Why do gamers think they're so entitled?

[GrayGhost81]

This is why I feel so at home on RFGen and with its members and generally avoid any interaction with members of other, more mainstream sites.

[NeoMagicWarrior]

It's no less entitled then the retro era. Just see more of it because of the internet. Read GAMEFAN Magazine in the early 90's and fans were just the same. Kids in the playground were the same as now why such and such is better on what game or console why something sucks. Just now the internet allows us to see more of it.

I agree with Ryudo on this one. I think if there is a shift its not nearly as drastic as many of you guys are making it sound. People have been tools for as long as I can remember.

I'm in agreement with Crabby and Ryudo.

If anything, people have the same "douchbagetry", but more avenues to publicly display it.

[Sauza12]

I'd like to add that it is not just video games. Nothing is immune. In my college's student lounge tonight, I was eating a meal between classes and this chick was straight tripping balls because I was eating a chicken sandwich from Burger King. She was make a face like she could vomit at any moment and pretty much telling me what I should and should not eat from there. Gamers are the same way. "You like [game]? ugh! Disgusting pig! Get away from me and refine your tastes!"

Those are what we call "Miserable, soul-draining harpies whose sole reason for existing is to spread pain and displeasure amongst all they come across".  You usually discover them when discussing entertainment, food and other things that don't matter in slightest in the grand scheme of things.  However like a few people have already said, this is hardly something new.  It's just much harder to avoid people like that now.  The internet is a terrible mistress.  She gives with one hand and takes with the other.

If you ever want to jump head first into the very font of entitled bitching, complaining and "I'm better than you" shots, head over to the World of Warcraft forums sometimes.  It's like one big concentrated ball of idiocy and self-importance over there.  If I'm ever in a bad mood I like to go over there just to stir stuff up and get those yokels all worked up.

[slackur]

The continued entrenchment of on-demand entertainment and resources inevitably effects culture.  Before microwaves and fast food availability, dinner took as long as prep-time and oven cooking, often with the only other options being eating cold leftovers or going without.

Now with such near-immediate alternatives, taking well over an hour to prep a meal on a daily basis is near unthinkable in the first world.  (What was once a necessity is now an occasional luxury.)

This is clearly visible in electronic entertainment, as has been mentioned in comments above.  Most of us 'elder' gamers here worked hard for the occasional game, and played it because there were simply no other options.  Many of these games we would play even if we knew they weren't very good, because they were much more the center of our entertainment lives at that moment.

Now for one of many examples of the modern differences, many of the most popular (in terms of players) games are on phones.  Portable phones that much more readily accessible than any console.  And these games are generally free or under a few bucks, cheap by any measure of inflation. 

Another example is how a person in any affluent country does not have to wait for only two or three AAA games every year or two, as it was in times past.  Many years ago we were used to building expectation for the handful of gameplay experiences (and not much else, save for a few games in our collection we played countless times.)  Now, hardly a month or three goes by without some big-deal collector's edition featuring a game with a huge budget.  Through Steam and Playstation Plus, we can purchase entire collections in one shot, with no real hope to ever play through each one.

To paraphrase a raspy-voiced Snake; Gaming... has changed.

And so has our gaming culture.  Reading a Nintendo Power from the first several years feels, in writing style and design, like you, the player, are part of a special and elite club of great fun.  Codes to games are 'Top Secret,' not on tap at Gamefaqs.  Screen shots of a new game are there to ogle and daydream over, not be digitally posted and each pixel counted to determine a disappointed resolution.  The back of some  other magazines had gamers offering to trade chunks of precious gaming hardware and software in a mail order swap-meet of mutual interest, instead of us eager collectors looking to snipe Ebay and Craigs List.

Now, I'm not some cranky coot wearing rose-colored glasses, and I have a genuine appreciation for classic, modern, and all gaming, and a fascination for the decades of development in between.  But as video gaming finally reached the cultural entrenchment many of us wished for in our youth, now we have to live with the mentality and sense of entitlement such a culture produces. 

Years ago, if something about a game ticked someone off, they may write a letter to Gamepro.  Nowadays we have:
http://www.gameranx.com/u...o-pull-game-from-shelves/
The vitriol spreads through social media, and weird things can happen that wouldn't have been conceivable only a few years ago, like the Mass Effect ending expansion.

(Personal note, for what its worth, I really enjoyed the trilogy and felt the endings, both original and expanded, were superb and holistically complete. My PM box can redirect such discussion from this thread.)

So, we've always had the entitled folks that somehow think a luxury device generally developed for entertainment is subject to each individualized whim, but the power of modern communication and new methods of software modification means that the relationship between the gamer and the industry is in a new phase.

