And how great that the timing of these tasteful lists by these handsome and awesome people (whoever they are.....) coincides with the last 2 days of the Steam Sale! A perfect occasion to buy that which is good for a reduced price.
2014 made me realize how easy it is to not read, watch or listen to news or opinions I don't care about. I buy my games, judge my experiences internally and move on. As a result I've been far happier.
If I could upvote you more, I would, but don't forget that this is your world of gaming as well as everyone else's, you have a say if you want a say, and it's important to give that opinion otherwise gaming might just suddenly take a twist in a direction you might not like. This is true for world politics as well.
Good for you! Besides clicking on links sent by friends i haven't visited gaming news site in a couple of years. In this day of age where games are cheap, gameplay videos are everywhere and community voices can easily be heard i see very little reason to visit gaming sites. Screw previews, dev diaries and all that that kind of hype generating garbage. Who cares about clickbait news and unconfirmed rumors. Who wants to have judgmental shit, political views and anti-consumer nonsense pushed in your face. Reviews are interesting but most reviews on gaming sites are pure garbage. Most of them lack any insight and they have that nasty habit of describing games like a english major working in games pr. And lets not even mention the close ties with developers and games sites and the dubious reviews and publisher defending nonsense that has come out of some of the biggest gaming news sites.
***** I should follow your example. This has got me involved with several discussions that end up as a mud-sling (unrelated to GG) and all I can say is, wow, I have a lot to learn but for now, I'll just enjoy my self before entering this large world before me.
Jinsei Cast Just remember that you never have to pick a side and that you're not a coward for not choosing a side. Anyone that belittles you for not getting involved is a not a person right in the head.
I think about this video regularly and come back to it every year or two. Only now, September 28 2024, do I think we're seeing a course correction. We're probably still gonna see a lot of this for the next ten years though.
I liked the Korra game. For something made very quickly that I got on sale for like $5, I thought it was decent! Plus the unlockable secret costumes are really neat, playing the whole game as Spirit Korra for example
RIDICULOGAN Lol, thank you, Logan. I hadn't noticed Dogman_35 's comment until now but yeah, you would think the days since an episode that takes place on January 1st would be pretty easy to calculate. You would THINK...
On those "gamers are dead" articles: To be sure, they didn't make me question my hobby or my identity one bit. But they were incredibly arrogant, dishonest, and the fact that a dozen different websites basically posted the same article on the same day was enough reason for me to stop paying attention to all of them. As you said, YT is where the audience is headed, and your channel is part of that future. Games websites are over.
I've been on Internet for quite a while now, but GamerGate debacle opened my eyes on what is happening on Internet discussions. Chaos. Complete and utter chaos. Time and time again I see legitimate issues being buried by a ton of shit, insults, spam, trolling and clueless opinions on the subject that it all begins to look like a static noise. Like no clear resolution is found nor ever will be found. No matter what side attacks whom, I see no real open discussion as a whole. Only little islands of genuine discussion arises from the non-sense ocean. And that's because no one wants to feel, like they are in the wrong. Bunnyhop is right - no matter what side you're on, no matter what side is considerably more right, it all will look like a blury mess in the end, with no clear winners.
Tom Jeffrey Well, had some fun myself, but now, it just... I'm getting too old for this bullshit.. I feel tired, real tired of this... all of this.. And the anarchy, the chaos of internet is like a force of nature - you cannot control it, only accept it.
Professor Catus Then take a break man. No one is stopping you. Surround yourself with things you want to be surrounded by. Don't want to hear about gamergate and stupid comments. Don't. Fuck that shit. It isn't worth your time. Find forums about hobby's that you like. Be around people you want to be around. The internet is what you make of it. You can't control it, but you can as hell filter it to personalize you. Stay strong bud, and keep your head up.
Almost a month into 2016 when I stumbled across this video (and consequently, your channel). That message at the end there was totally unexpected but it really made my day. Thanks. Go on and take my subscription, you've earned a cut of that RUclips Red payout :D
Game james You should understand some people just don't give a shit about politics. I don't know what label will describe us but ignorant is fine by me.
2015: everything was gritty and a roguelike... (more like roguelite but everything was called roguelike) also a lot of remasters. 2016: the year of the bugs and broken promises.
Tangy ™ Nah, just the year a lot of people started scrutinizing the promises of crowdfunded games. MN9 was a mismanaged shitshow from start to finish, and people who weren't initially hooked because they saw the words "Mega Man" in the description ended up having their suspicions confirmed. The trainwreck that was MN9 led to amazing, transparent crowdfunding campaigns like Bloodstained and Indivisible.
I haven't played a single buggy game this year. Maybe it's because I knew No Man's Sky was gonna be bullshit when they put that 60$ tag on it and Mafia 3 flew under the radar.
2015: The Witcher 3, and Bloodborne 2016: Overwatch, FF15(please be good please be good please be good), and Dishonored 2 Best couple years in a long time just by those titles.
This was probably the most amazing year review Ive seen, most importantly because, even after all the negativity, George ended the video on one of the most positive notes Ive seen, encouraging us to go forward. Probably one of the best things Ive done this year was find this channel and subscribing to it. Both the reviews and editorials are done in such a way that I find them both entertaining AND educational, which is always appreciated, since Im guessing it takes quite a lot of time to actually get these videos done. And that Transistor music along the video? Sublime. Thank you, George :)
"It has to do with the moral panic exhibited by gamers who felt they were being attacked by articles criticising gamer stereotypes." Let's analyse this assertion. *Leigh Alexander, "'Gamers' don't have to be your audience. 'Gamers' are over."* GAMASUTRA _" ‘Game culture’ as we know it is kind of embarrassing -- it’s not even culture. It’s buying things, spackling over memes and in-jokes repeatedly, and it’s getting mad on the internet. "_ Personal attacks on entirety of gamer culture _"It’s young men queuing with plush mushroom hats and backpacks and jutting promo poster rolls. Queuing passionately for hours, at events around the world, to see the things that marketers want them to see. To find out whether they should buy things or not. They don’t know how to dress or behave. Television cameras pan across these listless queues, and often catch the expressions of people who don’t quite know why they themselves are standing there. "_ Personal attacks on large section of gamers who wear specific clothes and queue for game release events or general gamer events _"‘Games culture’ is a petri dish of people who know so little about how human social interaction and professional life works"_ Personal attacks on entirety of gamer culture _"Suddenly a generation of lonely basement kids"_ Personal attacks on entire generation of people _"By the turn of the millennium those were games’ only main cultural signposts: Have money. Have women. Get a gun and then a bigger gun. Be an outcast. Celebrate that."_ Attacks on games as media. Personal attacks on entire gamer culture. _"We still think angry young men are the primary demographic for commercial video games"_ Personal attacks on gamer culture _"“Gamer” isn’t just a dated demographic label that most people increasingly prefer not to use. Gamers are over. That’s why they’re so mad. "_ Personal attack on anyone who identifies as 'gamer'. Attack on gamer culture. _"These obtuse shitslingers, these wailing hyper-consumers, these childish internet-arguers"_ Implication, from previous paragraph: that anyone who identifies as a gamer is the above. Hence: personal attacks on gamer culture. Now that's just one article. You say Leigh Alexander is criticising gamer stereotypes. I say that's bullshit, and you know it's bullshit. I'm calling you on it. The articles are shameful, and your defense of them is -shameful- misleading. It's wrong to defend a set of articles that criticised the entirety of gamer culture and told them they were children for dressing a particular way, or devoting their time to a hobby which interests them in a way they see fit that harms nobody, or told them they were lonely basement kids, or that they don't know who human social interaction or professional life works, or that they were only interested in getting money, women and guns, and called them 'angry young men', and implied that anyone who calls themselves a gamer is a shitslinger, wailing hyper-consumer and a childish internet-arguer. Shame on them, and -shame on you.- Ok maybe that's a bit harsh, I take that back. But it angers me when you appear to whitewash these articles, that's all.
*Devin Wilson, "A Guide to Ending "Gamers" "* GAMASUTRA _"we’re seeing calls to do away with the concept of “gamers” altogether._ _This is great..."_ Personal attack on gamer culture - ending an identity important to people is 'great' _" It’s not only the worst of us who need to change. None of us are outside of this system. None of us are completely above its effects. None of us are entirely innocent."_ Personal attack on gamer culture - even the innocent are not innocent _"people are increasingly likely to ignore all of the things outside of their window when they decide to make a game."_ _"yet another escapist fantasy universe."_ Attack on game development _" If our medium is designed for people to stay secluded for dozens of hours while having their egos stroked, "_ Personal attack on gamer culture _"Sexism in games is pervasive and toxic. Racism in games is pervasive and toxic. Violence in games is pervasive and toxic. Despite the skepticism the games press shows at every opportunity, it _*_really_*_ looks like violent games _*_do_*_ make us more aggressive and less empathetic. If researchers are repeatedly suggesting this and then we complain that the vilest people in our communities are too aggressive and not empathetic enough, aren’t we partially to blame for our general eagerness to make and play games that have these overall effects on people? If you think you’re not affected, you’re sorely mistaken and you sound no less ridiculous than people who claim that advertising doesn’t work on them."_ Personal attack on gamer culture - we are all sexist, racist and violent, essentially _"We’ve been trying to make careers out of playing what seem like the videogame equivalents of American football (MOBAs) and mixed martial arts (fighting games), in a warped attempt at gaining legitimacy for our pastime. "_ Attack on legitimacy of eSports - essentially an attack on pro gamers _" People passionately and regularly obsessing over brutalizing strangers’ avatars over the internet (in hopes of eventually doing it professionally) is scary and I deeply mistrust it."_ Attack on gamer culture - obsessing over, and being passionate about eSports is 'scary' _"We all grow up"_ [I.E. Gamers must all grow up] Personal attack on gamer culture - gamers must 'grow up'
*Patrick O'Rourke, "Sexism, Misogyny and online attacks: It's a horrible time to consider yourself a 'gamer'"* FINANCIAL POST _"the toxic attitude of much of the core gaming audience is disgusting and at times even terrifying."_ Personal attack on 'much of the core gaming audience'
*Arthur Chu, "It's Dangerous to Go Alone: Why Are Gamers So Angry?"* THE DAILY BEAST _"Okay, gamers, let’s have a talk_ [Addressing gamers as a group] ... _So when I tell you you’re being misogynist losers who are making us all look bad"_ Personal attack on gamers _"Well, because gamers are special."_ Personal attack on gamer culture _"But mainly it’s because gamers won’t let reviews be anything else."_ Personal attack on gamer culture _"And never have I met a group of people as doggedly convinced that their opinion is “objectively” correct as gamers."_ Personal attack on gamers _"Or maybe it has something to do with gamers self-selecting for being people who care a lot about conflict and winning, who aren’t content to just disagree with other people but have to “beat” them somehow. Maybe the very nature of gaming appeals to people who like black-and-white moral situations and are made uncomfortable by nuance and ambiguity."_ Personal attack on gamers & gamer culture _"I love gaming culture, despite everything wrong with it."_ Attack on gamer culture _"gaming culture is currently filled with hordes and hordes of regenerating monsters, each of whom has convinced himself that he is in fact the hero."_ Attack on gamer culture
*Dan Golding, "The End of Gamers"* PERSONAL BLOG - FREELANCER WHO HAS WORKED FOR ABC ARTS, METRO MAGAZINE, THE GUARDIAN, KOTAKU, PC POWERPLAY, HAS BEEN CITED BY TIME MAGAZINE, THE NY TIMES, SLATE, SALON, BUZZFEED, THE NEW STATESMAN _"Videogames accordingly developed a limited, inwards-looking perception of the world that marked them as different from everyone else."_ Attack on gamer culture - gaming is 'limited', 'inwards-looking' _" the gamer, an identity based on difference and separateness."_ Attack on gamer identify - reduction of gamer identity to mere 'difference' and 'separateness' in order to attack it _"It became deeply bound up in assumptions and performances of gender and sexuality. To be a gamer was to signal a great many things, not all of which are about the actual playing of videogames."_ Attack on gamer identity - makes assumptions about what gamers are (i.e. sexist) _"the gamer identity remained fairly uniformly stagnant and immobile"_ Attack on gamer identity _"what we are seeing is the end of gamers, and the viciousness that accompanies the death of an identity."_ Attack on gamer culture - gamer identity is 'ending' and the result is 'viciousness' _"the gamer identity has been broken."_ Attack on gamer identity _"It has nowhere to call home, and so it reaches out inarticulately at invented problems"_ Attack on gamer culture _"...why things the traditional gamer does not understand are successful"_ Attack on traditional gamer - does not understand the world around them _"abject heartlessness"_ Attack on gamer culture _"the traditional gamer identity is now culturally irrelevant."_ Attack on gamer identity _"The hysterical fits of those inculcated at the heart of gamer culture"_ Attack on gamer culture - those at the 'heart' of gamer culture are the ones showing 'hysterical fits' _"From now on, there are no more gamers"_ Self-explanatory Bloody obnoxious blog post
The ending of this video has had a profound effect on me these past few years, As weird as that may sound. It wormed it's way into my brain and made me more agnostic towards the internet and it's endless bullshit. I stay sane by not joining in. By not commenting 90% of the time and by sticking with the few friends I have on here. It didn't change me by itself, But it did help me put words to the feelings I had been having towards the endless hyperbole and drama that the internet seems to be. Thank you George, For being a beacon of beauty not just on RUclips, But the whole internet.
