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[Forceatowulf]

No matter how predictable this type of shit from the press is it still makes me shake my god damn head.

The defending and blatant ignoring of the DRM issue from so many major gaming sites left a really bad taste in my mouth. Then the whole resolution thing started happening and all of a sudden the difference between 1080p and 720p was negligible, had no impact on the game, and was simply unimportant.

Now here we are with a critically acclaimed game that plays at 60fps on one system and 30fps on the other. Meaning on of them will play at a motherfucking ONE HUNDRED PERCENT INCREASE in framerate and people like this dude would have you believe the difference is just more pettifogging from tech geeks and forum dwellers. Amazing.

 

[patapuf]

One is inherently more relevant to a greater number of people however.

Realistically, there should be a real divide between being a tech blog and being a blog critical of videogames. A game running at 30fps or 60fps has little if anything do with cultural relevancy.

Beyond comparisons of multiplat versions and where these things are acutally hurt playabilty even for the average player (very low framerate, lots of crashes ect.) indepth technical discussion of games is pracitally nonexistant on videogame sites.

There's literally only a handful of sites dedicated to tech and the rest simply write "the game is very pretty/smooth" and that's it.

 

[Rafterman]

When we ask ourselves whether the Xbox One or PS4 version of Call of Duty is better, we're choosing not to ask ourselves why we're even still playing a game like Call of Duty long after the series stopped trying to be culturally or politically relevant. When we focus on the amount of pixels that are being used to render Lara Croft, we overlook the implicit creepiness of the game industry's androcentric obsession with creating such an "obsessively detailed" version of someone like Lara Croft in the first place. And if we continue to nitpick over just how "obsessively detailed" this young woman's virtual body is, we forget that the real controversy of the new Tomb Raider came from its uncomfortable participation in rape culture. To borrow a quote from Evgeny Morozov, work like this refuses "to evaluate solutions to problems based on criteria other than efficiency."

Yeah, this should have been the first sentence in his article so I could just ignore it from the jump.

This guy can go fuck himself.

 

[BurnOutBrighter]

I'd rather watch a good movie on DVD than a shit one on Bluray.

I'd rather watch a good movie on Blu-ray. The best of both worlds is possible.

Regarding the article. We are the hardcore. The enthusiast crowd. The videogameophile. We want the best experience that technology and artistry can provide.

The article writer might not see it as a big deal. But it's a big deal to us, and if he writes about games, it really should be a big deal to him too. The guy writes for a tech site and doesn't care about tech. What is he even doing?

 

[Replicant]

Respect in pop culture? Lawl. How about respecting yourself and stop looking elsewhere for validation? So what if video games is not respected in popular culture?

 

[Amir0x]

Are you kidding me? Movie aficionado's and critics routinely debate the tiniest of differences between different release versions of films. Book lovers routinely have lists of tiny editing differences between updated versions of books. All groups that become 'hardcore' in the sense they're extra dedicated to their hobby means they are likely to pick apart things the broader community does not, that doesn't suddenly equal 'no respect for the medium.'

And the differences in the games we're talking about often amount to monumental differences in visuals and framerate and even gameplay, and things like framerate directly impact gameplay as well.

I hate insulting shit like this.

 

[thelastword]

Still, all that is no reason to make a big fuzz. These days, performance specifications tend to be used to advertise games to the point of them being bullet points on the back of a box, taking time and space away from story and, more importantly, gameplay. The sharpest or most fluent game still sucks if it is boring, whereas technologically unimpressive or limited titles can be among the best there are if executed properly.

A coder who has to ensure that the game engine runs at 60fps usually have nothing to do with the story told in that game. I'll let you know that Amy Hennig is not responsible for those great textures and the impressive lighting in the uncharted series, but when it comes to the characters, the story, the plot/atmosphere she's the one mainly responsible. Therefore you cannot say that a games's story or it's gameplay is worse because a dev wanted the visual presentation to be smooth.

A game can never be only about it's individual parts; story, gameplay, sound or graphics/framerate (point of contention). No one element is more important than the other because if you move one, you wouldn't have a game and no one would buy it.

Also, no one is saying that a game which is technologically below par with great gameplay won't be lauded, that's an entirely different discussion, however; if you're giving me the option of choosing a copy of a nice looking game that happens to have better graphics and a better framerate on one platform over the other at $60, I think I have a right to discuss that I got more bang for my buck on the latter. Anyone who's trying to tell me shut up "it doesn't matter, it's negligible" is anti consumer and I won't take them seriously and I'm not sure I would want to gain any respect from them anyway.

