The games industry is a baby relative to fashion and cinema, so personally I think a lot of it comes down to teething problems. I feel like in a few decades we won't be having weird Elden Ring discussions. I hope...
Although nothing excuses the kinds of vitriole we see online around games, the industry hasn't helped us get out of this corner.
An utter disdain for their own work means that there's an expectation that every game should last a thousand hours, be free to play, not have adverts or paid DLC and be the best graphics on every device with regular content updates.
With few exceptions, games journalism has also raced to the bottom, posting videos, streams, Q&As and a hundred speculation articles from the moment a logo is revealed building impossible-to-meet-hype. Almost every aspect of the industry is exposed and peeled apart. We're all armchair CEOs and fanboys n girls and critics and consumers because unlike cinema or fashion every aspect is there to have an opinion on.
And lastly, probably the key difference with other industries is a lot of the noise makers are privileged, too online children and tweens (and some that never grew out of this) and for some mad reason, their noise is given weight. I don't suppose those involved in Cross Stitch journalism launch a 12 tweet thread every time a fellow stitcher with a username like, StitchMyBalls420, does a four hour video criticising a line in their latest review openly inviting a pile on to basement tweens who literally don't care.
It is a vocal minority though. You only have to look at the hundreds of thousands of people quietly sharing their game videos and screenshots. Or look at the gazillion people who buy, play and enjoy Mario Kart without once thinking about entering a '"discourse" with some anime avatar account who thinks Cloudtop Cruise is bullshit and pro players don't choose Birdo or use items etc.. Sometimes you gotta seek out the majority and their background love and appreciation of games.
Great post.
The games industry is a baby relative to fashion and cinema, so personally I think a lot of it comes down to teething problems. I feel like in a few decades we won't be having weird Elden Ring discussions. I hope...
Although nothing excuses the kinds of vitriole we see online around games, the industry hasn't helped us get out of this corner.
An utter disdain for their own work means that there's an expectation that every game should last a thousand hours, be free to play, not have adverts or paid DLC and be the best graphics on every device with regular content updates.
With few exceptions, games journalism has also raced to the bottom, posting videos, streams, Q&As and a hundred speculation articles from the moment a logo is revealed building impossible-to-meet-hype. Almost every aspect of the industry is exposed and peeled apart. We're all armchair CEOs and fanboys n girls and critics and consumers because unlike cinema or fashion every aspect is there to have an opinion on.
And lastly, probably the key difference with other industries is a lot of the noise makers are privileged, too online children and tweens (and some that never grew out of this) and for some mad reason, their noise is given weight. I don't suppose those involved in Cross Stitch journalism launch a 12 tweet thread every time a fellow stitcher with a username like, StitchMyBalls420, does a four hour video criticising a line in their latest review openly inviting a pile on to basement tweens who literally don't care.
It is a vocal minority though. You only have to look at the hundreds of thousands of people quietly sharing their game videos and screenshots. Or look at the gazillion people who buy, play and enjoy Mario Kart without once thinking about entering a '"discourse" with some anime avatar account who thinks Cloudtop Cruise is bullshit and pro players don't choose Birdo or use items etc.. Sometimes you gotta seek out the majority and their background love and appreciation of games.