Since Counter-Strike, the so called “Leet” gamers are getting more and more common, but are they really worth their title? Is this elitist attitude towards games good? With the increase of online multiplayer games, it is fairly common that someone would get addicted to a game, and wouldn’t stop playing it until they’ve mastered it.

Some of these gamers are going to think they are superior to others just because they have a higher Gamerscore or PSN level, these guys can only play with another “Elite”. A lot of “Elite” gamers are that way because they place way too much importance and status on unimportant things. Getting 1000 achievement points or a platinum trophy can be quite an accomplishment, but it doesn’t grant you a special status or something noteworthy.

Just because you’re a level 52 and I’m only a 43 doesn’t mean you have more skill than me on that game, you’re probably on a higher level because you spent more time grinding. Even if you’re better than me, this is a just a game, not a dependency, there’s always going to be someone better.

Which is the mistake some people make. We can get  motivated to get trophies or achievements, or level up characters, and that’s fine. You can take games seriously and get into competitive gaming, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun at the same time. It’s a game, we are playing it with set goals. There is a tendency for people to become overly serious in playing and lose sight of the game itself. This is the case in everything that can be competitive, from sports to tabletop roleplaying.

Remember, there are idiots on both sides- there are people who say that competitive gamers should just play the game. Both Casuals and Hardcores have their space, but they want to destroy each other, like the Ps3 vs 360 vs Wii war that’s going on.

So, both sides are wrong, instead of playing the games for fun and achievements, they keep focusing on only one and forgetting the other. They also love to say why their side is right, i think we should just play video games for both achievements and fun, we should also stop trying to be superior to others. It’s just a game, play it your way, but don’t mess with the others, is it that hard?

Let’s take a step back and talk of the trends of the past, as there was one in every generation. There was a time where every platformer and side scroller was the same, like copying off the success that was The Super Mario Bros. But back then, it was so bad, gaming was just starting off and the technology was not so great – so the developers were limited on what they could do. It was also a time when Nintendo didn’t exactly rehash their own stuff and fun was had by all.

The next step was a small era where the rise of the First Person Shooter happened, where they were called FPSes, but Doom clones. That’s right you younguns, everything for a while that came after Doom was called a Doom clone, not a FPS. Again, this was not so bad it may seem because the FPS had to start off somewhere, even knowing it was just copying off Doom. Of course there was a few that stood out from the rest, my personal favorite of onslaught of Doom clones was Blood.

But let’s get to the point where it starts to get bad, where technology was getting better, innovation could be achieved and now the industry was on the rise. Now there was a point in time where there was a World War II shooter that came out every month or so. Thanks to that onslaught of those WWII games, I can’t filter out the good ones from the all the rest and just refuse to play them all together. Who thought it was a good idea to keep making these generic games? Same setting, same weapons, same thing and of course all these games were made by American companies.

Then came about the hack n’ slashes, simple minded, button mashing crap. I swear it was started by Dynasty Warriors which the epitome of what I am talking about. Some stood out like Devil May Cry but it was a time where every single one of them seems the same, like all the Dynasty Warriors. The whole series seem the same to me as it was mash X to win.

One of the worst trends ever was the Grand Theft Auto clones. With the success of GTA3, every other company out there copies its formula to try to become successful themselves. Sandlot plus violence was where it’s at. Instead of trying to improve upon the formula or trying something new, these companies just made the same cocktail with a twist of their own juice.

Now the new trend is the shovelware we see on the Wii. Don’t get me wrong as I know there was plenty for PS2 and DS as well but I think it has become more of a problem on the Wii. Because of the shovelware, real games tend to be shadowed and forgotten on the console that supports a different play style to its users. Like all trends of the past, companies are just going through with the fad so they can fill their pockets. It doesn’t take effort to stamp a game and call it done and because of all this it hard for the industry as a whole to move forward.

