The current face of gaming

glennmagusharvey

I haven't made a stupid thread in a while, and today's the perfect day to do that.

So, let's look at this image.

This is the background image used by a general gaming group on Hummingbird.


What happened?

Where did the Mario and Sonic and Mega Man and Final Fantasy and Castlevania and Metroid and Zelda go?

fourteenwings

a) I don't think God of War is that popular anymore
b) You listed a series of games that's still extremely popular, a series that's still moderately popular, a series that has zero interest in it anymore according to it's IP holder, a JRPG series, two platformer series that are for all intents and purposes pretty dead and a fairly popular series. And all of said properties are Japanese.
c) I'm assuming like... Western developers made games and people bought them? It's part of the circle of popularity ie nothing works forever for the masses?
d) Adding on to (c); Niches are a thing, niches are such a big thing I'm assuming that added up they'd be as big as big IP fandoms but they're not.
e) Even though I hate saying this; video games have basically become like television so everybody's wants are catered to, yours just aren't popular enough to matter anymore (and I'm pretty sure these aren't even your kind of games because you are a PC person).
f) I really, really hate saying this but do you really want to label yourself a gamer considering that unspeakable thing which if you even mention it's name people who have touched a DS like once ever suddenly want to distance themselves from the label?
g) I hate threads that ask "What happened?" because that is one of the worst phrases humanity can use in the context of "Stuff has changed" because it has that inbuilt implication of "And it's worse now" and clearly most of these games aren't bad or less creative or offensive or hurtful.

InsanityAddict

I'm sure you could make this gritty thing with NES and SNES games. Contra clonepastes, sidescrolling shooters, Metal Gear and the like. Nothing has changed. If you think kids weren't bullied and beat up for their tastes in vidya back then or that the death threats weren't flying fast and high, you haven't been paying attention. 

It's also silly to try to distance yourself from the label based on female reproductive worker ants, as the people who will assume the gamer label implies you hold every prejudice under the sun already assume you do so because of the whole white middle-class cis male thing(and going by the parameters they hold for it, they will be right anyway). 

Naas_Human

glennmagusharvey wrote: »

Where did the Mario and Sonic and Mega Man and Final Fantasy and Castlevania and Metroid and Zelda go?

You say that as if Mario, Sonic, FF and Zelda aren't still getting games made.

Kraken

[user deleted]

glennmagusharvey

fourteenwings wrote: »

e) Even though I hate saying this; video games have basically become like television so everybody's wants are catered to, yours just aren't popular enough to matter anymore (and I'm pretty sure these aren't even your kind of games because you are a PC person).

By "these" do you mean the series shown in that image?  Because I'm pretty sure Assassin's Creed and the recent Batman games are all on PC, if not the two in the middle that I don't recognize.

fourteenwings wrote: »

f) I really, really hate saying this but do you really want to label yourself a gamer considering that unspeakable thing which if you even mention it's name people who have touched a DS like once ever suddenly want to distance themselves from the label?

Do you mean gamergate?

That whole controversy can go die in a fire for all I care.

In any case, this was just a small common-interest subgroup on a common-interest web community anyway.  Considering that the community's common interest is anime, playing videogames probably ain't the most shameful thing for anyone to be seen within ten feet of.

fourteenwings wrote: »

g) I hate threads that ask "What happened?" because that is one of the worst phrases humanity can use in the context of "Stuff has changed" because it has that inbuilt implication of "And it's worse now" and clearly most of these games aren't bad or less creative or offensive or hurtful.

Hey, I said it was a stupid thread.

also Kratos gets offensive sex scenes

Kraken wrote: »

What makes Mario and company worthy of being represented in that banner?

Ironically, to someone who does play videogames, probably not much, but to someone who doesn't play videogames, Mario is still one of the most recognizable icons of the videogame industry.

Also I forgot to mention Pokémon in the OP.  But whatever.

lrdgck

Seems like the logo was made by and for the players of games, so, eh.

DYRE

The real current face of gaming:

Kraken

[user deleted]

glennmagusharvey

@DYRE wins the thread.

Raydere

Times change, really. If it was Mario, Sonic, et al., especially 20 years ago, I'm there there will be people going "but what about Pac-Man, qbert, and all the other 70's and early 80's mascots?"