Ok, fair warning: this will be long, and it will be ranty.
This sort of thing :censored:ing disgusts me. This kind of blind fanboyism is one of the many heads of the hydra that's killing the game industry.
I really don't understand the attitude of hoping the other console is a huge failure. That would be a lose-lose; it would kill any drive for innovation of features or hardware, and it would kill any market competition, allowing developers to become even more lax in the kind of 🤬 they shovel out and call a game. The best possible scenario is for both consoles to be successful, and to drive each other forward as they develop new features or games that offer experiences the other console doesn't. That's what will drive the generation forward; having one console win in a landslide would be bad for everyone. But I guess that reaching that conclusion requires some ability to reason logically, which most fanboys don't possess.
When did things get like this? When did gaming turn into such a hateful us-vs-them, in-group vs out-group hatefest? Beyond that, who actually benefits from that behaviour? Because I'll tell you who is directly hurt by it, and that's every gamer, especially the ones who perpetuate such behaviour. Anyone who blindly dismisses things based on who made them is the worst kind of idiot. All you'll get with that attitude is a lot of great games you'll never play.
Allow me to elaborate: blindly choosing a console based on who's name is on the box is not only willfully ignorant, but it directly hurts innovation in the hardware. Where is the push to move forward as much as possible, when they can churn out a nominally powerful, obsolete-before-it-launches, feature-barren pile of crap, slap SONY or NINTENDO or XBOX on the package, and sell millions of them? How does encouraging that behaviour by buying your 'preferred' brand regardless of if it offers features that you actually want help anyone?
Beyond that, this ideology expands to games too. Whether it's defending every change in your favorite series, even if it's a change that adds nothing positive and lowers the skill gap, or buying the newest installment in a series that's churned out a game every year with basically zero changes from the one before it, it's encouraging developers to be lazy. By doing those things, you're saying that you're ok with poorly designed games, badly implemented features, or reheated content just because it has Halo or Call of Duty or Gran Turismo on the cover, with a number after it that's higher than the number on the box you already have. Who benefits from that? Who's gaming experience is made better by a lack of innovation, or a dumbing down of features to appeal to the masses?
For some reason, there's become an attitude entrenched in gaming that newer=better, or that better graphics=better game. It's total 🤬; if a game offers nothing new or only nominal changes over its predecessor, while at the same time removing things that were seen as 'too difficult to grasp' or 'too challenging' why should it be seen as better just because its newer? How does the mere fact that it was published in 2013 make it better than a game that was published in 2011, or hell, 1998? What divine right does a sequel have to be better than the original? But you see that ideology everywhere, from gamers who refuse to play older games in a series when newer installments are available, to companies projecting higher sales for sequels to niche games just because they're sequels, like Dark Souls II.
Ill expand on this more: why does every game that is moderately successful need a sequel? Why does there need to be a new game every few years? Especially in the era of easy DLC, why churn out a sequel? Why not just keep updating and perfecting the game you have? Sure, if there's sweeping enough changes, release a new game so you can update the engine (although even that can be done with a patch...) but if you're just going to throw some prettier graphics on the same game and release it a year later, what's the :censored:ing point? More importantly, why the 🤬 do people line up to buy that 🤬?
I think it's safe to say that all of us in this group have a vested interest in the gaming industry continuing to provide quality entertainment. If that's to be the case, these attitudes need to change. It's well past time to abandon the 'console war' because it serves no purpose other than to drive the flagrantly anticonsumerist policies that consoles champion (which I can write another whole rant on if anyone wants me too), and to continue to allow laziness from developers.
It's time for gamers to stop accepting sub-par or half-finished products just because of the name on the box. It's time to demand better from the industry.
.
.
