Anyone Else NOT Play Video Games?

[VanceMack]

I have no interest in playing with a bunch of self-involved fanatical idiots. I play the single-player game, then I put the game away. I have yet to play any of the Halo games online, I simply have no interest. The last time I played a shooter online was Quake III Arena on the Dreamcast. Zero interest in ever doing it again.

Im sorry..that guy that kept sniping you with the railgun...that was me.

 

[RadicalModerate]

It's still not $100, no matter how you justify it. That's like saying "Damn, it's a million dollars, I'm just rounding up!"

"Rounding is often done on purpose to obtain a value that is easier to write and handle than the original. It may be done also to indicate the accuracy of a computed number; for example, a quantity that was computed as 123,456 but is known to be accurate only to within a few hundred units is better stated as "about 123,500."

So there.

 

[Cephus]

"Rounding is often done on purpose to obtain a value that is easier to write and handle than the original. It may be done also to indicate the accuracy of a computed number; for example, a quantity that was computed as 123,456 but is known to be accurate only to within a few hundred units is better stated as "about 123,500."

So there.

Then properly rounding $79.99 would be $80, not $100.

So there.

 

[400321]

Nah, none of my friends play the games I do. Most are too busy wasting their lives on World of Warcrap. No thanks. Besides, if I really want to play with someone, I have multiple controllers, they can sit down on the couch next to me and play.

I'm going to start tying back to the op, and say that indeed, some games do have communities that are way, waaaay too involved. Even other gamers know that, such as Cephus. So, while some games are a waste of time and do have a lame culture, others are enjoyable and have a good culture surrounding them.

 

[400321]

I'm going to interpret the squabbling over the average price of video games as an argument about whether or not video game fans put too much money into video games, so please correct me if you think I'm being irrational.

Anyhow, the fact that fans may put too much money into video games is only representative of huge video game fans, who are also the activists and the only ones you usually hear about. The other gamers probably do wait a couple weeks until prices are cheaper. This once again is the line between way-too-involved gamers and normal gamers, the line between what you said, RM, that video games being stupid and having lame fans, and the other side, video games that kick ass.

Essentially, I'm forming my answer to the op into sort of a compromise. EDIT: Some games contribute to the lives of those who play them, others do not.

 

[Your Star]

Neither is $99.99 a truly hundred dollars. It's called "rounding up".

Like I said, I saw a game at Best Buy for $79.99 and thought to myself, "Damn, a hundred bucks for video game. That's nuts".

Maybe it was a collector's edition.

Maybe Best Buy is overpriced.

Either way...damn, a hundred bucks for a video game???

It's still not a hundred bucks, and I spent $85 in June for the Mass Effect 3 collectors edition, mind you the game doesn't come out until March. Was it money well spent? You bet it was.

 

[RadicalModerate]

I'm going to interpret the squabbling over the average price of video games as an argument about whether or not video game fans put too much money into video games, so please correct me if you think I'm being irrational.

Anyhow, the fact that fans may put too much money into video games is only representative of huge video game fans, who are also the activists and the only ones you usually hear about. The other gamers probably do wait a couple weeks until prices are cheaper. This once again is the line between way-too-involved gamers and normal gamers, the line between what you said, RM, that video games being stupid and having lame fans, and the other side, video games that kick ass.

Essentially, I'm forming my answer to the op into sort of a compromise. EDIT: Some games contribute to the lives of those who play them, others do not.

I said video games were lame and stupid. I never said that gamers themselves were lame and stupid. And I did specify that only some hardcore gamers would get pissed about my opinions...

 

[RadicalModerate]

Then properly rounding $79.99 would be $80, not $100.

So there.

So the proper rounding of the example would be 123,460?

 

[RadicalModerate]

It's still not a hundred bucks, and I spent $85 in June for the Mass Effect 3 collectors edition, mind you the game doesn't come out until March. Was it money well spent? You bet it was.

Seriously now, what is collectible about it?

 

[Your Star]

Seriously now, what is collectible about it?

 

[400321]

I said video games were lame and stupid. I never said that gamers themselves were lame and stupid. And I did specify that only some hardcore gamers would get pissed about my opinions...

True, true.

 

[Fiddytree]

Seriously now, what is collectible about it?

Most people who play games refuse to buy those editions. I would say it's different from purchases of the DVD market, whose market was flooded with "collector's edition" cases and sets.

 

[RadicalModerate]

Holy sh!t, bonus squad appearances?! Totally worth it!

 

[Enola]

I used to love playing...but it's hard to hold the controllers now. So..I watch on youtube.

 

[Your Star]

Holy sh!t, bonus squad appearances?! Totally worth it!

More like the artbook, the lithograph, the comic book(which I don't think was in the video), and the extra content. Totally worth the extra $20

 

[Alyssa]

I am the only one in America who doesn't dedicate multiple hours to video games?