 

[Dennis]

I was planning on getting the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition but now I am worried it might mean I contribute to rape culture.

 

[NullPointer]

I was planning on getting the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition but now I am worried it might mean I contribute to rape culture.

Its time to take a moment to honestly ask yourself just why you want to see Lara's skin in such high resolution.

Now, take a seat right over there.

 

[cuyahoga]

Oddly, I agree with the article's title, but not the article itself. Resolution or whatever is absolutely silly to non-gamers, but enthusiasts are obsessive about these sort of details. If game critics have to answer to obsessive enthusiasts, technical details are of some import.

 

[Cyrano]

Beyond comparisons of multiplat versions and where these things are acutally hurt playabilty even for the average player (very low framerate, lots of crashes ect.) indepth technical discussion of games is pracitally nonexistant on videogame sites.

Which means that their discussion is best suited for blogs that talk about tech. There are also plenty of places that discuss these things; artist forums talk a lot about rendering techniques, lighting, depth of field and issues with blur, as well as ever more complex solutions to anisotropy and smoothing. They are definitely mainstream to those who are interested in the tech, but unsurprisingly it's mostly artists who are interested in it, because it affects their ability to do their job.

There's literally only a handful of sites dedicated to tech and the rest simply write "the game is very pretty/smooth" and that's it.

Which says a lot about the tech's cultural relevancy to wide audiences. As for the pretty/smooth stuff, that's an issue of expectation and mainstream videogame criticism reading more like an examination of a feature list rather than effective qualities the medium maintains.

 

[Chocolate & Vanilla]

I remember all those years ago when TR1 was released and my younger brother came across the "nude Lara" cheat in a game mag. He was so dissapointed when it turned ouy her boobs looked like some horrific plastic surgery knightmare. I mean properly disappointed. It was fucking hilarious. The true definitive version....

Unless this new one has a cheat to uncover some gorgeously HDified car crash tits. Then again, they just call it dlc and charge a fiver. Cunts

 

[BurnOutBrighter]

Oddly, I agree with the article's title, but not the article itself. Resolution or whatever is absolutely silly to non-gamers, but enthusiasts are obsessive about these sort of details. If game critics have to answer to obsessive enthusiasts, technical details are of some import.

I agree and that's what bothers me. The critics and journalists are the people who are supposed to care about this the most. Technology is a factor in a lot of cultural production, and it can be argued that video games are more dependent on technology than any other media. A game world only exists when a computer processes and renders it, unlike a film or sculpture, which exists in a physical form. The mechanisms that allow games to be experienced are the most important element of all.

 

[Phades]

Its time to take a moment to honestly ask yourself just why you want to see Lara's skin in such high resolution.

Now, take a seat right over there.

B-b-b-b-but the texture mapping and water physics are just amazing! Just look at it, before you know it we will have full photo realism incorporating motion capture and VR for even more real experiences.

I-I-I don't wanna sit down. Hey, let go of me. Wait, noooooooo~

 

[QaaQer]

...why do games journalists find the need to make up the basis of why people are angry about a situation and then argue against a point that no one was arguing in the first place?

They literally see people get angry, make up the reason for it then attack their made up argument.

intellectually dishonest and/or lazy. + it makes them feel better about themselves.

 

[dragonbane]

Dumb article.

 

[Skeff]

Terrible article, no one is comparing this to watergate, X-gate is a common term used for something like this in the general media, especially in entertainment mediums, the best examples are the yearly Big brother X-gate scandals here in the UK.

If resolution wasn't important people wouldn't buy 1080p TV's, there wouldn't be the movement towards 4k TV's, we would not have HD channels, If the technical quality of the media we consume was not important then we would be listening to our walkmans and playing our atari's.

To be honest, there would not be a big deal about this if one of the console makers had not spent the past 8 months assuring us there would be no noticable differences on multiplatform games.

 

[Reallink]

How many CPM get they for this?

 

[NullPointer]

How many CPM get they for this?

Well they fucked up, so that's a 50 DKP minus.

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

Movies have incredible swathes of technically minded communities and blogs dedicated to both the craft of making and the consumer side of cinema. Last I checked, they didn't make movies any worse off.