There are many companies to blame for slowing down the industry for starting and following these trends. EA or specifically EA Sports is one of them, as each year their sport games like Madden don’t seem to change anything and yet rake in the cash. Nintendo as of late is also guilty of this, I mean, do we really need all those Mario Party games? Not only some companies are copying others, they’re just copying themselves, or rather, rehashing. There are many more companies that do this as well and because of these companies, other no name companies are going to try to copy these formulas and just create their own games in hopes to reap the rewards. Do we really need a Hollywood version of the video game industry? Resort to copying each other and other mediums of entertainment just to make money?

Soon the trends of shovelware titles will be gone, to be only replaced by a new trend – probably worst than the last. I wish the developers would try to think of something different, to actually spend time on a game rather than to eat the last trendy game to just crap it back out. I want to see some change on the industry, where I can spend my money on a game or several games a month rather than just buying a select few a year. Lately, I’ve been somewhat starved for games and I don’t enjoy playing the same thing over and over again. Do you enjoy eating the exact same thing for every meal? It’s the same thing with games so you game makers out there, think outside of the assembly line. Stop the rehashing, stop the copying, and get creative.

As the consumers, spread the word, stop buying rehashes and copycats to show the developers we don’t want the same thing over and over again.

Let’s take a look at the Dual-shock 3, shall we? While the dual-shock two had four shoulder buttons that were very operational and easy to command, the dual shock three has two that are operational and two that are complete wastes of space. If you happen to own a Playstation 3, you know exactly which two buttons I am speaking of. The R2 and L2 buttons on the Dualshock 3 are perhaps the worst buttons in the world. No, I’m not using hyperbole, I’m not making stuff up. I literally think you could scavenge the world three times over and not come up with buttons as miserable as the Playstation 3’s R2 and L2 buttons.

What exactly makes these buttons so bad? Well, first, they are triggers. The trigger button trend on consoles started primarily with the N64. The trigger on that system was fine and dandy. It was placed on the very back of your controller and if you needed to shoot something, you knew where it was. It didn’t get in the way, it was just there and ready to help! The Gamecube controller did away with said trigger button, but another system decided to dance with it. The X-Box. As we all know, the X-Box cast aside traditional console controls and decided that they would not have shoulders, but triggers. The popularity of console shooters such as Golden Eye and Perfect Dark helped usher this idea in.

I knew Halo would find a new and innovative way to make me suffer.

These were functional triggers at least. I kind of struggle to find a reason as to why one genre needs to have several controllers fashioned after it, but they worked fine. Obviously, the X-Box 360 would continue the trigger trend, but on that system they also decided to throw in regular shoulder buttons. These buttons, nubs as they refer to them, are pretty ho-hum. They aren’t horrible buttons but they don’t get the job done, especially when compared to the Playstation’s L1 and R1 buttons.

Now, back to the Dualshock 3. Console first person shooters, as mentioned, were already popular at the time the Playstation 2 released. In my opinion, and this is not based on fact or something I’ve heard, the Playstation 3’s controller was altered due to the heightened popularity of shooters in America, specifically Halo. Some proof to this claim would point at the otherwise mediocre Resistance being one of the Playstation 3’s launch titles. So, because of the success of the X-Box, trigger buttons needed to be placed there. Shooter fans needed to be pleased.

Here’s the problem though: they’re absolutely garbage. When you try to press them down, they only seem to work about 75% of the time. I know Sony offers a service to “fix” this issue, but it doesn’t fix responsiveness, it just fixes grip issues. Some people apparently suffer the horrible tragedy of their fingers sliding off the buttons and that needs to be rectified right away. Those of us who jam away on the buttons and can’t get a move to activate? We’re screwed.

You might be wondering why this would affect me. After all, I’m not the biggest shooter guy and, technically speaking, if all you do is hold down the button and hold a machine gun (or something), the controller will work fine. Here’s the deal though: while I dislike shooters I have an absolute fetish for fighters. Some people dig the Spanish Fly, some dig the human horn, me…nothing gets me going like a good fighter.

Now, for those of you who played Street Fighter on the original Playstation, you will note where the default strong-kick button was. The RIGHT shoulder, the R2 button. If you wanted someone to feel the wrath of your heavy kick, by God they would feel it. So, I buy Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix on my Playstation 3 expecting a decent controlling experience. After all, the whole reason I got it on the PS3 and NOT the 360 is because I vastly prefer the PS3’s joy-pad. What I got was nothing short of a horrifying experience. You could say it was akin to waking up in a world where the Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehogs played like Sonic 2006.

