Embracing My Inner Mainstream Gamer
That’s it. I’m buying Madden ’09, and I’m not going to feel bad about looking forward to it anymore.
I could posit endless theories, filled with the worst kind of amateur psychobabble, on the topic of why the hardcore wing of the videogame cabal trends toward overbearing snobbishness. The propensity for clique making in the gaming community rivals that of any Southern California suburban high-school lunchroom. Every day I expect the Nintendo table to leap to their feet and start a West Side Story rumble, finger-snapping dance and all, against the defiant PS3 crowd, their slicked back hair and pompadours quivering as they snap out combs that look like switch-blades. Someone sings, "I Just Met a Girl Name Mario."
Most days I’m not disappointed.
But, if any group is universally maligned in this thinly realized analogy, then it is that of the Mainstream Gamer. These enablers of regurgitated ideas and creatively bankrupt gameplay huddle at the ass-end of the cafeteria, apparently forgetting that there is strength in numbers. They are viewed with scorn from all corners, but despite the stigma, the taboo and even the occasionally hurled fruit, I will take my pizza by the slice along with my cardboard container of 2% milk and sit at this unfairly maligned table.
The truth is that the less time I have to game, the more like an average video game consumer I become. I don’t necessarily have the inclination anymore to peel back the onion layers of innovation cloaked as inapproachability in games with obtuse conceits and arcane controls. Just as I don’t go out every night to eat at gourmet restaurants, sometimes I’d just rather have a McDonald’s quarter pounder than a seven course dinner of foods I can’t pronounce.
I worry that as champions for video gaming excellence, we sometimes forget that excellence is, by definition, a rarity, and only has meaning because it is at the far end of the bell curve that describes the bulk of our gaming. The desire to complain must be among the primal natures of man, and that is certainly exacerbated by this digital realm where anonymous argument is a founding principal. The question of what we would do without empty, meaningless conflict in this ethereal space is one best left unasked, but sometimes it’s a silly pasttime into which we get far too invested. The distance between our nostalgia for games past and the reality of those games is as great and cavernous as an abyssal trench.
How often we forget that the games that form the foundation of our nostalgia are often the mainstream games of their day.
So too, our frequent inability to see greatness in the common is a frustratingly common thing. The prevailing winds often cripple games with undue criticism simply for the fact of being popular. Our desire to seek unbiased opinion, and our frustration with a games journalism that seems incapable of not falling for its own hype, has trained us to easily dismiss that which is too loudly praised. It’s not a trait without merit, but just as Nintendo fans have shown the danger of unmitigated faithfulness, so too have many of the hardcore proved that being quick to scorn is to miss the simple value of even the mass produced.
This is a lesson I keep trying to teach myself; a philosophy of which I constantly need to be reminded. It takes for a few weeks at best, like glue from the Dollar Store, and then I get lazy with a game like Grand Theft Auto IV and just let myself hate it because it seems like a good thing to hate. I complain about uncanny valleys of realism and rehashed gameplay. It’s not that I’m wrong, it’s that it’s irrelevant.
But, when I let my preconceived notions go, stop being elitist just for the sake of doing so, I find that my enjoyment per dollar goes up like the price of oil. Forget about the amazing line up at the end of last year, from casual games to an endless appreciation of the basic joy of games I can play with a fake guitar the mainstream has frankly provided more compound hours of easy fun than the games that prove relevant and artistic.
Yes, I can compare the relative value of the next Madden to its predecessor. I can carp about how Halo 3 was in no meaningful way different from Halo 2. I can realize the World of WarCraft is basically a big hole into which I can throw my time, but it’s far more enjoyable to just have fun with these games. We constantly run the risk of taking the whole endeavor too seriously.
This hobby comes with no guarantees. It is a pasttime for those with disposable income. It is an immature industry that caters to the immaturity of us all; the good kind of immaturity that can be a youthful fuel when life seems stodgy and painted in colors of gray. We talk about embracing our inner child, and mine is playing Wing Commander and Doom on an old 386 SX. He also almost never worries about complicated narratives or whether games are being taken seriously as an art form. He's just in it for the fun, and sometimes I think that he is wise beyond is years. As we make the corner through summer and find ourselves staring down the gun of another game filled autumn, there may be no better time to embrace your inner child.