John G agreed, 100%. I'm still trying to learn this myself, but recognizing what it is internally that compels me to join in with the comment section yelling has helped me reduce it drastically and for that I'm proud. And I'm proud of you too, tbh, for doing the same 💝
GamerGate is controversy that should have ended a long time ago, but a few of the people who allegedly most want it go away have taken to the idea that you best fight fire by smothering it in gasoline.
The original gamers are dead article, by Leigh Alexander of Gamasutra, was a direct and vicious attack on the gamer identity as a whole. With a broad brush she painted all gamers as manbabies, 'obtuse shitslingers' and several other really unnecessary and hateful names. She linked back to a research paper that pushed the idea we should eliminate the gamer identity entirely. You are right that we are always more than the labels we give ourselves, and perhaps it isnt wise to have such labels at all. But a lot of people do identify as a gamer, and for a wide variety of reasons. Its a refuge and safe space for many who were bullied as children. It's a label many chose to show solidarity against all the scapegoating games face in mass media. Its an outlet for many marginalised young people to feel they belong to a community. It's a part of many peoples identities, for better or worse. Leigh Alexander stepped well over the line when she attacked that and attacked 'nerds' more generally. Many seem to be accrediting more moderate views to her than she actually wrote in that article, such as she was only attacking some subgroup of gamers, or some stereotype of gamers. But if you go read her article, I think her word choices are quite unambiguous - she was directly attacking this group of people as a whole. Gamers are used to this kind of treatment, but until now they had the gaming media to dispel stereotypes and defend them from mass media bullying. Its no small wonder that so many were outraged by those articles, and I think it's important to respect peoples choice to identify as a gamer and their choice to resist this unfair treatment.
You don't have to care if you don't want to. But it matters to the people whose identities are under attack. We shouldn't be seeing such hateful and derisive attitudes from our journalists.
Liam Barden I'm one of the people whose identity is under attack, and I think it's terrible that a single stupid article can cause a thousand angry youtube commenters to make the Internet a more toxic place via yelling. Just ignore it. Journalism thrives on attention, and the kind of attention it's been getting recently has only been giving it more ammunition on the "obtuse shitslinger" front.
Gamer identity? Games are toys and entertainment as well as art. My identity is not defined by the fact that I play video games. Gaming is what I do, not what I am.
Why do you care what some random person writing an article online thinks of you? Do you really need other people to validate what you do in your own life? So she made a stupid article, a rational person would read it and say, "Well fuck that, I don't care what you think because you don't even know me." And guess what, a lot of the people in the video game community are rude, sexist, racist, immature people. Maybe YOU aren't and that's great, so you don't have anything to worry about. Just keep playing your games. And the word "gamer" is such a big generalization that it can include almost everyone you will meet. Everyone plays games..doesn't matter if its on your phone, console, or PC. There's so many people part of that that you shouldn't take any attack personally.
I feel like I'm starting to lose interest in video games. While I also enjoy the more smaller games on the market that actually have "love" put into them. I can't help but feel how bleak and kind of uninspiring video games seem to be nowadays. I never thought this is soemthing that could happen, but it kinda does at the moment. I think this may be me getting older as well though. Like, my tolerance to a tedious task in video games is at an all time low. Making me loss interest in them even quicker than before. Maybe its just a phase but as someone who plays video games for 18 years now and actually intended to be a video game journalist at some point this is a strange and also worrying feeling. Maybe I just need to explore more genres I have avoided until now. Thanks for presenting your thoughts about the last year of video games, it was interesting but also well, you know, kinda depressing.
Honestly, I think games are just going through the same thing all entertainment does. Look at film, anime, comic books, television, music... There's an increasing amount of uninspired art being shoved out. In all forms of media. Maybe it's a good thing. Occasionally we'll get something great and it'll blow our minds all the more. Though. That is a very optimistic view.
I was starting to feel the same way, but then i decided to tackle my backlog of games i missed out on from prevous generations. It was perhaps the best decision i made.
If you have lost the will to play games there's nothing wrong with that. You're never bound to your primary hobby, you can switch it at will. Don't ever feel like you have an obligation to videogames, they have an obligation to you.
Great stuff as always George. Some very interesting explanations behind your choices of the best games of this year. I definitely share some of them. Your commentary on the year's events was one of the best I've heard as well. Regardless of where you sit on the issue, the controversy in its current form only seems to be harming things further and not building any bridges or causing any real positive change. I hope people can still talk about the core issues in 2015 but I hope the "movement" as it is currently branded can fade out so maybe real, constructive discussion can take its place. Keep up the great work!
The rational voices will need more of a platform than the Alexander's, Hernandez's, Wu's, Sarkeesians, Kucheras, Plante's etc. They've "contributed" enough to the 'culture' discussion.
Public Service Announcement: In the above video, Mr. Weidman said the temperature was 50 degrees, implying Fahrenheit. That corresponds to 10 degrees Celsius.
Such a great video to go in to the new year with. Thanks for all the awesome videos George! We are all human as you said, but you definatly are one of the better ones!
Those final words... wow. They turned out to be far more inspiring that I could've expected from a video about a weird year for video games. I know this will sound overblown, but those words of yours really made me feel better in general. Thanks, mate.
im watching this in 2017, and the message in the end of the video still works well for the last year and probably for this year as well, well done guys.
This channel is honestly one of the very few that I trust and agree with when it comes to video games. The closing statement really leaves a mark on the viewer and makes them think. Why do we enjoy video games? Why do we buy the games we buy? Super Bunnyhop has been my top subscription of 2013-2014 (since I have been following since then :P)
I think everyone does (third party trolls and trouble makers not withstanding) but the fight over what emerges from GGs overness is going to keep it going for a long, long time.
Man, that 5 minutes of the ending were pure gold. All the videogame drama is shit and filler. Happy new year to everybody. And remember that games are just games.
This is why i game solo and away from the internet. I play dark souls to feel like i'm overcoming the impossible, i play Skyrim to feel like the hero i was destined to be. I play doom to be a space marine that the hordes of hell fear. When i play games it's not the that's fun. It's the experience the game gives me, playing solo only furthers the experience. We are all humans with human experiences. Us gamers should not worry if gaming will die or not. What matters is the you, the individual, and what you experience in this time frame you have... that is all...
Thanks for that last bit. I've been enjoying your videos for some time now, especially because you really seem to understand MGS a lot better than most fans care to.
Eh,,, I'm a big fan of this channel but I'm very dissapointed with how you tried to minimize the message that those "Gamers are dead" articles were sending...
Hey Super Bunnyhop!!!! Thank you for the video. It was wonderful. I especially enjoyed your end message. Thank you for starting my 2015 on a positive note.
Late but yes, Shovel Knight was 2014's goty for me too 2015 was Bloodborne 2016 I'm looking forward to finding out. Played a lot of great games but nothing I'd call goty just yet.
The Witcher 3 is one of the best games ever made and it's honestly not an exaggeration, from a technical standpoint there is so much overlap between quest outcomes and choices geralt makes, that you are completely immersed in a way other rpgs haven't since the Morrowind days. Blood & Wine was so good it was practically its own 30 hour game. B&W and Hearts of Stone are worth more than the $25 price tag even
Antiform - barren empty world - boring predicable underdeveloped plot - mary sue protagonists - simplistic combat - babies first RPG mechanics - shitty controls - boring characters - options do change things, but are presented in such an obvious and hamfisted way. "oh, this option is good, but this option is bad" booooooooooooring. felt like i was playing bioshock 1 all over again calling this overrated pile of shit "one of the best games ever made" is an honest to god fallacy. i could think of a hundred games way better than TW3, one of which came out the same year, better known as bloodborne
2018 here. As far as I can tell, Gamergate is a clusterfuck of politics stemming from arrogant people questioning the legitimacy of gamers as people. Never bother with it.
Basically Korra has a good combat system, but very poor enemy design, repetitive levels and bosses, alongside with nothing really else for fans of the series. It's bad by Platinum standards, overall a mediocre game at best.
I would say more by Platinum standards because of probably short development time and low budget. If you like this genre or platinum games you could always get it on some sale (I think lowest price so far was ten euro, maybe it will drop lower later this year).
It had a mind boggling concept of a progression curve, where it makes you do hand on hand combat, then gives you water, then earth, then fire (or reversed, dunno) and then air and the game ends. It's just weird. Also, am I the only one who thinks that avatar as a property could use the same treatment gamewise as batman got with the arkham series? Systemising all the core elements of what it means to be the avatar, so you can feel like him/her, rather than just slapping it onto a spectacle fighter?
It was a flawed but still fun game, especially at that price point. I imagine a lot of people would've looked at it much more positively if it had been developed by some indie (it is, after all, priced as such) instead of Platinum.
I don't know how long it took you to write and edit this but I've got to say that this vid is one of my favorites (and that's saying something since I often love your work). The combination of uplifting nostalgia and down to earth criticism actually works and shows the complexity of states of affairs really well. Awesome job :)
I probably won't get to play KH3 for a while due to already getting a bunch of stuff from my family already. No PS4 for a while. But the time will _come_.
