• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Does the hatred against mobile gaming partially stem from jealously at "cool kids"?

Nah I just hate game design that prioritizes profits and microtransactions over gameplay and fun.

For example I think final fantasy record keeper is an incredible game and its micro transactions are very optional and it gives you a ton of gameplay for free.
 

Magnus

Member
I'm positive the OP's on to something - I've had the same thoughts many times. Don't think that's easily dismissed, even if other comments are valid, too (about console/PC gamers worried that their hobby is being mutated or transformed by the increasing popularity of mobile-type games, etc. - that fear's absolutely real, too). I just think the Cool Kids argument is definitely for real.
 
I dunno, I'd say the majority of console games are good, even if they're not always something I'd want to play.

You're only thinking about AAA and AA stuff that gets press. Believe me, there are literally thousands of garbage games (shovelware and licensed games) that far outnumber the good ones . The same is true of books, movies, and music.
 

Magnus

Member
Is being mocked and ostracised for playing video games actually a thing that happens?

Absolutely, unfortunately. You can't reasonably discuss it in a social gathering without someone screaming 'nerds' before too long. I mean, people don't mean it maliciously, but it's just the way shit is. I mean, even my boyfriend will tease me if I use gaming terms and am not talking about one of the Nintendo games he's onboard with already. Like, heaven forbid I say words like "Stamina", "Intelligence", "Randomly-Generated", "Save Point" or whatever out loud. It's a done deal at that point. I'm inviting being teased. I've learned to roll with it.
 
Honestly if a lot of mobile games just instituted a spending cap per month or week that got you a big bonus in game a lot of these complaints would go away.

It would even be a pretty good marketing tactic- spend $30 in a month and the game opens up and you're elite status for month.

This isn't as lucrative as going after the whales that spend huge amounts in a short time however.
 

LocalE

Member
I'm not really jealous of people who enjoy games that I don't like.

I have tried some mobile games and have never been particularly taken with any.

I'll be interested to see what Nintendo and DeNA come up with, but generally I don't want to see developers that I have come to appreciate or respect spending, sorry - wasting, - their efforts on mobile games because it generally would indicate that I'll not enjoy whatever it is that they produce.
 

Zomba13

Member
Reasons I see "mobile games" as a separate thing from "real games" (no order)

1) No buttons means controls for "traditionally played" games are bad. Most devs that want to have a platformer or shooter just slap an overlay and use the touch screen for virtual buttons instead of making a control scheme fit the platform

2) Too many games are just cheap cash in clones of each other with the bare minimum done to reskin them (and in some cases not even that). Say what you will about console games and the flood of CoD wannabees during it's hight, they weren't as blatant and some of the stuff you see on mobile store fronts.

3) Too many games use the free to play "stamina" model where you have to spend money to get more time to play, or to fill up bars quicker and it's become so prevalent that games need to be praised when they use that model and actually let you make progress without having to spend £99.99 on the "BEST VALUE" pack of gems.

4) A lot of devs with established IPs view the F2P games getting millions a day as something to aim for as soon as possible so instead of making a game that fits the mobile platform and is actually a good game regardless of where it's played, they want that F2P money so they just make a quick cash in to get that like Square did with Final Fantasy ATB. And then when you get people saying stuff like "hey, this ain't half bad" about a game like FF Record Keeper you play it and realise that it's not a fun game and only "good" by the mobile standard in that you can make progress without shelling out money.


There are very few mobile exclusive games that are actually good and would hold up to "real" games. For every Monument Valley you get a 100 Clash of Clans clones. For every Crossy Road, a nice, free to play Frogger clone that works well in the mobile "pick up and play for a few minutes" space you get 50 F2P meter building re-imaginings of beloved IPs.
 

Disgraced

Member
Guess this might be another area where my thoughts differ from most. Whether they're on a mobile phone, a Kindle or a 3DS, literally nothing of my assessment of who they are will change aside from what they're using at that moment. I'll usually interpret a bit past a surface level if I see what they're doing on those devices, however, but the fact that they are using them literally tells me nothing about them.
Upon further thought, I do think you're being a bit naive about the use of the devices telling something about someone though. You're right, since pretty much everyone in first world society owns a cell phone, it doesn't tell us really anything about them unless it's a brick from 1992 or a Razr. But for instance, if I see someone using a dedicated gaming handheld I can already automatically presume that person has an interest in gaming, to start simple. With other elements like the color of the device, what they're playing, if they have headphones or are blasting it out loud on the bus, yada yada, I can make all kinds of halfway accurate or absolutely inaccurate presumptions. And still, as I said in my last post, it can be both good and bad to think those things so soon.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Mobile gaming is looked down upon because it's bad. Period.