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I agree absolutely, good man Elysium. I, too, have too many times scowled at certain games just for the sake of them being too popular.
It's always best to try to approach a game like a child playing for the first time. Classics are indeed the ones that were able to reach us.
I wonder if the 360/PS3 Madden will finally "feel" the same as the lowly PS2 game in this next round. It seems to have taken a long time to translate the gameplay to the new engine. '08 was almost right, but not quite.
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Claps Hands just to annoy Certis.
Bravo good sir. Embrace it I tell you. Food for thought.
Gamertag: GWJ Rabbit | Last.fm | Twitter
"Think of it as 'grinding SO rep in the Kitchen instance.' " - Montalban
Great article, and I agree with you approximately 1000%.
Xbox Live: CrankyBaby
baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Oustanding article. As a father of two children I am guilty of forgetting that this hobby should be about having fun in my limited amount of free time. Honestly, if I spent as much time playing games as I do reading message boards about them and complaining about them I might finish more of them.
Gamertag W Patrick
It's because of Brett Favre on the cover, isn't it?
The single game that claimed more hours of my life than any other? Not sure, but Tecmo Super Bowl is a sure contender. Lots of all nighters with the Genesis, cases of Mountain Dew, and Mom yelling at us every couple of hours.
Any sports games that are recommendable to the quasi/former fan? Just plain fun to play? I am no stranger to casual and mainstream, but my interest in Madden, NHL, and FIFA waned as my interest in the real sports waned.
"And the circle has been charged through the power of unphysics, which are physics so stupid they erase normal ones from your mind." -Wields-Rulebook-Heavily at rpg.net
Yes well written analysis. Some of the gaming guys do start to be behave like 9th grade girls in a popularity contest at times. Relax champ it's just an online site for commentary and common interests, it's not gonna determine who you go to the prom with. Or OMG like who is my online comment buddy. Sheesh.
My only problem with taking the plunge into Madden 09 is that the game doesn't look fun. There are like totally 10 other titles I'd rather play, OMG.
It all boils down to this: The average Madden player does not own--and has never seen--a D20, nor could he produce one if required. Even if it, as a result of a very complicated kidnapping plot, was absoutely necessary that he do so to save his family.
Having said that, I feel ya' brother. While I have avoided the Madden bug, I'll happily go to the support meetings with you as a person who has indulged in such forbidden fruit as Myst, The Sims, Zuma, and Leisure Suit Larry.
As long you as don't play Second Life... that's where I draw the line.
umm...pastime perhaps? Although past time sort of makes sense...
As to the article, you make a very good point. Has it actually become the case that during all the discussions of Games as Art and deep syllogisms of yadda yadda yadda, the statement "It's just a game" has actually become FALSE?
I never studied philosophy, but wasn't one of those guys prime notions "Simplify, simplify"?
There's a console war you can bob your head along to.
If it makes you feel any better you got full xp for a tough fight that you spent mostly bleeding to death. -KingMob
JUST PUZZLED YOUR ASS UP, SON! -Mr Crinkle
As it should be in the grand scheme of things. Should we applaud and celebrate those people who read Mills and Boon, those people who watch mindless television programmes exclusively? There's a difference you need to distinguish here. People who mire themselves in the crud of society and those who will dip into it cautiously for a mud bath without staying there until the mud cakes around them.
I've never criticised a person for using what is considered mainstream.... but i do criticise people for sticking to one thing and never trying anything else - at all points on the spectrum, not just the middle or lower end.
Without conflict we are nothing. Conflict allows us to grow, expand and evolve. Life itself is a battle, a struggle against time, a ledge to which we cling precariously before the final moment when we slip to oblivion. In a world without conflict*, despair/boredom would set in and we would stagnate and slip off of that ledge with ease.
(*the word conflict not being defined by war)
Of - power - insessantly
Plagued - by - malefisense
Doomed - to - insidious -
Death - is - he - who - breaks
this - monument - i - prophesy
This article is far too popular, therefore now I hate it.
"You just checked in to Hotel Califoni-getyourasskicked!" Steely Dan said to The Eagles
But you draw a flase dichotomy. You suggest that we must either praise or demean them. I'm saying just let it be, that the very averageness is the absolute necessity toward describing excellence. There need be no distinction, because the wasteland of mediocrity (which is far from crud of society) is necessary, it is even good.
