Call of duty & console gaming destroying independent thinking

Recently it's been on my mind, that i should maybe pick up a PS3, and switch over to console gaming.
I acknowledge that a lot of PC gamers are elitists.
Plus that, and the new Ghost Recon Future Soldier isn't making it's way to PC....

Reading this thread, it really seems, what you make of it.
So console gaming, doesn't dumb down independent thinking, but may even increase it, with games like Uncharted 3 and Final Fantasy Versus about to come out, aswell as the other great titles, for PS3, resistance. etc.

Originally posted by RadeonGFXRHumanGTXisAlien

Before I dive into this, I will post as a disclaimer that I am ex-PC elitist. As a matter of history, my first PC was a C-64, which gave me countless hours of BASIC fun. In the last two decades, I've also owned pretty much all consoles from the Atari 2600 all the way up to the 360, Wii, and PS3. Even obscure ones like the Sega CD. Currently? My gaming platform of choice is the 360.

Sad to say, I could not help but reading into this post being a thinly disguised post to delve into the PC vs Console argument, with a clear emphasis on blaming console's for gaming's woes. Although PC gaming holds a special place in my heart from my youth, the current state of gaming in general simply cannot be pinned to the explosion of the 360, and to a lesser extent the wii/ps3.

An often ignored fact is that PC elitist crowd is that gaming already had begun to cannibalize itself in the early 2000's, and by the 2004 games were routinely being dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Case in point? EverQuest vs WoW/EQ2.

EverQuest, being one of the 'grand daddies' of modern MMO's, was far more difficult, time consuming, a harsh death penalty system, and had an enormous learning curve compared to WoW. You had to 'learn' how to play, all by yourself. The only way to do that was thru the community in game, or fan based websites.

5 years later, WoW became the defacto 'themepark' MMO, in which everything is handed to you on a silver platter, hand held from the moment you start, and no risk present. I abhor WoW and what it had done to the MMO genre, and a great many 'old school' gamers who played EQ feel the same way.

The point with that example? WoW was released in November 2004, the 360 was released November, 2005. As your post pointed out, easy tasks, pushing a few buttons,quest grinding using that same button push yet getting great rewards. Result? An MMO Behemoth that killed an entire genre -- All done on the PC without one drop of influence from the 360.

Another Case? Unreal Tournament. They had the same type of the current CoD model by releasing the same thing time and time again, basically a reskin of old maps, and an updated gfx engine. They went from Unreal, then to UT, UT03, UT04, UC, U2, all from 1998-2003, none of which really expanded serious gameplay past UT. Same with Q2 to Q3 (which really Q3a sucked compared to Q2: thanks nerfed rail gun). But UT was fun, and yes, it had killstreaks.

Even further back, Doom which was really a re-skined version of Wolfenstien3d, which spawned a ton of 'Doom clones'. Later OpenGL/D3d just made it prettier.

Consoles right now, sell. Games on consoles sell. It's the new fad.

Even so, PC gamers have no one to blame but themselves for the paradigm shift since the 360 release. They have become a bigoted close minded set of gamers, that only care for the platform played on rather than the love of gaming. It doesn't matter how crappy the game is, as long as it only uses a kb/m thats all that's what is important. I'd venture to say, the final death nail for PC gaming will be fully native kb/m support, along with freely downloadable custom maps on any of the next gen consoles, and if that's what it takes to kill the elitism, i can't wait.

Another false notion that building your own PC, that someone who could setup 2 VooDoo3 Cards in SLI (not the same as SLI today), set IRQ's manually using jumpers with no such thing as PnP, between our SoundCard, Ethernet/Modem/Video, and adjust ram timings or CPU multipliers somehow make me a 'better' gamer; than someone who just wants to turn on a box and play a game.

I can be blunt in saying, it doesn't make you a better gamer at all. Nor does it make you a better thinker. I've met some good people on the 360 who have great ideas how to improve game play, yet couldn't operate a computer past basic web browsing if they tried.

Until PC gamers get it into their head it's about game, not the platform, it will continue on the same downward spiral that it has been doing so for the past decade. Part of the reason it has been in decline is the tone of this post. The other part, piracy and the 'gimme gimme gimme' free DLC attitude. PC gamers need to drop the PC part, and just be gamers again.

