Factions of Gaming

On my blog post a few weeks ago, someone mentioned they liked the way that I was able to simplify and explain various aspects of gaming. Basically, I made it easier to understand for someone who has never held a controller before. So I figured I would make another post like that. This time, I am going to explain the various “factions” of gaming so to speak, and why someone would or would not pick that particular aspect of gaming.

To start, there are 4 main factions of games. I am going to start by saying that just because someone aligns themselves with one faction, doesn’t mean there are no cross platform gamers. But now we go back to the topic at hand. The four big groups of gamers are Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and finally, the PC gamers. However, these are probably not the terms you have heard for each group. The Sony crowd are those who play the PlayStation consoles. The current generation are the PS4 guys. Opposed to them are the Microsoft guys, also known as the Xbox gamers. They are currently playing the Xbox One.

Of all the factions, these two are the most bitter rivals. As one comedian Christian Finnegan once said, “Xbox and PlayStation people hate each other, they are like Bloods and Crips, but there is a respect there. Just so long as you’re not one of those Wii douchebags”. I will get to the Wii later. But for the most part, that little quote is pretty accurate. The Xbox and PS guys are generally the more hardcore console gamers, and each will defend why their choice is better. And there is some truth to each side of the argument.

As far as Xbox goes, I would say this console is built more for the social gamer. While the online gaming services is more expensive, it is, to a degree, better. Because Microsoft has been charging for online play for years, they were able to establish more servers, and more reliable servers because it was directly funded by the online fee, or Xbox Live Gold. It generally runs $8 a month, or you could also do $25 for three months, or $60 for the year. Some of the more popular exclusives, such as the Halo franchise, stress the multiplayer aspect. Another fine example is Titanfall. However, there are a good number of single player exclusives as well. For example, Microsoft has exclusive rights to a fantasy role playing franchise called Fable.

PlayStation is generally played more for exclusives in many cases. While the online is not as well established or reliable as Xbox, it does still see a good number of online players. Some of the single player exclusives are games like God of War, Metal Gear Solid, and Infamous. These three franchises all cover different genres, but are all single player, and are all only available on Sony format consoles.

However, both consoles see a good number of cross console franchises. For the story driven single player experience, one incredibly popular franchise is Assassin’s Creed. If it is an online shooter you want, both Xbox and PlayStation support games like Battlefield and Call of Duty. So in the end, both consoles are actually pretty similar. Sure one boasts slightly better hardware, but in the end it really all comes down to personal preference.

So now we address the Wii comment from the stand up line. Nintendo doesn’t really try to compete with Sony and Microsoft as much. For the most part, they have been trying to do their own thing, and quite frankly, they are doing it pretty well. Because it is often more family oriented, it doesn’t attract the hardcore gamers as much as the other two main consoles. As such, it is often teased for being too childish and gimmicky. However, Nintendo has the handheld gaming market cornered. While Sony has the PlayStation Vita, its lack of content and notable titles prevents it from even coming close to the Nintendo 3DS. As far as handheld gaming goes, Nintendo is unmatched by all. Microsoft has not even attempted to venture into that market, as it would undoubtedly fail in comparison.

Last, but most certainly not least, is the PC gamer. Based on my experience, these are without a doubt the most fanatical of all the gamer types. In fact, I know several people that own several consoles, all from different companies, (PS4, Xbox One, and Pc) and claim their PC overall. Ask anyone one of them and they will say PC reigns over all others, even going to the point of claiming PC Master Race. That is the tag they proudly attach to themselves. But honestly, they make a strong argument as to their supremacy. There is actually a ton of reasons why PC is considered the best gaming medium. To start, they have much better connection for online play, and the servers are much more reliable than any console based online play. There are always online sales going on for games, and if you don’t feel like playing, well, there are ways around that too. Just as many people will download tv shows, music, and movies, there are thousands of gamers who will torrent and pirate PC games as well. The graphics are, and always will be, far FAR better than any console.

But the most fascinating thing about PC gaming is how it can keep one game relevant for years after its release. Somewhere out there in the vast expanse of the interwebs are beautiful people known as modders. These highly skilled programmers and game designers will take existing games, and build on the foundation already laid by the developers. For example, modders will take a game that has been out for a year and design a mod that ups the graphics. Or say for example they feel that a certain game could have had a better intro level. There are mods that let you play missions that were never there in the first place. Using what already exists, these magnificent strangers take these already fantastic games and make them better. Despite having come out almost 3 years ago, there are people who have still not stopped playing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim because of all the mods that exist. These mods contain everything from bonus missions, extra maps, Spider-Man costumes, or even retextured torches. It is that fact that drives so many gamers to PC.