Philosophical mumbo jumbo! (he said with tongue-in-cheek) Well worded, to be sure, but the kind of defense that rings hollow to me. Certainly conflict is everywhere, but shame on those who go out looking for it.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
Recently a co-worker offered to lend me Madden '08 and I barely accepted. I offered Bioshock in return, but he declined saying it looked too complicated. After a bit of explaining he agreed to give it a shot, but almost with the same hesitation I had towards Madden. It's been a long while since I've played any sports game, though I used to love the NBA Live series on my old SNES. Not that I was too "above it" to play Madden, but I almost felt like I wasn't a hardcore enough sports fan to play modern sports games.
It leads me to question terms like "hardcore" and "mainstream". Obviously there are more "hardcore" football fans out there than "hardcore" gamers, thus generating a large number of sales for Madden than Bioshock, in effect making Madden "mainstream". But the complexity of a modern Madden game is astounding, way above what I would think is "mainstream", with all the different control schemes, plays, and regulations. I'm surprised that someone who plays Madden could be intimidated by a game like Bioshock in terms of play mechanics.
Hopefully my co-worker and I can both enjoy this exchange across the lunch tables, maybe then I can get him to check out The Orange Box.
Obviously this article does not apply to Pyro-World.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
Really? How much do you know about fine wine? Do you make a point to sample and appreciate gourmet cuisine in addition to the everyday stuff you eat? How about music? Are you familiar with the finer points of jazz and classical music? How about dance, or the visual arts? It's easy to pat yourself on the back for your discerning taste, but there's always some field of entertainment you enjoy, but which you simply don't have the time or energy to really explore, and there is always someone who can out-snob you at that something.
edit: Elysium beat me to it, and said it better to boot. Curses!
Xbox Live: CrankyBaby
baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
I'll never buy another Madden game, but not because of the obvious reasons. I recently was given Madden '08 as a gift and it was only after about a week of playing it that I realized why I stopped playing sports games: I really get pissed off when I lose. Sure, kill me a million times in Battlefield 2, destroy my base hundreds of times over with a Zergling rush, depth charge my sub all the way to the bottom in Silent Hunter 4, but for some reason intercept my pass for a pick six or force a fumble inside my own 20 and I go into a Hulk-like rage. If I keep this up, I'll probably be diagnosed with high blood pressure by the time I'm 35.
"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie
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come on down to Rat Boy's nest!
light up a stogie, and soon you'll see
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'I'd hit it!'" - HP Lovesauce
I agree mainstream gamers are maligned by the elitist gaming press.
But then again, they don't care.
In your analogy, they're the nerds in the high school cafeteria - with all due respect, you're wrong.
We're the nerds - we were then, we will always be the nerds. Trying desperately to get them to understand and like games like Colossus or Okami. Knowing those games will be commercial failures as the next Madden racks up huge numbers.
We're the nerds, they're the contemptuous football players. They'll let you sit at a table near them, if you like the things they like. But for the rest of us - they don't even know we exist.
ps. Not to sound like an elitist jerk here, I like games like Halo just fine. But I think it's silly to worry we're too down on the sensibilities of people who don't care what we say.
We seem to have a compulsion to bury time capsules..... I have placed some large samples of dynamite, gunpowder, and nitroglycerin. My time capsule is set to go off in the year 3000. It will show them what we are really like.
-- Alfred Hitchcock
Sorry i wasn't clear, i'm not trying to say that we can either praise or demean them. I was trying to say that we shouldn't praise people who stick to one thing. The difference i was trying to point out (by taking it to an extreme) was that there are people who exclusively sit in one spot the whole of their lives, in one pose (kinda like a Madden game since '92 - or so i've read in the forums) and this sort of mentality shouldn't be applauded or accepted. The opposite of that (in the analogy) is people who will move about, sitting in different places. There's nothing good or bad about this and therefore no need to praise or demean them.
The crud bit was just me trying to push the metaphor into something meaningful. If i'd said - those people who eat only hors doeuvres and caviar until they start growing gills - it would have had the same point.
I don't know whether people go looking for it or if it's in people's nature to begin with. As soon as a person expresses an opinion, immediately it is a battle for that opinion to enter someone else's concious. Without that conflict we would never imbibe any knowledge - it would just wash over our uncaring minds.