A few years back I watched your metal gear solid 2 retrospective, and in the aftermath of the Kojima-konami debacle while trying to get some insight into Kojimas work and position at Konami I remembered it and decided to revisit it. I've been watching your videos religiously for two days now. Thank you. You're amazing.
Due to GamerGate, I refuse to play any multiplayer games beyond Local Multiplayer. Both sides in the media sound too extreme and turns into white noise I don't even want to hear. The community in most games have been a drama-filled, toxic waste environments. This is a lot to say coming from an ex Second Life user who met his RL wife in that game.
Must feel nice shutting yourself like that being neutral. I wonder what you would do when they start changing everything you liked and you'll ask "How did this happen?".
I am not really being a neutral. I just don't fucking care about the situation. I play the games I like and I like finding new experiences in gaming. Change is good.
thegrimmling Specially change like this, "Anita does not speak for gamers, female or otherwise, on the difficulty or appeal of games. She only offers personal insights catering to her own agenda. In fact, *she went so far as to say that women needed a whole new “simplified” control set for this game*, based on her personal experiences, passing them off as the opinion of the female gaming community.” Source: www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/12/ea-replied-fan-petition-remove-anita-sarkeesian-mirrors-edge-2-game-development/#
Man, I really love the writing in the videos. It feels so professional and watching your videos is an enjoyable thing to do! I'm excited to see what you're going to do in 2015! :)
This comment at the end of the Gamasutra "'Gamers' are Dead" article proves for a fact that GamerGate really does need to exist and exists for a reason: "“Gamer” isn’t just a dated demographic label that most people increasingly prefer not to use. Gamers are over. That’s why they’re so mad. These obtuse shitslingers, these wailing hyper-consumers, these childish internet-arguers -- they are not my audience. They don’t have to be yours. There is no ‘side’ to be on, there is no ‘debate’ to be had." Blatant personal attacks on the main consumer-base of video games, amid other bombastic and caustic claims made by the writer of the article Leigh Alexander, prove in a way that the opposition to the gamer identity seeks to shadow a consumer-base in misogynistic claims while ignoring the issue at hand and belittling the market for games in its entirety. Sure, there have been many an action I cannot condone from members of the GG following, like driving people out of their homes in fear of death threats, but remember what's being done here. McIntosh and Sarkeesian both have clear agendas: push forward their seemingly progressive ideas by cherry-picking statistics and examples from popular titles in a medium that support their pre-disposed notions beforehand without doing proper research into their claims. They see Princess Peach as a bad example of a girl in video games even though the core of the Mario franchise is based around the idea of the antiquated romance of the knight and the dragon and the princess; the Mario titles follow these tropes to a T because they were easy to communicate in the beginning of video games, where a well-written story took a big backseat to the core mechanics of a game. It's an unfortunate by-product of the archaic days of gaming after the Great Crash, but without those titles games would not have actually come back as a viable medium for people like McIntosh or Sarkeesian to complain about. As for Princess Zelda, the same basic principle applies, but the villain doesn't take her just because she's a princess. Ganon/Ganondorf takes her because she's the prime political figure of a hierarchical land where no one seemingly outranks her in his bid for power. We don't fight to claim her, we fight for the freedom of the land, represented in the rightful ruler of the land. Where do these people acknowledge the strong female characters of Samus Aran, Quiet [when we know more of her, if what we've seen already is a strong indication], Chell, Alyx Vance, Meryl Silverburgh [in MGS4, when she was more experienced], Olga Gurlukovich, Emma Emmerich, Judith Mossman, The Boss, Sniper Wolf, or any of those characters? Why did they ignore them? One more important thing to remember about the anti-GG side: they particularly hate the idea that a consumer enjoys a product made for them, espoused by Alexander and McIntosh. At its core, the game market is targeted at return consumers who enjoy IPs and installments of these IPs, not unlike a serial book in a magazine. Some of these people have become cultural icons, like Mario or Spartan-117 [Master Chief]. It's a consumerist mindset, but in a way that consumerism made the market boom. Game devs know their audience is the fans of a series or fans of a studio; I know this in my writing of Portal Stories: Mel and have made an experience people who love Portal and the overarching Half-Life series will enjoy while enriching the world with some new ideas. That's the real core of the culture: enjoying the experience of playing a software product made by people who do love what they're doing and enjoying that with like-minded people. Doesn't that sound an awful lot like any other hobby people have, like sports, music, cars, stamps, etc.? What the anti-GG side does espouse, though, is what they perceive to be "academically informed" opinions that capitalism is bad, consumerism is shameful, and that Cultural Marxism is the only way that we can go forward with what is ostensibly art because there's a commercial element placed on it. Which reeks to me of the idea that they're pushing their own agendas on a market that doesn't really want to get involved in these issues because they're ultimately not invested in them. Which again is funny because there are known cases of collusion and "back-scratching" going on for better press. So, I know that there's a lot of people who are automatically against the GG movement, and I know I won't be able to change your minds because of what's happened. But if you're willing to listen, maybe you can see what's really behind the GG argument and what it's actually doing, not what the media base wants you to believe because it will get them to change.
My god you've SHOT like a damn rocket from around 3k subscribers ( about when I started watching you ) to 72k. Then again, your videos are very well made, you deserve it. 2014: The Rise of Super Bunnyhop. Keep it up. :D
"Dark Souls II was one of the most forgettable games" I think that kind of sums up how I feel about 2014 by itself, really. Not forgettable. But bitter. This year I finally played through and platinumed Dark Souls (1) after giving up in release year after I burned out shortly after Capra despite having beaten Demon's Souls. And I love Dark Souls 2. When the controller's in my hands I love playing it, when it's not, I love theorycrafting and fashion souls (but not builds because Soul Memory). But I don't...'remember' anything. There was nothing in that game like the first time I downed Ornstein on my seventh try, kicking my feet, hastily messaging a friend and mentally saying 'Let's do this, you fucking cannibal' to Smough. And Dark Souls II...feels like 2014. It feels like something better left forgotten. After 2012 and 2013, especially from August onwards, 2014 felt...sort of joyless. Like an overwhelming negativity was trying to suck the fun out of everything even getting my first gaming computer. I guess a poetic, 'deepity' way to say it is that since the toxicity in Gamer Culture started writhing like it hadn't for years, is that I love 'games', but I no longer love 'gaming'.
This is my first video I've ever seen of yours. This was an awesome video. You're completely right on the topic of video games. They're just video games. There isn't a reason to get all serious and attacking people over them. Just chill out and have fun (or decompress or have a compelling experience). I'm definitely subscribing.
The reason I'm Pro-GamerGate or well more accurate anti-antiGamerGate is that the video game press is a bunch of anti-consumer incompetent hypocrites. -They expound on the "Don't like, don't buy" mentality, but when their darling DmC bombs they whine about people not buying a game they didn't want to buy. -They deflect all criticism of SimCity and end up trashing it. -They praise certain games like Diablo 3 to high heavens and when people don't really like it they quickly change their tunes. Similarly they play Assassin's creed unity and give a good score and proceed to put up bug and gltiches and game breaking videos. -Nintendo suffers financially and Polygon shits on it pretty much every day, but now they're praising Nintendo as the best thing of 2014. -Similarly Polygon removes articles that makes them look like idiots, like their Mario Kart 8 pie chart. -The press discouraging certain games to be made like Hatred. -The hype pieces about games that haven't come out yet. (10 games to buy in 2015!) -Their non-investigation into potential scams like Areal which was pretty much done solo by Erik Kain. People make mistakes, but the press does it so regularly it should be injured from that much whiplash. These people shouldn't be defended, good thing RUclipsrs like George, TB, and the rest are way more trustworthy and reliable. Shame about the clickbait youtubers.
The only thing I don't agree with is the #GamerGate part of the video, solely because it implies the victims are the one's who made the original articles and they were the one's trying to spread constructive criticism about the "gamer" social outlook. Gamer's, ultimately, no matter what side, is the victim solely, and you're simple side stepping the fact the media is abusing their consumers for agenda based purposes. Unfortunately, and factually, most of what you stated on that front is incorrect, and were mostly just "appeals to emotion". This fight isn't going to stop any time soon, because even if content moves over to RUclips, it's most likely to continue there as a watchdog style group making sure content creator's aren't being dishonest. Most people want to be critical of critics without being called "dead gamers" or "misogynist," which is what you indirectly said was "the truth." People want it to end, but mostly because being honest shouldn't be hard. (Much like how Total Biscuit expressed in this video in the comments.) Otherwise the video was very good.
+ThatOne Slime Seriously??? Undertale is phase people now have because its the "only non-violent RPG" or because "it gives you the change to be violent or non-violent thing" thats bullshit. Its mediocre at best and people only praise it because it is not a AAA-title. This whole unnecessary love for small indie-games is making me angry because everyone tries to make you feel guilty for being primarily a fan of the big AAA-Games. Undertale will fade, as did FNAF and as did every other indie "hit" before it. Who are the ones that make a lasting impact? The AAA-titles (The ones that are not a buggy mess)
The Frost Dragon I'm the kid because I can have my own opinion and am not afraid to openly defend what I like and attack what I dislike? Your illogical "logic" is astounding. Story: I dont give a shit Characters: A girl, Some creepy Guys and talking animals... These "Characters" look like they where ripped from an old kids cartoon. Combat System: What cambat? You mean this thing that you pull through other thing which looks nothing like a good RPG fighting system. Now let me tell you what this game is lacking: The feel of epic adventure In depth RPG mechanics: Strength, weaknesses, and all that stuff, looong character sheets. and all that. What essentially defines RPGs! And even though these are just two points these two points make up about 70% of RPGs. My point is that these "artsy" games are not worth a cent. Seriously there were so many better games in 2015 that deserve the praise of being "This Years Great Game" like: Xenoblade Chronicles X Mario Maker Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Bloodborne Splatoon and these are just some examples! So get your head out of the indie industries ass and open your eyes to see the real good games
The Frost Dragon So I am immature for being very defensive about what I like and offensive to everything I dont like. I dont think you know how humans work. What you called immature is actually called being subjective. The opposite of that is being objectiv which is not possible for any living thing. So after you "logic" everyone is immature, because everybody is subjective, everybody will defend their opinions and everybody will attack stuff they dont like. Thats how humans work, and thats how you work, and thats how I work. And calling me immature because of that is just dumb. Also Monster hunter isnt really an RPG because of the lack of a story, leveling system etc... Also going out to slay gaint monster does convey a certain sense of Adventure, so you cannot even pull some simple stuff like this out of your ass. Which means that are even more stupid than I was in my previous comment. Also I dont hate indie games. I hate indie games that think they are the "only true games" and that try to be "artsy" and "innovative" without really being fun. Because, and if you like it or not, in order for a video game to be good, it needs to be fun to play. which undertale just isnt. I mean you stare at a black screen with white lines drawn on it. This doesnt even count as "retro" NES games look better than undertale. Its just another thing people think its good because they feel intelligent for liking it because it is supposed to be "art". Also prefering triple A games over indie games is not mainstream, its quite the opposite. Also me admitting that I like triple-A Games more than indie games makes me even more "mature" because everybody else screams just how horrible the triple-A Companies are while still buying everything the release no matter how buggy it is, or why do you think 2014 happened...
