With PS4 Coming, where will the Nerds, Introverts, Geeks go?

One kind of gamer stereo-type is the loner. He's just a little different than everyone else. Likes to mess around with computers and video games and pretty much keeps to himself. A lot of times this stereo-type digs manga and anime. Usually not popular in school, just hangs a round with one maybe two other geeks. This kind of dude typically sees the world through different glasses, than main stream ppl. He gets into video games
because he doesn't have to interact with the popular masses. He's into gaming because there he can be weird, and fantasize without being ridiculed and made fun of. He can lose himself in the world of videogames and not be worried about the judgement of society. Well, at least that's how it used to be for a certain type of gamer. In comes the PS4!

To yourself, loner, quiet, or shy, oh no not with the PS4! The PS4 wants to expand the social networking, social competition, social sharing, social acceptance, social participation, and social scene of gaming. Now its about sharing the gaming experience 'WITH ALL YOUR FRIENDS!' What? no friends? What you're just a loner, shy nerd that likes to privately play video games and enjoy your manga and anime Huh? No way! The PS4 has got a cure for you. You're going to be able to stream games from anywhere and share your experience with any and everyone all the time. Its one for all and all for one join the social networking revolution and be SOCIAL! WTF? You mean you got into video gaming precisely because you are not a very social person and you found comfort in the solitary world of video games? Well those days are over chump! Its all about friends list, friends, friends,and more friends, the bigger the friends list the more fun you're gonna have, everyone connected you, you connected everyone, and the PS4 will allow you to do it from anywhere in the full light of day! HOORAY!!!!!!

But what if you don't want to get online? What if you don't want to be in the cloud? What if you really are a loner or one of the stereo-typical nerd geeky types that don't like ppl? Then my friend, video games are no longer for you. High quality, engrossing, immersive single player gaming is soon to be extinct and in its wake, the social network of gaming for the masses!

I remember the PS1 (I still have mines fully functional and with all the games). I remember the introduction of the PS2 that brought more hardware, memory, faster processor, etc that would truly benefit the gamer. Likewise the introduction of PS3, the High Definition Graphics and Sound, definitely allowed even the loner, nerd gamer to immersive him/herself even deeper into their private solitary fantasy worlds. But the online component of the PS3 ushered in the beginning of the end for the single, loner type.

The PS4 is not really bringing much technological innovation to improve the single player gaming experience. More than anything else its a big money grab. Sony and the developers have found more ways to divide up and parcel out the gaming experience than I can count. You'll be able to download from anything and pay from anywhere. There are fifty million payment models to accommodate all of the convienient ways you will be able to download and play (and pay for) gaming content with all of your friends world wide. The PS4 is being set up so the whole world can play and share together all and the low, low price of 1.49 per gaming item. It'll be fun everybody playing with everybody else and able to share your results, trophies, achievements, successes and failures for all the world to see, with the whole gaming experience compatible with facebook, twitter, youtube, (name-your-social-network-here). Its the biggest party on the planet everybody is invited, lots, and lots, and lots of friends, with long friends list, how could anyone resist?

It seems like with the coming of the PS4, gaming has forsaken the shy, quiet, to-himself-gamer, the quintessential nerd and so called computer geek. Gaming is now a thing for the masses to be shared at all times and everywhere with the credit card meter running. And not forget Single Player mode, Rest In Peace single player it was nice while it lasted.

 

To be fair we are into fighting games. They sort of demand you being social but, I do see what you're getting at. The next gen wants you to be the annoying "I just woke up, better make a post about it!" Type. I should hope though that while these social connections will be available they're not actually forced upon us and we'll be able to shut such features off.

It would be so damned annoying if anytime you loaded up a game or won a fight you got a pop up message "Would you like to share this to facebook?" Uhh...noooo....I want to play the fucking game, that's why I bought it!

 

Most people whom would be called loners and introverts hang out on forums with similar folk and have twitters/facebooks to stay in touch with them.

P.S. The overgeneralizations are gross and look ripped straight from a 80s tv show.

 

Where have you been? It's been that way for a long time now.

 

I think this is hyperbole at best. Single-player games aren't going away or anything of the sorts. Granted, they've changed to suit a wider demographic and are generally easier and have more hand-holding and stuff, but we're not dawning on some kind of era where everything's just gonna be a version of Farmville or whatever. Also, I think there's been too much read into the statement made about technological improvement not being the major factor for the PS4's projected success. I read an article not long ago from a developer team or publisher or someone, and they were saying just how much more power they're going to be able to draw from the PS4 now that it runs on components similar to PCs, and that they expect a massive improvement on graphics and performance from PS3 to PS4.