 

[KORNdoggy]

I find it curious these sort of articles didn't exist last gen when PS3 ports where often worse in some way, instead websites seem to emphasise the difference wherever they could, lauding over it. Which makes me wonder...if it was the xbone with double the framerate or double the resolution, would THESE articles dismissing such differences exist?

I don't trust the gaming media anymore, and it seems to be getting worse and worse by the day.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I am so sick of this clownshoe fanboy holier-than-thou bullshit from journos without a clue combating imaginary clownshoe fanboy holier-than-thou bullshit from users.

I have to explain this simple FUCKING difference over...

and over...

and over.

Sir or madam, YOU are part of the reason Vidyer Gamez have a shitty adolescent reputation still, and every drooling idiocy article like this you paint the internet with, it stays that way a little longer.

 

[FStop7]

Honestly: When you read something like this piece just a few days after the Machinima payola incident, it makes you wonder.

 

[flatearthpandas]

Movies have incredible swathes of technically minded communities and blogs dedicated to both the craft of making and the consumer side of cinema. Last I checked, they didn't make movies any worse off.

I think anyone comparing gamers arguing about specs to film or music connoisseurs talking tech is being more than a bit disingenuous.

The perception of movie goers isn't of loud, hyperbolic manchildren fighting on the internet about whether DreamWorks or Pixar make better movies our whether Regal or AMC users better projectors. If it was, you bet that would hurt the image of the film industry.

If the main perception of gamers is obnoxious infighting over FPS and resolution, that isn't something to own and be proud of. If the idea is to be taken seriously, maybe there's a better response to this kind of criticism than "It is too important, dummies! We're legitimate! Those mainstream fatcats just don't understand how important resolution is to gameplay!"

 

[EVOL 100%]

What a load of bullshit. Production and mastering is important to any serious music fan, and movie buffs care a lot about image preservation and fidelity.

These 'stop caring about something I don't care about' articles never fail to be terrible. Respect in pop culture, jesus christ

 

[unbias]

That article is just silly. It's like complaining about sports fans who know everything about their team(s); down to every detail and their rivals or teams they are going against and critiquing or discussing every little issue with the team, with hopes of them improving in certain area's. Most sports fans are not hardcore stat nuts or know every person on the roster, but the hardcore sports fans that obsess over every minute detail does not hurt the sport or the team. I'd argue that if anything when the hardcore fans of a hobby obsess over the smaller details it actually improves the overall culture of that hobby, because it creates a more knowledgeable fanbase over all. I just think these people dont like critical thinking, unless is has something to do with social engineering or some other preachy POV. I think a lot of these types of journalists just have a warped and distorted view of themselves and their opinions.

 

[hodgy100]

the "controversy" about performance figuers is much more to do with console hardware than videogames themselves. looking at a games performance on different hardware is telling about the power of the hardware and the possible lifetime or potential of that hardware.

its no reason not to take videogames seriously because its more to do with console hardware than videogames themselves.

 

[Moosehole]

How. Hoooowwwww are there still members of the press downplaying the differences?!

If you stop asking I'll give you three dollars.

 

[mujun]

We're paying $400-500 for new consoles, so yeah, it kinda does matter which one has a better framerate or which one has a better resolution. If we didn't care about that then we'd just stick to the old consoles. Most of the upcoming games are coming to them anyway.

To some people. Other people make their decisions based on games available, what is carried over from previous consoles, what friends are getting, etc.

 

[John Kowalski]

Yep, games are all form and no content. It will never change. Of course people focus on secondary stuff to avoid having to confront the more serious issues.

You can only see how fubar'd the medium is from outside, no one on the inside is doing the work necessary to actually challenge the status quo.

 

[BuggeryBugz]

We're paying $400-500 for new consoles, so yeah, it kinda does matter which one has a better framerate or which one has a better resolution. If we didn't care about that then we'd just stick to the old consoles. Most of the upcoming games are coming to them anyway.

It's a deciding factor to some when choosing between the two consoles. After that, it's just for shits and giggles and shouldn't be taken as seriously as it is.

 

[jroc74]

I don't see how this in any way influences the "pop culture" perception of consoles.

There are car blogs that go way deeper into rivalries and specifications of different car models, and that doesn't affect the "pop culture" perception of cars in the least.