This year (2015) has so far been quite a disappointing year. MGSV was great, yet disappointing. Star Wars Battlefront is competent, but disappointing. And when I heard that Persona 5 was held back a year, I became more disappointed. At least this year hasn't been a repeat of last year and major releases are actually stable and still fun for the most part.
JC3 is good but disappointing, Dying Light is good but disappointing, Evolve is good but disappointing (so I've heard, anyway), The Order 1886 is OK but too short and rather disappointing, The Witcher 3 is good...well, period. And Fallout 4 appears to be OK but rather disappointing. Yeah, it really has been the year of disappointment.
+Bakatyler It's not better than 2013, but it's better than 2014 in every aspect. 2014 was all remasters, shitty games and too few good games. In this year we had Witcher 3, Undertale, Bloodborne and MGS5.
I decided to subscribe to this channel because of the Total Biscuit Arbitrary Game Awards video and this is the first video I have seen from this channel. It was a fantastic video and contained very interesting content but my god I was not prepared for how depressing it was. I'll make sure I'm ready next time, keep up the good work!
The funny thing about that little speech you gave following dismissal of reactions to "Gamers are over"? That could be aimed squarely at the same people that wrote those horrible, condescending articles. "You are a human being. You are so much more than the games that you play." That's true, but the point you're kind of (dis)missing about the anger expressed at those articles, is that people get mad when part of the identity is attacked, and for many here it was for no good reason. "Gamers are Over" was some of the most egregious abuse of genetic fallacy I have ever seen from the gaming press, and it was done with the clear intent of making gamers as a whole mad because the authors were mad. That's why those articles specifically, and repeatedly used the most generic term 'gamer' to describe the target of their ire. It's rather telling how it takes even more effort to try explain around that fact than it does to accept it. You say gaming might only be a part of someone's life and that it's not worth getting upset or feeling insecurity over because one part does not define a person. To that, I say: People, real human beings, still go "I hurt" even when only one part of them hurts. Anyway...you're right; 2014 was the year gaming became dumb. But despite your little attempt at an uplifting speech at the end, I took it quite differently. 2014 made me firmly question why I even bother with gaming anymore. "There is a niche for good games." This should be a HUGE red flag. When 'GOOD' becomes *NICHE*, it means something has gone terribly wrong. Good is never something we should accept as just being niche; It's what we should be striving for as the standard. But we aren't. Consumers routinely financially verify worse and worse deals every year, and that was never more evident than in 2014's glitchy, hack-job next-gen game lineup (a subject you Super BunnyHop, already covered at length I might add) Yeah, there are good games out there in the niche. But what that tells me, is that legitimately great games are constantly being shoved to the side, while garbage reigns despite all of the controversy. That's anything BUT a sign of a healthy gaming market, in fact, it's a sign that the market is not only vulnerable to abuse, but it is being abused and tolerating it. What isn't tired is overhyped. What isn't overhyped is dishonest or misleading. What isn't either of those is white-hot controversial and toxic. In 2014, I felt that gaming at large just wasn't all that fun or interesting anymore...and that only got worse when the politics and vitriol arrived later in the year. Right now, I honestly don't want to spend money on anything without exhaustively (and independently) researching it first, and I damn well refuse to buy virtually any AAA game at all, either out of boredom or fear of frustration. It's to the point where the stress is outweighing the benefits, and at some point, you have to realize when enough is enough. In 2014, gaming reeked of gross manipulation, a lot of finger pointing and a world class shitstorm right at the end; the few bright gems buried in all the slung crap are becoming too few and bothersome to find. Frankly, I don't want to deal with it anymore, and I'm sure there are others that feel the same. For the first time in my life, in 25+ years of video gaming it made me feel genuinely old and tired. And I hate it.
Super Bunnyhop supplies a fantastic (and needed) point of view on the gaming world (and perhaps inadvertently life in general). Conversational depth is relative so I may be one of the few that considers this channel deep, but I'll say the topic extrapolation and sometimes philosophical depth of every video on this channel is enriching and does a good deal of soul service to me. If the owners of the channel are reading this thank you for your content. There's a lot of talent in the world and I appreciate you having the courage to share some of your talent....Also, the MGS 3 no tranq run is killer lol. O encourage everyone to take a peek haha.
I had made a thread about how I feel on the negatives that came about this year in /r/games, and I'd like to continue the original point I made there. With the state that gaming has got in, I feel... demoralized from playing games. I struggle to really invest in games when I'm constantly being told that I'm a sick discriminating asshole for doing so. All the examples you showed just puts this to light. GTA V makes us woman beaters, Hatred makes us psychotic and sadistic, not agreeing with the Tumblr 'feminists' that a certain game is sexist/racist/offensive/etc will get you up to your head in death/doxxing threats. All these dangers and accusations just make me scared to be in this community. I just really hope that we see a difference to this in 2015, but I highly doubt it. A man can dream though. Well, he can't according to Tumblr users/SJWs, but we just try to forget about them.
I'm so glad you didn't declare 2014 a shitty year for games. A few other reviewers I highly respect claimed that it was a bad year, when I still think there were plenty of worthy games that came out, many of which you mentioned. Thanks for giving credit when credit was due. Yet again, you prove that you put out some of the best content on RUclips. Thank you for that. *thumbs up*
+Will Benjamin God I love Smash Bros. I've never owned or payed for a single nintendo game or console, yet I have somehow managed to play every version of every game to date. My life is great.
Why do you think this is such a shitty year? Gamergate has done great and good things. If people are so unbalanced that this topic sends them to a rage, hell who the hell wants free speech anyways? Maybe they are right to be angry and if SJW's can whine about white men, they GG'ers can whine about journalism. It is their prerogative to act on their feelings. I am not losing sleep but I am enjoying the reaction from the media. They don't like the spotlight. They shouldn't, they are full of shit.
***** Being on the list it's not damming if you are not trying to pretend you are a journalist. And I don't think he wants to (at least on this channel). But disclosing this if you want to discuss it would make it less "shady" as opposed to when it leaks out and makes you look bad. Reminder that disclosures was all people wanted but journos preferred to start an internet war and give birth to GG.
***** Well, free pass from criticism is what actually started this whole thing. It's best to criticize everyone to make sure who is trying to rule over us.
TrueKaras I agree. And gaming journalists made it clear they wanted to rule over the industry when they responded to simple criticism with such vitriol.
"You wont find these games on Top 10 of 2014 lists"
Unless of course we're awesome and handsome.
And how great that the timing of these tasteful lists by these handsome and awesome people (whoever they are.....) coincides with the last 2 days of the Steam Sale! A perfect occasion to buy that which is good for a reduced price.
I was thinking that those games were on TB's top 10!
Because he actually knows what the fuck he is talking about! :D
I love how both you and Super Bunny Hop have such similar opinions.
But... hes handsome.
I WAS JUST GOING TO MENTION YOUR LIST!
funny
I'm not a human being, I'm just an android that got past the CAPTCHA.
+Xanatos712 SYNTH!
2014 made me realize how easy it is to not read, watch or listen to news or opinions I don't care about. I buy my games, judge my experiences internally and move on. As a result I've been far happier.
If I could upvote you more, I would, but don't forget that this is your world of gaming as well as everyone else's, you have a say if you want a say, and it's important to give that opinion otherwise gaming might just suddenly take a twist in a direction you might not like. This is true for world politics as well.
Good for you! Besides clicking on links sent by friends i haven't visited gaming news site in a couple of years. In this day of age where games are cheap, gameplay videos are everywhere and community voices can easily be heard i see very little reason to visit gaming sites.
Screw previews, dev diaries and all that that kind of hype generating garbage. Who cares about clickbait news and unconfirmed rumors. Who wants to have judgmental shit, political views and anti-consumer nonsense pushed in your face. Reviews are interesting but most reviews on gaming sites are pure garbage. Most of them lack any insight and they have that nasty habit of describing games like a english major working in games pr. And lets not even mention the close ties with developers and games sites and the dubious reviews and publisher defending nonsense that has come out of some of the biggest gaming news sites.
Jaqen HUN cuz I care bb
*****
I should follow your example. This has got me involved with several discussions that end up as a mud-sling (unrelated to GG) and all I can say is, wow, I have a lot to learn but for now, I'll just enjoy my self before entering this large world before me.
Jinsei Cast Just remember that you never have to pick a side and that you're not a coward for not choosing a side. Anyone that belittles you for not getting involved is a not a person right in the head.
I think about this video regularly and come back to it every year or two. Only now, September 28 2024, do I think we're seeing a course correction. We're probably still gonna see a lot of this for the next ten years though.
As always, a great video. Loved the warm message at the end :-) I also have no idea what gamergate/deleted comments thing was. Will look that up now!
"Platinum made a bad game"
I cry every time.
I liked the Korra game. For something made very quickly that I got on sale for like $5, I thought it was decent! Plus the unlockable secret costumes are really neat, playing the whole game as Spirit Korra for example
Fanboysm aside...
Platinum made a bad game... again, with TMNT.
DON'T WORRY, THEY'LL BRING IT BACK FULL FORCE WITH SCALEBOUND AND NIER AUTOMATA Lone Knight
And now Scalebound has been cancelled :(
"Platinum made a bad game" at least it's in the same year they released the awesome Bayonetta 2
It's almost a year too late but thank you for this video. It said a lot to me specifically that I needed to hear.
+Joel Farrelly Almost? You posted that comment two months ago... In january...
RIDICULOGAN Lol, thank you, Logan. I hadn't noticed Dogman_35 's comment until now but yeah, you would think the days since an episode that takes place on January 1st would be pretty easy to calculate. You would THINK...
On those "gamers are dead" articles: To be sure, they didn't make me question my hobby or my identity one bit. But they were incredibly arrogant, dishonest, and the fact that a dozen different websites basically posted the same article on the same day was enough reason for me to stop paying attention to all of them. As you said, YT is where the audience is headed, and your channel is part of that future.
Games websites are over.
Stephen Weir Which one is that?
We are seeing many games media businesses close, and that's good. They have no right to exist if they will speak bad of their own demographic.
Well, written reviews will probably prevail, and gaming video websites will be around.
Stephen Weir Never saw it before, thanks for linking.
They ARE legit concerns, but the REACTIONS to the concerns are troubling, to say the least.
I've been on Internet for quite a while now, but GamerGate debacle opened my eyes on what is happening on Internet discussions. Chaos. Complete and utter chaos. Time and time again I see legitimate issues being buried by a ton of shit, insults, spam, trolling and clueless opinions on the subject that it all begins to look like a static noise. Like no clear resolution is found nor ever will be found. No matter what side attacks whom, I see no real open discussion as a whole. Only little islands of genuine discussion arises from the non-sense ocean. And that's because no one wants to feel, like they are in the wrong.
Bunnyhop is right - no matter what side you're on, no matter what side is considerably more right, it all will look like a blury mess in the end, with no clear winners.
That is the internet in a nutshell. Very chaotic in nature.
***** Indeed, and I'd like to keep it that way. But perhaps I'm for anarchy. :P
The internet is a chaotic mess with no clear winner, we just try to make the most out of it and have some fun along the way.
