MEMBER BLOG

Be Positive: Why Being Negative Sucks as a Gamer
Posted on Wednesday, January 4 2012 @ 06:57:58 Eastern



In today’s times, there is not a lot to be happy about. Sure, Osama Bin Laden is dead, but our economy is still in the **** hole, businesses are weary on who they will hire next and how many, the President of the United States is pretty much faffing about on the more serious issues, and the wealthiest CEOs are just making more money and sitting on it with their big fat ass. Of course, not everything is doom and gloom. Maybe you got lucky and found a $5 bill under your couch. Maybe you scored a coupon to get a free pack of fries at your fast food joint. No matter how small things are, anything that is positive is worth embracing.

If you are like me or anyone else that plays video games regularly, you play a game to get away from life’s problems and stresses (unless you drink instead or do drugs) and play to unwind and have fun. After all, nothing feels more satisfying than blasting zombies in the face with a shotgun or casting a powerful magic spell that nukes everything in front of you. Heck, if you grew up on video games, then you know that feeling you get when you get a new game and wonder what the next secret is or what the next level has in store for you. When you hear about another video game coming out in the future, you and your friends would envision how that game would be, hyping yourself up silly because you want that game, damnnit, and you want it now.



Video games have evolved and come a long way. Our perception and opinions in video games have changed as well, but it may not be for the better. While most people have a more developed intellect and have a sharper eye in finding flaws, we have leaned too far in the direction of a critic. Obviously, mindlessly praising a game does nothing but paint you as a blind fanboy, but we are developing a culture where blasting someone’s skills or a piece of work without holding back is becoming the norm. Video game reviews are leaning more towards nitpicking every single flaw instead of talking about the good bits while video game fans themselves seem to be physically allergic to saying anything positive about a game or console. Go on a video game forum and try to discuss all the positive points of the Wii or Super Smash Bros. Brawl. At least one in every two replies will be in the form of attacking the original poster or blasting the game/console for all of its flaws. When has it become acceptable to be so negative on everything?

Fanboys are part of the problem for sure and they will always be around. As long as there’s something to be opposed to, you can expect people to never say anything positive about the competition. After all, you don’t want to be caught investing in something that the majority doesn’t like and be made fun of for it. What really inflates the problem of people being negative and overly critical is the mainstream media glorifying people that make a living in being this way. Anne Robinson from the Weakest Link, Simon Cowell from American Idol, and Gordon Ramsay from Hell’s Kitchen are a few examples of overly harsh critics and deadpan snarkers that people seem to love and come back for more. Society has practically grown so used to this type of persona that people crave for more as they watch a contestant get torn down to a crying pile of shame as they are told they are the worst singer ever and have heard better from a donkey. Society loves to watch other people squirm as long as it is not them because after all, we don’t care what happens as long as it doesn’t affect us. Yes, we have become that apathetic, but that is for a different discussion.



Internet media has also fallen into the same trap. We have people that make money or fame from being a heartless dick because we all find it funny. People like Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation and James Rolfe as the Angry Video Game Nerd are praised for tearing a game to shreds and saying how much of a piece a **** the games are, but that is not the worst part. The worst part is people taking what those guys are saying as divine truth; even though the characters are grossly exaggerating the flaws they point out and they do enjoy some things in games but are not paid to talk about it unless the said good bits are huge. Even your generic video game forum has groups of people that would rather talk about how much game X or console Y sucks and anyone that says otherwise is a blind fanboy that wouldn’t know a good game if it bit them in the ass. Even if a game is generally liked by the public, you can expect the more diehard fans to endlessly ***** and moan about every single glitch that has yet to be fixed (no matter how minor the said bugs are) or how the textures aren’t sharp enough. Gamers in general have become nothing but pissants that take every opportunity they can get to slam a game’s flaws, then do it some more when a sequel comes out or if the glitches do get fixed. It is a bit ironic that people are willing to spend a ton of energy complaining about a game, movie, or book and either keep coming back to them instead of avoiding them or can’t muster the energy to simply ignore the works that they do not like.

Know what I say to all that? Fuck being a Yahtzee wannabe. It’s so damn easy to endlessly whine about something that is imperfect but I want you all to do something for every game you have played; name at least 5 good bits in a game that makes it worth playing. Remind yourself what got you to play a particular game. Remind yourself why you keep coming back to play a game some more. If we can start thinking more positively, it can become possible to actually be able to enjoy playing video games again and break out of the stereotype of going into forums to ***** about something we never played or hardly played or spent too much time looking for flaws.