Unpopular Opinions about Video Games

[whogoesthere]

It's even sadder kinda if people are having families and children and what not and spending that time online in a game that requires so much grind as Eve online. They could be out there building tree houses with their kids or taking them on camping trips. They could be creating meaningful engagements with the people around them and improving themselves and their community and having a lot of fun doing that.

Go back to your faggy youtube manhelp videos, then kill yourself.

 

[TVB]

Omori is popular, but really, I thought it was middle school emo grade.

It was the mid-2000s after all when the emo craze was at its peak

 

[Judge Dredd]

Claimed by whom?

Their fans and game journalists.

There were lots of games around that time. Basically any walking simulator from around 2012-2014 got this treatment. Gone Home, Spec Ops: The Line, Heavy Rain, Dear Escher, and Amnesia are some of more well known ones, with lesser known games like Rain, Kart Life, and The Graveyard getting lost in the shuffle over time. A modern example would be The Last of Us 2 and What Remains of Edith Finch.

While we could argue about how, when, and why walking simulators died, Everybody Has Gone To The Rapture was the big one that was so hyped and turned out so bad that even walking simulator fans couldn't defend it.

When you say

story-heavy games that I would describe as "not for intellectuals" because the writing is vapid, the logic is inconsistent, there are retarded plot holes, there are huge flaws in premises, human characters don't act like believable humans, etc.

that pretty much describes Gone Home. Yet any criticism of it was met with "You clearly don't understand a game unless there's an explosion every five seconds! Go back to Cock of Dooky!"

With Spec Ops, this video points out just some of the many plot holes and problems with the game, and again, the defenders claimed any criticism was just people not getting it, or somehow proving the game right.

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

With Spec Ops, this video points out just some of the many plot holes and problems with the game, and again, the defenders claimed any criticism was just people not getting it, or somehow proving the game right.

I despise Spec Ops, I found that game downright offensive. Keep in mind I played it in the late 2010s, not as a console shooter bro.
While some conclusions that the game pushes are correct (i.e. Walker's course of action just makes everything worse), the constant "moralizing" and condemning of the player is useless. Even if you know ahead of time what the game is, the premise of the game breaks down right away as the very first situation in the game is the start of a long series of justified self-defense on the part of Walker.
Arguably, the "best" outcome of the game's story is if you uninstall it and never touch it again after the first minute, but that is fundamentally fucking retarded and offensive in my opinion.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Spec Ops is okay only if you don't take it *too* seriously, IMO.

Unfortunately, most of the people that loved it were video essay faggots who take everything too seriously and thus gave it way too much praise for what it was.

The idea that *everything* would have been better if Walker had just "walked away" is retarded. It would have been better for Walker as he wouldn't have accidently killed a bunch of civilians and got his team killed I guess, but nothing in the game makes it seem like anyone was going to survive what was going on in Dubai if he hadn't shown up.

Shit was already fubar before he even got there.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Arguably, the "best" outcome of the game's story is if you uninstall it and never touch it again after the first minute, but that is fundamentally fucking retarded and offensive in my opinion.

Iirc one of the devs said that was the canon good ending.

The idea that *everything* would have been better if Walker had just "walked away" is retarded.

Even it's condemnation of the player doesn't work because of the unreliable narrator and scripted events forcing the players hand. As the video says, the ending is meant to be a slide show of all the bad things you did, but the player has clean hands because all the bad stuff was either "Walker" doing those things, or twisted via the "Walker's crazy" excuse.

Edit: My point is that, as a game that you're meant to think about the themes and morals of FPS games, any serious analysis falls apart, at which point it's fanbase would accuse you of nit picking, not understanding it, or just FPS fans mad at being called out.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

I despise Spec Ops, I found that game downright offensive. Keep in mind I played it in the late 2010s, not as a console shooter bro.
While some conclusions that the game pushes are correct (i.e. Walker's course of action just makes everything worse), the constant "moralizing" and condemning of the player is useless. Even if you know ahead of time what the game is, the premise of the game breaks down right away as the very first situation in the game is the start of a long series of justified self-defense on the part of Walker.
Arguably, the "best" outcome of the game's story is if you uninstall it and never touch it again after the first minute, but that is fundamentally fucking retarded and offensive in my opinion.

