Why are Gamers So Angry?

Jan 22, 2018

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Hey, dude raging in the voice chat, quick question: when did gaming stop being fun? No, seriously. When did the joy of playing a video game get sucked out of your life? I can tell you when it left mine. It’s when people like you started to become the loud minority of gamers that other gamers, unfortunately, get associated with. When jerks who took MLG culture way too seriously and let it bleed it every single thing they touch. When editors have to write an entire article reminding people not to be jerks in the comments.

Talking about games isn’t fun anymore because gamers are way too angry about them. It isn’t just online gaming, either. Gamers will rage about anything and each will insist they know best.

Opinions Vs. Abuse

It’s totally okay to share opinions in a civilized manner.

It’s okay to have opinions. Personally, I like the Assassin’s Creed series. They’re enjoyable to play and the history of each game is engaging and interesting. The games bring history to life in fascinating ways, and I really enjoy that. I have friends who don’t enjoy Assassin’s Creed for a variety of reasons, but none will attack or spout verbal abuse because I like them.

This isn’t the case amongst the loud minority. A (now ex) friend of mine hated Assassin’s Creed. He couldn’t stand the game, for whatever reason, and always personally attacked me whenever I brought up my excitement for an upcoming game or already released game.

“Of course you’d like it, idiot.”

“Anyone who plays those stupid games aren’t gamers, they’re wastes of space.”

“You should kill yourself for even thinking about those games.”

Those aren’t opinions. It’s verbal abuse, plain and simple. No matter where you look, however, comments like those are spouted for whatever reason. Development taking longer than usual, a certain character being nerfed, this game is better than that one. It’s gotten to the point where I no longer enjoy commenting on video games because I never know when I’ll be personally attacked for having a differing opinion.

Let people enjoy what they enjoy. Just because someone’s opinion differs from yours doesn’t give you the right to attack and berate them. If it’s truly upsetting, then just ignore it and move on with your life. You’ll avoid popping a vein when trying to scream over the voice chat.

Bio
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Susana Valdes

Susana Valdes entered the gaming community late in her life, but that didn’t stop her from fully devoting herself to the hobby. An English major in college and aspiring novelist, she enjoys games that take time to flesh out their narrative and characters since this usually allows her to analyze every aspect of the game. She also hopes that the gaming community opens up more to female and LGBT gamers, and hopes that game companies further diversify their cast of characters.

Latest posts by Susana Valdes (see all)

Why are Gamers So Angry? – January 22, 2018
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Comments

7 responses to “Why are Gamers So Angry?”

jhan2294

January 23, 2018

At times, the gaming community can be… awful to say the least. But I’d encourage you to continue writing and commenting on video games. Not only is it personally fulfilling to share our thoughts or feelings, but we need more voices like yours commenting on video games and their culture.

The times are changing, slowly improving to be a more diverse and inclusive gaming environment, but with your help, we can get there a little bit faster! Keep up the good work!

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Limit Break

January 24, 2018

I can’t say for anyone else, but I myself am angry only when what I like becomes less and less like it’s original self. When controls, style and overall mood of the gaming franchise shifts to suit mass market…

Like the new God of War that is about to come out. Is it going to be a good game ? Most likely. Is it God of War ? N-nope. The tone is different – the anger and energy of hate has left it, the gameplay has changed drastically (from what I’ve heard and seen Kratos can’t even jump anymore) and the setting seems like something coming from a Skyrim focus group, which I have little against, but it still feels cynical.

Other then that I am not angry.