Well hey, the R1 button still works well!

I would choose Ken and have the audacity to try to heavy kick someone. First, for those who didn’t know, I had to alter the controls to get R2 to be heavy kick. I wanted the same experience I had on the PS1. Now, when I would try the move, it would work most of the time, but this one time I was on the ground trying to trip someone. I notice that Ken is just sitting there with a smug look on his face. He knows darn well that he is screwing me over. He may also know that he is about to get walloped. Naturally, I go on to lose the fight due to this momentary lapse in concentration.

Here’s the thing, this R2 button not registering can be a thing that severely hampers you in an on-line battle. Imagine your opponent was very darn near defeat and for whatever reason instead of pulling out the way faster light punch or kick, you decide to rock the heavy kick. YOU FINISH IN STYLE! Well, when it doesn’t register, you’ll look confused and by the time you realize what happens, your opponent is mopping up the floor with your fallen blood.

I thought maybe it was just Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. After all, it was a “newer” game, so maybe I was just going crazy and this problem didn’t really exist. I then try to play Street Fighter Alpha 3 on the controller and find to my horror that things haven’t changed at all! The PS3’s trigger buttons just freaking suck! It was sad that I had to turn off my super expensive monolith of a system in order to play my long deceased Playstation 1.

Oh man, this is going to hurt SF IV too, isn’t it?

Sony really needs to release a new sort of PS3 controller for those of us who don’t shoot all the time. Releasing a controller specialized to one genre is stupid (well, I mean, except fighters. People buy fighting pads and only play fighters with them, so why not?) and they really need to consider their non-shooting fans. There could be a really great game in the future that demands the use of the R2 or L2 button and someone could go out to use it and they’d be right out of luck. Oh, too bad, how dare you try and play the game.

I also wouldn’t hate an official USB adaptor so I can use my still very damn good Playstation 2 controller on my PS3. That’s another thing I don’t get, wireless stuff. Are wired controllers really that big of a dilemma? When I got done playing my SNES I would simply wrap up my cables and put them away. It never really got in the way of my experience. I guess there are a lot of people with OCD out there who just can’t handle the wires…that’s gotta be it. I’m probably the only person I know who vastly prefers to use the wired 360 controller (AT LEAST THEY OFFER ONE!). Maybe I’m just being dragged kicking and screaming into this generation.

Whatever the case, I’m off subject now, so allow me to cut it short. Sony: Release a new Playstation 3 controller with non-ridiculous shoulder buttons. Those of us who don’t play shooters all the time are desperately begging you!

Seriously, what the hell happened when people where nice to each other after a friendly game? Now days, when I lose match, I get called a cuntface douchenozzle faggot, not just by the other team, but my own team as well. Recently with the release of Left 4 Dead, this has become very apparent to me. I get insulted by both my team and the other team. Not just Left 4 Dead, other modern FPSes on the PC have players with similiar attitudes – except Quake III, never really saw bad sportsmanship on there. The rage, anger, and bigotry are so strong in that cyber air that it’s enough to give one a stroke after a good single breath. Of course this has been around for quite a while, specifically around Xbox Live.

Now I’m not exactly blaming the community as a whole or am I trying to insult any Xbox players – but the travesty that is the hate-filled ignorance which is Xbox live is hard to ignore. Simply playing around a few games on Xbox live, I will be insulted by every single profane word that is in the English dictionary, and maybe a few other languages as well. I can simple say, “Nice round man” and I get replied with “You sound like a butthurt cunt, you know I’m the best there is”. Is this any way for players to treat each other in, what I thought was, a friendly game?

After all that malarkey, a few days ago I decided I want to take it old school and play some Starcraft on battle dot net. Of course there isn’t much a player base, but I was able to join a few games here and there. Most of which were Top vs. Bottom so I had to be in a team. The one thing that I noticed is that, it’s the exact god damn thing. I get bashed by my teammate who got killed quickly and blames their team. The other team was, of course, talking smack throughout the game. And out of all those games, guess what’s the one thing I never saw in the chat? “gg” or “good game” That’s right. No one said “good game” after a match, the equivalent of shaking hands with the other team in sports, the “gg” I thought was a courteous thing to do after a game. I would be saying “gg” and all I get is “lol i pwn u fgt”.