[bombatomba]

I agree with Crabby on this one.  The only reason people notice more is because there is now a medium to hear it more on.  What Ryudo said, about the playground?  Totally true.  I remember a kid when I was 12 saying that Metal Gear was crap, and when I said that I thought it was cool, he berated me.  Why?  Because he was a delta-bravo, that's why.  This was in 1989.  Now go back twenty, thirty, fifty years.  Heck, go back one hundred.   Do you think kids didn't carry on back then if they didn't get what they wanted, or not exactly what they wanted?  I believe the real problem is that too many people just jump on board this whole "Entitlement Generation" bit without really thinking about it.

I don't know about you guys, but games were far too expensive to buy on my own in the late 80's and early 90's.  I only got games for Christmas and my birthday (and once at Easter).  Michigan offered return deposit for cans and bottles, but I tended to use this for game rentals ($3 versus $50+).

[Shadow Kisuragi]

I agree with Crabby on this one.  The only reason people notice more is because there is now a medium to hear it more on.  What Ryudo said, about the playground?  Totally true.  I remember a kid when I was 12 saying that Metal Gear was crap, and when I said that I thought it was cool, he berated me.  Why?  Because he was a delta-bravo, that's why.  This was in 1989.  Now go back twenty, thirty, fifty years.  Heck, go back one hundred.   Do you think kids didn't carry on back then if they didn't get what they wanted, or not exactly what they wanted?  I believe the real problem is that too many people just jump on board this whole "Entitlement Generation" bit without really thinking about it.

I don't know about you guys, but games were far too expensive to buy on my own in the late 80's and early 90's.  I only got games for Christmas and my birthday (and once at Easter).  Michigan offered return deposit for cans and bottles, but I tended to use this for game rentals ($3 versus $50+).

I agree that it has always existed - I'm just saying that I'm seeing a lot more public displays of it, even outside of the social media networks. Maybe the parents in my area are just relying on TV, Internet and Video Games to raise their children (EDIT: Aware that this is a baseless argument, but it's more a commentary on what I keep hearing as "bad parenting"), but entertainment as a whole seems to be catering more towards it and the media is doing its best to sensationalize it.

[bombatomba]

I agree that it has always existed - I'm just saying that I'm seeing a lot more public displays of it, even outside of the social media networks. Maybe the parents in my area are just relying on TV, Internet and Video Games to raise their children (EDIT: Aware that this is a baseless argument, but it's more a commentary on what I keep hearing as "bad parenting"), but entertainment as a whole seems to be catering more towards it and the media is doing its best to sensationalize it.

I see where you are coming from, Shadow.  Like many others pointed out, there are now so many places for kids to vent their strangeness it seems like it's up in everybodys grill these days.  Personally I don't see it as much, but I think that is more indicative of my own dismissal of online culture than anything else.  My formula: I don't play online games anymore of any kind and I only frequent forums and discussion groups where people act like they would in real life (which is about five).

[ApolloBoy]

I believe the real problem is that too many people just jump on board this whole "Entitlement Generation" bit without really thinking about it.

Finally someone in this topic got it right. "Entitlement Generation"? Really?

[OatBob]

I read a good article on game design the other day.

http://techcrunch.com/201...fun-boson-does-not-exist/

It claims that developers are becoming a bit too reliant on analytics and the result are lots of big name titles that are either unoriginal, or less than fun.  They are designed around what's popular because that's what sells.  If you've seen the film Big, you'll know the type of administrative culture I'm talking about within the entertainment industry.

Fortunately, there are a few model developers who know how to grow and nourish a fan community, but not become complacent to their own success.  I'm talking about Bungie, Rockstar, Blizzard, and Capcom.  They tend to reward their super fans who like to do artistic works or special gaming stunts.  This doesn't mean they cave in to demands and criticisms on their games.

Complaint threads on community forums are always entertaining.  They always whine about something because it isn't exactly like their other favorite game, then state that they're quitting forever, as if not-playing a game makes their opinion more significant.  Typically these are followed up with a number of posts saying "good riddance" or "call the waaaahmbulance".

[techwizard]

my favourite is when people complain that a new game is too different from others in the series, and then simultaneously complain about a different series that never changes.

[InvadErGII]

I once heard someone say (in the context of M:tG players) that manufacturers could "include $100 bills in their products and players would complain about how the bills were folded". I think this definitely applies to gamers of pretty much all types.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

I believe the real problem is that too many people just jump on board this whole "Entitlement Generation" bit without really thinking about it.

Finally someone in this topic got it right. "Entitlement Generation"? Really?

I give it plenty of thought...and then watch "Battle Royale".

[bombatomba]

Finally someone in this topic got it right. "Entitlement Generation"? Really?

It could be worse.  At least your generation isn't know as "Generation Y."  I hate that one.

[Quackula]

After reading gaming threads in old usenet discussions, I've come to the conclusion that no, nothing is actually all that different.

Nerds are just ultra whiny.

[Haoie]

Back in my day, we could count the console's bits on one hand, and we liked it, daggnabit!