It's about the game, not about the platform. Many console gamers are also tired of the 'same thing' rehashed time and time again. What needs to happen is gamers uniting demanding better, rather than point out console differences. Until that time, gaming will not improve.

It has nothing to do with hardware. Greater innovations were done in the past on far less horsepower. So no, consoles (or games), do not kill independent thinking. It has to do with the almighty dollar, and what sells.

reply to post by Not Authorized


Wow man, im not sure what to say.
One of the best posts, i've read with an insight in relation to gaming.
So true, at the end of the day, we are all gamers, and instead of focusing on what systems to play the games on, just play the games.
Enlightening post, im sleeping on both the PS3, and PSP Vita now.

Originally posted by RadeonGFXRHumanGTXisAlien
reply to post by Not Authorized

 

Wow man, im not sure what to say.
One of the best posts, i've read with an insight in relation to gaming.
So true, at the end of the day, we are all gamers, and instead of focusing on what systems to play the games on, just play the games.
Enlightening post, im sleeping on both the PS3, and PSP Vita now.

Thank you for your kind response and complement about my post. I know it was rather lengthy, but the state of gaming simply cannot be summed up into a few short paragraphs. Not even a few posts.

At the end of the day, we are all gamers. We play games, because we love them.

Personally my game of choice is L4D2, and all though kb/m is a better medium to play FPS's (due to it's accuracy), I've gotten pretty damn good at controller aiming. I've also got myself a good set of friends that know the pro aspect of the game far past any other public players on console or PC. Yet, visiting the steam forums and saying you're a 360 player immediately gets the PC elitism treatment -- even though both sides of good players have the same complaints/suggestions/needs/bugs. I especially giggle at those struggling with normal difficulty, yet I could breeze through a level with or without a mouse no problem and have 90+ health to boot.

The problem with the 360 is paying for XBL, which I think is bogus. But, premium PC gaming services in the 90s did have a pay2play scheme. I can only imagine parents freaking out at not only the long distance bill, but play time charged for a game such as Neverwinter Nights on AOL (which incidentally had a $6/hr charge to play). Again, something that proponents of the pc vs console(360) debacle fail to remember or recognize. Thank God EQ didn't do that same scheme, else my 280 days played would have been a ton of cash.

Gaming has been dumbed down to the LCD, but the 360 or consoles cannot be to blame. Even console based games, such as GTA3 on the PS2, or Final Fantasy 7 on the PSX were far better than their recent sequels. GTA4 was horrendous and simply not fun, and there hasn't been a true FF since X -- 10 years ago. In FF nes thru psx years you had to plan ahead dungeon crawling with potions/ethers. Now, when you touch a save point, every things replenished and there's no need to plan ahead. And the next 5 save spots on the way makes sure there are never any problems. Fallout 3 was just a reskined Oblivion, which in turn was just an gfx updated but severely watered down Morrowind.

I do have hopes for BF3, but it's yet to be seen if it's just BF2 running at a higher resolution. I wouldn't expect much from EA games as they sold out a long time ago. After all, how many maddens/tigerwoods/fifa, etc have we had that are the same games with roster updates?

The real problems lie in very lazy developers ala Call of Duty re-releases, now going on it's 7th version, and the instant gratification generation.

Good developers are afraid to try something new and innovative, because if it fails, a great sum of money is lost and stock holders are not pleased -- even more so they will probably go bankrupt. It's far easier and profitable to give something that the IGG will gobble up with dollars, and line the CEO's pockets with fresh green dough cough Bobby Kotick cough, plus they keep their jobs. And companies that don't have blockbusters, want to clone and capture a slice of that pie.

Sadly what is needed is another video game crash like 1983 which destroyed the game market for a good 3-4 years. It washed out the gaming for profit CEO's like Kotick, and instead let developers focus back on making games for over a decade. It wasn't until 'big business' began to accept gaming as a profitable form of entertainment again at the turn of the century that gaming began to decline.

Gamers now instead focus on the platform, instead of the game makers as their foe. Much like the PC crowd, vs the 360 crowd, or the 360 crowd vs the Wii/PS3 crowd. Each blaming each other for 'watered down' 'non-complex' 'linear' games. If we want better games, then everyone who is a gamer needs to stand together and demand better with their wallets.

I'm sorry to say that the future of gaming is not bright.