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NoME2WasNotAGoodGame

January 24, 2018

For a decade innovation has been little and stretched out. Games often just use a mechanic that’s similar/identical to another games (in function) stylistically makes it theirs, and then uses a combo of these mechanics together to make a “new” game. Truth be told we’ve watch a lot of genres suffer because of this need to be too many things at once. They fail to be really good at even one genre. Throw in mass false advertising that has been out of control for the majority of games (no matter how little the truth does get stretched). Journalist’s often have little integrity and overrate games to save gamers from their feelings. Games seem to lack the passion they had, now being built up on focus tested crap or being built from mechanics and themes the most popular games use (the FPS boom, you all know it). Cinematic games have taken over and we’ve gotten shallow crap in return that can hardly be construed as a game to begin with. The games either play themselves or help you along so god damn much you’re wondering why are you even playing? Consumer satisfaction is at an all time low (studies showing how often people go back to games or how they like them as their time with them increases). Almost every time the more time people put in the more cheated they felt. People go back to games a lot less now as well, with the exception of the new phenomenon caused by such bad games coming out, going back to the slightly less crappy game and forgoing the new one.

The games industry stopped being a games industry. Instead of making games that are good at a thing they chose to design, they insist on selling me this game before It’s even out with a season patch attached. The industry doesn’t have a damn soul anymore. It feels fake, software sales agree. A lot of games get dumped. A lot that sell decent spent too much for that to even be profitable.

No integrity, no honesty, hardly any innovation, and flat out a lack of effort from everyone involved. Sony and Microsoft both have machines TODAY that lack features of their predecessors. And yes, pretty well all of them. The PS2 does things the PS4 can’t. The original Xbox and the 360 both do things the One can’t. It’s tiresome. When I buy games now I expect them to work on every machine going forward, there’s no reason for them not to. But hey, lame social interfaces that the stockholders want. Thanks. Just what we all wanted, right? Surely my ability to remove myself from my supposedly immersive experience to share crap with people who could give a crap is baffling to me. The second you guys quit buying into this, it’ll stop. So for the guys that are sick and tired of this industry failing to meet the standards of old, can we even blame you? Gamers shouldn’t be anything but mad, we’ve been getting screwed a 100 different ways for years. And it came in little by little, everyone’s standards collectively dropping slowly. 100% truth.

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Paulo Victor

January 24, 2018

Great article, and your point serves on various matters in life not just gaming. Everyone should be free to express their liking, their opinion and be respected for that.

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Novacell

January 24, 2018

I think that’s it’s not really confined to gaming. It’s the internet as a whole that can be attributed to abuse, as people don’t see the person and feel it’s just pixels on a screen. immaturity (even in adults) and entitlement that their opinion or view is superior to others. Thankfully it’s a small minority, starve them of their oxygen and they will soon get bored being consigned to being ignored. People that hurl the abuse have no opinion hence why they constantly go on the attack as they can’t enter into intellectual conversation and debate without abusing someone. So i would never let the abuse of someone dictate what i enjoy

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clinta

January 24, 2018

It’s funny because this is how I feel as well. This is the first article that I’ve commented on in a long time. There used to be a blog section on a big video game website that is pretty much closed now where people could usually share opinions without having to worry about being attacked. That was the other place that I used to comment.

I can say that I’m not worried about being attacked per se for my comments, but it’s more about just not wanting to deal with it. I was around when video games kind of started to take off and people who liked them were treated pretty badly for doing so. I had thought that it would be nice for them to be more accepted. It turns out that hasn’t worked out so well either as pretty much everything that is made is torn apart.

To me, games should be fun and entertaining. However, it seems that’s less and less the case nowadays. It’s more about what games don’t do as opposed to what they actually are. I get the feeling that this will be magnified even more as time goes on. You can even see it in tweets by the major companies. I really like Nintendo so I follow along with their Twitter account. I feel sorry for whoever is in charge of it as almost all of the comments are about things that people want and feel that they should have as opposed to the actual tweet.

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LordCancer Kain

January 24, 2018

people are angry not because they are gamers but because of societal decay. games tend to be a poor substitute for a strong social foundation and purpose. spend all your free time accomplishing empty tasks and it is easy to lose yourself to a variety of emotions. which naturally any rational being would project outwardly on the internet since we are all mostly self loathing cowards because in real life even though you most likely want to die getting beat up or shot hurts.

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