While I wouldn't word this as strongly, the key problem with mobile gaming (as in tablets and phones) is that its *limited*.

To be precise its limited by its interface and input form-factor which is undeniably inferior to the established controller/kb and mouse standard for many types of game.

Its something that inevitably needs to be worked around, and that essentially ties a rock to the backs of people creatively. Its a field with a narrower scope for growth.

The economics of the mobile scene compound this, resulting in the largely moribund situation we have at the moment.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
But for instance, if I see someone using a dedicated gaming handheld I can already automatically presume that person has an interest in gaming, to start simple.

Nope, can't make that assumption. They could have been given the handheld as a gift and only own one game for it, deciding to play it to mindlessly pass the time as they brought it along one day. They could be borrowing it from someone else, for whatever reason. They could have bought it for themselves out of impulse through someone else's recommendation for a game like Brain Age, Nintendogs or something.

Upon further thought, I do think you're being a bit naive about the use of the devices telling something about someone though.

I don't think it's being naive; I think it's being the polar opposite. I understand that it can oftentimes be accurate to tell an aspect of one's personality through their public activities, but it can also oftentimes be very inaccurate. I see them as being assumptions based on very little, and one can get in trouble much more by making assumptions than they can by considering several other possibilities and not jumping to conclusions.

I'm bad at social cues, though, so I don't see the point in complicating things even further by relying on my own intuition. I'll just go by what is made explicit rather than implicit when it comes to this kind of thing. I don't like presuming when it's not made clear.
 

redcrayon

Member
Absolutely, unfortunately. You can't reasonably discuss it in a social gathering without someone screaming 'nerds' before too long. I mean, people don't mean it maliciously, but it's just the way shit is. I mean, even my boyfriend will tease me if I use gaming terms and am not talking about one of the Nintendo games he's onboard with already. Like, heaven forbid I say words like "Stamina", "Intelligence", "Randomly-Generated", "Save Point" or whatever out loud. It's a done deal at that point. I'm inviting being teased. I've learned to roll with it.
That's the same for most hobbies though, whether it's gaming or fishing or sport, the minute you talk about the more specialist side of it that you've invested hundreds of pounds in. Most people dumb it down for general small talk with people who don't share a hobby, as it's easier than to keep using terminology you know other people don't get. While I like hearing about what people do in their spare time, it can be tedious to hear people discuss their passion in detail, at length and at every opportunity if you don't share it.

I mean, some of my friends like football. Some don't. If it's a mixed crowd, they don't bang on about it, as while a bit of info about what they do every weekend is cool, the rest of us find it fucking boring to hear the names of players we dont know and analysis of matches we didnt see played by teams we don't care about. In my office, the sports fans know better than to start using footy metaphors in meetings as they'll get teased mercilessly if outnumbered (it attracts the same level of withering sarcasm as management buzzwords), while I also adjust my terminology depending on whether I'm with people who understand the same kind of pop culture references or not.

If I was at a social gathering where I was happily discussing my hobby with someone who shared it though, and some utter tool started yelling 'nerds!', I'd wonder where the hell I'd ended up. Gaming seems far more socially acceptable than being an arsehole. Maybe its that I'm 36 and the parties I go to are pretty tame!
 

4Tran

Member
It's a combination of conservatism and the fact that some of the most prominent mobile titles are of the "undesired" type. It's no secret that mobile games aren't going to appeal much to gamers who are attached to AAA gaming, so there's going to be a lot of resistance against them. This is especially true when some people see mobile games as taking away from the kind of games they like. It's a bit like the resistance of some gamers against indie games, except that indie games aren't seen as a threat.
 

Fbh

Member
I think the hate is more a combination of mobile games just overall being pretty bad and designed to push the player towards microtransactions instead of offering and a fun and well balanced experience.
And the fact that seeing great "traditional" games with a lot of work behind them not selling enough while cheap, uninspired and often cloned games make millions on mobile is kinda sad
 

IvorB

Member
It's usually more along the lines of "here is the cool stuff: (...), anything else is lame as hell" when it happens and you really try to analyze it. So yeah, it sort of happens in the wrong neighborhoods.

