Most Popular Video Games Are Dumb

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There is an opinion piece posted at Kotaku today that claims most popular video games are dumb. Is the guy onto something or just on something?

My issue, then, is with what we might call the intellectual maturity level of mainstream games. It's not the design mechanics under the hood that I find almost excruciatingly sophomoric at this point; it's the elements of these games that bear on human emotion and intellectual sophistication, from narrative and dialogue right on down to their core thematic concepts.
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Things that are massive popular are also emotionally simple and intellectually pedestrian.

News at 11.
 
And so is the focus demographic that Kotaku "writes" for then?
 
Wow, what an idiot. Both the author and Blow. Not only is naninani right that the broader the audience, the more you trend towards the lowest common denominator, but they also assume they are the keeper of all that is good and right and what makes stuff art.

Some games are just dumb, sure. Some games are simple, and get ragged on for that from the artistic point of view. The guy tosses out "portraiture of Gustav Klimt" as some measuring stick of art. They are pictures of people's heads for the most part. Not exactly deeply intellectual masterpieces. Most of the the mr smarty pants, I'm better than you intellectualizing over them is a bunch of bored people in academia telling themselves stories about them that have little to do with the artist, the art, or much of anything else. Quick, give me a post-feminist deconstruction of the interpretation of a face using paint. All these things are are self important people feeling the need to tell you that they won't lock themselves in a room and make up stories about the REAL meaning of your particular piece of pop-culture fluff. Maybe if you can get rich people to pay lots of money to collect and trade them with their friends, but by no means as long as they are accessible to the unwashed masses.

A big GFY to all of them.
 
If by "dumb" they mean "simplistic, generic cookie-cutter crap", then yes, generally.
 
Sounds like another wannabe intellectual who needs to over analyze entertainment and let us all know how superior they are.

I bet the guy who wrote that wears a fedora and drinks expensive coffee.
 
Some video games that are popular do have credit to their name. Sometimes a game comes out that offers a unique gameplay, storyline, or any number of other things that set it apart from previous/current games.

There are, however, popular games that have dumb-downed mechanics and do appeal to a large audience with simplicity, the Call of Duty franchise is probably one most people will recognize and one that mostly comes to mind. I mean, it's been pretty much the same game since Modern Warfare just will slight tweaks and changes. Same with most of the sports franchises.

But making a generalized statement on how popular games are dumb is just being an attention whoring troll.
 
I suppose this fellow has the same opinion of popular movies and TV shows. But what does he expect? For the most part, people want to be entertained, not lectured to.
 
Uh, most forms of entertainment are dumb. He mentioned the girlfriend effect...she walks in and sees you playing a dumb game. Well 90% of the time she's a huge fan of some crushingly stupid TV show, so what difference does it make?
 
Dan_D said:
Sounds like another wannabe intellectual who needs to over analyze entertainment and let us all know how superior they are.

I bet the guy who wrote that wears a fedora and drinks expensive coffee.
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LMAO couldn't of said it any better.
 
He's cutting on everything without really pointing out more than one good title. The guy wrote the article with a seemingly "everything sucks" attitude. Deus Ex: HR and Skyrim are two highly rated games and have far more to them than simply how to kill the bad guys.

Loved Deus Ex and felt it was a very solid game...on par with the original.
Know what I'm playing right now? Resistance 2. It's a fun game to play. Major gear shift from DX:HR, but nonetheless enjoyable.

I kinda get the feeling he doesn't like anything, and you know what? Companies aren't going to market to that 1 wierdo who hates everything. It's not worth it. Fun is the main thing, paramount and if it's intellectually stimulating, great.
 
Dan_D said:
Sounds like another wannabe intellectual who needs to over analyze entertainment and let us all know how superior they are.

I bet the guy who wrote that wears a fedora and drinks expensive coffee.
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You know what they say about gamers and fedoras...
 
Lots of hurt feeling gamers posting today, I see.

OMG! Someone dares critique something you like! OUTRAGE! NAME CALL! Oh! THE HUGE MANATEE!

The author calls out quite a few good games he thought were not "dumb" But I think most of you stopped reading once your world view was challenged. Too bad.

Being a video game is no excuse for being dumb. But gamers seem to accept it as such and when they're called on it you can bet on what we see here and at Kotaku: juvenile name calling because some sacred cow has been skewered.
 
You know what else is dumb... just about everything in our society today, especially almost everything we turn to for entertainment.

I'll agree with the author on the point that I would like to see more "smart" games, but they better be good games too or you can take that "smart" and shove it.