Where did all the friendly players go? I don’t remember this many assholes in the 90s and even early 2000 when I use to play on battle dot net. Sometimes I wish I was back in the 90s, with my dial-up modem, my piece of paper with quake hubs, and where everyone was actually mature, even knowing that I was still a prepubescent kid. What is the cause of all this hostility in internet games? Is world getting angrier? Is our youth becoming corrupted? Or just because now that you’re grown up, you can talk like sailors? Is this an American thing or is it worldwide?  What is the exact cause?

Now I know there is people out there that still act friendly on the internet and I would love to shake your hand, but nowadays, the unfriendly players outweigh the friendly ones. I can understand the gloat that people do, but it’s no longer gloating if you’re trying to demean the other players. It’s becoming harder and harder to actually enjoy online multiplayer games if this keeps up, so I ask every single one of you – say “gg” after that good game you just had.

A journey to a land called Xbox Live.

I’ve had my Xbox 360 for nearly four years now, and of those four, three have been spent online through Xbox Live. Those three years were kind of like being on safari, and I know that may seem like a weird analogy, but stick with me. Actually, you know what? Don’t. That was a shitty analogy. Xbox Live is more like an insane asylum. An insane asylum where a few of the inmates are actually rather intelligent, but you can’t hear them over the sound of crazy Joe Bastard yelling like an animal and smashing his lunch tray over his head.

In all honesty, what is it about anonymity that turns a person into a monster? I have never once screamed a racial slur or a homophobic insult toward anyone, let alone over the anonymity of the internet. I have lost count of how many times I’ve just said “fuck it” and simply muted the volume on my headset. Of course, the problem with that is, it renders me unable to communicate with the people who aren’t acting like total morons. Another issue with the voice communication I have is when people have a mic but actively choose not to use it. How am I supposed to know that you’re under attack if you don’t open your mouth and say something? I don’t have eyes in the back of my head for christ’s sake. Teamwork is an essential aspect of a majority of games that are playable online, and when you can’t communicate with your team you had best bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.

I’ll give you a prime example. I was playing Grand Theft Auto IV a few weeks back and I was bored with single player, so I thought I’d see what the multiplayer was like. I’m immediately assaulted by racial slurs and swearing. “The usual” I figure. Then another voice joins in the never ending spew of cursing, my problem this time? This was a kid. He seriously sounded no older than maybe six or seven. The first thought that sprang to mind was “Why is this kid using this kind of language?” My next string of thoughts went something like this: “Where are his parents that he can talk, yell and shout things like this and not get in trouble? For that matter, do his parents even care?” Obviously not as they had purchased him a game which not only portrays murder and violence as socially acceptable, but also depicts acts of a sexual nature and partial nudity.

Now, I realize that I may sound like Jack Thompson Jr. (I assure you, I have no intention of following in those footsteps), but it just irked me that parents these days have slacked off and stopped caring what their children do. When I worked at a video game retailer I made damn sure that any time some kid tried to talk his mom into letting him get an “M” rated title that I told her what was in the game. You’re probably reading this thinking I’m some kind of overly moral goody-goody, but the fact of the matter is this. When I play games online, I expect to interact with people of a similar caliber. I can understand the young kids playing the music games online, but frankly they have no business playing games where the people around them are swearing and using words that would make even George Carlin blush (God rest his smutty soul).

I’ll admit, I swear. I swear like a sailor. The only difference is I do it in the privacy of my own home, or other places where it’s acceptable, and never in the presence of young children. I started using those words in middle school, and I think that if you’re old enough to understand what they mean, and you have a justifiable right to use them, then by all means go ahead. I’m just tired of trying to relax and play some games when I have to deal with kids yelling and screaming and calling everyone a “fag” or a “bitch”. Honestly? I call upon the parents to pay some attention to what their kids are doing and stop being so god damn passive about everything.  It’s time to wake up, take control, and raise your children. When I was a kid, if I had said anything like that my dad would have smacked me one. In a time where everyone is scared by “child abuse” laws and are too damn afraid to discipline their kids you have to remember that if the child does something wrong, they need to be punished and a spanking is perfectly acceptable.