Tom Jeffrey Well, had some fun myself, but now, it just... I'm getting too old for this bullshit.. I feel tired, real tired of this... all of this.. And the anarchy, the chaos of internet is like a force of nature - you cannot control it, only accept it.
Professor Catus Then take a break man. No one is stopping you. Surround yourself with things you want to be surrounded by. Don't want to hear about gamergate and stupid comments. Don't. Fuck that shit. It isn't worth your time. Find forums about hobby's that you like. Be around people you want to be around. The internet is what you make of it. You can't control it, but you can as hell filter it to personalize you. Stay strong bud, and keep your head up.
"This has been a weird year"
wait till you hear about 2020
Almost a month into 2016 when I stumbled across this video (and consequently, your channel). That message at the end there was totally unexpected but it really made my day. Thanks. Go on and take my subscription, you've earned a cut of that RUclips Red payout :D
Looks like I scrolled down far enough on the comments that I got the the comments that were actually about the _video_.
Game james I didn't say I wasn't commenting on the conversations about gamergate.
Game james >Implying I give a shit.
Game james What are you on about dude? I don't know what you're even talking about.
Game james Okay, have fun spewing random hate at people for no apparent reason.
Game james
You should understand some people just don't give a shit about politics. I don't know what label will describe us but ignorant is fine by me.
2015: everything was gritty and a roguelike... (more like roguelite but everything was called roguelike) also a lot of remasters.
2016: the year of the bugs and broken promises.
No man's sky
Mighty number 9
Quantum brake PC
......
2016: the year kickstarters lost people's trust
Tangy ™ Nah, just the year a lot of people started scrutinizing the promises of crowdfunded games. MN9 was a mismanaged shitshow from start to finish, and people who weren't initially hooked because they saw the words "Mega Man" in the description ended up having their suspicions confirmed. The trainwreck that was MN9 led to amazing, transparent crowdfunding campaigns like Bloodstained and Indivisible.
I haven't played a single buggy game this year. Maybe it's because I knew No Man's Sky was gonna be bullshit when they put that 60$ tag on it and Mafia 3 flew under the radar.
2015: The Witcher 3, and Bloodborne
2016: Overwatch, FF15(please be good please be good please be good), and Dishonored 2
Best couple years in a long time just by those titles.
"Russia invaded Ukraine" The more things change. . .
the mor they stay the same
This was probably the most amazing year review Ive seen, most importantly because, even after all the negativity, George ended the video on one of the most positive notes Ive seen, encouraging us to go forward.
Probably one of the best things Ive done this year was find this channel and subscribing to it. Both the reviews and editorials are done in such a way that I find them both entertaining AND educational, which is always appreciated, since Im guessing it takes quite a lot of time to actually get these videos done.
And that Transistor music along the video? Sublime. Thank you, George :)
Props for soundtracking this video with tracks from Transistor - Without doubt the best OST this year!
"Russia invaded Ukraine" , "Israel invaded Gaza". Things never really change do they...
"It has to do with the moral panic exhibited by gamers who felt they were being attacked by articles criticising gamer stereotypes."
Let's analyse this assertion.
*Leigh Alexander, "'Gamers' don't have to be your audience. 'Gamers' are over."* GAMASUTRA
_" ‘Game culture’ as we know it is kind of embarrassing -- it’s not even culture. It’s buying things, spackling over memes and in-jokes repeatedly, and it’s getting mad on the internet. "_
Personal attacks on entirety of gamer culture
_"It’s young men queuing with plush mushroom hats and backpacks and jutting promo poster rolls. Queuing passionately for hours, at events around the world, to see the things that marketers want them to see. To find out whether they should buy things or not. They don’t know how to dress or behave. Television cameras pan across these listless queues, and often catch the expressions of people who don’t quite know why they themselves are standing there. "_
Personal attacks on large section of gamers who wear specific clothes and queue for game release events or general gamer events
_"‘Games culture’ is a petri dish of people who know so little about how human social interaction and professional life works"_
Personal attacks on entirety of gamer culture
_"Suddenly a generation of lonely basement kids"_
Personal attacks on entire generation of people
_"By the turn of the millennium those were games’ only main cultural signposts: Have money. Have women. Get a gun and then a bigger gun. Be an outcast. Celebrate that."_
Attacks on games as media. Personal attacks on entire gamer culture.
_"We still think angry young men are the primary demographic for commercial video games"_
Personal attacks on gamer culture
_"“Gamer” isn’t just a dated demographic label that most people increasingly prefer not to use. Gamers are over. That’s why they’re so mad. "_
Personal attack on anyone who identifies as 'gamer'. Attack on gamer culture.
_"These obtuse shitslingers, these wailing hyper-consumers, these childish internet-arguers"_
Implication, from previous paragraph: that anyone who identifies as a gamer is the above. Hence: personal attacks on gamer culture.
Now that's just one article. You say Leigh Alexander is criticising gamer stereotypes. I say that's bullshit, and you know it's bullshit. I'm calling you on it. The articles are shameful, and your defense of them is -shameful- misleading. It's wrong to defend a set of articles that criticised the entirety of gamer culture and told them they were children for dressing a particular way, or devoting their time to a hobby which interests them in a way they see fit that harms nobody, or told them they were lonely basement kids, or that they don't know who human social interaction or professional life works, or that they were only interested in getting money, women and guns, and called them 'angry young men', and implied that anyone who calls themselves a gamer is a shitslinger, wailing hyper-consumer and a childish internet-arguer. Shame on them, and -shame on you.- Ok maybe that's a bit harsh, I take that back. But it angers me when you appear to whitewash these articles, that's all.
*Devin Wilson, "A Guide to Ending "Gamers" "* GAMASUTRA
_"we’re seeing calls to do away with the concept of “gamers” altogether._
_This is great..."_
Personal attack on gamer culture - ending an identity important to people is 'great'
_" It’s not only the worst of us who need to change. None of us are outside of this system. None of us are completely above its effects. None of us are entirely innocent."_
Personal attack on gamer culture - even the innocent are not innocent
_"people are increasingly likely to ignore all of the things outside of their window when they decide to make a game."_
_"yet another escapist fantasy universe."_
Attack on game development
_" If our medium is designed for people to stay secluded for dozens of hours while having their egos stroked, "_
Personal attack on gamer culture
_"Sexism in games is pervasive and toxic. Racism in games is pervasive and toxic. Violence in games is pervasive and toxic. Despite the skepticism the games press shows at every opportunity, it _*_really_*_ looks like violent games _*_do_*_ make us more aggressive and less empathetic. If researchers are repeatedly suggesting this and then we complain that the vilest people in our communities are too aggressive and not empathetic enough, aren’t we partially to blame for our general eagerness to make and play games that have these overall effects on people? If you think you’re not affected, you’re sorely mistaken and you sound no less ridiculous than people who claim that advertising doesn’t work on them."_
Personal attack on gamer culture - we are all sexist, racist and violent, essentially
_"We’ve been trying to make careers out of playing what seem like the videogame equivalents of American football (MOBAs) and mixed martial arts (fighting games), in a warped attempt at gaining legitimacy for our pastime. "_
Attack on legitimacy of eSports - essentially an attack on pro gamers
_" People passionately and regularly obsessing over brutalizing strangers’ avatars over the internet (in hopes of eventually doing it professionally) is scary and I deeply mistrust it."_
Attack on gamer culture - obsessing over, and being passionate about eSports is 'scary'
_"We all grow up"_ [I.E. Gamers must all grow up]
Personal attack on gamer culture - gamers must 'grow up'
*Patrick O'Rourke, "Sexism, Misogyny and online attacks: It's a horrible time to consider yourself a 'gamer'"* FINANCIAL POST
_"the toxic attitude of much of the core gaming audience is disgusting and at times even terrifying."_
Personal attack on 'much of the core gaming audience'
*Arthur Chu, "It's Dangerous to Go Alone: Why Are Gamers So Angry?"* THE DAILY BEAST
_"Okay, gamers, let’s have a talk_ [Addressing gamers as a group]
...
_So when I tell you you’re being misogynist losers who are making us all look bad"_
Personal attack on gamers
_"Well, because gamers are special."_
Personal attack on gamer culture
_"But mainly it’s because gamers won’t let reviews be anything else."_
Personal attack on gamer culture
_"And never have I met a group of people as doggedly convinced that their opinion is “objectively” correct as gamers."_
Personal attack on gamers
_"Or maybe it has something to do with gamers self-selecting for being people who care a lot about conflict and winning, who aren’t content to just disagree with other people but have to “beat” them somehow. Maybe the very nature of gaming appeals to people who like black-and-white moral situations and are made uncomfortable by nuance and ambiguity."_
Personal attack on gamers & gamer culture
_"I love gaming culture, despite everything wrong with it."_
Attack on gamer culture
_"gaming culture is currently filled with hordes and hordes of regenerating monsters, each of whom has convinced himself that he is in fact the hero."_
Attack on gamer culture
*Dan Golding, "The End of Gamers"* PERSONAL BLOG - FREELANCER WHO HAS WORKED FOR ABC ARTS, METRO MAGAZINE, THE GUARDIAN, KOTAKU, PC POWERPLAY, HAS BEEN CITED BY TIME MAGAZINE, THE NY TIMES, SLATE, SALON, BUZZFEED, THE NEW STATESMAN
_"Videogames accordingly developed a limited, inwards-looking perception of the world that marked them as different from everyone else."_
Attack on gamer culture - gaming is 'limited', 'inwards-looking'
_" the gamer, an identity based on difference and separateness."_
Attack on gamer identify - reduction of gamer identity to mere 'difference' and 'separateness' in order to attack it
_"It became deeply bound up in assumptions and performances of gender and sexuality. To be a gamer was to signal a great many things, not all of which are about the actual playing of videogames."_
Attack on gamer identity - makes assumptions about what gamers are (i.e. sexist)
_"the gamer identity remained fairly uniformly stagnant and immobile"_
Attack on gamer identity
_"what we are seeing is the end of gamers, and the viciousness that accompanies the death of an identity."_
Attack on gamer culture - gamer identity is 'ending' and the result is 'viciousness'
_"the gamer identity has been broken."_
Attack on gamer identity
_"It has nowhere to call home, and so it reaches out inarticulately at invented problems"_
Attack on gamer culture
_"...why things the traditional gamer does not understand are successful"_
Attack on traditional gamer - does not understand the world around them
_"abject heartlessness"_
Attack on gamer culture
_"the traditional gamer identity is now culturally irrelevant."_
Attack on gamer identity
_"The hysterical fits of those inculcated at the heart of gamer culture"_
Attack on gamer culture - those at the 'heart' of gamer culture are the ones showing 'hysterical fits'
_"From now on, there are no more gamers"_
Self-explanatory
Bloody obnoxious blog post
Maybe someone else can trawl the remaining 5 articles, I'm tired of reading this tripe
The ending of this video has had a profound effect on me these past few years, As weird as that may sound. It wormed it's way into my brain and made me more agnostic towards the internet and it's endless bullshit. I stay sane by not joining in. By not commenting 90% of the time and by sticking with the few friends I have on here. It didn't change me by itself, But it did help me put words to the feelings I had been having towards the endless hyperbole and drama that the internet seems to be. Thank you George, For being a beacon of beauty not just on RUclips, But the whole internet.