How "smart" the game is only starts to really matter if you're trying to make certain kinds of games. Take a heavily story-driven RPG for example. Let's say it has horrible controls, terrible animations, awful camera angles, and only runs at single digits FPS, but is really "smart" when it comes to its story? Would anyone want to play it? Maybe the author I suppose, but I'd rather just watch the cutscenes on YouTube or have it be made into a movie/TV show instead.

The fact of the matter is that it's hard work, costs a lot of money, and takes a loooong time to make a truly good/fun AAA game nowadays, and I think that's what most developers try to do first and foremost. Yeah it would be nice if they could make everything about their games "smart" and fun, but most of the time with all the different constraints they have to work within, I think the decision does, and rightfuly should put fun first, and "smarts" second.
 
Who cares if they're dumb. Games are meant to entertain, and in that purpose they succeed. One could argue that all these popular comic book movies are dumb, and that's probably true, but they entertain and people want more. If I want to play a non dumb video game, i'll go play Chessmaster.
 
I went in figuring he'd be preaching to the choir. But he's just an idiot. Granted I base that opinion on his opinion of Skyrim and Deus Ex.
 
I would say the same applies to movies, music, etc... pretty much the entire entertainment industry imo.
 
Dan_D said:
Sounds like another wannabe intellectual who needs to over analyze entertainment and let us all know how superior they are.

I bet the guy who wrote that wears a fedora and drinks expensive coffee.
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you mean almost every cerulean thread in genmay? :)
 
How the heck is this news to anyone, 98% of the games ever produced are not looking to be crowned as a game that makes you think.

Games are entertainment, like a movie, oh yes there are movies that make you think, but very few and far between.
 
Uh Oh! Somebody bought themselves a thesaurus!

Honestly, I hear someone make the same BS comment every other year on some message board. I guess someone finally paid someone to repost it as an article.
 
Is he saying that... he doesn't like some games that others do? OMG say it ain't so! That article just wasted 5 minutes of my life.
 
There are quite a few games that are both smart and fun. The only drawback is that you might have to read up and investigate. Most people just want it delivered to their door with minimal effort, just like any other entertainment medium.
 
I thought the article was well written, although wordy...

He makes good points.
One thing he doesn't acknowledge however is the fact that 99% of the childishness goes out the window when you're gaming with friends. The game's flaws and "am-smart" dialogue is lost on people that are "having fun".

His article is very accurate for single-player games, but as others have said, its nothing new that someone hasn't already written.

Some people just need to be "reached much more better" intellectually than others. Thank goodness im average.
 
What titan of intellect decided gaming needed to be contained or constrained in the realm of stinky cheese/wine/abstract art/specialty salt/chocolate/turtlenecks? I'm sure some game collectors will come to my next high-end game exhibit where each displayed game is a unique snowflake of incomprehension. meh.
 
games weren't always mindless slogs through juvenile antics.

some were, and that I think is the author's point: it's one thing to enjoy some nonsense from time to time but it's another thing to recognize that such games are becoming all there is to choose from
 
Outamyhead said:
How the heck is this news to anyone, 98% of the games ever produced are not looking to be crowned as a game that makes you think.

Games are entertainment, like a movie, oh yes there are movies that make you think, but very few and far between.
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Entertaining game ideas: Patent litigation, long-term chemotherapy, radiation exposure, cat training, sanitary sewer digging.
 
If you actually read the article, he is just saying the largest demographic for games is no longer teenagers, but most games seem to be made in a way that would be most entertaining to the 12-18 age range.
 
I read the article and agree with some points but it always felt like he was name dropping. It made him seem like an ass elitist.
 
I think this quote is apt:

Am I being too harsh? Am I asking too much? Should I just set down the controller and spend my time sipping port while reading 19th century French poetry if I'm so intellectually-frustrated with games? Perhaps, but I don't think so. Because what I'm looking for is actually very simple: not to feel like nearly every game treats me like a delinquent teenager with ADHD. I know that there are many out there who believe games are just supposed to be fun, so let's not get pretentious about the whole equation. If that's how you feel, go with god, my friend; I'm not out to spoil your party, and the market is already serving you very well.
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Honestly I agree with him for the most part. Apparently, according to people around here it is "elitist" to refuse to settle for shallow, generic games like CoD.
 
CoD is boring to me. I haven't been able to get wood over a FPS for a couple years. Max Payne 3 seems interesting.. who knows I might actually buy it.

The last CoD I played through fully was modern combat, I did play an hour of black ops when it first came out with my kids. Talk about trading fun for intellect. For some reason I find Dungeon Defenders on NMHC entertaining though... RPG's, TD, RTS, Civ, less whining and no need for a headset. Maybe I'm being old and grumpy but I could hide behind stuff and snipe before the turn of the century. Seems like there could be some innovation.
 
Most popular anything (games, music, TV shows, whatever) is dumb. Welcome to the mediocrity of popular.
 
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