If I wanted to be evil in a video game, I'd boot up KOTOR, go to the Sith academy, and choose all the evil choices that the game presents, and watch as my character turns into Sidious 2.0. At least I'll be honest about my evil, because I had a choice to do it, unlike that white phosphorous scene which you had to do to progress, only for the game to call you evil because of it.

This is just as bad as Ulysses from Lonesome Road in FNV blaming my character for nuking a town when I didn't actually do it. At least Fallout 3 allowed to you make the choice of nuking a town before the radio and people started attacking you for it.

Even it's condemnation of the player doesn't work because of the unreliable narrator and scripted events forcing the players hand. As the video says, the ending is meant to be a slide show of all the bad things you did, but the player has clean hands because all the bad stuff was either "Walker" doing those things, or twisted via the "Walker's crazy" excuse.

Edit: My point is that, as a game that you're meant to think about the themes and morals of FPS games, any serious analysis falls apart, at which point it's fanbase would accuse you of nit picking, not understanding it, or just FPS fans mad at being called out.

Exactly. It just feels like moralizing for the sake of moralizing. I know someone who thought this was cool, but to me, it just feels like you're being sermoned at for being a good customer. So I buy your game, and I get a game that whines about how evil I am for picking up the controller. At least other games make you feel like a hero, which is what it's supposed to do when I beat the final boss.

 

[The Last Stand]

The idea that *everything* would have been better if Walker had just "walked away" is retarded. It would have been better for Walker as he wouldn't have accidently killed a bunch of civilians and got his team killed I guess, but nothing in the game makes it seem like anyone was going to survive what was going on in Dubai if he hadn't shown up.

It would've been better for Walker had he not signed up for the military. I assume that's the point.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Even it's condemnation of the player doesn't work because of the unreliable narrator and scripted events forcing the players hand.

This is why I never understood people that took the ending as a personal slight.

I haven't played the game in probably a decade now, but it isn't like they stop and say "You, the player, are a piece of shit."

Maybe I'm actually an over analyzing video essay faggot, but I kind of took the ending as being a crazy fucking soldier being a crazy fucking soldier, and his survivors guilt manifesting in a delusion that basically blames him for everything that happened when really the whole thing was just a fucked up situation (as most war is).

Then again, I also left that game going "huh, that was different." instead of deciding to have a life altering moment out of it.

 

[Hazel Motes]

But the kicker is that games claimed to be for intellectuals are usually for former, not the latter. Games like Gone Home and Bioshock that fail the first layer of scrutiny.

Agreeing with your point though, I was watching reviews of The Twilight Zone a while ago, and he kept describing the show as something loved by creatives. I thought this was navel gazing nonsense. But ever since then I've been noticing a pattern. People I know that love it are all creative in some way, but people who hate it are either young or not really creative. Some of this could be confirmation bias on my part.

This is a great point. There is a certain group of art that is only really liked by creatives and academics for either two reasons: Its excessive formalism or its influence. Twilight Zone is a bit of both. A good example of formalism is Chinatown. It is a great script and does everything right. It is the ultimate noir film, making references and seemingly being the total of the genres aims and messages. And that is why some hate it and many creative types love it. It is not particularly genuine, more aware of itself as a movie and what tropes it is playing with, and that can harm a film's enjoyable qualities. It is post-modern in a way The Postman Always Rings Twice is 'ignorant' of its genre's tropes (though the screenwriters and directors were neither stupid or naïve in what they were creating. They just happened to be in genre's infancy). A film like Chinatown wants to be openly studied and admired like Finnigan's Wake does. Many academics like that and many artists do too. One could argue that all creatives do. Personally, De Palma and Hitchcock do the whole wish to be studied and playing with tropes better than Polanski because they make films intended to be enjoyed without analysis. They work on layers entwined with one another.