Absolutely, unfortunately. You can't reasonably discuss it in a social gathering without someone screaming 'nerds' before too long. I mean, people don't mean it maliciously, but it's just the way shit is. I mean, even my boyfriend will tease me if I use gaming terms and am not talking about one of the Nintendo games he's onboard with already. Like, heaven forbid I say words like "Stamina", "Intelligence", "Randomly-Generated", "Save Point" or whatever out loud. It's a done deal at that point. I'm inviting being teased. I've learned to roll with it.

That sucks. At school everyone loved video games. Mortal Kombat and stuff was the coolest sh*t on the playground. Everybody wanted to "borrow" your gaming kit if you had it. Everyone at varsity was down with gaming too. Guess I've just been lucky.
 

Disgraced

Member
Nope, can't make that assumption. They could have been given the handheld as a gift and only own one game for it, deciding to play it to mindlessly pass the time as they brought it along one day. They could be borrowing it from someone else, for whatever reason. They could have bought it for themselves out of impulse through someone else's recommendation for a game like Brain Age, Nintendogs or something.

I don't think it's being naive; I think it's being the polar opposite. I understand that it can oftentimes be accurate to tell an aspect of one's personality through their public activities, but it can also oftentimes be very inaccurate. I see them as being assumptions based on very little, and one can get in trouble much more by making assumptions than they can by considering several other possibilities and not jumping to conclusions.

I'm bad at social cues, though, so I don't see the point in complicating things even further by relying on my own intuition. I'll just go by what is made explicit rather than implicit when it comes to this kind of thing. I don't like presuming when it's not made clear.
I'll reiterate that I don't disagree entirely. I rest my case.

To apply this spar to the thread's greater discussion--I think more than I do in fact judge people based on general things, and may or may not grow malicious thoughts because of it. You don't, Flux, and that's good, but other people out there totally jump to conclusions about people because of things like playing video games. Don't think there's any debating that, the next point is solution.
 

Compsiox

Banned
Nah, a lot of people just don't like seeing this:


Whether you agree with it or not there is a big stigma against F2P games and whenever you open up the mobile app store you're basically swimming in them.

And no I don't play those games anymore, just wanted to give them a fair shake.

"GET"

Absolutely hilarious.
 

Boss Mog

Member
No. i dislike mobile games because 99.9% of them are dreck of the highest order with a lot of them also using the horrendous freemium model.
 

Yagharek

Member
For me it's simple. I can't play them. I can't play PC games either on kbam. I simply prefer control pads or arcade sticks.

I know there are options though.

Other than that, I've played and not enjoyed a small number of mobile games and they haven't convinced me to bother because of control issues inherent with touch screens.
 

Who

Banned
We desperately need a thread that showcases the legimately good games offered on mobile. Games like Alto's Adventure, Spider, Hitman GO, etc.

Games that are f2p, have stamina, intrusive micro-transactions etc. would not be listed.
 

redcrayon

Member
We desperately need a thread that showcases the legimately good games offered on mobile. Games like Alto's Adventure, Spider, Hitman GO, etc.

Games that are f2p, have stamina, intrusive micro-transactions etc. would not be listed.
The Gaf monthly mobile threads are really good, the contributors put a lot of work in and I really appreciate them even if I only play on mobile once in a while.
 
I don't see how.
I was born in 1993 and grew up during the Playstation/PS2 era, so gaming by that point had already long since been a "cool kid" thing. I never even knew gaming was even supposed to be nerdy until way later.

I don't like mobile gaming at all, but I would have been all for it if smartphones had better control schemes and didn't perpetuate an environment that prioritizes cheap 2 dollar knockoffs and f2p money traps.
 

Teknoman

Member
It's because traditional games are hard to play on mobile and people who have grown up loving traditional games feel threatened that they may go away. And they don't want them to go away.

This and that alot of the times the games are really watered down experiences.

I can see the benefits of certain genres being on mobile phones, but thats as long as they are full experiences like...say Final Fantasy Dimensions.

On that note, people dont want to see their favorite large series go to or be revived as mobile exclusives.
 

Kuni

Member
N... No. More people playing games is a good thing (the horrendous state of f2p notwithstanding). Couldn't disareee more OP, soz.
 

KiraXD

Member
No, I think people just see a distinction between real games and mobile games because mobile games are generally low budget, have bad writing (if any), have cheap and heavily recycled mechanics and are generally boring as all hell.

ding! this is pretty much the most accurate statment.