Damn. Well said.
John G agreed, 100%. I'm still trying to learn this myself, but recognizing what it is internally that compels me to join in with the comment section yelling has helped me reduce it drastically and for that I'm proud. And I'm proud of you too, tbh, for doing the same 💝
Roux Phoenix I'm glad to hear that.
Agreed, it's something I need to work on.
GamerGate is controversy that should have ended a long time ago, but a few of the people who allegedly most want it go away have taken to the idea that you best fight fire by smothering it in gasoline.
Reading "This dumb, silly, stupid year" on the thumbnail hits different in 2020.
The “this is the year where Russia invaded Ukraine” in the opening made me go “wait, I thought this was an bold video?”
@@wiiu42yeah hearing that sounded weird
"Russia invaded Ukraine. Israel invaded Gaza" had me doing a double take to what year this was uploaded lol
0:53 Shit man, the more things change the more they stay the same.
This year, we'll have: Bloodborne, Persona 5, MGSV, and Zelda Wii U. No Man's Sky might be good.
Don't worry Bunny baby. Everything will be alright.
Don't forget The Witcher 3 and Batman: Arkham Knight.
Don't forget witcher 3
Justin Larson And Just Cause 3
and xenoblade x, and who knows what else!
Tales of Zestiria is something to keep an eye out for too. Even if it's for PS3.
crazy how your comments about being a crazy year with ukraine and gaza still holds up after 8 years
The original gamers are dead article, by Leigh Alexander of Gamasutra, was a direct and vicious attack on the gamer identity as a whole. With a broad brush she painted all gamers as manbabies, 'obtuse shitslingers' and several other really unnecessary and hateful names. She linked back to a research paper that pushed the idea we should eliminate the gamer identity entirely.
You are right that we are always more than the labels we give ourselves, and perhaps it isnt wise to have such labels at all. But a lot of people do identify as a gamer, and for a wide variety of reasons. Its a refuge and safe space for many who were bullied as children. It's a label many chose to show solidarity against all the scapegoating games face in mass media. Its an outlet for many marginalised young people to feel they belong to a community. It's a part of many peoples identities, for better or worse.
Leigh Alexander stepped well over the line when she attacked that and attacked 'nerds' more generally. Many seem to be accrediting more moderate views to her than she actually wrote in that article, such as she was only attacking some subgroup of gamers, or some stereotype of gamers. But if you go read her article, I think her word choices are quite unambiguous - she was directly attacking this group of people as a whole.
Gamers are used to this kind of treatment, but until now they had the gaming media to dispel stereotypes and defend them from mass media bullying. Its no small wonder that so many were outraged by those articles, and I think it's important to respect peoples choice to identify as a gamer and their choice to resist this unfair treatment.
I don't think the article mattered. Yeah, it's an "attack" on the gamer identity, but why should we care?
You don't have to care if you don't want to. But it matters to the people whose identities are under attack. We shouldn't be seeing such hateful and derisive attitudes from our journalists.
Liam Barden I'm one of the people whose identity is under attack, and I think it's terrible that a single stupid article can cause a thousand angry youtube commenters to make the Internet a more toxic place via yelling. Just ignore it. Journalism thrives on attention, and the kind of attention it's been getting recently has only been giving it more ammunition on the "obtuse shitslinger" front.
Gamer identity? Games are toys and entertainment as well as art. My identity is not defined by the fact that I play video games.
Gaming is what I do, not what I am.
Why do you care what some random person writing an article online thinks of you? Do you really need other people to validate what you do in your own life? So she made a stupid article, a rational person would read it and say, "Well fuck that, I don't care what you think because you don't even know me."
And guess what, a lot of the people in the video game community are rude, sexist, racist, immature people. Maybe YOU aren't and that's great, so you don't have anything to worry about. Just keep playing your games.
And the word "gamer" is such a big generalization that it can include almost everyone you will meet. Everyone plays games..doesn't matter if its on your phone, console, or PC. There's so many people part of that that you shouldn't take any attack personally.
I feel like I'm starting to lose interest in video games. While I also enjoy the more smaller games on the market that actually have "love" put into them. I can't help but feel how bleak and kind of uninspiring video games seem to be nowadays. I never thought this is soemthing that could happen, but it kinda does at the moment.
I think this may be me getting older as well though. Like, my tolerance to a tedious task in video games is at an all time low. Making me loss interest in them even quicker than before. Maybe its just a phase but as someone who plays video games for 18 years now and actually intended to be a video game journalist at some point this is a strange and also worrying feeling. Maybe I just need to explore more genres I have avoided until now.
Thanks for presenting your thoughts about the last year of video games, it was interesting but also well, you know, kinda depressing.
Honestly, I think games are just going through the same thing all entertainment does. Look at film, anime, comic books, television, music... There's an increasing amount of uninspired art being shoved out. In all forms of media.
Maybe it's a good thing. Occasionally we'll get something great and it'll blow our minds all the more. Though. That is a very optimistic view.
I was starting to feel the same way, but then i decided to tackle my backlog of games i missed out on from prevous generations. It was perhaps the best decision i made.
Windy017
Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. There are always games you just haven't played yet.
If you have lost the will to play games there's nothing wrong with that. You're never bound to your primary hobby, you can switch it at will. Don't ever feel like you have an obligation to videogames, they have an obligation to you.
Lobinden Heh, yeah. Well, for now my main hobby is making videos anyway so it's all good~
Great stuff as always George. Some very interesting explanations behind your choices of the best games of this year. I definitely share some of them. Your commentary on the year's events was one of the best I've heard as well. Regardless of where you sit on the issue, the controversy in its current form only seems to be harming things further and not building any bridges or causing any real positive change. I hope people can still talk about the core issues in 2015 but I hope the "movement" as it is currently branded can fade out so maybe real, constructive discussion can take its place. Keep up the great work!
TBH
I don't think 2015 is going to be any better.
people are drunk on revolution ATM.
Joseph Charles I hope you're wrong but yeah, I share your worry.
The rational voices will need more of a platform than the Alexander's, Hernandez's, Wu's, Sarkeesians, Kucheras, Plante's etc. They've "contributed" enough to the 'culture' discussion.
>"Russia invaded Ukraine"
so not much has changed
Israel invaded Palestine, yep. Nothing really changed.
0:33 I love that when George opens the bottle it sounds like a hitmarker.
Public Service Announcement:
In the above video, Mr. Weidman said the temperature was 50 degrees, implying Fahrenheit. That corresponds to 10 degrees Celsius.
Thank you my non-US-centric friend.
Such a great video to go in to the new year with. Thanks for all the awesome videos George! We are all human as you said, but you definatly are one of the better ones!
2016 hasn't seemed like a horrible year at least in term of Video Games.
we might remember 2016 more for Trump than shitty games.
Lone Knight You're right about that. Well that and the Cubs winning the World Series for the first time over 100 years.
I watch this video every time it pops up in my feed. You're the best super bunnyhop.
2014 wasn't that long ago, yet this video feels very quaint. My, how time ravages on...
Those final words... wow. They turned out to be far more inspiring that I could've expected from a video about a weird year for video games.
I know this will sound overblown, but those words of yours really made me feel better in general. Thanks, mate.
Good call on the Transistor Soundtrack. One of the best out there!
im watching this in 2017, and the message in the end of the video still works well for the last year and probably for this year as well, well done guys.
Goddamnit George. Play Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze.
This is, by far, the best videogame related video on youtube I've probably seen ever. This is quality videogame journalism. Thank you.
This channel is honestly one of the very few that I trust and agree with when it comes to video games. The closing statement really leaves a mark on the viewer and makes them think. Why do we enjoy video games? Why do we buy the games we buy?
Super Bunnyhop has been my top subscription of 2013-2014 (since I have been following since then :P)
Watching this from the end of 2015.
You sir, deserves a subscribe, and a like, and an appreciation.
+1...
hey george just wanted to give you an update that all the problems you describe are still goin' strong!
You are the best at RUclips, George. I never want to stop watching your videos.
I love your speech at the end of the video. It makes me feel more comfortable to be who I am. To have a passion for video games.
+Momo Deviluke lol
+Dr. Dhoom KissXsis
Dr. Dhoom To love ru
That closing speech played a sweet, sexy chord on my heart strings. Thanks for the cool vids :)
I wish Gamergate was over
I think everyone does (third party trolls and trouble makers not withstanding) but the fight over what emerges from GGs overness is going to keep it going for a long, long time.
You and me both.
I wish it had never began
Deadagent I know the feels man.
the solution is to just like play game
Discovering Dungeon Keeper mobile was one of the worst experiences in my life, and I've accidentally smashed my teeth through my skull
Man, that 5 minutes of the ending were pure gold. All the videogame drama is shit and filler. Happy new year to everybody. And remember that games are just games.
Made me really happy to hear "Coasting" from the Transistor soundtrack in the beginning. Thanks George. Love your videos.
This is why i game solo and away from the internet. I play dark souls to feel like i'm overcoming the impossible, i play Skyrim to feel like the hero i was destined to be. I play doom to be a space marine that the hordes of hell fear. When i play games it's not the that's fun. It's the experience the game gives me, playing solo only furthers the experience. We are all humans with human experiences. Us gamers should not worry if gaming will die or not. What matters is the you, the individual, and what you experience in this time frame you have... that is all...
I just want to point out that this video was absolutely phenomenal! Great Job man! :)
"russia invaded ukraine, israel invaded gaza" the more times change the more they stay the same
Thanks for that last bit. I've been enjoying your videos for some time now, especially because you really seem to understand MGS a lot better than most fans care to.
Watching this in 2023 feels wild
For real. Nearly a decade ago…
You are the most consistently enjoyable maker of quality and well written stuff. Every video is awesome
Eh,,, I'm a big fan of this channel but I'm very dissapointed with how you tried to minimize the message that those "Gamers are dead" articles were sending...
Hey Super Bunnyhop!!!! Thank you for the video. It was wonderful. I especially enjoyed your end message. Thank you for starting my 2015 on a positive note.
Damn. That speech at the end was awesome.
Damn this whole video is so great. But the 11:00 until the end REALLY hit me. Amazing work as always George.
Late but yes, Shovel Knight was 2014's goty for me too
2015 was Bloodborne
2016 I'm looking forward to finding out. Played a lot of great games but nothing I'd call goty just yet.
Also RIP The Point, apparently GameSpot don't want to make the best content they had anymore
RIDICULOGAN
witcher 3 is overrated garbage. bloodborne shits all over it
stop spamming the comments with your fanboyism, its annoying
The Witcher 3 is one of the best games ever made and it's honestly not an exaggeration, from a technical standpoint there is so much overlap between quest outcomes and choices geralt makes, that you are completely immersed in a way other rpgs haven't since the Morrowind days. Blood & Wine was so good it was practically its own 30 hour game. B&W and Hearts of Stone are worth more than the $25 price tag even
Antiform
- barren empty world
- boring predicable underdeveloped plot
- mary sue protagonists
- simplistic combat
- babies first RPG mechanics
- shitty controls
- boring characters
- options do change things, but are presented in such an obvious and hamfisted way.