Influence is pretty self-explanatory. Many of us can be forgiven towards an amateurish film, and sometimes even prefer its lack of clichés, along as it is we see what later happened and it influenced. A historical sense of art is required. I enjoy Eisenstein, but many will remain unconvinced to watch Battleship Potemkin because of its influence on action movie editing.

 

[Damien Thorne]

Spec Ops is okay only if you don't take it *too* seriously, IMO.

Unfortunately, most of the people that loved it were video essay faggots who take everything too seriously and thus gave it way too much praise for what it was.

The idea that *everything* would have been better if Walker had just "walked away" is retarded. It would have been better for Walker as he wouldn't have accidently killed a bunch of civilians and got his team killed I guess, but nothing in the game makes it seem like anyone was going to survive what was going on in Dubai if he hadn't shown up.

Shit was already fubar before he even got there.

I actually thought that game was middle school emo grade, as well.

 

[Sniperwoof]

Explain the plot of Elden Ring.

A feud between Gods and Demi Gods led to the assassination of the main God (Godwin the Golden) This led to a civil war between the Gods called the shattering that led to the artifact that gave the Gods their authority/power (the elden ring) being shattered into several pieces, whoever possess the elden ring becomes the Elden Lord (Main God) your character is an exiled soldier from the shattering and one of many warriors seeking to become a God/Goddess by reforging the Elden Ring.

You act like that was some impossible task.

 

[Ser Prize]

A feud between Gods and Demi Gods led to the assassination of the main God (Godwin the Golden) This led to a civil war between the Gods called the shattering that led to the artifact that gave the Gods their authority/power (the elden ring) whoever possess the elden ring becomes the Elden Lord (Main God) your character is an exiled soldier from the shattering and one of many warriors seeking to become a God by reforging the Elden Ring.

You act like that was some impossible task.

Okay, now explain the deal with

Spoiler: ER SPOILERS(?)

Marika and Radagon, which was supposed to be a huge twist.

This is why I never understood people that took the ending as a personal slight.

I haven't played the game in probably a decade now, but it isn't like they stop and say "You, the player, are a piece of shit."

Maybe I'm actually an over analyzing video essay faggot, but I kind of took the ending as being a crazy fucking soldier being a crazy fucking soldier, and his survivors guilt manifesting in a delusion that basically blames him for everything that happened when really the whole thing was just a fucked up situation (as most war is).

Then again, I also left that game going "huh, that was different." instead of deciding to have a life altering moment out of it.

With all due respect you are seeing separation where the dev intended none. The game was intended as a big preachy "SO THIS IS WHAT YOU LIKE HUH???" at people who enjoyed the modern warfares of the day.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I haven't played the game in probably a decade now, but it isn't like they stop and say "You, the player, are a piece of shit."

(Ninja'd by @Ser Prize a bit)
Iirc, after the white phosphorous scene, the loading screen tips change from stock game stuff to insults like "Do you feel like a hero?".

Exactly. It just feels like moralizing for the sake of moralizing. I know someone who thought this was cool, but to me, it just feels like you're being sermoned at for being a good customer. So I buy your game, and I get a game that whines about how evil I am for picking up the controller. At least other games make you feel like a hero, which is what it's supposed to do when I beat the final boss.

Then again, I also left that game going "huh, that was different." instead of deciding to have a life altering moment out of it.

That's the big flaw with the game. I can see what it was trying to do, but it drops the ball.

What it was trying to do is be critical of the "Ooh rah! Let's go into the middle east with our guns and save the world!" type games such as Call of Duty 4. The problem is that Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2 aren't like that. The infamous nuke scene in CoD 4 and the build up to it arguably achieves that goal far better than Spec Ops The Line does.