Devs of mobile games dont care about the quality of the game... oftentimes its as cheap as can possibly be so they can maximize profit margins with microtransactions, F2P, P2W... so the games are always usually junk, low budget, clones.
 
No. The hatred against mobiling gaming entirely stems from that an overwhelming number of mobile games are complete shit, pay2win, crappy games. Whenever a mobile game is not pay2win cookie-clicker crap it gets a lot of praise from enthusiast gamers. But for every one good mobile game, you have 10,000 complete crapware titles that overwhelm the mobile storefronts. You have to try to find good mobile games these days, join iOS or Android gaming threads and rely on the reviews and encouragement of others... Unlike basically every other gaming platform where the best games generally bubble to the top and are easy to find.
 

pixelation

Member
No, my "hatred" for mobile gaming comes from the fact that i've yet to find a mobile game that matches the kind of experience that i get from a console title (production values, depth, good art direction, decent controls) and isn't affected by micro transactions. And the fact that more and more developers are being lured into developing mobile games due to them being cheaper to develop and can also be completed in less time irks me.
 

gioGAF

Member
I don't get where all this mobile gaming defense force is coming from. If you are on this site, you typically associate gaming with PC/consoles. We are accustomed to certain experiences because of this fact, "mobile gaming" is not "gaming" to most of us. To us, "mobile" means a shallow gaming experience of some kind that is meant to distract you while you are at work or taking a dump.

Not really something I would consider threatening or limited to "cool kids", I think most of the hostility might stem from having to deal with the uneducated masses thinking that "mobile gaming" is an equivalent experience to gaming on dedicated systems.

Mobile gaming also usually represents or propagates most of the toxic business practices in our hobby. The dumb casual sets the bar for everyone else.
 

autoduelist

Member
Mobile gaming gave rise to some particularly terrible addiction based mechanics - grind gates, time gates, etc. due to their 'f2p' nature and the evolution of separating players from money. In addition, it created a 'race to the bottom' in price (free, $1, etc) that often rewarded (to an extreme) cloning other games.

Previously, games were 'balanced' for fun and challenge. For example, you need to fight a fair amount of goblins to get strong enough to beat the Goblin King. The developers had a vested interest in making sure the gamer felt the challenge, but didn't get 'bored'. With the advent of mobile gaming and F2p, the games in question are no longer balanced for fun and challenge, but rather, for monetary gain. Sure, you can spend 10 hours killing goblins to earn enough gold s to buy a weapon you need to kill the Goblin King... or you can spend $1 for a 'Green Gem' that will get you that sword instantly. That's intentionally bad/unbalanced game design in pursuit of money, and it is an epidemic and plague on gaming in general.

[obviously, not all f2p games are abusive, but the concept is inherently abusive in terms of general design designs and plenty of games are extremely abusive. The 'wait 5 hours for corn to grow or spend $1' are perhaps the most obvious -- pure addiction peddling.]

Mobile gaming is also so successful (due to the sheer numbers of smart phones/tablets out there, etc) that some of those mechanics have entered traditional gaming, or accelerated existing aspects.

Obviously, some games on Mobile are fantastic. But there are plenty that are both popular and guilty of some of those mechanics.

That's why people 'hate' mobile gaming (well, that and the lack of buttons). And when people say they hate mobile gaming, that's basically what they mean. I'm sure most agree there are some gems, but they are essentially talking about the plague of bad mechanics - and seem particularly upset because now those intentionally bad design decisions [in terms of maximizing fun/challenge] are infecting console games.
 

Disgraced

Member
It's a shame the majority here's again just addressing why each and everyone one personally dislikes mobile games just like the number of "say why you don't like mobile gaming threads" without even addressing why the OP's idea is wrong. Bringing another idea up doesn't negate the previous one.
 

Opiate

Member
It's because traditional games are hard to play on mobile and people who have grown up loving traditional games feel threatened that they may go away. And they don't want them to go away.

After observing the phenomena for a long time, I've become increasingly convinced this is the answer.

If you are sitting there thinking "No, my hatred of mobile games is actually justified because blah blah blah," I'd like you to reconsider.

I'm not asking you to suddenly like the games -- if you don't like them, fine. What I'm asking you to consider is that your extreme personal preference in the matter may be coloring your opinion here.

I happen to know someone who was really in to 80s rock, and has a very personal dislike for Nirvana and Pearl Jam. He can elaborate at great length on how they killed "real" Rock N' Roll, and turned what should be a fun, happy-go-lucky music medium into something somber and serious, which really doesn't suit it.

