Editorial: Here are your 2011 Resolutions

if everyone followed you dan the gaming world would be a better place. happy new year man

Nice post Dan, very insightful, very accurate, and very helpful! Happy New Year!

Dan, firstly have a very happy 2011. Secondly, you’ll never get anywhere in the world by expressing rational ideas in an easily understandable format. The Internets will not hear of it!

Grand notions all, and ones we would do well to take forward.

Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. – Ayn Rand. You’re fighting the good fight Dan, but it really is one that you can’t win. I want the internet to stop being stupid and irrational too; I want people to spend a small modicum of time on their forum posts or comments in articles so they don’t come out like a polio afflicted bipolar ten year old wrote them. I want people to hate rationally, with some common sense arguments to back up their claims. I want a unicorn. It’s not going to happen.

Since I have fulfilled the requirements for those resolutions, my personal resolution is to limit my time reading forums that are typically negative. Sadly, people aren’t going to change, so the best thing for me is to get my gaming news and not bother reading the comments. Or better yet, frequent sites that tend not to attract douchebags. Like this site!

Also, I resolve to learn how to shuffle cards properly.

Its video games, and people playing these are actually batshit awful social wise to begin with. It also doesn’t help we (I include myself) tend to focus on that one annoying player than on the 20 others who aren’t.

AKA want to play games online? welp you’re gonna have to deal with socially arkward/stupid/angry people.

Amen. Now if only this could be achieved by the haters.

Game makers should have a list of new year resolutions too
1 To stop promising features only to later fail to deliver it
2 To stop catering to the casual gamer, games dont need to be dumbed down
3 To fix obvious bugs that render a game “broken” FAST
4 To stop trying to put down a rival companies game, its stupid & childish
5 To stop Repeatedly releasing sequel after sequel every year, when its just a reskinned version of the original game

Casual gamers are the lifeblood of gaming right now. Hopefully it will shift one day, but until then, their dollars are being spent by the 100′s of millons and will one day support the games that hardcore gamers will appreciate.

I think you need a #5 and it should be: Stop using terms like “casual” and “hardcore” when referring to gamers.

Labeling yourself or a group of people as hardcore gamers doesn’t mean you enjoy the gaming experience any more than someone else. It probably just means you have a personality that causes you to obsess to a point that makes gaming not enjoyable for a majority of people, or that you like obscure titles.

I’m tired of seeing gamers elevate their hobby to a status where they feel superior or more entitled than other people that enjoy gaming. If you look at most business models they typically go after the largest consumer base as possible. Most businesses that cater to the “hardcore” group do so at higher cost to the “hardcore”.

You can’t whine about prices of video games while bashing the publisher’s desire to engage casual gamers.

I think what you just described isn’t so much an issues with gamers, as it is more of an internet phenomenon of how people overreact to any sort of news.

Well said, sir, very well said. It definitely seems that no one hates their own hobby more than gamers. It’s interesting how the average gamer’s age keeps climbing, and yet their maturity levels continue to fall. Now, if only people would listen to your advice!

It doesn’t help when developers hype their game to the community and then we’re let down. I think that’s where some of the cynicism originates. As for the community, I don’t think a few good examples will ever change the immaturity that comes with online obscurity. But we can always hope!

Mostly common sense for anyone who understands respect, or isn’t 10 years old on a rated M game….#xboxlive

The only thing that i think needs removed (or “perfected”) is Last Stand. Its a diverse feature, clever idea, but Ugh what a buzz kill. Especially in hardcore mode. I shot you. Die.

At least they wrote out martyrdumb.

Good post. Any thoughts on the idea that we are getting first person remakes year after year? BLOPS is my favorite so far. Very COD4 vibe. :)

My new years wish is for the 13 y/o racists-that-are-racist-to-be-cool-racists to stfu in the lobbies and during online matches. There’s no room for hate among gamers when there’s enough hate from non-gamers.

I agree with 99% of what you say but “4. Don’t expect perfection.”

I know you are some sort of friend towards JD_2020…. and TBH you whole post sounds like you are excuse making for Trayarch. Anyway why should I not expect perfection? W@W sold over 11million copies so we are not talking about a Mickey Mouse budget for Black Ops are we? For the amount of Money these games are generating (now on par with blockbusting Movies) perfection is one thing we should start to expect – before the gamers can change the Devs have to change, gaming is now Massive and if Trayarch and others like them wish to survive then they have to start aiming to deliver Perfection EVERY time!

I agree with most of it, however I also understand peoples frustration when games are not fixed. FIFA 10 on ps3 had some of the worst bugs I’d ever seen in a released game and they never fixed the major one that plagued our club

I think that dlc and game exclusives are a major problem to the game industry it creates conflicts between people, consoles and company’s.

I’ve stopped paying full price for games. It’s just not worth it. Not even close. I do buy about 2-6 games a month but the absolute price cap is 20€ and most are 10€ or less. Sure, the games do look quite nice these days but they don’t have much content, are too simple and in many genre too short.

Ever increasing number of games are what I would call ‘console games’. Utterly simple, poor controls, laughable inventory system and just generally lacking game mechanics. These games should be labeled as ‘not for people over 12′. In addition 85% or more of all DLC available for games are pure garbage.

Come on, make some real games for a change. If you do it right I can pay 500-1000€ for my copy. I’m just not at all interested in paying for the junk that gets out these days. Decent (not to mention good or above) games are a rarity these days.

I’m not making excuses, and I’m not even naming names. This is based on my entire career experience. I’m asking everybody to step back and be a little more empathetic, if anything. You’re applying it to Treyarch, okay — because that’s your experience lining up with concepts I’m talking about. But as a human being, you cannot EXPECT perfection. Cars run, but they break, and sometimes, there were mistakes at the factory that need to be fixed once you start driving it. 

You can’t approach game design like it’s an exact science. Money does not equal perfection; money can raise quality, but saying “this game sold XX copies so the next one should be perfect,” well, that doesn’t make sense. It’s a creative endeavor with a lot of variety in that process. The results are never going to be “perfect” unless you are making it yourself, for yourself only. There are zillions of variables, from judgement calls on a creative level to unwelcome surprises on a technical level.  But if we can celebrate the things that go right, and appreciate the games that DO knock it out of the park, everybody will be happier on both sides of the gaming fence. 

The other way to gain an appreciation is to try to create something yourself — anything, a cake, a game, a song — and pay attention to how you’re making it. Are you following strict instructions in a cooking recipe? You might get pretty close to perfection if you don’t have to make any decisions. But most of the time, when you are making something from nothing, there’s going to be a lot of choices and attempts at doing things, and some of the factors will NOT line up for you.

Good thing it’s not in another context, then.