What's the deal with "gamers" these days?

[Boreas249]

Does no one appreciate the older games at all anymore?
Every time I'm seen playing Doom I get all kinds of crap from people, "Why are you playing that?" "That game looks like shit." "What is the point of this game?" "You're always playing this, does it have no ending?" "Why would you be playing Doom?" "I can't see how you keep playing this game!" and so on and so on and so on.

Then I respond with why and how much I love Doom, as well as scripting and modding the game, it keeps it fresh for me of course... well they respond with crap about graphics and newer games, especially (yes, even this crap right here:) Call of Duty. I cannot count how many times Call of Duty has been brought up over Doom, I'd like to think they're just trolling but then a lot of times they go on and on about it...
and they do this with all the other games I play (which is mostly old DOS games, Nintendo games, Super Nintendo games and even Sega games, minus the more well-known ones) or even games that they think have "horrible graphics." (Was playing Cave Story, got dogged on that too.) I've been accused of having "shitty taste in games." Really, I just like the older games because a lot of the new stuff just bores me. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of recent stuff out there I love or would love to play, but for the most part it's the oldies that really do it for me. (Especially Doom. I'm here for a reason, Doom will never die for me, it's been with me for yeeeeeeaaaarrssss... Commander Keen too, Wolfenstein as well, although to a lesser extent...)

In any case, it seems that "gamers" today have a high obsession with graphics; anything that doesn't look good to them is automatically cruddy, I've literally had someone tell me they prefer graphics to gameplay, and if the game "looks like crap" (to them) they won't play it. When I asked if they'd rather play a dated-looking game with good gameplay, over a game that only looked great (in terms of graphics) but had horrible gameplay, I got the same response.

It's cool to have your own opinion and all, but I'd rather people keep it to themselves, and when people constantly go over my shoulder and saying stuff like that about the games I love (especially when I've done modding to them, and I've put work into these mods over time, even if I will never release some --I say SOME-- of them it's still got value to me.) it irritates me. Especially because it seems like they're trying to force their opinions on me, even after I tell them "I really do not care what you think, I'm just playing my game because it's fun to me," they continue to spout their nonsense... it's gotten really old really fast, I don't get it at all really.

Anybody else get crap like this? Or is it just me?

[Blox]

In any case, it seems that "gamers" today have a high obsession with graphics

A common misconception.
That has always been the case, not just today. (And if anything then it's less bad today than before.)

[Boreas249]

In any case, it seems that "gamers" today have a high obsession with graphics

A common misconception.
That has always been the case, not just today. (And if anything then it's less bad today than before.)

Well, yes I can understand that people want games looks good, hell graphics draw me in a lot of times too, but with the way some act it's as if graphics are the end all... I'm more drawn to the games that look fun to play rather than just looking good.

[Project Shadowcat]

In any case, it seems that "gamers" today have a high obsession with graphics

A common misconception.
That has always been the case, not just today. (And if anything then it's less bad today than before.)

Nailed it. The current flurry of indie games with retro-styled or less detailed, more stylized art has taken places like Steam by storm. And thing is, a couple games that have been out for a couple years now still get talked about. Many people I talk to still mention FTL: Faster Than Light, for instance. You also have games like Shadowrun Returns that is not emphasizing on bleeding edge graphics and is focusing harder on both its own stories and mod-ability.

Gamers are slowly starting to "get it", and these independent ideas and games are slowly getting more and more attention.

[Kinsie]

Nothing ever changes.

[Arctangent]

I feel like you've just been subjected to a small pool of people so often that you've drawn the hasty conclusion that most people must be like that.

They aren't.

There's definitely people who do fanboy over Call of Duty and dismiss anything that isn't it - that's how they keep sells up, presumably - but they are by no means representative of all people who play games. Frankly, even if they were a large proportion, the sheer scope of people who games can appeal to makes such a presumption absurd, as there are so many temperaments, so many differing interests and expectations, that to complain about those with differing ones just sounds like you're saying that your opinion is right and anything unlike it is wrong.

so basically you just sound like an old man

[Medicris]

It's cool to have your own opinion and all, but I'd rather people keep it to themselves, and when people constantly go over my shoulder and saying stuff like that about the games I love (especially when I've done modding to them, and I've put work into these mods over time, even if I will never release some --I say SOME-- of them it's still got value to me.) it irritates me. Especially because it seems like they're trying to force their opinions on me, even after I tell them "I really do not care what you think, I'm just playing my game because it's fun to me," they continue to spout their nonsense... it's gotten really old really fast, I don't get it at all really.

Anybody else get crap like this? Or is it just me?