The social crap, I think, is just a way to appeal to another demographic. Core gamers who play games to play games will buy the system to play games - it's going to play the games, so they're set. What I think they're trying to do is hook the moms and dads and Facebook grannies and all the people who think social media is the best thing ever. Similar to how it was 10 years ago, where all the mouth-breathers were running around with their cell phones showing off their new RnB ring tone or being part of the 'cool kids crowd' because they've got the video of two dogs shagging; they're just looking to capitalise on those people who have to be the centre of attention by constantly showing every little thing they do. You know those people, the ones that post on Facebook every time they take a shit, or make Twitter posts about absolutely nothing. It's just another 'look at me' gimmick that will mostly go ignored, aside from maybe one or two convenient features that make it easier to connect to other people's games.

 

Yeah, that's what I meant.

 

Sony's whole plan was to bring gaming to the masses, since PS1. They've been doing it since. This is nothing new.

 

I truly hope everyone here is right and the PS4 is not going to be as bad as I think its going to be.

but as I see it, the PS4 benefits game developers because its going to give them 50 ways from Sunday to break up, and parcel out the gaming experience in countless pay-as-you-go schemes. Game publishers benefit from the PS4 the whole streaming and downloading (no disc) strategy really works for them. The whole social media, game from anywhere, anytime with everyone opens up endless data mining and marketing research possibilities for everyone in the money making side of gaming.

Yea and the gamer is being convinced that the more online the better, the more you do online the better, the more online features you have the better off you are. But check this out, my brother was over this past weekend, he wanted to race me in some NFS most wanted, (but guess what) there's no two player any more in NFS most wanted. In order to play me I either need two PS3's with online access in the same location, or he has to go home to play me from his playstation. I fear this scenario will be par for the course on the PS4.

Even VF5FS just gave up on single player and what few features it did provide lean heavy toward online multiplayer. On the PS4 will Virtua Fighter two player mode go away?

The idea of being a private to yourself kind of gamer is fading fast. I'm not saying that all gamers are loners, shy, or nerdy. But I know a lot who are and all the new changes that the PS4 is bringing have nothing to offer for this kind of gamer, and this kind of gamer help to start the whole video game revolution.


Once upon a time is was really about who had high score and who did that those 3 initials belong to. and society called a lot of those gamers outcasts (more or less), now I fear gaming is being snatched from them and given to who ever has money left on a bank card.

I did the PS1, PS2 and PS3, but if the next gen ends up like its looking now, I won't be doing the PS4. The last thing I want to add to my gaming experience is Facebook and twitter or worldstar hip hop LOL.

Real talk, Fuck the cloud, fuck Facebook, and Fuck Twitter, Fuck Pay-as-you-go running meter software. I'd like to pay a finite reasonable amount for a game. I don't want to be pimped for the life of the console for any title, and I think that's exactly where the PS4 is headed, all at the same time promising the ultimate Social Media shared gaming experience, nah that just doesn't work for me.

 

Consoles and PC can do that now. Publisher and developers have been using it.

That sucks, but so does split-screen.

Hard to say what Sega wanted to put in but didn't. Original VF5 was stripped down heavily from the console VF4 features. Hopefully 6 is, at the very least, on par with what Sega offered us with the VF4 games.

The can keep being weirdos. I don't play shitty games, so people should watch what I play anyways.

Leaderboards are still in games.

Games are already doing this and the consoles now allow it. It's up to the devs. See SF3:OE and YouTube uploading and DOA5 with FaceBook uploading.

Welcome to forever ago.

 

I agree with this. I don't see why it's so difficult to add a split-screen/offline two-player mode to most games. Sure, it might not be as good as having your own screen and your own system and all that online stuff, but there's no harm in having both options. There are a lot of games that don't have any kind of multiplayer aspect that should try to add it - look at DMC/Bayonetta/MGS:R etc. They're pretty much just modern day versions of Streets of Rage, so why not add the option to have two people roaming around the screen? It doesn't need to be uber balanced and no one's going to care if you can pull off some crazy stuff that isn't possible in one-player, because having an imperfect option is still better than no option at all.

 

How the hell are DMC/Bayonetta and MGR:R modern day versions of Streets of rage?
If anything I'd liken them more to a modern day Shinobi or Ninja Gaiden. A lone hero on a mission to save the world from a cliche evil (more cliche in the new DMC than ever before)

I Really can't think of anything that's like a modern day Streets of rage with the exception of the few "Remastered" Beat em up classics Double Dragon Neo and TMNT IV: Turtles in time.

Which leads me to ask, WHY THE HELL IS THERE NOT A MODERN SOR?! Now that is a game I would love to play online with people. Not just a remastered version of one of the old games but a brand new adventure through "The City".

 

You run around from one area to the next, using your guy to bash up wave after wave of nameless bad guys, which get increasingly stronger and come with more attacks as the levels progress, and each level is concluded with a 'Boss' enemy, who is usually unique and has a special skill-set and usually requires a specific strategy to beat. There's items along the way that heal you and give you points (which convert to life), and there's even the 'all the bosses on one stage' level on some of them (DMC3/SoR2).