"oh, this option is good, but this option is bad" booooooooooooring. felt like i was playing bioshock 1 all over again
calling this overrated pile of shit "one of the best games ever made" is an honest to god fallacy. i could think of a hundred games way better than TW3, one of which came out the same year, better known as bloodborne
Angus Lyons-Reid what did you think of bloodborne
Amazing video, and it summarizes how I felt about 2014 in gaming just perfectly. You, sir, are a genius.
goddamn this is a great fuggen channel
Probably one of the best videos to end a year i'd ever seen. Amazing work my dude.
2017 and this is the first I'm hearing about Gamergate. Not sure if that means I should come out from under my rock more often, or just stay in.
Michael Fucello Honestly, after the madness of 2016, I kinda want to join you.
2018 here. As far as I can tell, Gamergate is a clusterfuck of politics stemming from arrogant people questioning the legitimacy of gamers as people. Never bother with it.
Dude, the last minute or so... damn, that got deep. Many thanks Super Bunnyhop I'm gonna take your word into this new year.
Was the Korra game actually bad, or just bad by Platinum standards? It looked fun to me, combat sorta looked like God Hand.
Basically Korra has a good combat system, but very poor enemy design, repetitive levels and bosses, alongside with nothing really else for fans of the series.
It's bad by Platinum standards, overall a mediocre game at best.
I would say more by Platinum standards because of probably short development time and low budget. If you like this genre or platinum games you could always get it on some sale (I think lowest price so far was ten euro, maybe it will drop lower later this year).
It's ok and somewhat enjoyable but somewhat enjoyable isn't good enough after coming off of bayonetta 2 and metal gear rising
It had a mind boggling concept of a progression curve, where it makes you do hand on hand combat, then gives you water, then earth, then fire (or reversed, dunno) and then air and the game ends. It's just weird.
Also, am I the only one who thinks that avatar as a property could use the same treatment gamewise as batman got with the arkham series? Systemising all the core elements of what it means to be the avatar, so you can feel like him/her, rather than just slapping it onto a spectacle fighter?
It was a flawed but still fun game, especially at that price point. I imagine a lot of people would've looked at it much more positively if it had been developed by some indie (it is, after all, priced as such) instead of Platinum.
I don't know how long it took you to write and edit this but I've got to say that this vid is one of my favorites (and that's saying something since I often love your work). The combination of uplifting nostalgia and down to earth criticism actually works and shows the complexity of states of affairs really well. Awesome job :)
2014: the not so great year
2015: the better year
+Demented Valkyre 2016: the still waiting for games to come out year
seriously i need kingdom hearts 3 and persona 5 god fucking damn
+Solid Snake “Kemosabe” tripple d i need elder scrolls 6
+Solid Snake “Kemosabe” tripple d persona 5 nope ff15 yes
Seriously you call me a budle of sticks for liking a superior game
I probably won't get to play KH3 for a while due to already getting a bunch of stuff from my family already.
No PS4 for a while. But the time will _come_.
A few years back I watched your metal gear solid 2 retrospective, and in the aftermath of the Kojima-konami debacle while trying to get some insight into Kojimas work and position at Konami I remembered it and decided to revisit it. I've been watching your videos religiously for two days now. Thank you. You're amazing.
Due to GamerGate, I refuse to play any multiplayer games beyond Local Multiplayer. Both sides in the media sound too extreme and turns into white noise I don't even want to hear. The community in most games have been a drama-filled, toxic waste environments. This is a lot to say coming from an ex Second Life user who met his RL wife in that game.
thegrimmling How so? Do you find it comes up a lot in multiplayer voice chat?
People suck
Must feel nice shutting yourself like that being neutral. I wonder what you would do when they start changing everything you liked and you'll ask "How did this happen?".
I am not really being a neutral. I just don't fucking care about the situation.
I play the games I like and I like finding new experiences in gaming. Change is good.
thegrimmling Specially change like this,
"Anita does not speak for gamers, female or otherwise, on the difficulty or appeal of games. She only offers personal insights catering to her own agenda. In fact, *she went so far as to say that women needed a whole new “simplified” control set for this game*, based on her personal experiences, passing them off as the opinion of the female gaming community.”
Source: www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/12/ea-replied-fan-petition-remove-anita-sarkeesian-mirrors-edge-2-game-development/#
Man, I really love the writing in the videos. It feels so professional and watching your videos is an enjoyable thing to do! I'm excited to see what you're going to do in 2015! :)
+1 Billion likes for use of Transistor soundtrack
Really awesome video!
Pretty much the best "year in review" videos for gaming I've seen. I can't wait for more videos in 2015
This comment at the end of the Gamasutra "'Gamers' are Dead" article proves for a fact that GamerGate really does need to exist and exists for a reason:
"“Gamer” isn’t just a dated demographic label that most people increasingly prefer not to use. Gamers are over. That’s why they’re so mad.
These obtuse shitslingers, these wailing hyper-consumers, these childish internet-arguers -- they are not my audience. They don’t have to be yours. There is no ‘side’ to be on, there is no ‘debate’ to be had."
Blatant personal attacks on the main consumer-base of video games, amid other bombastic and caustic claims made by the writer of the article Leigh Alexander, prove in a way that the opposition to the gamer identity seeks to shadow a consumer-base in misogynistic claims while ignoring the issue at hand and belittling the market for games in its entirety. Sure, there have been many an action I cannot condone from members of the GG following, like driving people out of their homes in fear of death threats, but remember what's being done here.
McIntosh and Sarkeesian both have clear agendas: push forward their seemingly progressive ideas by cherry-picking statistics and examples from popular titles in a medium that support their pre-disposed notions beforehand without doing proper research into their claims. They see Princess Peach as a bad example of a girl in video games even though the core of the Mario franchise is based around the idea of the antiquated romance of the knight and the dragon and the princess; the Mario titles follow these tropes to a T because they were easy to communicate in the beginning of video games, where a well-written story took a big backseat to the core mechanics of a game. It's an unfortunate by-product of the archaic days of gaming after the Great Crash, but without those titles games would not have actually come back as a viable medium for people like McIntosh or Sarkeesian to complain about. As for Princess Zelda, the same basic principle applies, but the villain doesn't take her just because she's a princess. Ganon/Ganondorf takes her because she's the prime political figure of a hierarchical land where no one seemingly outranks her in his bid for power. We don't fight to claim her, we fight for the freedom of the land, represented in the rightful ruler of the land.
Where do these people acknowledge the strong female characters of Samus Aran, Quiet [when we know more of her, if what we've seen already is a strong indication], Chell, Alyx Vance, Meryl Silverburgh [in MGS4, when she was more experienced], Olga Gurlukovich, Emma Emmerich, Judith Mossman, The Boss, Sniper Wolf, or any of those characters? Why did they ignore them?
One more important thing to remember about the anti-GG side: they particularly hate the idea that a consumer enjoys a product made for them, espoused by Alexander and McIntosh. At its core, the game market is targeted at return consumers who enjoy IPs and installments of these IPs, not unlike a serial book in a magazine. Some of these people have become cultural icons, like Mario or Spartan-117 [Master Chief]. It's a consumerist mindset, but in a way that consumerism made the market boom. Game devs know their audience is the fans of a series or fans of a studio; I know this in my writing of Portal Stories: Mel and have made an experience people who love Portal and the overarching Half-Life series will enjoy while enriching the world with some new ideas. That's the real core of the culture: enjoying the experience of playing a software product made by people who do love what they're doing and enjoying that with like-minded people. Doesn't that sound an awful lot like any other hobby people have, like sports, music, cars, stamps, etc.? What the anti-GG side does espouse, though, is what they perceive to be "academically informed" opinions that capitalism is bad, consumerism is shameful, and that Cultural Marxism is the only way that we can go forward with what is ostensibly art because there's a commercial element placed on it. Which reeks to me of the idea that they're pushing their own agendas on a market that doesn't really want to get involved in these issues because they're ultimately not invested in them.
Which again is funny because there are known cases of collusion and "back-scratching" going on for better press.
So, I know that there's a lot of people who are automatically against the GG movement, and I know I won't be able to change your minds because of what's happened. But if you're willing to listen, maybe you can see what's really behind the GG argument and what it's actually doing, not what the media base wants you to believe because it will get them to change.
My god you've SHOT like a damn rocket from around 3k subscribers ( about when I started watching you ) to 72k. Then again, your videos are very well made, you deserve it. 2014: The Rise of Super Bunnyhop. Keep it up. :D
"Dark Souls II was one of the most forgettable games"
I think that kind of sums up how I feel about 2014 by itself, really. Not forgettable. But bitter. This year I finally played through and platinumed Dark Souls (1) after giving up in release year after I burned out shortly after Capra despite having beaten Demon's Souls. And I love Dark Souls 2. When the controller's in my hands I love playing it, when it's not, I love theorycrafting and fashion souls (but not builds because Soul Memory). But I don't...'remember' anything. There was nothing in that game like the first time I downed Ornstein on my seventh try, kicking my feet, hastily messaging a friend and mentally saying 'Let's do this, you fucking cannibal' to Smough.
And Dark Souls II...feels like 2014. It feels like something better left forgotten. After 2012 and 2013, especially from August onwards, 2014 felt...sort of joyless. Like an overwhelming negativity was trying to suck the fun out of everything even getting my first gaming computer.
I guess a poetic, 'deepity' way to say it is that since the toxicity in Gamer Culture started writhing like it hadn't for years, is that I love 'games', but I no longer love 'gaming'.
This is my first video I've ever seen of yours. This was an awesome video. You're completely right on the topic of video games. They're just video games. There isn't a reason to get all serious and attacking people over them. Just chill out and have fun (or decompress or have a compelling experience). I'm definitely subscribing.
Don't say 2014 was stupid....you'll jinx it and make 2015 even stupider
Weird thing about 2014....EA games got a better year than Ubisoft
Thanks George for all your videos in 2014!
Here's to another year!
When he said Russia invaded the Ukraine I honestly forgot I was watching a video that was 2015
Not only that but the Gaza attack as well. 😳🤯
Waited all this week for such a video from you.
The reason I'm Pro-GamerGate or well more accurate anti-antiGamerGate is that the video game press is a bunch of anti-consumer incompetent hypocrites.
-They expound on the "Don't like, don't buy" mentality, but when their darling DmC bombs they whine about people not buying a game they didn't want to buy.
-They deflect all criticism of SimCity and end up trashing it.
-They praise certain games like Diablo 3 to high heavens and when people don't really like it they quickly change their tunes. Similarly they play Assassin's creed unity and give a good score and proceed to put up bug and gltiches and game breaking videos.
-Nintendo suffers financially and Polygon shits on it pretty much every day, but now they're praising Nintendo as the best thing of 2014.
-Similarly Polygon removes articles that makes them look like idiots, like their Mario Kart 8 pie chart.
-The press discouraging certain games to be made like Hatred.
-The hype pieces about games that haven't come out yet. (10 games to buy in 2015!)
-Their non-investigation into potential scams like Areal which was pretty much done solo by Erik Kain.
People make mistakes, but the press does it so regularly it should be injured from that much whiplash. These people shouldn't be defended, good thing RUclipsrs like George, TB, and the rest are way more trustworthy and reliable.
