One of the best consequences of the world wide web is that it gives anyone with an internet connection a voice, and more importantly, an (almost) anonymous voice.
This has helped many people; it has helped uprisings against dictatorships, and it has helped people get advice for their problems without having to face the shame of talking about personal problems face to face with another human.
That being said. One of the worst consequences of the world wide web is that it has given a voice to every idiot with an internet connection, which just leads to problems and the spreading of hatred and stupidity.
Being a console gamer, I have seen so much rampant fanboyism and uninformed opinions of youtube and every social network regarding the new consoles and games from both Microsoft and Sony over the past few weeks.
There are basically 3 main sides to the arguments that are occuring; the pc elitists, the xbox fanboys and the playstation fanboys.
Now, it's okay to have a favourite gaming platform, but this is really not an excuse for most of the crap I've seen spouted out there.
It should be noted that I'm a fan of the Xbox 360, and therefore have been following Microsoft more closely than Sony.
The following is an example of the crap I've seen, and then a break down as to why that opinion is stupid.
1. My PC is more powerful than the consoles. PCs are better. Fuck consoles.
It's true that gaming computers are more powerful than the upcoming generation of consoles. However, this doesn't mean that consoles are underpowered or worse when it comes to gaming.
Firstly, consoles and PCs have their own genres of games that they excel at and are not really directly comparable.
Secondly, your games on PC cannot access all your l33t hardware as efficiently as a console game can. Consoles are designed to have very low overhead, whereas PCs have to run bloated operating systems like windows that eat resources and slow communication between software and hardware down. Consoles can compete with PCs fairly well when they launch. As an example, you can run Black Ops II on a twelve year old console that only has 512MB of RAM. Try doing that on a similarly equipped PC.
Consoles are very good at playing games, and many games simply aren't made to be played on a monitor at a desk. Both PCs and consoles have their places in gaming.
2. xbox one suckz, ps4 is better. OR ps4 suckz, xbox is better!
The fact that I saw people saying this type of thing before E3 is just stupid. How would you know? They haven't been released.
Now, it's completely valid to say something like "Microsofts DRM policies suck.", or "I generally prefer Microsoft exclusives." but as far as the console goes, you really don't know. You could say, "Well the PS4 has more power, therefore I'm leaning towards it." but to go so far as to say either one "sucks"? You don't know. So shut up.
There's the argument regarding the PS4 being more powerful, but then again the PS3 was more powerful than the 360 and yet games looked better on the 360 simply because the PS3 had some design problems that made developing for it difficult. Developers weren't able to access all that power efficiently.
This most likely won't be an issue this year based on what Sony said during their reveal earlier this year, but the simple fact is that we simply don't know. Save your opinions for when you have proof to base them on.
Even then, they're two completely different machines with different styles and exclusives. Being a raging fanboy is just stupid and immature.
3. Why doesn't the new xbox/playstation have backwards compatibility?? This is bullshit!
Backwards compatibility with a system with a completely different architecture is not simple. Consoles are different to PCs. Console games are very much tied to the hardware. If you want to play an Xbox 360 game, you either need the physical hardware, or you need to emulate that hardware in software. Both options are neither easy, nor cheap. It would just add to the size and or cost of the console.
Yes, it would be better if they were backwards compatible, but why is it suddenly a huge issue? How many other consoles are fully backwards compatible?
4. Other random hate based on press conferences
Let's be honest. The console reveals and E3 conferences are essentially propaganda. The entire truth will not be known until these consoles get into the hands of the gamers and to some degree, reviewers (although many of them are full of shit too). We don't know what truth they're bending, what they're not telling us or what will change in the months before release.
Why not just wait until we have all the facts available before hurling hatred and insults.
Awkward ending to this post:
I'm not saying don't have an opinion ever. I'm saying be rational and objective. If we don't have all the information, nobody can really make an informed decision. Uninformed decisions have no value at all.
Maybe I'm too much of a stickler for logic, but seeing all this online is really annoying.
I'm not going to really mention all the arguments against Microsoft's DRM policies, always online restrictions and focus on things that aren't gaming. There is some really real criticism here. In my opinion Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot by being greedy. Did we really expect anything different from Microsoft? Unless they make some big changes before launch, I'm going to have to go back to spelling it "Micro$oft".
However, what I'm not going to do is start insulting people who want to buy the xbox one like a child. Some people don't care about DRM or any of the other problems the Xbox One has at the moment.
Personally I've always disliked Microsoft's products and policies, but have found the Xbox360 to be somewhat redeeming. It would be sad to see them move backwards.
Sadly, this is just what gamers do. It happens every generation.
Having played online games, I know it might be a bit much asking gamers to act like rational adults, but hey, I can try.
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