If you're interested enough, you read the articles that matter.

"Pop Culture" just sees the game ads and maybe reads a review or two then goes and buys whatever. Just like they do with cars.

Who cares? People enjoy the console wars and FPS is just another talking point for their fun. It is like having a American Football Brady vs. Manning debate and talking about the QBR.

The author has to bring up the death threats which is speciously related to the issue? This is like when people who don't like sports bring up the very rare cases of dumbasses who kill other people at sporting events as a reason sports are stupid.

I have to ask who are we getting "respect" from? Who gives a shit what other people think about their hobby.

Exactly. I was gonna also mention sports with the first quote....the 2nd quote explains it the best.

Vocal minority.

Remember GAF, that's us. I personally never paid attention to resolution differences or FPS until I started frequenting online forums like this. Ignorance is bliss

Before online forums....I never knew there were 2 different QBR's....or 1 is a total QBR, one is a passer rating...and I too never paid attention to resolution and FPS.

 

[SapientWolf]

I think gamers will be respected more as consumers if they're discerning and informed. The cultural impact makes for an interesting side discussion, but it's ultimately not going to make a difference in how the game is played. Framerate caused a huge controversy with The Hobbit, so it seems silly to dismiss something that can have such a large impact on the experience. It's not like discussing the font in a book.

 

[RadarScope1]

Great discussion here, GAF. I agree with Jason's general tone and I think the Motherboard writer probably isn't much of a serious gamer (but I don't know that).

The medium is entwined in tech, play and narrative. It all matters. All of it. To me, anyway. And to a lot of us here. I get so damn frustrated by the "it's just a game crowd" but I'm also put off by a lot of the navel gazing writers who seem to ignore the real core of what the medium is about - play. I want to see more good criticism and of course want to see more acceptance by mainstream pop culture but I also love the console wars (so long as it's all in good fun - no death threats please) and I think that's just a part of our culture.

I think the writer of the first article might have been better served saying that technical discussions suck up too much bandwidth from the conversation. We can and should have both types of conversations - but right now the ratio is way too lopsided.

 

[cheststrongwell]

I won't play a game unless it is culturally or politically relevant.

 

[patapuf]

Which means that their discussion is best suited for blogs that talk about tech. There are also plenty of places that discuss these things; artist forums talk a lot about rendering techniques, lighting, depth of field and issues with blur, as well as ever more complex solutions to anisotropy and smoothing. They are definitely mainstream to those who are interested in the tech, but unsurprisingly it's mostly artists who are interested in it, because it affects their ability to do their job.

Which says a lot about the tech's cultural relevancy to wide audiences. As for the pretty/smooth stuff, that's an issue of expectation and mainstream videogame criticism reading more like an examination of a feature list rather than effective qualities the medium maintains.

Nah, if you, as a consumer, have to choose between 2 versions (for example, because you own both consoles), a review should point out big differences between the versions.

The reason is simple. Unlike listening to music with shitty headphones or watching a dvd on a shitty screen you can't just take your game and put it in a higher quality device. You are stuck on the platform you bought it on.

 

[kevm3]

Funny how you didn't see these kinds of articles when the 360 was the superior platform for multiplats, but the difference was less significant than it was now.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Yeah, this should have been the first sentence in his article so I could just ignore it from the jump.

This guy can go fuck himself.

Pretty much. The article basically boils down to: It's not important unless it's what I want to talk about. That sort of self-centered whining is the real reason video games don't get enough respect.

 

[Devolution]

Resolution/frame rate issues are way down on the bottom of the list, if they're even on the list, of why gaming is laughed at. This article serious?

 

[toastyToast]

The entire electronics market is predicated on different products performing marginally or significantly better at particular tasks than other competing products. Games are applications, some a lot of people care about running things as best as possible. It's why people upgrade their phones, why they get decent computers and not $200 Compaq pieces of shit, why you can buy a $100 CPU or a $1000 CPU. Either you care or you don't and if you don't, stay the fuck out of those conversations.

 

[PBY]

You can only see how fubar'd the medium is from outside, no one on the inside is doing the work necessary to actually challenge the status quo.

Not sure I agree with your overall point, but the best games criticism comes from non-traditional gaming outlets. I think in some instances non-gamers can write about games better than most traditional games sites. See- Grantland and pretty much every single gaming article theyve ever done.