Frankly, I find no joy in playing video games. At all. Save for a few minutes of Gran Turismo on my roommates 360 every few weeks, I do not understand the appeal of mashing buttons and making cartoons on a screen do things, especially for hours on end. Furthermore, I can't see why anyone over the age of 16 would even want to play video games. It's seems so detached and isolated and just...lame. Then there's the cost. Do "gamers" not realize how bilked they're being? $60, $70, $80 for a video game? The consoles themselves are hundreds of dollars. The game developers must be just rolling in their piles of cash, laughing at the dudes who wait outside for days on end to fork over their money for a CD or two of interactive cartoons. Then there's the video game media! Imagine that, a whole media segment dedicated to video games. Magazines, TV channels, countless websites and blogs, now even a goddamn CONFERENCE! How could someone possible make a entire CONFERENCE out of video games?! "

"Uh, yeah, did you play the one where you run around an imaginary 2D planet and kill some monsters?"

"Uh, no, I played the one where you drive around an imaginary 2D city and shoot people."

"Oh yeah, I played that, I totally drove around and shot people. Then I ran around and killed monsters."
I know, some dweebs take this sh!t dangerously serious. I'm sure this will raise a few blood pressures and pop a few zits at the mere suggestion of such heresy, but someone has to say it.

Video games and the whole culture around it is lame. Plain and simple.

Flame on, nerds.

Agreed. But my husband is a gamer. He could spend all day playing. He even built his own arcade machines because he really likes the older games from the 80s and 90s. He says they have better format while the new games are all about graphics. What sucks for me is that he insists on boring me to death with the details.

Some gamers I know like to say that it's a social thing, playing online. I never got that; the socialization seems limited to A. complaining about the game being played, B. complaining about other players online or C. insulting and dogging on each other mercilessly.

At least on DP, there can occasionally be some semblance of rational discussion about pertinent issues and ideas.

 

[Boring Bob]

I'll just address the complaint about the price of video games:

Last video game I bought: Skyrim- $60- can expect over 200 hours of entertainment before I'm done with it- $0.30 per hour of entertainment
Last movie I saw in theaters: Moneyball- $10- ~2 hours long- $5.00 per hour of entertainment
Last book I bought: A Dance with Dragons- $20(hardcover)- ~13 hours to read- $1.54 per hour of entertainment
Even factoring in the cost of a console ($250), Skyrim is $1.55 per hour of entertainment, only a cent more than my most recent book, and still $3.45 cheaper than the average film. Video games are NOT an expensive hobby relative to many of the other most common forms of entertainment.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

I'll just address the complaint about the price of video games:

Last video game I bought: Skyrim- $60- can expect over 200 hours of entertainment before I'm done with it- $0.30 per hour of entertainment
Last movie I saw in theaters: Moneyball- $10- ~2 hours long- $5.00 per hour of entertainment
Last book I bought: A Dance with Dragons- $20(hardcover)- ~13 hours to read- $1.54 per hour of entertainment
Even factoring in the cost of a console ($250), Skyrim is $1.55 per hour of entertainment, only a cent more than my most recent book, and still $3.45 cheaper than the average film. Video games are NOT an expensive hobby relative to many of the other most common forms of entertainment.

Ooooh - mad logic skillz!

I this regard:

Last book I bought for pleasure reading: $4.00 on clearance. 11 hours of reading or so - .36/hr
Last video game I bought for myself: Unreal Tournament 2K: $30.00. Likely I've put in 500 conservative hours of play plus that much at least in mapping and modding my own levels: .03/hr of entertainment. . . since mine's PC the cost of a gaming console doesn't factor in.

 

[whysoserious]

I'll just address the complaint about the price of video games:

Last video game I bought: Skyrim- $60- can expect over 200 hours of entertainment before I'm done with it- $0.30 per hour of entertainment
Last movie I saw in theaters: Moneyball- $10- ~2 hours long- $5.00 per hour of entertainment
Last book I bought: A Dance with Dragons- $20(hardcover)- ~13 hours to read- $1.54 per hour of entertainment
Even factoring in the cost of a console ($250), Skyrim is $1.55 per hour of entertainment, only a cent more than my most recent book, and still $3.45 cheaper than the average film. Video games are NOT an expensive hobby relative to many of the other most common forms of entertainment.

Yeah, I built my computer to be a gaming computer, but it only cost slightly more than any regular computer. Good games can get cheap quick if you wait a bit, but some of the franchises are ridiculous with how often they put out games (like CoD and Battlefield). Oh, and for PC, Steam has sales all the time and packaged deals that make games cheap as hell.

I don't game much lately though.

