Self-Entitlement Is a Disease

The sense of self-entitlement some gamers have will ruin the gaming fandom for the rest of us. Here's why.

[Gohadouken]

And "journalists" telling their audience that they are entitled and whiny , instead of looking out for their interest , over thoses of publishers are a plague . At least in most cases .

Not even claiming this article here is a prime example of that , if even at all ... but it is tiresome to see no effort to fight on the behalf of an audience , but to constantly chastise and lecture them instead , into accepting every thing coming their way .

It's most likely the only field in the press and blogosphere that does it on a regular and quasi permanent basis

[Ristul]

Well said.

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

I agree, it's hard to take gaming and gaming journalism as "serious" business when they have articles like these insulting their customer base for any kind of criticism. Very rare do I hear other industries complain about concerns from their patrons, let alone on a monthly basis.

[3-4-5]

There is no accountability in journalism now so its not as respected as it used to be.

80% of journalists now would be fired from there job in the 80's & 90's for misleading or outright lying to people.

No Shame, morals, or integrity now with too many people in a position of power to spread their agenda.

Self-entitled people are also a problem as well, but a lot of that is bad or no parenting.

Gamers in the 90's were a lot more appreciative of whatever they got, and didn't whine as much.

We just enjoyed playing games for what they were. Fun.

[Roccetarius]

''We just enjoyed playing games for what they were. Fun.''

It wasn't just that. Games were actually of quality made by gamers for gamers, but what we have today, are games made on a conveyor belt to be pushed out.

In some cases, the comments are written by people in a rage fit. In most cases however, the comments are against what the masses just don't admit is true.

[rainslacker]

I'll take a site seriously on this subject matter if they can go and make an article also explaining why SJW are self entitled whiney little brats as well. Some new conclusion I've come to given that I feel the press is hiding away from the whole debate.

Until then, I won't disagree, because I do think it's true, but at the same time, if they don't care to respect their readership and represent us as well as the publisher, their opinions on the community are pretty worthless to me...and I can say without a shadow of a doubt the publishers don't care because they get their sales.

Believe it or not, publishers do want to provide a good product, and when they do, they reap the benefits...sometimes even when it's not good, but that's another issue. A gamer criticizing a game, and expressing what they want is not entitlement. Entitlement is expecting something to change due to that expression, and then going on to cause ill effects in some sort of feeling of divine right which probably would have a negative effect on said publisher. Those cases of action are rather rare.

[freshslicepizza]

we see it all the time. reboots of dmc and tomb raider for example. which is why the opening quote is so spot on,

"A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject."
-Winston Churchill

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

There is also other sayings that rings true,

"Don't bite the hand that feeds you." or "If it isn't broke don't fix it."

[freshslicepizza]

"If it isn't broke don't fix it"

that's just a cover up for those who don't like being taken out of their comfort zone.

[starchild]

So we should just bend over to the stupidity of the vocal minority of ignorant gamers? Screw that. If I was a gaming journalist I would be calling these people out too.

[Gohadouken]

I found many times , that some people preaching that are indeed so welcome to any perceived negative and drastic changes , so long as it doesnt happens to stuff they are deeply and much more attached to .

Nuances on the matter are important .

There are some changes for the heck of it , or based on greed , that dont enhances the product at all or simply borrow a name and fame . Why should fan of a peculiar ip praise that and pretend he's above it ?

There are actual new takes , that may actually fail but be acknowledged at least for the effort .

There are of course some that are the natural planned evolution for a concept .... sometimes evne te initial goal all along impeded by tech in the past .

And of course still radical shift that happens to be a boon to a franchise . Etc etc

[freshslicepizza]

can you say it again in plain english please?

[Gohadouken]

Sorry , i don't do plain . We shall never understand each other , i'm afraid .

[Roccetarius]

Both cases had ground to stand on, and Capcom shot themselves in the foot by outsourcing to a mediocre developer.

What did the fans do? They didn't support it, and that made it one of, if not the worst selling game in that vein.

I say that vein, because it has nothing to do with the original games, and it even manages to make what story the originals had even worse.

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

@starchild And that's when journalism changes into childish blogging. Nothing wrong when writing an opinion piece why you think someone should acknowledge game A but as soon as you stoop low enough to insulting your readers, you've lost the game.

Gaming journalism nowadays don't have the patience to discern the differences between constructive criticism and pointless trolling. Instead, they generalize everything against their opinion under "self-entitlement" and "nostalgia".

[rainslacker]

Is criticism and boycotting the same as entitlement though? Those are rather common consumer practices for products which don't fit what said consumer wants.

Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of people are very bad at expressing criticism and what not, but at the same time, I think it's very disingenuous to chalk that up to self-entitlement.

I say call a spade a spade, and look at the actual criticism and see if it's warranted, and then discuss that instead of dismissing that criticism. I know it takes more work to do it that way and involved critical thinking to really discuss said criticisms, but calling someone entitled really does nothing to dissuade that person, or give them pause to consider other arguments.

