LEVEL ONE: Toxicity
Social media is something, ain’t it? The other day I stumbled upon an interesting thread of tweets that got me thinking, never a good thing, and got me upset, which is acceptable nowadays with everyone being upset by everything. What I learned was that we, in the gaming community, can be truly unjustifiably toxic and I wanted to address it. We need to be better people towards one another and allow others to be happy with things that excite them, even if it doesn’t interest us. We need to be nicer and not trample on the enjoyment of others.
The tweet I read was about a young woman who was genuinely excited about the upcoming launch of the Xbox One X. She was excited about getting one, excited about playing Assassin’s Creed Origins on it, and impressed by the hype and support it was receiving. How did I feel after reading this from her? I felt happy for her. She had the money to buy the updated Xbox and she couldn’t wait to play it. Nothing at all from that post screamed anything other than excitement. What did the replies say? Well, that’s the sad part. She received a few comments talking about how excited they were as well but the overwhelming response was about how Microsoft “lost” the war and how Sony’s PS4 is the superior console. Oh, and how there are no such thing as female gamers.
*Sigh* […] We’ll be discussing that sexism in another level.
This whole idea of a console “war” is ridiculous and we need to stop driving a wedge between one another. It’s perfectly fine to like both consoles and to game on more than one. I mean that’s what ultimately matters, right? Gaming. Does it really make a difference which console someone prefers? On countless message boards and other social media outlets there are people verbally attacking other people because they like one particular console over another and this upsets someone. Why can’t we just be happy with someone else’s content?
I want to break down her tweet and some of the responses I’ve seen and hopefully by the end of this, you as the reader and me as the writer will both have learned something. Hopefully.
Microsoft has done a great job promoting their Xbox One X, I don’t think that can be disputed. They took a different approach from Sony and instead of them talking about how great it is, which they’ve done a great deal of, they allowed media outlets like Digital Foundry and Developers to talk about the console. That shows they are confident in their box but it was still a huge risk. Their box, it’s powerful, and it’s future depended on the words of these people and had they been negative? well, they would probably be dead in the water. What we’ve seen is positivity from these outlets because Xbox One X had been extremely well made.
We’ve seen drastic graphical and frame rate improvements over games that are available on both PS4 and PC, though it does fall short in some cases to max PC settings. Developers have talked about how great the Xbox One X is and how they’ve enjoyed working with it. You will see these results regardless if you have a 4K television or not.
Xbox One X was an answer to them treading behind in sales and to the release of the PS4 Pro. Does this make the PS4 Pro less of a console? No. Is the Xbox One X better than the PS4 Pro? Yes, technically speaking. Does that matter? Absolutely not. Technical specs don’t matter in the grand scheme of things because even if you have the best looking game ever, it doesn’t mean it’s a fun or great game.
Resolution and frame rates aren’t a make or break either and, yet, a vast majority of gamers fight over it as if it’s some fictional competition with a reward at the end. If any of that mattered, No Man’s Sky and The Order 1886 would be two of the greatest games ever and a game like The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild would not even be in the top ten. Also, the Wii and 3DS wouldn’t have sold like they did. Also, let’s be honest with one another, if that’s all that matters to you then you should get a PC.
I think it’s time for my special move! #BreathoftheWild #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/iLJa8RGzVh
— Daniel Otaigbe (@daniel_as_frick) October 24, 2017
What does really matter instead? Enjoyment. Going back to Breath Of The Wild, that game is extremely fun to play with and new things are being discovered everyday about it. I just saw a Twitter clip where a player made sort of like a lawnmower and was going around slicing enemies. It looks awesome and you know I’m going to try and reenact it. Not once did I think about the resolution or the frame rate, all I’m thinking about is what else I can do in that wonderful game. Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite is not the prettiest game ever made, in many cases it’s predecessor looks better and Dragon Ball Fighter Z is gorgeous, but its fun and engaging. I have the Xbox One copy which is considered the worst version in terms of resolution and frame rate but that doesn’t matter to me. You know what matters? Playing against all my friends, playing with my family, and using a controller I feel most comfortable with.
Another point of discussion when can take from the tweet and responses is the whole ‘Microsoft lost the war’. First of, war is no joking matter nor should anything be compared to something so potentially devastating. Second of all, Microsoft isn’t dead yet and they will fight to stay alive. Instead of boasting about their rough patch, let’s be happy they are still around and that millions still have employment. That’s something rarely brought up when we talk about console ‘wars’.
Sega battled Nintendo and Sony before losing and having to pull out of the console manufacturing business. Nothing good came from that. So many lost jobs and creative ideas that never saw the light of day and it’s a shame. Would you truly want that to happen to Microsoft and the Xbox brand? I constantly read how people wish Nintendo would go third party. My question is… why? Because you don’t like Nintendo? That’s a foolish way to look at things. You would rather see something destroyed because you don’t like them rather than think about all the other people who would be saddened by the fact their favorite company, or a company who has games they enjoy, are gone.
Selfish.
I don’t particularly like android phones, that doesn’t mean I want Samsung to go under and have some of their ideas go to Apple. What I do is simply coexist. I respect the fact that people have options and may like something I don’t. My wife, for example, is a Samsung Note loyalist. Should that bother me? No. I respect her and her likes and I’m happy it gives her what she looks for in a phone.
I guess that’s what I’m ultimately trying to say, we need to coexist peacefully. With everything going on in the world, the last thing we need is to fight amongst each other about a hobby we all enjoy. Enjoy but allow to enjoy differently. We need to stop attacking each other for not liking what we like and we need to stop attacking one console to put over another. We need to get back to enjoy the games that are released and not worry about what resolution it runs at or how many frames per second it has. The superior console is the one you have the most fun with, whether that’s on a Microsoft platform or Sony, whether that’s a console released in 2017 or one that was released in 1996.
*UPDATED: As of the editing of this post, the tweet in question has since been deleted. That’s a shame. I hope she still gets her Xbox One X, isn’t discouraged, and has fun.