However, the one downside is, unlike consoles, you may have to upgrade occasionally. If you buy a PS4 or Xbox One, that console will be good for 5 years or more, and you won’t have to upgrade the internal hardware. Because computers are constantly evolving, you may have to upgrade your graphics card or processors every so often to keep up with the constantly evolving computer world. However, it is these upgrades that allow PC gaming to continually outshine console. It just requires a little more dedication.

In all, there are pros and cons to each, but it all comes down to personal preference at the end of the day. One easy way to decide is to find out what consoles your friends are most likely to play. That is how I ended up on Xbox, and I will be honest, I have yet to regret that choice. XBONE FTW.

Stop Blaming the Games

Video games get a lot of flak. They get blamed for everything. I guarantee all of you have heard statements along the lines of, “video games kill productivity”, or “too many games make you dumber”. Basically, all the old sayings about how tv would rot your brain have now carried over to video games. One of the worst, however, is how video games are making kids more violent. Or not just violent, how games are corrupting kids in general.

When I worked at a nameless, multimillion dollar videogame retailer, I cannot tell you how many parents would come in griping that video games were turning their children into monsters. “Oh little Johnny won’t stop swearing since he started playing that Grand Theft Auto. I can’t believe they make that game for kids.” Or “Billy seems a lot more violent after getting that Mortal Kombat game, he won’t stop hitting other kids! They shouldn’t make these kinds of games for my little baby.” This happened more times than I could count.

There are so many reasons this is a poor argument. First of all, any time a child acts out, are you going to turn around and blame games? For instance, if a 4^th grader swears, how do you know for sure it is because of a video game? What’s to say that he didn’t hear it on the playground, or tv, or a neighbor, or even one of the parents? Let's be honest; many of us can attest that we heard some of our first swear words from our own parents. For me, my dad working around the house was a great way to learn so new swear words. There is no way that a video game is the only medium that could have influenced or affected the child. The same thing applies for the violence argument. One of the most popular televised sports in the US is UFC, which is literally watching grown men beat on each other for hours at a time. Even most kid’s cartoons have the protagonist beating up the bad guy.

More importantly, it is not the developers fault for how someone’s child turns out. One may list these games as an influence, but even that is not a fair argument, for one, very simple reason. To understand that, one only has to look at the ratings. For those of you who were not aware, every video game, whether released in the US or abroad, is subject to impartial review, and is rated on its content. In the United States, any video game published is reviewed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB. Just like any film is rated by the Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA, all games have a rating as well.

In a nutshell, any movie rating has a video game parallel. The 4 main ratings you will see are E, E10+, T, and M. The Everyone rating, or E, is the video game equivalent of a G rated movie. Anyone in any age group can play these games without issue. E10+, or Everyone ten and up, is like a PG movie. Pretty much anyone can play, but it’s recommended for at least 10 years of age. Like at a theater, a minor can see a PG movie unattended, just as a preteen can buy E10+. Next is T, for Teen. This is your PG13 movie basically. Once again, no ID is needed, but it’s recommended that the player be at least 13 or older, due to the slightly more mature content. These games usually have a little more violence, or some suggestive themes. The last major rating is M for Mature. These games are like rated R movies. The content is not intended for anyone under the age of 17. Just as you can’t buy a rated R ticket without a parent or valid ID, rated M games require the purchaser to be at least 17 years of age, and must present a valid ID confirming age. In fact, if you do not have an ID, the retailer reserves the right to deny the sale of any rated M game. These games are strictly for adults, often times more graphic than any rated R movie.  Sure, both movies and games have higher ratings than M and R (those being NC17 and AO, respectively), but those ratings are rarely ever used. In a rated  R movie, even there a limit stands as to just how much one can put in the movie, before they move it to Not Rated, or NC17. With video games, once it hits a certain point, it’s rated M. Consequently, some rated M games can be significantly more violent and graphic than others. .

In addition to checking the ratings, it is vitally important that parents understand the nature of the game. So using what we know about ratings, let us see why blaming games for how kids act is not a fair judgment. I would go so far to say it is an invalid argument. Say, for example, little Timmy sneaks into a rated R movie. Now, in most cases, as the parent, would you be mad at the Quentin Tarantino because Timmy knowingly went to see a movie he knew was not allowed, or do you punish Timmy for blatantly disregarding the rules? Same with video games. If 10 year old Jeffrey plays Grand Theft Auto V, arguably the most graphic game (containing full nudity, frequent violence, glorified crime, a torture scene,blatant drug abuse, etc) every made, do you write angry letters to Rockstar Games for publishing it, or is Jeffrey in trouble for playing games he knows he shouldn’t?