As for all of those that are 18 and older, you have no excuse. Don’t be a douche. Act like you were raised with some semblance of decency and try to treat people with respect. You talk like a normal person, and you’ll find that people will treat you better. Keep talking like a jackass though, and I’ll take the last health pack and leave you for dead.

Nowadays, arcades are clean almost to a fault.  The carpets are pristine and vacuumed, the screens are wiped down several times a day, and there’s a ‘no food or drink sign’ visible at every turn.  For some reason, this frustrates me to no end.

Obviously, food, drink and cigarettes can damage the cabinets; it only makes sense to be cautious.  On top of that, not everyone smokes, so keeping the air clean is only polite, but in banning these things, something seems to have been lost, and I can’t quite place my finger on it.

We still have noise, flashing lights, fat dudes with sweaty pits (even more so since the advent of DDR), but we don’t have snack counters to chill at, the lights don’t reflect off the smoke, and that particular stink I find so comforting is missing.

Another thing that seems to be missing is special events.  All the nearby (ish) arcades seem spiritually dead.  There’s no staff on hand except for one bored-looking girl behind the counter reading a magazine, and certainly no one cares enough to set up a tournament, or a demo; and no one knows one another because there are few, if any, regulars.  Back at Ebeneezer’s, we held weekly tournaments to help keep the place in business, yearly charity speedrun/pledges, and things of that sort.  Dana, the owner, wasn’t the only one setting things up, all the regulars would pitch in, setting up seating, putting out fliers, etc.  If it could be done with a cabinet and a fistful of quarters, it would be done to help keep the place running.

Come to that, I miss every game costing one quarter.  None of this ‘2 coins = 1 credit’ flashing at the bottom of the screen.  I understand the logic behind charging more: since the community doesn’t put all the hard work to keep their hangout in the black, they have to charge more per play; but at the same time, I’ve often looked at House of the Dead 3 and thought, ‘If I didn’t have to spend 75 cents per play, I’d probably put ten bucks into this thing.’

On a lesser note, whatever happened to table cabinets?  You know, the ones you could set your drink and an ashtray on and play a round of Galaga while sitting down and enjoying a drag between stages.  I guess that it all comes full circle here:  without food, drinks and cigarettes in the room, there’s no need for cabinets whose sole purpose is to allow you to enjoy your food, drinks and cigarettes while playing them.

Arcades aren’t dead yet, not by a long shot.  However, they have changed and evolved in ways that I, personally, don’t like.  Obviously, the people who still frequent these places appreciate the way they are now.  Arcades are no longer for me, or the bikers, stoners and middle-class college-types who’ve always got a foul-smelling Camel Light clenched between their teeth.

All-in-all, it’s still a business, and a business has to change with the times.  There’s a whole new generation of kids at these new sterile arcades, and that is the demographic being targeted.  I can accept that modern arcades are not for me, I can;  I just can’t bring myself to like it.

Pick a game that you want a remake, got it? Now think, you’ve already completed the game at least twice, you defeated the bosses, saved the world, the princess, etc., so why would you want to do it again? There are new games out there waiting for you, new tales, new battles, you see? A remake is never going to be as good as the original, mostly because that it’s not a full remake.

Chrono Trigger DS is an example of this, it’s the same gameplay with the same visuals, with one extra dungeon and the portability; that’s what Square called a remake. Now, consider this: how much effort was put into the making of this remake? I bet that it was less than a month, yet it is going to sell more than a new, great game like Valkyria Chronicles.

On the other hand there are some good remakes, such as Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, which rebalances the game and has an option that disables said rebalances. Capcom hired fans to remix the music, which you can replace with the originals as well.

