Hating to Hate

When a gamer doesn’t like a game, they quite often use the same excuse – “It’s been done before” or “It’s not innovative” or more often “It’s just a copy.” This is rarely true – virtually every created game brings something new to the table. It is that these people refuse to see this, often because they dislike the game being discussed.

I admit, I myself have been guilty of this in the past, especially regarding Call of Duty and Pokemon (neither of which I particularly like, but am now at least willing to try), of which I considered each iteration of the game to pointless, and mostly the same. Having read some peoples zen gaming views, worked through my own gaming philosophy, and actually approached first-person shooters myself (I haven’t played Pokemon yet, but Emerald is definitely on my bucket list), I know this not to be true.

When gamers don’t like a game, we are all too quick to blame the game for being unoriginal, or not innovative enough, at least if we haven’t played the game. If we have played it, people have a tendency to blame controls, graphics (way too often graphics), and other features. However, many people look at a game, particularly any first person war game and see it as the same. I often do so myself, and force myself to look beyond the obvious.

This is why I always try to be objective in my reviews, even though they are games I have played and especially like, I try to recognize their faults as well. I would do the same with games I didn’t like, mentioning all their weaknesses, but pointing out their strengths as well.

Basically, every game introduces something, whether it's a character, or a place, anything new can be considered "innovative." Literally every game, except for a straight copy brings something innovative. No game with new content can be considered a copy.

In conclusion, I believe that if you are trying to denounce a game, come up with something more original than "it's been done before," because very likely, not all of it has.


On a side note, thanks to all the viewers that brought my page views over 1000! I'll go for 10000 next, however long it may take.