 

[PBY]

Nah, if you, as a consumer, have to choose between 2 versions (for example, because you own both consoles), a review should point out big differences between the versions.

The reason is simple. Unlike listening to music with shitty headphones or watching a dvd on a shitty screen you can't just take your game and put it in a higher quality device. You are stuck on the platform you bought it on.

I also disagree with this. I have no problem with some tech sites doing this, but I don't want all of game reviews to be product reviews. I want media criticism. I want commentary.

 

[schuey7]

I think that the point about looking at the game devoid of technical differences is valid to an extent but for multiplatform owners there should be a section highlighting which version is technically better.Most people want to buy the best version of the game they can so the comparison to movies is a false comparison.
Btw I don't see the problem with Tomb Raider being 30 fps as long as it doesn't dip below that. I played it with SGAA on my pc and the true graphic whores who really care about the best framerate and graphics and are lucky to be able to afford it are there on the pc.

 

[kpaadet]

The writer of this article is why people look down on authors. Am I doing this right?

 

[Devolution]

I think that the point about looking at the game devoid of technical differences is valid to an extent but for multiplatform owners there should be a section highlighting which version is technically better.Most people want to buy the best version of the game they can so the comparison to movies is a false comparison.
Btw I don't see the problem with Tomb Raider being 30 fps as long as it doesn't dip below that. I played it with SGAA on my pc and the true graphic whores who really care about the best framerate and graphics and are lucky to be able to afford it are there on the pc.

The movie one is ignoring a lot of technical dialogue in various media that's not looked at as exceedingly picky or nerdy. In movie critique: Cinematography, film vs digital, aspect ratios. To act as if critics never touch upon this, ummm.

 

[Imperfected]

The movie one is ignoring a lot of technical dialogue in various media that's not looked at as exceedingly picky or nerdy. In movie critique: Cinematography, film vs digital, aspect ratios. To act as if critics never touch upon this, ummm.

To say nothing of the fact that Peter Jackson is actually trying to make high-framerate cinema into a thing, and it was absolutely the crux of many reviews of the first of his Hobbit movies.

Critics should be less like game reviewers, and stop talking about higher framerates. They should be like movie reviewers, and talk about higher framerates.

 

[schuey7]

The movie one is ignoring a lot of technical dialogue in various media that's not looked at as exceedingly picky or nerdy. In movie critique: Cinematography, film vs digital, aspect ratios. To act as if critics never touch upon this, ummm.

I think that we gamers tend to focus on graphical differences to the detriment of the gameplay sometimes.Growing up and playing games at lowest possible resolutions and graphic settings on shit computers I remember still having fun and loving the games at at 20fps slideshow.
Also ,I noticed I became a member from junior ,Yay!!

 

[Devolution]

To say nothing of the fact that Peter Jackson is actually trying to make high-framerate cinema into a thing, and it was absolutely the crux of many reviews of the first of his Hobbit movies.

Critics should be less like game reviewers, and stop talking about higher framerates. They should be like movie reviewers, and talk about higher framerates.

Great point.

I think that we gamers tend to focus on graphical differences to the detriment of the gameplay sometimes.Growing up and playing games at lowest possible resolutions and graphic settings on shit computers I remember still having fun and loving the games at at 20fps slideshow.
Also ,I noticed I became a member from junior ,Yay!!

Then he picked an awful example. Game A vs Game A, all else equal, (let's ignore console preference/availability to folks for a second), people are interested in the one that has better specs. What is so surprising here? A better point would be made about people forgoing games unconcerned with high fps/high frame rate because they don't have it. And that's not very true is it?

 

[Frumix]

I agree, it definitely contributed less to rape culture when Lara was detailed like this.

Wait, what was the article arguing about?
Ohhh I get it now, every game should be Gone Home, then framerate won't matter.
Well. No.

 

[schuey7]

Great point.




Then he picked an awful example. Game A vs Game A, all else equal, (let's ignore console preference/availability to folks for a second), people are interested in the one that has better specs. What is so surprising here? A better point would be made about people forgoing games unconcerned with high fps/high frame rate because they don't have it. And that's not very true is it?

Well I think that people who have just one of the consoles/pc should focus on their platform instead of shitting on the inferior versions as long as the game is not an unplayable mess.In this day and age most developers are striving to make the best possible game for each version more often than not and if you don't have a better machine than what can you do about it.