Im sorry, but as far as Im concerned the Xbone is one of the worst things ever to happen to microsoft. Microsoft has made it clear that they can only exist in a world filled with gold accounts microtransactions, casual gaming and Xbox One exclusive releases. They have obviously shanked the PC Gaming market and their pandering to the mainstream casual consumerbase has shifted the industry from catering to gamers to catering to people that are new to gaming and/or play casually. This isnt to say that there arent hardcore gamers on xbox, and in fact there was a gigantic scene on the Xbox 360 that generated many great games, like Borderlands 2 and Bulletstorm, two games that I love to play on PC. But instead we get games like the in-app-purchase ridden Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare and games that are rated T and under because of the lack of sales in the M-rated shooter market, which I think inhibit their action-oriented status, such as Destiny... but thats mostly because Im a violence-loving bastard as Suda51 would call in in his seminal classic, No More Heroes which was in more ways than one a slanted parody and criticism on violence-oriented games as a whole. As a pc gamer, I applaud the new consoles for ditching the classical console hardware and pipeline technology for something pc-based and truly 64-bit, and since the xbox one uses directx 11 I was hoping that the market would soon be filled with 64-bit-only, high-graphics intensive pc ports that would focus on the hardcore market, but instead we get washed out and dumbed down ports like Watch Dogs, a game I found to be very boring and filled with oversimplified and boring game mechanics that turned off working graphics enhancements to make the game look as good on console as it did on PC, and then again games like titanfall, a very simplistic yet fun to play game, but still more open to beginners in a way that diminishes its artistic value and originality. In essence, the xbox one creed is that of Not taking risks and Optimizing profits based on market research instead of user-statistics gathering like steam and a hard design philosophy like the PS4. Now, the Wii U and PS4 both have a very niche and dedicated consumerbase; I say this because for the most part, their user experience is heavily shifted towards the main users of those consoles and their game experiences are heavily shifted towards the kinds of games that the users of that console play. The Wii U is a great console for people that like nintendo games, eastern games, and games that have interesting and game-changing mechanics. The PS4 is for hardcore graphics and game enthusiasts that dont want to bother with PC or Xbox becuase they prefer their user experiences to be both game-focused, unlike the xbox, and graphics-intensive like the PC but without the hassle. Im very sympathetic towards the playstation userbase and the xbox 360 userbase as well as Wii U players because for the most part Im very comfortable with the actions of the company and how it responds to their users tastes over their own corporate agenda. However, I believe the Xbox One to be focused not so much User-Satisfaction and responding to feedback as much as pushing propiganda, ad campaigns, and a publishing practice people refer to as Tastemaking. Imaging artists like Kanye West and LMFAO and Niki Manaj, and how they are heavily pressed by their publishers, themselves, and their executive editors in order to generate mass-appeal, and compare them to artists like Daft Punk, who are very heavily focused on doing their thing and their thing alone, and Usher and P Diddy, who both are very focused on doing recording their way (P Diddy I hear refuses to do collabs without the person there, but obviously Im not very knowledgeable about most of these artists). The prior is how I see the Xbox One, and the latter is how I see the PS4 and Wii U communities, the Wii U being like Daft Punk and the PS4 Being like the Playstation 4. Despite the openness to new ideas that Microsoft brings, Sony is very dismissive towards any business practice that clashes with their overall philosophy and this includes the eastern mindset of disallowing user-based content and mods, and Nintendo is like daft punk, very classical for the genre but still very heavily focused on their developmental and design philosophy. The philosophy Microsoft brings towards the Xbox One is one focused on market research instead of aggregated user play data, which is why their games for windows and the games for windows live data has failed very poorly and Valves steam store, and even the intrusive Origin service, are still doing very well despite their obvious pricing tactics, with the origin service being focused on dlc and the steam tactic on constant sales that influence the buyer to get games they normally wouldnt consider on making. The reason they can do this is because unlike the console publishing state of affairs that require a 30% markup fee for licensing, steam and origin do not require markup fees and allow the publisher to do things as necessary in order to benefit the community and thus allow the individual companies that work for them (at least in steams case) to do things as necessary to benefit from their product. The Microsoft mentality is that of if you publish on our system, we enforce its marketing and will do all things necessary design-wise to greater influence its base appeal. This doesnt allow the publisher to take necessary risks because Microsoft wont accept it, and it wont allow the publisher to cater to the individual needs of the licensees because it is so focused on maintaining the suitability of the ever-changing tv-based gaming platform. This is also a problem with the gaming media as well as Xbox One, because gaming media is constantly loosing relativity and will do anything it needs to make money, which includes the pejorative (which I dislike using but lack any other means of describing) term Selling Out because they are left with no options. Now, PS4 and PC both have very blatant problems. The pc market is so focused on PC gamers in the hardcore sense that it is very scary for one to get into, especially when more often than not your gaming choices are based around the hardware you currently have. That is one reason why I got into classical FPS games and oldschool shooters. PS4 on the other hand is focused on making great and top-of-the-line hardware which doesnt always benefit the company. Look at the E.D.O, look at the PS Vita. They were to high-end and lost considerable profits because of their public image as being a luxury item instead of a media pastime enabler. If I were to say anything good towards the Xbox one, it would be that they are doing a better job than most towards increasing the gaming population in a way that in one way or another benefits all gamers everywhere, and that they are doing great things with multiple-support of more types of media than gaming. They have Netflix, they have XBOX video, they have sports packages that are more interactive and easier to use than cable sports packages. They have user-aggregated show recommendations, one thing they should do with their flagship game titles more often. But above all, they are doing all things possible to keep things simple and take hard and annoying tasks out of the hands of the gamer, and into the hands of its hardware, such as Kinect Voice Support and other such things. However, this is a double-edged sword and I really dont see people who are married to Xbox one leaving it anytime soon as it traps you and the entire industry as a whole to what Xbox says you can and cannot do. I dont hate xbox gamers, as that would be idiotic. All gamers are gamers, and thus deserve the title of gamer no matter if they share your platform of choice. Being a gamer is a sort-of hidden badge of honor in my opinion, and I dont think the gamers are the ones doing wrong here. I think its instead the Microsofts flexibility of philosophy that is so bad about it, and if you like the Xbox One, then more power to you- but I foresee your possible game options to be far less than that of the XBOX 360 and the PS4.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 00:18:28 +0000
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