It's all sort of in that "vaguely reasonable" ballpark that you can convince yourself of if you're motivated to do so. And he believes this very passionately. I'm suggesting that his reason for hating 90s rock, though, is less these reasons he states openly and more the fact that it superceded the style of Rock he happened to personally prefer. He has a vendetta against grunge that another, less invested onlooker would not suffer from.

And I'm suggesting some people on GAF (and in other "traditional" gaming communities) behave the same way towards things like the Wii and iOS gaming. Some people can elaborate at great length on how kids these days listen to nothing but noise / watch terrible cartoons / read terrible books, but I find the true heart of the matter usually is that the person feels threatened. The things they personally like are going out of style, and they don't like it.
 

redcrayon

Member
It's a shame the majority here's again just addressing why each and everyone one personally dislikes mobile games just like the number of "say why you don't like mobile gaming threads" without even addressing why the OP's idea is wrong. Bringing another idea up doesn't negate the previous one.
The OP asks if 'hatred' towards mobile partially stems from jealousy. Seeing as there's a wide variety of gamers on gaf, spanning multiple ages (real, human generations, even!) and countries, I think a deduction of it being a social issue to any significant degree is unlikely when not everyone had the same experience growing up, the same idea of what was 'cool' or views the same era of different electronic machines as the starting point of their hobby.

Multiple posters have offered a dozen different reasons why they aren't keen on this, that or the other aspect of mobile gaming. It doesn't need a new, vaguely encompassing reason that judges their characters as a whole assigned when the subject group is happy to elaborate individually and at length. Why not take them at their word that if they don't like a lack of buttons, or FTP mechanics/whalehunts, or stamina timers, or wasting the battery life of their phone on games etc, that's probably true for that individual. Summing them all up as having a single driving factor does a discussion forum a disservice, in the same way that we couldn't sum up why any one group prefers any one console (or mobile) when there's multiple reasons to do so.
 

Almighty

Member
It's because traditional games are hard to play on mobile and people who have grown up loving traditional games feel threatened that they may go away. And they don't want them to go away.

That pretty much sums it up for me. I am very much an old man yelling at this new thing the kids are doing that I don't understand when it comes to mobile games.
 

Hugstable

Banned
I've had alot of fun experiences with games on my phone, so I'm not against mobile gaming at all. In fact I quite like it. There is usually something for everything as long as you look, you don't have to just get f2p stuff or expensive games. I've been messing around with both f2p in Hearthstone and FF: Record Keepers as well as paid awesome RPG's like Dragon Quest series and SMT1. I've been able to play an official translated version of SMT1!!!! I love mobile gaming
 

REDSLATE

Member
I don't know how you managed to rope feminism into this discussion, but you're wrong on both counts here. In general, mobile games are simply inferior compared to traditional, full-fledged games. There are some great mobile games out there, but they're in the minority.
 

sniperpon

Member
Kind of a bizarre thesis. I don't see it. Most of the people I know who dislike mobile games have cutting edge devices, or are even professional mobile application developers themselves (I actually fall into this category!).
 

Red Devil

Member
Basically, there's a common element I've noticed among people who play mobile games where they see "video games" and "mobile games" as completely distinct entities. For example, using my own experience, I'm known at work as being a gamer of sorts, and sometimes teased about that. Yet, there are people at my work who don't consider themselves gamers, yet spend all day on shift playing Clash of Clans.

This is something I see a lot, specially among adults, they play mobile games all the time but don't consider them as "video games", which they dismiss/ridicule/etc.
 

Disgraced

Member
The OP asks if 'hatred' towards mobile partially stems from jealousy. Seeing as there's a wide variety of gamers on gaf, spanning multiple ages (real, human generations, even!) and countries, I think a deduction of it being a social issue to any significant degree is unlikely when not all of us had the same experience growing up or with the hobby.

Multiple posters have offered a dozen different reasons why they aren't keen on this, that or the other aspect of mobile gaming. It doesn't need a new, vaguely encompassing reason that judges our characters as a whole assigned when the subject group is happy to elaborate individually and at length. Why not take them at their word that if they don't like a lack of buttons, or FTP mechanics/whalehunts, or stamina timers, or wasting the battery life of their phone on games etc, that's probably true for that individual.
Correct, "partially," I interpret what the OP suggests as saying that there's a "part" of the demographic that dislikes mobile gaming because of envy towards possible hypocrites they were teased by. I don't want to vaguely encompass all people who dislike mobile games, I want to analyze a probably existent portion of people who dislike mobile games for this reason. I think saying it's only because of feeling threatened is what's vaguely encompassing.