The styles of fighting they use might be different, but the premise and gameplay is definitely similar (obviously the new games are much more in-depth and complex than what was possible back in the Genesis/Mega Drive days).

 

The modern day SoR was Spike Out as far as beat 'em ups. There is the fan made SoR Remake on PC, though. Officially it was Spike Out.

 

Yeah! Sony patch in more RAM and VRAM!

 

There are quite a few games that do this, and these options are usually for the "OG gamer". Serious Sam, Awesomenauts, the XBLA ver. of Quake 3TA, Dungeon Defenders and several other games have either splitscreen, and/or system link.

Even still, most of these games are no longer being played as much because either A) the console version is far inferior than the pc version due to content or server mgmt (i.e. - Awesomenauts, Dungeon Defenders, Q3TA), or B) there's not enough people to play with locally (there are many reasons for this, too), and thus the said gamer crawls back to COD, or Minecraft, or whatever mainstream game they were originally playing.

I for one miss my college days of link system battles in Halo, Brute Force, and other games like it on my old Xbox. I also miss ARPGs that supported 4 players vice 2 players (Champions of Norrath, MUA1). Things are changing drastically in terms of gaming features, but it's the developers that are "usually" to blame for this. The only thing we as consumers can do need to stand out and speak up or something.

Yeah, definitely this!!! I remember the dread of watching the EVO stream on my ps3--- the horror!!!

 

There was this mecha game called Armored Core, me and my girl would play it for hours split screen and sometimes we'd have linked battles with my brother and his girl, total fun, no online, just two player option with the local lan link. This was plain old family fun, that shit is all but gone now. Armor Core 5 is all about online, if you're not online too bad because single player content sux. And of course when you think about it, I didn't need to have a special online services at $$.$$ per month to do the lan link(armored core 3, 4,etc), all I needed was a switch, so we could play for hours at no additional cost. And when me and my girl played, we only needed one copy of the game because of split screen. So now its pretty clear from the publishers and developers, if two ppl are playing we want to have sold two licenses to the game, and if Playstations are connected in some kind of way, we've got to find a way to charge for that as well. And we'll just remove single player, or reduce it to an appetizer so that the buyer can really only get the full game online, and two player mode is just a no no. Sure fighting games still have it, but most other games that use to offer it have taken it out, so if you want to play your brother, sister, girl friend, wife, mom ,dad whatever, you better have two Playstations both online with two or more licenses to the game.

If it ever was about the nerds, and geeks and introverts, it sure aint now. Its all about greed and how much can the developer and publisher can squeeze out of us in per game play. Soon it will be metered, just like your electricity, water, and gas. There will be a fucking game meter that will charge us per use to play the god damned video games. And it will be bundled with your movies, smart phone, and Itunes so you won't really have a choice.

The more I read and hear about the PS4 the more I dread it even coming out. If the PS3 killed two player and mortally wounded single player modes, then the PS4 is going finish the job and put nails in the coffin, and all that will be left is pay as you play. Sure it will be easy and cheap (at first). When I first started getting cable way back when, it was only $4.99 a month. Its 20 times that now.

PS4 is gonna stand for Pimp Station 4. Because you're gonna get pimped and you will have to pay at least 4 times as much as you paid for content on the PS1.

I've still have two functioning PS2's and Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution and Armored Core Silent Line are looking better and better to me each day.

 

Just play on the PC, masterpo.

 

Since you mentioned Armored Core, Master of Arena was the best hands down!!!

Aside from PS4, and X720 dropping, I'm really excited about the Steambox... I honestly hope that the game devs have a Lan/System Link option available in their games... I do like the online aspect of things, but certain games are indeed more enjoyable when your opponent is literally there with you...

It's strange, it seemed like people back in the pre-Xband era wanted to be able to play others without having to leave their houses. Now it seems that online gaming is starting to become nauseating to many... I guess its the fact that the "online-only" games that are starting to surface have left gamers with a sour taste... I understand companies trying to prevent hacking, but that's never gonna truly happen, so why bother... Just take the OUYA approach to hacking...

 

Next gen will probably be same as this gen for me: Capcom, SEGA and Cave software running on Microsoft and Nintendo hardware (plus NCL in-house productions of course).

PS3 ultimately, did have no game, and that could get even worse next time around, with the way certain deals are being signed. I have a separate blu-ray player and a PC for social networking, so no dice there either. In the '90s, we could never have guessed in the future you could use an American made console to play hardcore Japanese games, but that's exactly what happened.

In a console war, somebody has to lose. Looking back now, you could say this was the beginning of the end for them. Again, completely unthinkable just a decade ago.