I remember back when i was around 5-6, i used to play some RTS, RPG and FPS games on my PC, this was back when 3DFX's Voodoo was around, i had one of their GPU's, and i remember playing this game, it was kinder like Might and magic, but another game, i forgot the name now, i also played Tiberian Sun it came out on my birthday, it looked great graphically, and i had to use my brain, to solve these puzzles, intensely hard puzzles, i think that was what contributed to me having an IQ of 189 and my ability, to solve puzzles and bull# real quick,

Where as i think all these kids currently growing up, playing COD, these 10-15 year olds, really aren't going to be the future of this planet that we need, i've played COD, the camping, the easy rewards and no learning curve of the game, is what's bay sitting kids currently, and we're going to see the effects of this in the upcoming years.

The same 10 year old that plays COD today, 8 years from today when that person turns 18, their intelligence, won't be up to standard, for the reform change that the world needs.
And it's because they won't be able to think in that way, to figure it out.

id say the learning curve comments r about right...

but that game is more than just point and shoot, if u were good at the game or even played u might have a different perspective!

Think about seal team six, they build a compund like the one bin laden was in , they trained on it for awhile then exicuted the mission... to me the rehersal of doing it over and over again and knowing what to expect in any given situation on the part of the map your on... so whoever said the thing about being programmed killers kinda has the right idea, just lots of practice! btw MW3 is legit!

I could get into how the perks are changed from game to game, and that always adds a new element...

for example someone said that mw2 is just like mw3, i beg to differ! ill use the perk's and spawn points to get my point across...

My main style of gameplay is camping(average K\D=2.1-2.6)... so when i did it in mw2 i would use scavanger because i knew the opposite team doesnt spawn like 10 feet from you. So for me in mw2 that meant that i could one man team an area im holding off as long as i had bullets to pick up. In mw3 the spawns are rediculous and it takes allot of hrs played in that game to get used to where u think they will most likely spawn near you, and i have gotten pretty good at it, but i expect to die almost every 2-4 kills, not every 5-10... so for me my strategy changes completely when it comes to perks, forget scavanger, i wont live that long trying to one man team it when my teammates r on the other side of the map, wont happen! the only way id use it, if i had all my teammates with me and we are all communicating, about what section there holding down and is my back covered. i still dont use it though in mw3 if i use teamwork, thats what the motion sensor is for and sound whoring. Ya u can say the heart beat sensor, but i like my attachments on my weapons, so i only used the gun sensor when mw2 first came out. to be a one man army on mw3 u have to completely switch your mode of thinking if u want to dominate in that game... i have gotten a nuke on mw2 playing by myself on team death match, but i yet to even be able to get a M.O.A.B on mw3 on team death match even with with my friends...

i could go on but my thinking juice is tapped at the moment and i feel like i botched my last para...

Originally posted by Segador
A- This isn't a Conspiracy and
B- Call of Duty is comparable to twilight, it IS Twilight for men, and
C- Console gaming isn't destroying independent thinking. Schools, social networking, and bad parenting are, parents aren't raising there kids anymore, they let others do that for them.

The current American Brain Drain isn't helping the gene pool either.

My Call of Duty summary:
Campaign: Derp, go destroy terrorist and save teh world
Multiplayer: 3 second compression of R-trigger

I agree that there are things out there destroying IQ and minds more than COD and game consoles. Particularly the mainstream media, govt propaganda, etc.... HOWEVER, I have long suspected that some of these games are being created/released to generate interest in, and comfort/familiarity with the military and combat.

Why would this be done?

This is completely true. It started to fall off in 2001. What it is overall is FPS saturation. FPS saturation killed the creative video game industry. Big ups to Nintendo for keeping the hardware tough, original, and oriented towards the children. Big ups to Sega for STILL making those creative games and having "God" if you will. Big ups to Square Enix for their creativity. Big ups to Capcom, for being, arguably, the best video game development company ever. Big ups to Namco, for making arguably the best fighting and simulator games (fun in simulation, not real sim) in the industry, ever. Big ups to Sony, for arguably making the best console ever. Big ups to Xbox, for putting the networkability into it. Everybody has their part.

Other notables:
Blizzard (of old, theres a lot of dark energy there now)
Sierra
Acclaim
Data East/SNK (RIP-but Capcom kept their creations alive!)
Tengen
Neversoft (and all the new school)
Atari
Nec
Goldstar/Creative Labs
Konami
Tradewest
anyone else I forgot that still made their own, not stolen ideas. We love you guys.