[edit]
Actually, i rarely ever stick to one thing. I have tried jazz and i have eaten gourmet cuisine and partaken of fine wine. The thing is, i never said you have to go massively deeply into these things. Why would i have to know the finer points of jazz and classical music if i was merely willing to expose myself to these types of music. Knowing they exist on the periphery of my experience and actually sampling them are two different things... and studying them is a step beyond this; an endeavour that no one can hope to achieve for everything.
I'm not saying you have to become a connoisseur - you just need to have a broader view of things than being narrow. If you get what i mean.
[edit 2] I'd just like to point out that i've listened to much music that i haven't liked because otherwise i wouldn't be able to say why i didn't like it... in the same way i've found some sub-sects of music that i like in genres that i don't: Rap for example.
Of - power - insessantly
Plagued - by - malefisense
Doomed - to - insidious -
Death - is - he - who - breaks
this - monument - i - prophesy
Exactly. I was thinking the same thing. I don't despise Madden for being mainstream, but for being too much for the hardcore sports nerd. I miss the more pick up and play gaming of the earlier versions. Of course, I also despise Madden for the $60 roster update and exclusive license debacles. But for being mainstream? Nope.
Same with GTA IV. I don't despise it for being mainstream, but for being too hardcore. Too much the time sink. Can you make me a cliff notes version? Can you take the best 10 missions and a multiplayer mode and sell it to me for less? Can I play the 9-hole par 3 GTA IV course instead? I don't have time to go the full 18 hole par 72 course. I just want to have a little fun and I like variety outside of Peggle and WiiSports. Can't we have a bloody casual game where we run over grandmas with our car?
As a 23 year old with tons of time for gaming, I disagree!
Peasant! Go watch American Idol or something!
In all seriousness, while I can't really relate to what you're saying, I can understand it at a theoretical level. Kind of like communism. It may just be my rampant prejudice against old people coming out, but I'm sure that there is some correlation with age in the whole game snobbery discussion - much like it is with any medium. It's the same reason that you listen to tons of new music when you're young, but your time spent discovering new music tails off as you get older and you're satisfied with your existing collection and scared of the whole new "Rap" music thing. (Sorry for the low blow - don't much care for it either BTW).
The whole process is just a natural cycle, and exists with any entertainment medium. So just as you say to just "let averageness be", so i say to "let elitist game snobs be" - we're not worth the attention.
Morrolan wrote:
XBLA / Steam: Dysplastic
I think it might be the reverse, the more vociferous gaming snobs seem to be younger. I know I was a terrible snob (and general a**e) in my late teens/early twenties: anything that wasn't a hardcore game like Falcon 4 or Starcraft was a kid's game. These days I'll play anything if it looks like fun. Except football (soccer) games, those are for chavs only
I think there may be a lot of truth to that. I was the same way in my late teens/early 20s.
Also:
Hmmm, interesting. Duoae, you're how old? 22?
Xbox Live: CrankyBaby
baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Definitely looking forward to iPhone games as I think there will be some great insta-gratification on that platform.
"You just checked in to Hotel Califoni-getyourasskicked!" Steely Dan said to The Eagles
Fixed!
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
There's something about sports games that gets my competitive juices flowing more than other games. It's not just realistic games either, I have the same problem with Wii Sports. If it's a sports game and I'm not winning, I start to get angry and irritated and want to give up or throw my controller, but playing an online FPS doesn't have anywhere near the same effect on me.
Fletcher wrote:
Edit:
My first double post ever. I blame Firefox 3.0.
Fletcher wrote:
Haha! Ya got me! (Actually i'm 27 but only act 15 so i guess it averages out around 21-ish
)
Seriously though, i'll give most games a try. I might not necessarily buy them if i'm not sure about the quality (and being primarily a PC gamer at the moment i can't rent any games so....)
Of - power - insessantly
Plagued - by - malefisense
Doomed - to - insidious -
Death - is - he - who - breaks
this - monument - i - prophesy
Ely, I understand your willingness to cast aside the "1337 GaemuRZZ" attitude that mainstream games are for undiscriminating consumer sheep (I feel the same way often), but dude... Madden? At least keep some modicum of self-respect!