Even good remakes can harm other games,  mostly because of the price. Think with me, there are two games: a remake of a famous game and a new game from an indie developer. The remake costs half (due to the cheap production) of the indie’s price, so a lot of people will complain that the indie game is expensive because you can get a remake of a famous series for half of the price and huge quality. So why would you buy the indie game?

We gamers should stop encouraging developers to remake a game, it takes time and creativity off of more interesting games. We should control our fan boy feelings and forget a little about the past, for the good of the future of the gaming industry. The nostalgia glasses always make games look better, so why cry and fight for a remake?

If you’ve got a Sony Playstation 3, then chances are you’ve snapped up Naughty Dog’s platformer-slash-cover shooter, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. While it didn’t exactly wow over critics with its gameplay mechanics that had obviously been inspired from quite a number of other IPs, it definitely made waves with its stellar presentation, poloygon-crunching graphics and superb voice acting ( which made Nate and his associates quite the memorable crew). Now, we get wind of its sequel, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, via the cover of GameInformer’s upcoming issue.

In their website, GameInformer teases the reveal-all article by letting slip a few details about the sequel: the game will revolve around the exploits of Marco Polo this time around. The game will also feature a new free-climbing mechanic to set itself apart from its predecessor, as well as stealth sections that will probably have Drake sneaking around to avoid enemy encounters.

Stealth gameplay? Free CLIMBING? I’m sorry, Naughty Dog, but since when was blatant imitation and thoughtless copying part of the deal? And in this day and age of dry humor, witty one-liners and shooters that utilize cover effectively? You had a market with Crash Bandicoot, hell, you had a HUGE following, and that series of PlayStation One games have gone on to have legendary gameplay that rivals that of Mario and Sonic. The videogame world considered HIM as a viable rival for those two icons. You’ve got a market for people who want something different, and yet you churn out more of the same. Not just more of the same, but literally regurgitated and recycled material. We don’t blame you for trying something new, but if you just thought for a second about how Free Climbing was done already effectively by Assassin’s Creed and stealth gameplay is but one of gaming’s most tired (and most annoying) cliches, then you’d have thought twice about putting them in as key draws for your game. Your game of mishmash gameplay mechanics from other games that do them better and had done them BEFORE.

I’ve played the first Uncharted and I had fun with it, but even with graphics whore glasses on I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I’ve done it all before. Sure, you’ll say that other games do mimic other games’ key features but at the very least they tried damn well to be original.

Bring back Crash, you immensely unoriginal pollocks.

Yes, in today’s world where draconian measures are being taken to make sure that the local consumer is dissuaded from getting an illegal copy of this or that latest game, Valve’s own Gabe Newell has given his opinion. It’s not the ICE BURN he’s been famous for (his cracks about the Sony PS3 probably still makes Kaz Hirai wince every now and then) but it’s the truth. His complete statement:

Left 4 Dead is developed entirely by Valve. Steam revenue for our games is not shared with third parties. Around the world we have a number of distribution partners to handle retail distribution of our games (i.e. make discs and boxes). EA is one of those partners.

As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I’ll be able to play my game and maybe I won’t).

We really really discourage other developers and publishes from using the broken DRM offerings, and in general there is a groundswell to abandon those approaches.

One can remember the furor raised with the PC version of Bioshock installing Securom stealthily onto the rigs it was being played on. And then there’s the Mass Effect PC version debacle, where users had to get their licenses re-verified online for them to keep playing. Oh, and who can forget SPORE?

Yes, we know that piracy is a problem and that it cuts into your profits. But never assume that everyone is going to pirate your game – there are people willing to pay good money for it, and Valve’s electronic distribution system (namelyl Steam) is a step in the right direction. You know what else is good, developers? Making sure that our money is worth it. Don’t give us a broken game, give us a good solid game for starters. Then give us extras (an artbook, an exclusive freebie, doesn’t have to be something expensive but something nice and awesome would do). If people see that the retail version of the game has lots of security bullshit then naturally they’ll opt to get the illegal copy. That’s how people are. Don’t think about changing them, instead think about how to deal with it instead.

Hopefully this sends a message out to all developers. Gamers won’t pirate your game if you don’t give them reason to, or you give them enough incentives to purchase the retail version.