 

[Gondolindrim]

I despise Spec Ops, I found that game downright offensive. Keep in mind I played it in the late 2010s, not as a console shooter bro.
While some conclusions that the game pushes are correct (i.e. Walker's course of action just makes everything worse), the constant "moralizing" and condemning of the player is useless. Even if you know ahead of time what the game is, the premise of the game breaks down right away as the very first situation in the game is the start of a long series of justified self-defense on the part of Walker.
Arguably, the "best" outcome of the game's story is if you uninstall it and never touch it again after the first minute, but that is fundamentally fucking retarded and offensive in my opinion.

War Bad: The Game

 

[Chuck McGill]

Spec Ops is okay only if you don't take it *too* seriously, IMO.

Unfortunately, most of the people that loved it were video essay faggots who take everything too seriously and thus gave it way too much praise for what it was.

The idea that *everything* would have been better if Walker had just "walked away" is retarded. It would have been better for Walker as he wouldn't have accidently killed a bunch of civilians and got his team killed I guess, but nothing in the game makes it seem like anyone was going to survive what was going on in Dubai if he hadn't shown up.

Shit was already fubar before he even got there.

I liked that game alright when I first played it, but after looking at it a bit deeper I started to realize the game was railroading me into this shit. There was no option to turn around and radio command once I'd surveiled the area as the original mission profile said. You literally can't avoid the white phosphorous scene, the game will spawn infinite enemies at you until you give up and do it. Think of how much more powerful that scene might have been if you could have fought through without using it, but you just used it because someone put big weapon that go boom in front of you without thinking about it.

I like the actual game, but the discourse of redditors trying to look too deep into it just killed it for me. They'll always say some dumb shit like "well, you're just like the protagonist for denying culpability in what happened", as if I can just alter what happens in the game by force of will. And the lead writer was a total fag and when asked why he railroaded the player into doing these things, responded with something like "well you could turn the game off". Bitch, you wrote the game that way. You pressed it into discs and sent it out in that state. If I stop playing Mario 64, I don't assume that Mario just gave up and left Peach to her fate. You don't get to write the story that predetermined way and chide me for following it. That's like showing me your collection of furry vore porn then accusing me of having weird fetishes when I look.

I used to lament this game didn't sell worth a shit, thinking it was all the fault of dude bros that didn't like, get it man. Now I'm glad that it didn't sell worth crap. You sold a game promising wiz-bang-shooty fun and lectured me that I went in expecting wiz-bang-shooty fun. I'm totally convinced this pretentious ass writing served as the prototype for shit like The Last Jedi and "le heckin' subverting expectations is acksually good, chud". Don't forget who you work for, writerfag.

 

[Calandrino]

I used to lament this game didn't sell worth a shit, thinking it was all the fault of dude bros that didn't like, get it man. Now I'm glad that it didn't sell worth crap.

I thought that was the point though. All of us who didn't play the game made the correct moral choice. The rest of you guys are murderers.

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

War Bad: The Game

No, that's not really it, or at least only incidentally.
It's more "war gamer bad" or "player bad"
Spec Ops is basically a humiliation ritual for the player, unless the player can't read and has really low standards for third person shooter gameplay

 

[Ser Prize]

No, that's not really it, or at least only incidentally.
It's more "war gamer bad" or "player bad"
Spec Ops is basically a humiliation ritual for the player, unless the player can't read and has really low standards for third person shooter gameplay

No wonder a pretentious leftie twat like Yahtzee liked it.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Iirc, after the white phosphorous scene, the loading screen tips change from stock game stuff to insults like "Do you feel like a hero?".

Oh, right, those load screens.

*shrug*

I didn't really take them personally or anything. In fact I kind of liked them.

My personal favorite was this one, so that should give you an idea of how seriously I took the game lol

If the only intention was to brow beat gamers, it's gay. But if I let a writer being a fucking fag ruin my enjoyment, I'd not be able to enjoy anything.