 

[Aderleth]

People spend money on far more idiotic and less intellectually stimulating things all the time. Would you (the OP), for instance, bad an eye if someone spent an extra $30-40 on cable every month in order to be able to (entirely passively) watch college basketball or football? From a financial standpoint, a decent video game is a far better investment than, say, spending $15 on the latest DVD, or TV subscription online. One can get 40-50 hours from one play-through of a good roleplaying game, and hundreds or thousands of hours of play from a well-made strategy game. Moreover, video games (the good ones at least) require active participation, and in some cases, actual thought. This is demonstrably not true of any form of passive entertainment. In short, if you don't want to play video games, more power to you. But it's idiotic to turn that lack of interest into a dogma of some sort, and it's remarkably small minded to pass off the whole industry as "lame."

 

[Aderleth]

I used to love playing...but it's hard to hold the controllers now. So..I watch on youtube.

Switch to PC games. I haven't had a console since high school. Most of the best games are on PC anyhow.

 

[Morality Games]

Holy sh!t, bonus squad appearances?! Totally worth it!

Bioware's unrestrained hyper-commercialism is a bit grating, but if you wade through it there is still an enjoyable RP experience.

Looking forward to Mass Effect 3, although the idea there can actually be a Mode of the game that cuts out the RP aspects of conversations makes me a little uneasy.

 

[Opteron]

I am the only one in America who doesn't dedicate multiple hours to video games?

Frankly, I find no joy in playing video games. At all. Save for a few minutes of Gran Turismo on my roommates 360 every few weeks, I do not understand the appeal of mashing buttons and making cartoons on a screen do things, especially for hours on end. Furthermore, I can't see why anyone over the age of 16 would even want to play video games. It's seems so detached and isolated and just...lame. Then there's the cost. Do "gamers" not realize how bilked they're being? $60, $70, $80 for a video game? The consoles themselves are hundreds of dollars. The game developers must be just rolling in their piles of cash, laughing at the dudes who wait outside for days on end to fork over their money for a CD or two of interactive cartoons. Then there's the video game media! Imagine that, a whole media segment dedicated to video games. Magazines, TV channels, countless websites and blogs, now even a goddamn CONFERENCE! How could someone possible make a entire CONFERENCE out of video games?! "

"Uh, yeah, did you play the one where you run around an imaginary 2D planet and kill some monsters?"

"Uh, no, I played the one where you drive around an imaginary 2D city and shoot people."

"Oh yeah, I played that, I totally drove around and shot people. Then I ran around and killed monsters."
I know, some dweebs take this sh!t dangerously serious. I'm sure this will raise a few blood pressures and pop a few zits at the mere suggestion of such heresy, but someone has to say it.

Video games and the whole culture around it is lame. Plain and simple.

Flame on, nerds.

Not all games are mash-the-keys shooters. There's strategy games and problem solving games. I would say playing video games is like playing with LEGOs, you can build all this stuff and rearrange it and stuff. If you get playing with LEGOs you probably get playing video games. Maybe you have a misconception about video games or maybe you just don't like them, I don't know. The game industry has been commercialized and there are sometimes similar titles that rely on graphics rather than gameplay, but there are some decent games out there. There's also historical military games which let you control armies like Napoleon's, which I think is neat. Some games can make you think.

 

[HonestJoe]

People have their opinions, I have mine. I have just as much right to say video games are pointless, stupid and a waste of time as others have to say they are "art" roll. I wasn't "mindlessly insulting" something, I was offering my opinion on a very popular American activity for men of my generation.

You've got the right to slam your genitals in a sandwich toaster - that doesn't mean you should do it. I consider dismissing an entire diverse hobby/entertainment as "lame" is both mindless and insulting.

Go ahead and make fun of any or all of them. I don't care.

I've no intention of making fun of pastimes other people enjoy - what would be the point of that? Plenty of the objections you have to video games could be thrown at watching movies and TV or obsessing about cars though. They can certainly be applied to posting on message boards.

People enjoy different things which, to those who don't enjoy them, can seem weird, irrational or even "lame". That doesn't make that opinion correct though and it doesn't make you a better person because you think so - quite the opposite in fact.

 

[RadicalModerate]

You've got the right to slam your genitals in a sandwich toaster - that doesn't mean you should do it. I consider dismissing an entire diverse hobby/entertainment as "lame" is both mindless and insulting.

I've no intention of making fun of pastimes other people enjoy - what would be the point of that? Plenty of the objections you have to video games could be thrown at watching movies and TV or obsessing about cars though. They can certainly be applied to posting on message boards.

People enjoy different things which, to those who don't enjoy them, can seem weird, irrational or even "lame". That doesn't make that opinion correct though and it doesn't make you a better person because you think so - quite the opposite in fact.

I certainly don't get my panties in a twist when people slam my automobile nerdiness...and I've been called much worst than a geek or nerd for that...

And when did I say I was a better person? All I did was express my distaste for them and the entire culture around them. Does every dissenting opinion come with a asterisk and a middle finger?

People certainly have a hard time hearing someone voice a different opinion on something and not taking it personally...