Are We Living In A New Golden Age of Gaming?

[Chazore]

Alara317 said:

I was HOPING for some intelligent discussion, some back-and-forth, and some sharing of ideas. 

What I got was a bunch of people seeing the title, automatically assuming I was a fool and responding accordingly because they have the attention span of a goldfish and couldn't be bothered actually reading what I wrote. 

If you disagree with my stance that we're living in a golden age of gaming, that's fine, but at least explain WHY you disagree. Don't just say 'no, gaming sucks', tell me WHY gaming sucks. WHY is it that EA messing up Star Wars somehow destroys the whole industry. WHY is it that Ubisoft making every game of theirs an open world map with radio towers somehow destroys all of gaming. 

My stance was pretty straightforward: We've never been given so much choice and quality as we have been now. There are shitty things out there (Mostly mobile stuff, trend-chasing, and aggressive monetization), but the games that use these don't even begin to cover the whole spectrum of games. This year alone I could play nothing but indie titles and I'd never run out of things to play. I could play nothing but remakes and remasters and I'd never run out of things to play. I could ONLY game on the switch or ONLY game on the PS4 and I'd never run out of things to play. Hell, I could play JUST on the Xbox and ONLY play multiplatform games and I'd still never run out of quality games to play. 

The point is that it really doesn't matter that some games suck, it should never matter that Call of Duty is bland if you're a person who likes platformers. It shouldn't matter if you're the type that aggressively hates the concept of remasters and remakes, there's always gonna be new content out there. It shouldn't matter if you're a hipster who hates all AAA gaming, becuase there will always be esoteric and quirky indie games out there to satisfy you. 

We're in a golden age of gaming because when it comes to the reality of what you have as options, the industry has literally never been better. You can cite nostalgia all you want, and I confess there's no way to know if stuff like Dark Souls or Horizon Zero Dawn will stand the test of time like Mario has, but the reality is that games are better produced, more varied, and more versatile than ever before. The only way you could NOT see the strength of the current market would be if you're the type of pessimist who wants to only see the bad or are a cynic who choses to let the bad completely overtake the good despite the fact that the bad is overshadowed by the good tenfold. 

I shouldn't HAVE to make a huge deal out of looking at a form of entertainment I enjoy with wide eyes and a smile. I shouldn't have to defend myself for the crime of being satisfied. I shouldn't have to explain myself with a 2500 word essay describing why I think that, yeah, gaming is pretty awesome. I shouldn't have to hold a flame shield on the thumb I point up.

The fact that I've actually had people call me a fool (not here, I posted this article on my facebook as well) or straight up told me I'm wrong for looking at the industry from a positive viewpoint says so much more about the rampant negativity in the world than I'd like to admit. I'm upset and lashing out because people are so keen on embracing hatred and cynicism when the reality is that we live in a world that is, objectively, better than it ever has been; I don't just mean in entertainment, either. I just chose to focus on Games, TV, and movies because it's pretty hard to be positive in a world where Trump is president and Doug Ford is Ontario's Premier. I try to stay out of politics, though; nothing to be gained by arguing that.

people are telling you why, but the way you worded your previous post, you made it out as if those reasons people gave as to why they didn't agree with you were somehow auto "debunked". If we went by that logic, people would have to automatically agree with you, because you have apparently debunked all negatives, or made any negatives brought up as being insignificant.

I disagreed with the title question, though to give my reasons, would require a long essay and back history as to why I disagree. I decided not to write that essay because we've already had a threat on that topic recently, and for another, I'm not wasting my time to write a long essay, only to have it swept under the rug by OP's reasoning. 

Also, you don't really care for the side I game on, so me writing out why I disagree about the title, isn't going to make much sense to you, because you aren't interested.

 

You know we've had options in the past right?. For decades we have had access to competitive products and games. We haven't been living in some medieval dark age for years you know.

You talk of pessimism, but you're displaying the complete opposite of it, which also lends itself to blind ignorance of one's surroundings, just like cynicism can. Both sides of the same coin have their flaws. 

@bolded: I am not sure as to how or why you even need to make that an actual thing. No one here is going out of their way to mentally hurt you, let alone take away your enjoyment of gaming, so I'm not sure why you need to make it out to be a two pronged attack/defense.

 

My dude. I have been upset for a year and a half since my mother passed away. I am deeply upset as to what EA has done to a franchise I held dear to my heart in the gaming world, but I know that at the end of the day, I still have friends to talk to, friends to play games with, memes to share. Gaming for me has a lot of ups and downs, but it's the friends that make it good for me.