For the record, I am not insulting Dakorma. I am trying to convince him his point of view is flawed, or encourage him to express his ideas in a way that is convincing.
I am a Media Studies major. Arguing about this shit sustains me.
Right now I think his real point is that "Mainstream games have declined in average quality", which I don't entirely agree with but can understand, but he is expressing it as "Games are not art because I don't like mainstream games".
Mostly the games aren't art, was blatant troll bait(to get people in the door), I'll admit that. But the people talking about how I shouldn't complain is a fairly worthless idea. Again, it's like saying, "Just stay inside your home, and tolerate that the majority of the companies are treating your opinions as bullshit, accept that the water is giving you cancer, live as best you can." Since I was about 9 I've lived and breathed gaming, I've gone back and played the truly great games I missed because I wasn't allowed on the PC till about 14, they are better than anything to come out this year, or the past 3 years. Again most of the games have been repettitive games, that focus solely on making as much money as possible, by releasing "Sure things," Here's the fun thing, Twisted Metal, wasn't a sure thing, Deus Ex, wasn't a sure thing, FALLOUT 1 wasn't a sure thing, Final Fantasy 1, wasn't a sure thing, Chronotrigger wasn't a sure thing, Metal Gear Solid, wasn't a sure thing, WORLD OF WARCRAFT, WAS NOT A SURE THING. These games evolved from not sure things into some of the most massive hits possible for their times. The hits that we have now, are specifically engineered to be hits, and do not do anything truly creative. They are over marketed, over sold, and people accept them, because the general gaming media, is scared into marketing these things as the best thing ever. Because to not do so, could deny you things like interviews, previews, review copies. And the media has gotten lazy and notoriously accepting of the measures put into place by publishers in ensure good reviews. The gaming media no longer has to STRUGGLE to get things like review copies, or interviews, and are instead fed them, like gigantic bee queens, under the veil of a PR department, preventing anyone from making any slips or speaking any real ill words, however constructive, about a game. Again these are the Happy Enterprises, Working with them is the HAPPIEST, most creatively soul sucking environment possible. Where you can work 40 hours of overtime in a week and only get paid 3 regular hours as a result.
(This is coming from someone whose closest friend works for PC Gamer as a writer, and whose uncle works for EA as an artist.)
Also a note, I come from the school of thought, that you demean the argument, not the arguer, I have not directly demeaned anyone in this thread, I've called their arguments all kinds of stupid, but have not implied much about them.
As far as my face being smashed in, yeah, when are questioning the quality of things people like, you should expect insults being slung at you, I'm frankly insulted that the core of people arguments thus far, haven't been as in depth as I had expect. And have mostly been, a kind of, "NOTHING TO SEE HERE JUST HARD CORES BEING HARD CORES," "OH LOOK AT HIM, HE'S SO STUPID FOR FORMING OPINIONS ABOUT THINGS THAT AREN'T MY OWN," "Look at this I can browse wikipedia, these are new franchises that almost all are mostly unknown and not being focused on at all, in favor of shitty sequels." or, "Hey, there's an economic crisis going on, lower your standards man, that's the only way gaming will survive." Which are invalid because, Hardcore fans form the nucleus of any fandom. Yeah, and, your point is. So you can browse wikipedia, it's kind of a floundering argument, but the point is, in every other media you get actual large reviews, even if they are pandering about everything you can think of, in gaming you get 3 paragraphs at most about the indie games, and 6 pages at most about the HUGENESS that is Skyrim, and the reviews spend most of the time going over bulletpoints, and not really analyzing anything critically. Finally, why should I lower my standards, when Activision makes 1.8 billion a year assuming 10 million subscribers to WoW. Respectively.