So you take some unreleased consoles... Add a few teaspoons of bloodthirsty fanboys... Throw in some speculative articles that have absolutely no basis in the factual world... Finally, a sprinkle of shameless trolls who make ridiculous bold statements and pass their opinions off as facts.
Listed above are the ingredients for my self-inflicted hair loss. Here I thought that gamers could possibly grow and mature as a community. I thought we were done with this ridiculous bickering and ranting. I was wrong.
Since the announcement of the PS4 (which I'm sure we could have all guessed was on it's way) we have been faced with 2005-2006 all over again. Now, in the coming months, I understand microsoft will be announcing their new console.
The point is that the hype for these consoles is steadily building. Now, when this happens, fans of their respective consoles desperately await further news regarding their potential future purchase.
The problem is that there is currently no massive news coming out about next gen consoles. So what happens now?
To answer that, let me throw an analogy at you. You are swimming in a pool. Halfway across the pool, there is a barbed wire barrier which will not let you through to the other half of the pool until a pre-determined amount of time has elapsed. You could go back and hang on to the edge, waiting for the barrier to open or you could be so desperate to get through first that you will wait right in front of the barrier, treading water the whole time. That's what we're doing right now. The thing about treading water, is you can only do it for so long before your arms get tired and you end up just splashing around in a panic.
Instead of waiting for news to come out, we're just making up news. Suddenly we are getting a flood of articles (I use that term very loosely) which are desperate for hits, generating fuel for the fire that we are all burning in. The console war is back. This means that we're already seeing plenty of:
-"5 reasons why X is better than Y"
-"what company A needs to do to ensure they beat company B"
-"why I will be buying console x- and why you should too"
... and so on and so forth until I am ready to puke.
So we're getting articles which are hyping up particular consoles, ones that are putting them down and others that just want some quick hits, regardless of what will happen to their site's reputation. What do they all have in common? They are not news. There's nothing factual about these articles. You scroll down to the comments section and there is nothing intelligent being said there other than the occasional "I will reserve judgement until I actually know what I'm talking about" comment.
That is exactly what I think people should do. Don't jump on the hype train. Don't agree with someone else's opinion just to be popular. Buy the console that is right for you when it comes out. There are people out there saying they know a console is going to be good before it even comes out. Listen to reason. You have no idea what you're talking about.
As for the console war, I'm going to simply sit on the fence. I'll buy one for the games and whatever one has the most games that I am interested in will be the winner for me. That doesn't necessarily mean it'll be a good choice for you because we will undoubtedly have a different taste, but I strongly urge all of you to come to your own conclusions when you have the right information.
Games Asylum: "Before starting this review, I attempted to research the time management genre, inadvertently discovering an unexplored world filled with countless colourful farming and cooking games for PC and mobiles – most of which have either the word ‘frenzy’ or ‘mania’ in their titles. The Kindeman Remedy falls into the same genre but is the polar opposite, commencing with a warning screen for its graphic content, while also featuring a morally dubious – although intriguing – premise. Those hooked on Farm Frenzy are probably going to go through life blissfully unaware of The Kindeman Remedy’s existence; it’s for a very discerning audience."
Review: Suikoden fans will no doubt enjoy Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, as well as those who simply appreciate old-school JRPGs.
Turtles unite! Wrath of the Mutants brings the shelled foursome back to all formats with a shiny arcade release. But is it cowabunga or cow pat? JDR orders pizza for today's review.
Good read but...
How is the terrible content submitted to N4G now any different from any other time? Next gen is just the latest excuse, there'll always be top X lists and other trash as well as wild rumors and speculation.
"Don't agree with someone else's opinion just to be popular"
You might need to be more specific there, how do you know who agrees for that reason and not just because they actually just agree?
"There are people out there saying they know a console is going to be good before it even comes out"
Although I agree some people take it much too far, I think it's OK to believe that an unreleased product will be good based on information that is currently available. You can also look at a console's predecessors to form a general opinion of what you could expect to see.
Until we have more solid information it's inevitable we'll keep seeing rumor and speculation. It's OK to comment on these topics but I agree you shouldn't really base your opinion 100% on them.
You know what they say about the man who builds his house on the sand, or something like that :P
Gamers are a passionate bunch. I think a lot of the fuel being added to the fire is justified: WiiU's first four months have been sluggish and the complete opposite of what the Wii was trying to do. 3DS started off slow but now it's skyrocketing. Sony is being humble while showcasing the PS4's hardware power and its software ideas, not to mention they're bringing a ton of indies to PSN. With the PS3, they were arrogant and PSN was almost an afterthought. Microsoft was first to market with 360 and they loved to brag about that. Now, they're keeping quiet.
I agree that the fanboy wars can be irritating. But I disagree that we don't have enough info. As I showed above, we have plenty to bicker about, even if we don't have all of the answers.
Only thing thats p*ssing me off are all the articles about the nextbox to the extent of:
- Nextbox will require always on connection
- Nextbox will only play games from the HDD
- Nextbox will refuse to work if Kinect sees more than one person
- Nextbox won't play pre-owned games
etc etc etc
Most of these can be dismissed with common sense, a trait a lot of people seem to lack these days. I'm a Sony kinda guy and will most likely go for the PS4, even though i'm blinded by Sony even I can see that these features are only realistic through extreme stupidity.
I know exactly what you mean.
People are tearing into the new Xbox based on what is purely rumours and speculation. I'm not exactly a big Xbox fan but it's getting on my nerves with people slating the 720/durango with nothing to back it up other than a headline on a rumour article. Truth is we haven't got a clue what the console will be like until we have some solid evidence or Microsoft tell us.
These articles are just getting spammed though and are constantly being approved by N4G when they shouldn't be.
I just can't wait until Microsoft and Sony announce everything there is too know about their systems and we can stop the madness.