Online Discussion About Games Doesn't Matter (Much)
I remember when I first heard about Reddit, then the so-called “front page of the Internet,” I checked it out thinking I’d find some interesting links and funny memes. It certainly did provide those for a while. But I realize that for many years, the main reason I’ve visited Reddit has not so much been for the links themselves, but to read the discussions people have about them.
But at this point it’s been more than ten years since I first created an account there. I’ve unsubscribed from the vast majority of the large subreddits I once followed. I see no value in them anymore. At this rate, I’m gonna have to actually start reading more books. Scary.
Today I’m writing about why online discussion doesn’t matter, particularly in regard to video games—though it applies to a great many subjects.
Now, since this is a blog, doesn’t that mean that what I’m writing here also doesn’t matter? Yes, that’s correct. This doesn’t really matter.
It's a Bunch of Kids
It’s a little hard to remember sometimes, but realistically, a large percentage of people who are just hanging out online all the time are under the age of 20. They may have school, but they have a lot of free time too.
When you’re young, you lack experience and wisdom. This can also lead to a lack of humility, unfortunately. If my teenage self were to share his honest thoughts on a given topic, he’d probably give a couple of the stupidest opinions possible with total confidence.
It’s not teenagers’ fault, really. They’ll grow wiser eventually, and when they do, they’ll cringe at their past selves.
Meanwhile, we haven’t come up with a way to make an Internet just for the old people (and don’t say Facebook. That’s not fun), so we all have to share it. Just try to ignore the teens if you come across any.
Video games in particular are a hobby kids love, so I feel like the online conversation is going to be much more flooded with teens than a lot of other things. So if you’re thinking of getting invested in a conversation about games, just remember: children might be behind it.
Drama-Lovers
Do you like playing video games? Or do you like controversy and getting mad about stuff related to video games? Easy choice, right? Yeah, well, not for some people.
I mean yeah, it’s not like there’s not time for both for many of us, but it really feels like some people love drama much more than they like playing games.
Rage-bait is one of the most destructive, pathetic aspects of our online world, and video games are afflicted by rage-bait content farms too, primarily on YouTube. The feeling of indignation you get when some stranger has told you of some problem you’ve never heard about before, and your blood is boiling and you want to take ACTION—people get hooked on that.
Remember when you were just a fan of video games? Not whatever nonsense these YouTube guys are talking about?
NO! Gaming is ruined now! And apparently it’s “political” people’s fault!
I don’t really want to delve into the politics here, so I’ll just say: don’t be a sucker, man. Throw all that YouTube garbage out. Raise your standards a bit and stop going wherever YouTube’s algorithm takes you. Sometimes you won’t have anything new to watch this way, but that is alright. It’s for the best. In the end, you’ll look back and realize how phony all that outrage from commentators was. They get rich off of manipulating your emotions.
Which is also what fiction writers do, but the difference is, they’re honest about it being fiction!
I gotta say though, drama-lovers aren’t all YouTube-addicted and interested in “politics.” Remember the EA Star Wars Battlefront II thing with the lootbox/microtransaction stuff or whatever it was? Those people on Reddit were mad. They actually got EA to change the game, if I remember right (so I can’t say the online discussion doesn’t matter at all).
Recently though, Dragon’s Dogma 2 came out. And people started going crazy about the microtransactions. Like other recent Capcom games, you can buy in-game items from external stores with real money. There are no hints of microtransactions in the game itself, of course, so if you never visit the external store, you would have no idea they existed. But a bunch of people who’ve never played the game or its predecessor start flipping out. “This game has no fast travel unless you pay for it!!!” No… ferrystones aren’t that rare, and oxcarts provide a form of fast travel too. “The game is designed to make you spend money!!” No… It’s designed just like the previous game. You’re really taking unnecessary shortcuts and making the game less fun if you spend extra money….
This fairly short-lived discussion reminded me how little value online discussion about video games has and led to the creation of this post.
Anyway, I’ll talk more on that microtransactions issue in a moment.
Negativity Bias
I don’t know if there’s a way to prove this, but here’s a bit of logic: if you like a game, you’re going to play it. If you don’t like it, you’re going to stop playing and then go complain online about it.
User reviews in general are biased towards negativity, aren’t they? Because if you have a problem, someone’s gotta pay for it! Or at least, other people need to know! It makes sense to me.