Shame about the clickbait youtubers.
Just when I was thinking "I can't take another top 10 video" you surprise with this. I like your content, keep it up!
The only thing I don't agree with is the #GamerGate part of the video, solely because it implies the victims are the one's who made the original articles and they were the one's trying to spread constructive criticism about the "gamer" social outlook. Gamer's, ultimately, no matter what side, is the victim solely, and you're simple side stepping the fact the media is abusing their consumers for agenda based purposes.
Unfortunately, and factually, most of what you stated on that front is incorrect, and were mostly just "appeals to emotion". This fight isn't going to stop any time soon, because even if content moves over to RUclips, it's most likely to continue there as a watchdog style group making sure content creator's aren't being dishonest. Most people want to be critical of critics without being called "dead gamers" or "misogynist," which is what you indirectly said was "the truth." People want it to end, but mostly because being honest shouldn't be hard. (Much like how Total Biscuit expressed in this video in the comments.)
Otherwise the video was very good.
So glad i found your channel earlier this year! Certainly has been a bright spot in this mediocre year. Happy New Year let 2015 be awesome! :)
I bet this years great game would be Undertale no dout
-Bruh MLG 420 360 Noscope is better- Of course
No the new one -JK-
+ThatOne Slime Seriously??? Undertale is phase people now have because its the "only non-violent RPG" or because "it gives you the change to be violent or non-violent thing" thats bullshit. Its mediocre at best and people only praise it because it is not a AAA-title. This whole unnecessary love for small indie-games is making me angry because everyone tries to make you feel guilty for being primarily a fan of the big AAA-Games. Undertale will fade, as did FNAF and as did every other indie "hit" before it. Who are the ones that make a lasting impact? The AAA-titles (The ones that are not a buggy mess)
The Frost Dragon
I'm the kid because I can have my own opinion and am not afraid to openly defend what I like and attack what I dislike? Your illogical "logic" is astounding.
Story: I dont give a shit
Characters: A girl, Some creepy Guys and talking animals... These "Characters" look like they where ripped from an old kids cartoon.
Combat System: What cambat? You mean this thing that you pull through other thing which looks nothing like a good RPG fighting system.
Now let me tell you what this game is lacking:
The feel of epic adventure
In depth RPG mechanics: Strength, weaknesses, and all that stuff, looong character sheets. and all that. What essentially defines RPGs!
And even though these are just two points these two points make up about 70% of RPGs.
My point is that these "artsy" games are not worth a cent. Seriously there were so many better games in 2015 that deserve the praise of being "This Years Great Game" like:
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Mario Maker
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Bloodborne
Splatoon
and these are just some examples! So get your head out of the indie industries ass and open your eyes to see the real good games
The Frost Dragon
So I am immature for being very defensive about what I like and offensive to everything I dont like. I dont think you know how humans work. What you called immature is actually called being subjective. The opposite of that is being objectiv which is not possible for any living thing. So after you "logic" everyone is immature, because everybody is subjective, everybody will defend their opinions and everybody will attack stuff they dont like. Thats how humans work, and thats how you work, and thats how I work. And calling me immature because of that is just dumb.
Also Monster hunter isnt really an RPG because of the lack of a story, leveling system etc... Also going out to slay gaint monster does convey a certain sense of Adventure, so you cannot even pull some simple stuff like this out of your ass. Which means that are even more stupid than I was in my previous comment.
Also I dont hate indie games. I hate indie games that think they are the "only true games" and that try to be "artsy" and "innovative" without really being fun. Because, and if you like it or not, in order for a video game to be good, it needs to be fun to play. which undertale just isnt. I mean you stare at a black screen with white lines drawn on it. This doesnt even count as "retro" NES games look better than undertale. Its just another thing people think its good because they feel intelligent for liking it because it is supposed to be "art".
Also prefering triple A games over indie games is not mainstream, its quite the opposite.
Also me admitting that I like triple-A Games more than indie games makes me even more "mature" because everybody else screams just how horrible the triple-A Companies are while still buying everything the release no matter how buggy it is, or why do you think 2014 happened...
Wow. I think I physically swooned at the end there. This is slowly becoming my new favorite channel solely based on how intelligent it is.
This year (2015) has so far been quite a disappointing year. MGSV was great, yet disappointing. Star Wars Battlefront is competent, but disappointing. And when I heard that Persona 5 was held back a year, I became more disappointed. At least this year hasn't been a repeat of last year and major releases are actually stable and still fun for the most part.
+Bakatyler but...
Undertale.
We have a few hidden gems every year, but in total all of the big releases have been let downs. Still good, but still not meeting expectations.
Witcher 3 was everything it promised.
JC3 is good but disappointing, Dying Light is good but disappointing, Evolve is good but disappointing (so I've heard, anyway), The Order 1886 is OK but too short and rather disappointing, The Witcher 3 is good...well, period. And Fallout 4 appears to be OK but rather disappointing. Yeah, it really has been the year of disappointment.
+Bakatyler It's not better than 2013, but it's better than 2014 in every aspect. 2014 was all remasters, shitty games and too few good games. In this year we had Witcher 3, Undertale, Bloodborne and MGS5.
I decided to subscribe to this channel because of the Total Biscuit Arbitrary Game Awards video and this is the first video I have seen from this channel. It was a fantastic video and contained very interesting content but my god I was not prepared for how depressing it was. I'll make sure I'm ready next time, keep up the good work!
The funny thing about that little speech you gave following dismissal of reactions to "Gamers are over"?
That could be aimed squarely at the same people that wrote those horrible, condescending articles.
"You are a human being. You are so much more than the games that you play."
That's true, but the point you're kind of (dis)missing about the anger expressed at those articles, is that people get mad when part of the identity is attacked, and for many here it was for no good reason. "Gamers are Over" was some of the most egregious abuse of genetic fallacy I have ever seen from the gaming press, and it was done with the clear intent of making gamers as a whole mad because the authors were mad.
That's why those articles specifically, and repeatedly used the most generic term 'gamer' to describe the target of their ire.
It's rather telling how it takes even more effort to try explain around that fact than it does to accept it.
You say gaming might only be a part of someone's life and that it's not worth getting upset or feeling insecurity over because one part does not define a person. To that, I say: People, real human beings, still go "I hurt" even when only one part of them hurts.
Anyway...you're right; 2014 was the year gaming became dumb. But despite your little attempt at an uplifting speech at the end, I took it quite differently. 2014 made me firmly question why I even bother with gaming anymore.
"There is a niche for good games."
This should be a HUGE red flag. When 'GOOD' becomes *NICHE*, it means something has gone terribly wrong.
Good is never something we should accept as just being niche; It's what we should be striving for as the standard.
But we aren't. Consumers routinely financially verify worse and worse deals every year, and that was never more evident than in 2014's glitchy, hack-job next-gen game lineup (a subject you Super BunnyHop, already covered at length I might add)
Yeah, there are good games out there in the niche. But what that tells me, is that legitimately great games are constantly being shoved to the side, while garbage reigns despite all of the controversy. That's anything BUT a sign of a healthy gaming market, in fact, it's a sign that the market is not only vulnerable to abuse, but it is being abused and tolerating it.
What isn't tired is overhyped. What isn't overhyped is dishonest or misleading.
What isn't either of those is white-hot controversial and toxic.
In 2014, I felt that gaming at large just wasn't all that fun or interesting anymore...and that only got worse when the politics and vitriol arrived later in the year. Right now, I honestly don't want to spend money on anything without exhaustively (and independently) researching it first, and I damn well refuse to buy virtually any AAA game at all, either out of boredom or fear of frustration.
It's to the point where the stress is outweighing the benefits, and at some point, you have to realize when enough is enough.
In 2014, gaming reeked of gross manipulation, a lot of finger pointing and a world class shitstorm right at the end; the few bright gems buried in all the slung crap are becoming too few and bothersome to find. Frankly, I don't want to deal with it anymore, and I'm sure there are others that feel the same.
For the first time in my life, in 25+ years of video gaming it made me feel genuinely old and tired.
And I hate it.
Super Bunnyhop supplies a fantastic (and needed) point of view on the gaming world (and perhaps inadvertently life in general). Conversational depth is relative so I may be one of the few that considers this channel deep, but I'll say the topic extrapolation and sometimes philosophical depth of every video on this channel is enriching and does a good deal of soul service to me. If the owners of the channel are reading this thank you for your content. There's a lot of talent in the world and I appreciate you having the courage to share some of your talent....Also, the MGS 3 no tranq run is killer lol. O encourage everyone to take a peek haha.
I had made a thread about how I feel on the negatives that came about this year in /r/games, and I'd like to continue the original point I made there. With the state that gaming has got in, I feel... demoralized from playing games. I struggle to really invest in games when I'm constantly being told that I'm a sick discriminating asshole for doing so. All the examples you showed just puts this to light. GTA V makes us woman beaters, Hatred makes us psychotic and sadistic, not agreeing with the Tumblr 'feminists' that a certain game is sexist/racist/offensive/etc will get you up to your head in death/doxxing threats. All these dangers and accusations just make me scared to be in this community. I just really hope that we see a difference to this in 2015, but I highly doubt it. A man can dream though. Well, he can't according to Tumblr users/SJWs, but we just try to forget about them.
I'm so glad you didn't declare 2014 a shitty year for games. A few other reviewers I highly respect claimed that it was a bad year, when I still think there were plenty of worthy games that came out, many of which you mentioned. Thanks for giving credit when credit was due. Yet again, you prove that you put out some of the best content on RUclips. Thank you for that. *thumbs up*
I wish political and social rhetoric wasn't constantly attacking games and myself. That's how I felt about 2014.
That's how I felt about 1980-2014
Love your stuff. Been watching since your appearence on the Co-optional podcast. Please continue making videos.
Nintendo won 2014 with Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros, and Bayonetta 2. Everything else was pretty much shit (Except for Wolfenstein the New Order).
+Will Benjamin and ORAS and Hyrule Warriors. :3
+Will Benjamin God I love Smash Bros.
I've never owned or payed for a single nintendo game or console, yet I have somehow managed to play every version of every game to date. My life is great.
I had an instant flashback of the end of MGS2 when watching the last couple of minutes of this video! Well done!
Why do you think this is such a shitty year? Gamergate has done great and good things. If people are so unbalanced that this topic sends them to a rage, hell who the hell wants free speech anyways? Maybe they are right to be angry and if SJW's can whine about white men, they GG'ers can whine about journalism. It is their prerogative to act on their feelings. I am not losing sleep but I am enjoying the reaction from the media. They don't like the spotlight. They shouldn't, they are full of shit.
Great vid btw
***** Being on the list it's not damming if you are not trying to pretend you are a journalist.
And I don't think he wants to (at least on this channel).
But disclosing this if you want to discuss it would make it less "shady" as opposed to when it leaks out and makes you look bad.
Reminder that disclosures was all people wanted but journos preferred to start an internet war and give birth to GG.
*****
Well, free pass from criticism is what actually started this whole thing.
It's best to criticize everyone to make sure who is trying to rule over us.
TrueKaras
I agree. And gaming journalists made it clear they wanted to rule over the industry when they responded to simple criticism with such vitriol.
Excellent video George, especially the summary at the end. Thanks, and have a great new year