything to buy, everything to sell, without any consideration for, well, anything.
The social sphere of gaming culture is ruled by the same attitudes that those who grew to love gaming as an escape originally fled from. It’s a sickening situation which, honestly, has befallen much of what I once held incredibly close.
To say I’m frustrated would be an understatement. I’ve truly come to despise the entirety of gaming culture. I’ve only scratched the surface of my objections in this little rant, but God fucking damnit after the day, the week, the year I’ve had it’s been long overdue.
I truly despise what this hobby I once loved has become. I now barely even want to pick up a controller, that’s how repulsive the entire topic has become to me… yet I work in a game store. I repair daily systems that people seem to refuse to take care of. I buy and sell used game hardware and software and make good money doing it.
All the while doing what I can, both on this site and at my job (which are unrelated, for the record) to maybe making the gaming world that bit better — more like it was before everything went to shit. Childish arguments from grown men. People obsessing over rumor and speculation as if its divine edict. No one learning on their own, instead relying on flash in the pan “influencers” to tell them what to think, how to think, about anything related to what was once a thinking mans hobby.
If you think I’m a cynical asshole in the way I look at all this, well, maybe now you understand why.