So if fans seem to hate something, it’s quite possibly not as bad as it seems. Or maybe it is. But I wouldn’t automatically assume angry fans are worth listening to. (Hey, remember when the Attack on Titan manga ended? Bunch of babies).
Most People Aren’t This Online
Internet-users know that gamers all hate in-game microtransactions!
Oh but wait. Obviously, that’s not actually true, because microtransactions make these companies a lot of money. If nobody bought them, they’d have done away with them a decade ago. So what gives?
Well, there’s a simple explanation: the people complaining online about games make up a minority of the wider gaming community.
In a lot of ways, I’m glad for that. It means whatever “drama” is happening, your average person is probably not aware of it, even if they play video games.
You know how the most recent Pokemon games are pretty broken? But they still sold millions of copies? I don’t play Pokemon, but I assume it’s probably because many other people do like Pokemon and don’t follow gaming news.
So let’s not be pretentious, game fans. We don’t matter that much. I mean, we matter to an extent. Like, there’s a bunch of games that wouldn’t get much hype were it not for Internet communities. But there’s a world beyond us too.
No-Lifers
If someone is able to put fifty hours into a game in a week only to end up saying “I don’t like it,” I am rather skeptical of their opinion. I mean why would you play something you don’t even enjoy that much for that long every day?
People talk about binge-watching TV shows, and obviously you can do the same type of thing for video games. But I think doing it too often can definitely take the fun out of it. You need balance in life! Variety!
I mean I don’t know who the people writing these crazy game reviews are. I’m making assumptions here. I just think I’d put more value on reviews from people who have fairly well-rounded lives. Not from people who are the hardcore-est of the hardcore, or haven’t seen a human face-to-face in days.
I feel like part of why online spaces inevitably get filled up with toxic people is because those people have nothing but time. They lack employment, they lack connections with other people, and possibly they have forgotten empathy. Maybe lashing out at others online is one of the only ways they feel noticed. There are systemic issues contributing to these situations, of course, but at some point you also have to look at yourself and ask what you’re doing.
Is this even related to games anymore? Well sadly, yes. Then again, I don’t really know who’s behind the terrible things that have been sent to game devs and others, so maybe I’m just being judgmental when I assume it’s people with no lives.
“Games all suck now”
Sometimes people remember how magical a moment playing a game at age 10 could be. Then they play a new game and are unable to feel the same magic. They say, “Games today lack SOUL!!”
And we’re actually supposed to believe it’s the game’s fault?
As an adult you are not going to be as easily amazed as you were as a kid. Furthermore it takes much more to create satisfaction in your life as an adult than just playing games. Take responsibility for your own life and stop blaming the artists for not being able to fix it for you.
Give Karma Please
Most of Reddit is just people regurgitating something else they read on Reddit that got upvotes.
Ok, “most” is a significant exaggeration. But there’s a reason I never go to big subreddits like AskReddit anymore. It’s the same questions over and over, with the same answers over and over, like it was all written by bots. On any popular subreddit, it’s like everyone is looking for a keyword as a trigger to share their relevant and oh-so-profound Reddit knowledge (that anyone who’s used the site for six months has already seen a hundred times). All to get those upvotes, baby. Because upvotes = karma. And karma gives you… nothing, but it’s nice to feel like you’ve won at Reddit.
Another thing we at Reddit do not do is read the article. We read the headline, then we go opine in the comments on the general subject, whether it’s directly related to what the headline said or not.
At a place like r/Games, anytime a news article about a game appears, nobody wants to talk about the actual article. They just want to give their opinion about the game.
Man, who cares about that? Put it on your blog. (Wait a minute).
I’m just saying. At least try to talk about what’s actually in the article. But nah. Nobody wants to do that. Nobody has any real insights. Just generic “thing good/thing bad” opinions with regurgitated talking points (we wouldn’t have any supporting points without those, after all).
But yeah it’s really a problem with the whole of Reddit and not just gamers.
Look, I’m not trying to tell you to disconnect from the Internet forever or that good conversations online are impossible to have. I’m really kind of explaining to myself why I’d be better off spending less time reading all that stuff.
When it comes to video games, there’s one rule to remember: it’s not that serious.
And yet, I can’t convince the masses of that. But my attention is better spent offline, anyway. People genuinely mad about video games can keep on yelling, tires spinning in place. Just pass them by and don’t descend to their level.