Lunar Threads

Minecraft is incredibly boring and probably REQUIRES the imagination of a child to enjoy it. It doesn't matter what skin you download, it's the same dull game regardless of if it looks like Mario, Zelda, Metroid or whatever.

It's because violent games are where the big money is in the NA industry. Not saying I have anything against violent games, either. I play some of 'em myself. But I'd much rather play games with more soul. I passed on GTA V so that I could buy Wind Waker HD.

Djinn Xpert wrote:It's because violent games are where the big money is in the NA industry. Not saying I have anything against violent games, either. I play some of 'em myself.

Pretty much true!
So, if Chrono Trigger was remade with fully detailed 3D characters on PS4, and the ability to kill any NPC with any of your party member's weapons, and you could choose how to use it; either you shoot them in the head, or cut their limbs, and the NPC would react differently to each weapon and each way you hurt/kill them, then it might possibly beat the 1 billion dollars + of sales that GTA V has got ........... not that I want that day to come. I love my games how they are now, no matter the sales.

Djinn Xpert wrote:I passed on GTA V so that I could buy Wind Waker HD.

I like your decision!

jay_are wrote:

Djinn Xpert wrote:It's because violent games are where the big money is in the NA industry. Not saying I have anything against violent games, either. I play some of 'em myself.

Pretty much true!
So, if Chrono Trigger was remade with fully detailed 3D characters on PS4, and the ability to kill any NPC with any of your party member's weapons, and you could choose how to use it; either you shoot them in the head, or cut their limbs, and the NPC would react differently to each weapon and each way you hurt/kill them, then it might possibly beat the 1 billion dollars + of sales that GTA V has got ........... not that I want that day to come. I love my games how they are now, no matter the sales.

Haha, probably still not... 'cause most dudebro CoD gamers would be like "What's Chrono Trigger?"

Part of the problem is that a lot of what makes art great is an investment of time and the ability to understand things.

How hard is it to engage in some sort of animalistic urge to go around in GTAV and kill anyone you want? I blame the dumbing down of the culture (YOLO, SWAG, Hipsters, etc).

I think that we have to face facts and realize that to the video game world we're connoisseurs. It doesn't help when games that make the most money are the easiest to play and don't require 30-40 hour commitments (although in most cases people who play games like COD or Halo invest 100+ hours in multiplayer).

"The dumbing down of the culture" is a fallacy. The culture hasn't dumbed down; it's always had dumb elements. Large groups of young people have long pursued patterns of behavior considered stupid by their elders and contemporaries. Greek philosophers were complaining about the dumbing down of their culture due to the invention of writing; generations of theologians complained of the dumbing down of their culture due to romances during the European Renaissance.

So don't blame the dumbing down of the culture. Accept that wish fulfillment and violence is a perennial part of our culture, along with the forms of stories we love. Culture can and does encompass both. Hell, art as a category can encompass both simple enjoyment and critical engagement.

Aaron wrote:(YOLO, SWAG, Hipsters, etc)

One of these things is not like the other? Not a hipster. But supportive.

Really, all of those things are just fashions that people use to portray themselves to society. Which is something that people have always done. To place them as the center of what is wrong with culture is pretty far off the mark. One generation ago people would say the same thing with punk in place of hipster. Before that they would have said hippie. These are all just youthful attempts at projecting identities. Really if there is anything that I could put blame on for these games is the glorification of violence. Or possibly some really bizarre wish fulfillment of the American dream (If I really want to get political I might be tempted to say that with the decay of the middle class, the only way people in my generation can achieve the American dream is through sick fantasies of being a drug lord)

There is plenty wrong with our society. But placing blame on the most superficial elements in society is so complacent. If you want to know what is wrong with society dig deeper. And probably look somewhere other than video games (they are just a reflection).

Edit 1: Waited too long to post. I am still posting mine because I feel that I make some points that you didn't.

Edit 2: Just read your whole post. We both used the term "wish fulfillment." We must both be secretly Freudian.

Freud had some valid views that others misinterpreted and DIDN'T WANT to acknowledge.

Either way, we aren't the target audience and never were. Other genres have always put RPGs in the background. Sandbox mayhem and first person shooters may be dominating the industry now, but it was fighting games before then and platformers before that.

We're also a bit hung up on 2D. I love 2D games but I understand that the world is changing and I shouldn't expect a 2D game to excel much outside of a handheld system or on a browser.

Eh, Freud was/is a mixed bag. I think his ideas are a better tool for interpreting literary characters (maybe because some of his inspiration is from one of the most influential works in the Western canon...) than actual people. If I'm going to go with a psychoanalyst, I am going to go with Erik Erikson. His ideas have more face validity than Freud's and have a lot of utility to fields like gerontology and pediatrics that have a development bent to them.

Freud's ideas were based on a few case studies AND he misinterpreted the data. Many of Freud's patients were upper class women who were suffering from PTSD from being sexually abused. Rather than admit that his society had a HUGE problem, he came up with a set of constructs that could explain why these women were just imagining their abuse.

Not surprising for the time but still unfortunate both in the sense that a generation of women were accused of lying about something that they should have been given support for and that it probably set us back as a society for the development of efficacious treatments for psychological conditions (but can't blame all that on Freud. Advances in other sciences were a requisite before we could truly develop better psychology).

Still, the ideas that Freud came up with are fun to think about. OH, and he did some really good descriptive work of cerebral palsy before he left neurology for psychiatry.

Here's something I noticed. I think pretty much, the people in the industry tend to be older and they may cater towards their own crowd & for some reason they think that violence + sex equals mature-themed. And that'd be something of a moneymaker. Kinda like they're banking on the fact that if they make more adult-ish games, they can sell it for a higher price, but that doesn't necessarily mean quality gaming, do you know what I mean? I'd rather play a sprite-based anything over the MMORPG -> console transitions that I feel have been a majority of games I see available in retail stores or online stores. It's always been like that, though. But, now that videogaming is more popular, it's just seen in more rounder numbers. PC's always been it's own "thing," though and I think and feel both parties, console & PC seem to acknowledge that fact. There seems to be a steadier "alliance" of sorts amongst just friendly gaming but I feel the rift or line drawn in the sand is still there in terms of general culture.

I remember when you had to go to more of the kid-friendly stores or toy stores to get the best console games. RadioShack was more of a retail outlet for PC gaming or you had to special order. I just wanted to say that you have to understand that videogames aren't all bad iterations brought over to America where one gem shines brighter than the rest of the cluster or there's a needle in a haystack somewhere every year like everyone thinks... but I think most videogames are treated to the best of a certain company's ability and some corps are better than others or just fix it up with a different style or customization. They cater to a different crowd within a now growing niche market. That word's so catchy - "niche." LOL So... if some people are feeling like videogames are heading to a different, weird or unrelated direction, it's probably just a phase just with any industry and you should take this as an opportunity to go through your own catalog and see what you like, maybe post online more about it, I dunno what helps, or just play your favorites until something you like catches your eye. It'll happen, it usually does.