[Edit:] Also, if everyone just keeps saying "no, it's this instead," we're just going to get new reasons forever and never make any progress with the original subject.
Summing them all up as having a single driving factor does a discussion forum a disservice, in the same way that we couldn't sum up why any one group prefers any one console (or mobile) when there's multiple reasons to do so.
Exactly...

I thought the idea here was to examine one of the many possible issues and reasons a portion of people (partially) dislike mobile games.

[End of edit.]
After observing the phenomena for a long time, I've become increasingly convinced this is the answer.

If you are sitting there thinking "No, my hatred of mobile games is actually justified because blah blah blah," I'd like you to reconsider.

I'm not asking you to suddenly like the games -- if you don't like them, fine. What I'm asking you to consider is that your extreme personal preference in the matter may be coloring your opinion here.

I happen to know someone who was really in to 80s rock, and has a very personal dislike for Nirvana and Pearl Jam. He can elaborate at great length on how they killed "real" Rock N' Roll, and turned what should be a fun, happy-go-lucky music medium into something somber and serious, which really doesn't suit it.

It's all sort of in that "vaguely reasonable" ballpark that you can convince yourself of if you're motivated to do so. And he believes this very passionately. I'm suggesting that his reason for hating 90s rock, though, is less these reasons he states openly and more the fact that it superceded the style of Rock he happened to personally prefer. He has a vendetta against grunge that another, less invested onlooker would not suffer from.

And I'm suggesting some people on GAF (and in other "traditional" gaming communities) behave the same way towards things like the Wii and iOS gaming. Some people can elaborate at great length on how kids these days listen to nothing but noise / watch terrible cartoons / read terrible books, but I find the true heart of the matter usually is that the person feels threatened. The things they personally like are going out of style, and they don't like it.
At the same time, I agree that feeling threatened is probably the usual reason for the disdain, but I'm thinking that aside from the plethora of personal preferences out there, there are probably select, large reasons that lots share, and I'm thinking, based on my observances, that bad experiences with the "cool kids" could actually be the reason for many to partially dislike mobile games. It can't just be one big reason plus tons of mini reasons, it's got to be more diverse than that.
 

Condom

Member
Those cool kids can suck it bro. They only react to their environment, how cool.

Mobile gaming sucks because after 15min. your phone is frying itself and pissing out all the battery life. At least with 3D games.
 
After observing the phenomena for a long time, I've become increasingly convinced this is the answer.

If you are sitting there thinking "No, my hatred of mobile games is actually justified because blah blah blah," I'd like you to reconsider.

I'm not asking you to suddenly like the games -- if you don't like them, fine. What I'm asking you to consider is that your extreme personal preference in the matter may be coloring your opinion here.

I happen to know someone who was really in to 80s rock, and has a very personal dislike for Nirvana and Pearl Jam. He can elaborate at great length on how they killed "real" Rock N' Roll, and turned what should be a fun, happy-go-lucky music medium into something somber and serious, which really doesn't suit it.

It's all sort of in that "vaguely reasonable" ballpark that you can convince yourself of if you're motivated to do so. And he believes this very passionately. I'm suggesting that his reason for hating 90s rock, though, is less these reasons he states openly and more the fact that it superceded the style of Rock he happened to personally prefer. He has a vendetta against grunge that another, less invested onlooker would not suffer from.

And I'm suggesting some people on GAF (and in other "traditional" gaming communities) behave the same way towards things like the Wii and iOS gaming. Some people can elaborate at great length on how kids these days listen to nothing but noise / watch terrible cartoons / read terrible books, but I find the true heart of the matter usually is that the person feels threatened. The things they personally like are going out of style, and they don't like it.

Disliking a business model that affects the way games are designed is totally understandable though, right? To say that "monetization" is a categorically bad thing and bad influence when it drives the way the game is designed. Monetization is not a bad thing in and of itself, if you're giving the player good value. It's predatory practices that hunt for whales that causes the game to be either a glorified gambling machine or a pay to win loop that is a problem.

The analogy to 80's rock and pearl jam doesn't really fit because both are still music. They are still bands that sold complete albums and performed on tour and sold merchandise. The business model didn't shift. The songs didn't become 20 seconds long. There weren't ads put into the album, etc.
 
Top Bottom