It's not like you need to defend it, it doesn't have feelings. It's a game that may not be for everyone. Trying to sit there and talk about why Doom is so cool and you can mod it and stuff and whoa holy cow history and uniqueness and they don't make games like this anymore and blah blah blah is not going to convince them. They don't care about that, and it even may make them think you play it out of a desire to be contrarian and counterculture (a "hipster", I think). If you want to make an impression, what you can do is boot up Hell Revealed 2 or Sunder and show them what's fun about it. Have them watch you blast through a cool, challenging segment in Cave Story, they'll understand if they grew up on Mario, Metroid or anything similar. To anything they say like "why do you play this", I'd just smile and say "It's fun, man". Graphics technology may become obsolete but a fun game doesn't. If they continue, you can tell them to fuck off with no regrets if they're no longer there because they're curious and just hanging around to be a shitstirrer.

On the other hand, you don't need to get hurt when someone says they don't like a game you like. I feel that people can also freely express their opinions on something you choose to do in public. And above all, just have fun instead of bothering yourself with the "state" of "gamers" these days. There's game players of all kinds and you're only talking about the surface layer, the same layer that folks like Justin Beiber makes his money off of. It's been shown that CoD sales have declined drastically over the past few installments and pixelshit indie games are on a steady rise, so the collective concern is indeed steering away from graphics and budget to how fun the games actually are (though the indie scene is as full of lazy moneygrabbers as the AAA industry).

Long story short, who gives a shit what they think, play your video games. Your fun is your business.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

If you want to make an impression, what you can do is boot up Hell Revealed 2 or Sunder and show them what's fun about it.

this gives a terrible misconception that Doom mods are all hardcore-difficult slaughterwads, though. sure it might leave an impression, but it might leave the wrong impression by showing them a niche subgenre of Doom maps and telling them "this is how Doom is like."

[Medicris]

You're right, I just figured it's the most action-packed example to give. Of course point out that they're "slaughtermaps", I'm sure the word alone'll catch their attention and explain itself at the same time.

I don't think they'll really have a mark made on them with anything that has less "wow" factor. Maybe something like WW-Doomnukem and BTSX for a more tame example.

[Boreas249]

Well, it's not that their opinions hurt my feelings, as I said it's perfectly fine to have your own opinion about things, it's the way I'm approached about it that gets on my nerves. I dunno, I just get tired of it, it feels harrassive.

[MetroidJunkie]

Honestly, as full of effects Call of Duty is, it looks exceptionally bland and especially generic most of the time. You can have all the graphical power in the world and still have a terrible looking game due to bad aesthetics.

---

[Reactor]

'Tis the generation of the overhyped Call of Vérpistike. These are ignorant little wimps who are simply too stupid to find other games interesting. Their philosophy is that "Call of Vérpistike = ZOMG da best game in da whole universe, every other game is shit, gaming scripting is the most wonderful thing in human civilization since sliced bread, the graphics should be better than reality itself and difficulty must be press any key to win." And thanks to the current ethics of gaming industry, there are more and more of these in every day. The graphics are nothing more than a deplorable hardware lobby attempt.

I'll tell you what shall happen: In 8-10 years, yet another "big title" will appear, then every of these fragbaits will start to worship that title, and Call of Vérpistike shall be forgotten. This happened before with Medal of Honor, too.

[Seidolon]

I hate graphics freaks more than anything, but I can only feel sorry for them. They are horribly misguided people and can't appreciate a game for what matters most. They are the scum of the gaming community. That is all.

[Reactor]

I like good graphics, realistic graphics, however, I do not feel that this should be the only positive aspect of a game. Good graphics a good game does not make. It is merely a lifebelt for hardware manufacturers to "persuade" gamers buying the stronger, and more expensive graphics cards, and all the extra stuff which such graphics require to display perfectly, so the gamer can actually see even the smallest grain of dust on the ground in four-dimension HD. Sure, it's 2015 now, and graphics must evolve as well, but unfortunately, the mainstream game developers think that only graphics should evolve, the game should have no story at all, absolutely no difficulty, and the AI is actually so dumb that they need to script up the entire game to make AI enemies look intelligent. I'd hardly call these "games" anymore as they're more like interactive movies instead.
As for multiplayer, about a week after the newest part of the series is developed, search results will show up like "[actual overhyped game title] online cheat, [actual overhyped game title] hack, [actual overhyped game title] aimbot", and so on. No thank you, I don't play with cheaters.

[Seidolon]

I agree that good graphics are rather nice, but too many great games are overshadowed by peoples' beliefs that graphics define a game.