To give another quote

"You catch more flies with Honey" -someone

Meaning, you address the concern instead of attack the voice, and that voice can become much more reasonable in their arguments and thinking...most of the time anyways..."haters gonna hate" -someone else..quotes are fun.:)

Disclaimer: Not addressing you moldy directly when I say "you", just mean those who would do such a thing.

[freshslicepizza]

i understand and partly agree but at the end of the day developers should be free to make what they want. it is up to the customer then to vote with their wallets. i am talking more about the vitriol within the forums and the attacks. they have no right to speak to these developers that way.

some gamers also don't want to be open minded and at the same token want the developer to listen to them. early access games are kind of a more open partnership than what we would see in the aaa field.

games like the tomb raider reboot and the dmc reboot have scored very well in reviews and it appears like the old customer just doesn't like the new direction and i would argue many never even played them.

some reboots also need to be questioned why they decided to reboot the franchise in the first place. was the series starting to lack in sales? in quality? did they think it needed a fresher look because after all the gamer has also changed over the years. you can't just keep selling to the same people 10 or 20 years ago.

lots of variables but one thing that severely gets lost in this is respect and we see how little there is of that within the forums.

[rainslacker]

That's sound reasoning, and I agree. As I said, some people are really bad at expressing criticism, and I will also say some developers PR is bad at handling said criticism when adressing their fan base...DMC being a good example.

I think the TR franchise did well in addressing why they did the reboot overall, and I understand that some people didn't like it initially due to it's change in course from the originals, but in the end, a lot of the old fans of the series seemed to like the new ones, even if they're different. DMC obviously didn't receive as much of this, and I think a lot of it may have been how the two different developers handled their fan base. TR, they were mostly addressing the concerns, while with DMC the dev was rather hostile towards those that didn't like it.

I would like to say it is hard to change course on the design of games when they are far enough in development to reveal to the public. Things like DMC and TR were probably more than halfway done when revealed(TR2 moreso), and at that point, I wouldn't expect large sums of money to be expended to change what they were making. At the same time, when the community cries for artistic freedom, I find it somewhat hypocritical to call for massive changes.

I think it's one of those fine line moments where a balance is going to be hard to strike, and no matter what happens, there are always going to be those who want to express their criticisms in a vitriolic way.

[Gohadouken]

If you want a solid example , we saw every major press outlets remain neutral or trying to hype the disaster that was the newer Fantastic Four .... some even did play the racism card and angle to guilt people into welcoming the movie ... Some were even actually negative about the movie .

However , most of them didnt call their audience entitled or whiny at the end of the day . They shifted gears , stopped trying to sell off a flop and moved on .

in the gaming press ? You'll see crap that translate into "why it doesnt matter that XXX game is bugged beyond belief" , well crafted defenses of passes , dlc , every bad decisions coming our way , or guilt tripping about the commercial failures of titles like Enslaved , DmC etc .... Only there ...

[Fro_xoxo]

I'm gonna have to agree with this article. .

Numerous prime examples like N4G and Neogaf .. yuck.

Knowing this, the so called journalist take advantage of it also..

so they're just as bad as each other ^_^

[terminallyCapricious]

How bout I fight for the most bang for my buck? God with most of these AAA games shafting us with cut content, dlc abuse, nonexistent developer transparency and overall shallowness, you would think that these "Gaming" journalists would be on our side.

[freshslicepizza]

ever stop to think that your buck does not hold the same value as it did years ago? it's called inflation and because gamers have this mindset that no game should ever go up in price or consoles should never be priced higher than $400 it's no wonder these companies look for alternative resources.

this is why the indie scene is the place to be, it's not burdened with pressure to deliver on time with tens of millions of dollars spent on marketing.

[eferreira]

Video games are cheaper than they've ever been while development cost is higher than ever.

Explain how a dev can create a huge AAA game on a small budget?

[Roccetarius]

But it's also being said, that development is easier than ever with the tools available, so should that not reduce development cost as well?

It's kinda funny how that works, considering in many cases the money is being spent on marketing.

[freshslicepizza]

@Roccetarius
"But it's also being said, that development is easier than ever with the tools available, so should that not reduce development cost as well?"

how can you use that tactic if games require so many people to make aaa games? do you also think there should be a pay freeze on those who make the game as well? seems like gamers think so.

"It's kinda funny how that works, considering in many cases the money is being spent on marketing."

marketing helps sell your product, imagine that. it's simple economics, things cost more than they used to.

[PaulKersey]

Until game publishers start giving us their games for free, paying customers have the right to voice their opinions.

[starchild]

Yes, that's true. Sadly, more than half of the stuff that regularly gets complained about in the gaming community is simply nonsensical and shows a lack of any understanding of how the world really works. It's born out of ignorance and immaturity on the part of some gamers.

Having the right to do something and actually being "right" in doing it are two separate things.

[yewles1]

We're having this crap again? Pot, Kettle, etc.