Sadly, many parents resort to playing the blame game. Even worse is when the parents buy the game for their children. Many uninformed parents believe that because it is a video game, it is for kids. Not so, as the majority of games are targeted towards young men ages 18-35. But these parents will buy games like Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat, and Battlefield, then turn around and blame the developers for making these games in the first place. I say it is the parents fault. They should take the responsibility to monitor what their children are playing, and make sure not to buy games that are not appropriate for their childrens age range. Growing up, my mother monitored every game my brother and I played. She would check the ratings, and would restrict my purchases as necessary. Even then, she would go in later to see if maybe we snuck in games that were not allowed for our age group. If she found a rated M game, she would confiscate it, and we would lose various gaming privileges for a set amount of time as punishment, as it should be. Instead of blaming others, my mother took the time to make sure what we were exposing ourselves to was appropriate for our age. More parents need to take that responsibility on themselves instead of blaming the publishers, developers, and retailer. If you wanna read more about the ESRB rating system, check it out right here.
//endrant

When I was a Young Girl...

So the last few weeks we have been talking about money. Finances can be interesting, but usually are not so entertaining, especially when the topic is dragged out for so long. So, my apologies for the long winded shenanigans, ladies and gents. So to make up for it, I am going to take this week to tell y’all a story that I think is pretty funny, about my own experiences in online gaming.

            I don’t exactly know how much the lot of you follow video games in the news, but as of late there has been a large focus on gender in video games. Tons of articles on sexism, oversexualization of females in games, discrimination and condescention towards women, etc. have been cropping up. I can’t exactly argue with some of the articles, there are many instances of such crappy things happening. To a point, I am inclined to a agree with some of them. Consider, for example, one of the most iconic female leads in video games, Lara Croft, from the Tomb Raider series. If any woman had that kind of bust in real life, she would develop serious back problems. Another famous lady character, Princess Peach, was, for the longest time, the typical example of a damsel in distress. So like I said, many of these stereotypes and articles have rung to be true. You can actually read a really good article that references many of these issues, and has studies to back it, here. But this week, I am actually going to address the times that being a girl actually made people nicer to me.

            If you recall, about twelve years ago, the most popular MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game, for those who do not know or forgot), was RuneScape. This game predates WoW (World of Warcraft) by quite a few years. A large part of RuneScapes draw was that it was, at its core, a free to play game. If by the time you finished all the free content you wanted more, you could pay $5 dollars a month to become a member, which literally made the game 7x larger in terms of maps, missions, content, etc. So, for a long time, the game was quite successful.

In 7^th grade, at the insistence of my friends, I decided to make an account. To be honest, I was glad I did. This was my first experience with any online community, and it was fun. For the most part, people were nice. But there is a reason for that. My first time playing the game, fresh out of the tutorial section, I see a veteran player making a public announcement. This magnificent gentleman was closing his account after years of playing, and wanted to help out any new player. All he required was your login info, and an hour or two. I figured, “What the hell, why not? I’ve only been playing 10 minutes, and this account isn’t attached to anything else, so it’s not like he can steal anything from me. Let’s do it!” So I gave this mysterious benefactor my login. He said to come back in an hour, and all the transfers would be complete. I was incredibly ecstatic. To keep myself from getting even more impatient, I decided to watch a movie. After those two hours were up, I logged back in, changed my password, and went to see what this enigma of a player had to offer. I am pleased to say, he kept his word. He gave my avatar a ton of gold, all the best armor I could equip at my level and the best sword available for beginners. It was awesome. This was going to give me a huge head start in my ventures in this new electronic frontier. There was one catch, however. I can only assume the stranger did this for comedic effect, but for the longest time I did not know how to fix it. HE MADE MY AVATAR A FEMALE.

I was stuck. I had no clue what to do, or how to reverse the change, and I wasn’t about to give up all my new gear, so I decided to go ahead and play anyway. For the longest time, if anyone asked, or made any sort of comment, I would politely correct them, say I was a man, and explain the situation. After about a month or two of explaining, I got tired of repeating the same old tale. One day I decided to go with it. “Yeah, man. I am a girl.” They had no reason not to believe it. To my surprise, the other players demeanor changed entirely. They started giving me free stuff. The assumed I was new, unexperieced, and desperately in need of help (which, as it turns out, perfectly aligns with what the article I shared early had found about behavior towards women in online games). They would offer to guide and protect me through quests, power level me (when a higher level character helps a lower level through a tougher area just to let the ‘noob’ get a ton of exp in a short time), and buy me better gear as soon as it was needed. It was awesome! All I had to do was pretend I was actually a chick, and these lonely nerds would do everything for me! It was a dream come true for a lazy middle school gamer. Eventually, it got tiring, and the more I thought about it, the more messed up I realized it was. A few years later, I tested this again, with a friend, in a more “scientific” and controlled manner. Both times, I found the same result to be true.

The male gamers assumed I was a helpless little girl, who desperately needed their protection and guide. At least I can say this. The only time the article was wrong was in regards to the boys attitude. They were never rude, and always tried to be as polite and chivalrous as possible. But if you all want, I would be more than happy to share some of these stories and experiences, just leave a comment. Happy gaming folks!