Posts Tagged ‘Prototype’

Well Excuse Me for Being Right…

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Yes, the games are very different...

We all have our own proclivities. Styles we prefer, elements and factors that appeal to us. More often than not we cannot fully verbalise these preferences. When discussing games so many factors affect our tastes to the point it can be near impossible to satisfactorily articulate a game’s allure. People need to suffix the explanations of the games they enjoy with a simple ‘and I just like it’. Unfortunately usually when people feel passionately about a game they want to convince others it is good or defend it from deriders.

Recently Prototype and inFamous were released. Both are open world superhero games so comparisons were inevitable. Strangely though no one online seemed to be happy simply saying ‘I like this one!’ They seem to want to convince the world that their enjoyment of one game is more valid than the enjoyment of people who played the other game. To do this they find it necessary to attack the other title, frequently without seemingly having played it.

Arguments center on elements that neither game does well, excusing their preferred games through bizarre mental gymnastics. Look at message boards you see Prototype fans decrying inFamous’s story for its contrived and ridiculously polarizing decision process. In the same post they will argue that Prototype’s plot is unimportant to the game, simply providing frame for the visceral action around it and using words like ‘competent’ or ‘functional’. Reactionary inFamous fans hit back attacking the simplicity and repetitive nature while forgetting (or ignoring) the grenade spam fest that makes up the later stages of their own game.

…but they make it hard not to draw comparison.

…but they make it difficult not to draw comparisons.

It appears to be an extension of cognitive dissidence. People need to validate a decision to feel like the right choice was made. But online gamers frequently strengthen their choice by (aggressively) undermining others. The same thing experienced by console fanboys. Every element of gaming (and entertainment) preference is subjective. You can argue more people prefer one game over another, but not that is objectively better.

All this energy is wasted in an attempt to be ‘right’. Gamers it seems still to clutch to the misconception that there is a best game, that somehow there is a scientific formula that can calculate a hierarchy of games. The problem is I suspect if the hierarchy didn’t agree with their opinion they would probably argue the equation was flawed.