Originally posted by Vector A
I don't play video games at all but I don't see why I should consider myself superior to those who do.
Me neither. I was born too early for the Pokemon craze (my younger brother, however, caught it)... And it would be hypocritical of me to knock Pokemon fans when I've probably clocked thousands of hours as Genghis Khan trying to convince Gandhi not to nuke the world into oblivion on Civilizations I, II and V :p
I'm sure that's about as pathetic as saying I spent hours trying to get Pikachu to evolve. Assuming this is possible.
quote:
Originally posted by Chimney
It was all about Dragon Ball Z anyway.
Yet another fad I missed but my brother enjoyed. All I know from DGZ comes from randomly entering the living room and seeing him watch random scenes.
Needless to say, my students find it quite frustrating, given I teach Japanese :p
SYSTEM-J
quote:
Originally posted by Mr.Mystery
Seeing that video games are a much more profitable industry than films these days, that would be more or less everyone.
Ah yes, the old "everyone likes it, it must be valid" argument retooled and re-purposed for geeks.
I don't think videogames are innately juvenile, although they certainly seem to become more inane and mindless with every passing year, but there's a big difference between something like Civilization and Pokemon. One is an incredibly detailed and expansive simulation of human history that allows the player to explore their own morality and ideology through multi-tiered game mechanics. The other involves cartoon teenagers wandering a primary colour landscape collecting cutesy "pocket monsters".
Mr.Mystery
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Ah yes, the old "everyone likes it, it must be valid" argument retooled and re-purposed for geeks.
I'm not making an argument, it's simply a fact. Though I have a feeling most of that money comes from bull casual games and their microtransactions.
SYSTEM-J
quote:
Originally posted by Mr.Mystery
I'm not making an argument, it's simply a fact.
Oh come on. "I'm not arguing with you, I'm telling you something" is even more chicken than the popularity appeal.
Mr.Mystery
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Oh come on. "I'm not arguing with you, I'm telling you something" is even more chicken than the popularity appeal.
What exactly are you trying to debate here?
Lira
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
One is an incredibly detailed and expansive simulation of human history that allows the player to explore their own morality and ideology through multi-tiered game mechanics. The other involves cartoon teenagers wandering a primary colour landscape collecting cutesy "pocket monsters".
Even if I agree with you, and I do, this is the point I originally made: If I'm going to criticise someone for still playing a game from their childhood, it would be quite hypocritical if I did the same - no matter what game I play. In the end, I'm just spending countless hours in front of a glowing screen doing stuff that won't affect the real world at all.
I might learn something about balance of power and know a thing or two more than your average voter for the next elections, but that's about it. In the end, Shaka is just my public school Pikachu. A Pika-toff, if you will. Perhaps slightly improved and posh, but essentially the same.
SYSTEM-J
quote:
Originally posted by Lira
Even if I agree with you, and I do, this is the point I originally made: If I'm going to criticise someone for still playing a game from their childhood, it would be quite hypocritical if I did the same - no matter what game I play.
That depends entirely on the angle of the criticism. I appreciate you were essentially replying to RANN's characteristically bull-in-china-shop proclamation, but I wanted to make clear my beef is specifically with people completely content to wallow in the same unchallenging, unthreatening they liked as children. Again, this is not to write off everything aimed at children as inherently inferior, but I remember Pokemon pretty well, and even as an eleven year old I thought it was mind-numbing bull.
2techs
the only thing from Pokémon I still care about is the original theme song from '98. It's great for motivation imo. I heard the singer Jason Paige made a fortune out of this song.
DJ RANN
quote:
Originally posted by Mr.Mystery
Seeing that video games are a much more profitable industry than films these days, that would be more or less everyone.
I wasn't going to even dignify this incredibly shallow excuse of a comparison but I'll bite seeing as others did.
Profitability does not equal popularity in terms of numbers (i.e. "everyone")
Profitability is much higher in the games market for a plethora of reasons:
Most decent Games cost between $40 and $100 as opposed to a cinema ticket which at max is going to $15.
Margins are much higher in the games industry (try 40% to retailer for games as opposed to about 10% for cinemas, which on $15 is all).
More people actually go to the cinema (1.3bn per year) than regularly play video games, and then when you factor in VOD and rentals, Hollywood in terms of impressions or regular goers truly dwarfs the games industry.
Finally, those games industry profitability figures also include in app/game purchases and when you look at the average spend of a die hard gamer, it's often in the thousands per year. So basically you have a much smaller, but far more fanatical base who are willing to hand over large sums to game, as opposed to even the ardent cinema buff who would be hard pressed to spend $600 on cinema tickets in a year (that would mean going at least 4 times a month to the cinema).
So in essence you statement is utter bollocks, and is really nothing more that a statement on the health of margins in the games sector and much less to do with how many people are avid video games enthusiasts.
While Jack may think it's a bulldozer statement, I think grown men in their 30's and 40's playing several hours of video games a night is exactly the same sort of manchild/kidult behaviour that pokemon bothering is.
Lira
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
That depends entirely on the angle of the criticism. I appreciate you were essentially replying to RANN's characteristically bull-in-china-shop proclamation, but I wanted to make clear my beef is specifically with people completely content to wallow in the same unchallenging, unthreatening they liked as children.
Oh, I see. In that case, I've got a genuine question:
Quite often, music enthusiasts (here, at least), consider electronic music to be garbage because "it's just pressing buttons". And, as much as I love, say, Liam Howlett, I don't think I've ever seen him play Bach on the piano (for the sake of the argument, let's suppose he can't). Would it be fair of a classical music fans to judge The Prodigy according to their own 19th century standards? They could easily dismiss electronic dance music as "simple unchallenging" music. What if we're misjudging Pokemon here and saying it fails to reach a standard it never strived for in the first place?
And I say "we" because I tend to be quite dismissive of it myself and most "nerd culture". But, that's possibly because I outnerded the nerds at my school and got into computer music long before I could feign any interest in computer games :p
AlphaStarred
quote:
Originally posted by Lira
Would it be fair of a classical music fans to judge The Prodigy according to their own 19th century standards? They could easily dismiss electronic dance music as "simple unchallenging" music. What if we're misjudging Pokemon here and saying it fails to reach a standard it never strived for in the first place?
I've been a fan of classical music for many years, likewise with electronic music, and I've never judged the latter by the former's standards. However, I did stop producing (electronic music) for a while and started playing piano because I did, indeed, feel unchallenged/limited with EM.
I'm going to assume that Jack meant "unchallenging, unthreatening" in the sense that adults should be out living/experiencing what life itself has to offer, rather than stay home and play video games or absorb themselves in childish stuff, like Pokemon. I spoke of something similar to this many years ago on this forum, after my trip back from Mexico.
I have a friend who's very much into gaming, but I'm not judging him. I think he has enough life experience to know what he likes to do with his leisure. On the other hand, an adult who's still into Pokemon? That may be a problem.
