Pet Peeves in Gaming
I love the gaming world, it’s always been here for me and it rarely lets me down. But it’s obviously not perfect and there are some things I either don’t agree with or I think it’s obsessive or it’s just annoying.
One of the silly things is that Rocket League is an Esport. Now I love Esports and I totally understand from my experience with both Esports and with traditional sports, that Esports ask the impossible from the human brain, while traditional sports are rather simplistic as far as how mentally tasking they are but are instead physically exhausting. However, Rocket League isn’t any more complex or mentally tasking than any traditional sport. So not only is it not physically demanding but it’s not exceptionally hard on your brain either. The thing that makes Esports, an Esport is that they are extremely hard on you mentally. After a game of Starcraft you are exhausted, or a few rounds of Counterstrike or Dota, you are ready for a break. However, this does not apply to Rocket League. I’m sorry Rocket League players but I don’t see any reason for it to be an official Esport other than the fact that game this is taken seriously can be an Esport, but it’s silly to pretend that Rocket League players are on the same level as CSGO, Starcraft, Dota, or League of Legends players.
Next is “Open Betas” which take place within a month before a game’s launch. Many games these days have open betas which were originally meant to help the developers test the game, the servers and get feedback from the community to improve the game in order to have a strong and smooth launch when the game is released. However, these days developers use them more like multiplayer demos in order to get as many players as possible to try their game and in doing so, the ‘beta’ acts as a marketing stunt. The game usually doesn’t change and the feedback is taken with a grain of salt. The developers don’t even have time to make any real changes to the game before it launches. If there is enough negative feedback then the updates will come soon after launch or if the developers are smart then they’ll delay the game’s release to make sure the necessary improvements are made. Sadly though, most betas are just a way to help market the game and get players to try it in a desperate attempt to pull in more players into buying it.
Another thing that bugs me is when gamers having fancy lighting for their gaming rigs. My gaming mouse has RGB but I don’t like it so I have it set to just one dim color or I have it turned off. I find it distracting. Mainly though it’s completely unnecessary, it costs more money, it gets old fast, no one sees it but you (unless you’re flexing your money on social media like a prick) Now of course if you really enjoy having a fancy looking gaming rig and you really can’t think of a better way to spend your time and money then sure, go for it, you do you. I for one will use my time and money for something better.
This next one is much like my problem with RGB lighting, but this is about cable management. Having good cable management inside your PC is fine because it helps with heating and airflow. It’s the rest of the cable management that bothers me. Some people have their cables hidden in the wall behind their desk, or in the legs of their desk, and they go to great lengths to make their setup so clean and minimal. But it has a great cost. It takes makes things drastically more difficult to swap out cables, monitors, mice, keyboards, etc. It turns a 2-second swap into a 10-minute ordeal. Sure it’s nice to have it look nice but it’s not practical and for someone like me who likes to work in a “creative space” I find it easier to get in the zone when I can feel free to make a mess of my environment. I don’t like being a slave to my stuff, I want my stuff to be a slave to me. Because of this, I will always favor a practical and free setup over anything that needs more time or money to maintain. I find it to be a pain.
Next up is the obvious Smurfs, Hackers, and trolls. No one likes any of these players, but trolls can be dealt with and smurfs can be defeated and will no longer be an issue if you get good enough. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t super annoying, cause they are. But Hackers can only be dealt with by the developers of the game. A game like Counterstrike, they have been completely infested and ruined by Hackers and Smurfs. For some reason, Valve has made no real effort to crack down on them. We all know that there are methods to put hackers to an end. Many other games have no issues with there being hackers thanks to anti-cheat software which, unlike Valve’s anti-cheat, actually works. It’s dumb and it bothers me, we shouldn’t have these issues, it’s 2021 for goodness sake, make better anti-cheat. I can’t be too hard on the developers though, it’s mainly annoying because some loser doesn’t want to play the game fairly and seems to have no issue ruining it for everyone else. It’s sad and pathetic.
Lastly, I’ll just mention how game developers prioritize their optimization. Halo is a good example of what bothers me because they have a small field of view (FOV) but amazing graphics. However, if they reduced the graphics then they could use the remaining power of the Xbox to increase the field of view. Having a good field of view is very important in shooters. Sadly developers want their games to have the best graphics because for some reason people still think that having amazing graphics is important to a game even though, I thought we all could agree that graphics don’t make a game! But my issue isn’t just with graphics forcing a lower FOV but also a lower frame rate. Why is Gears of War, an action shooter being run at 30fps on the Xbox One? If they reduced the graphics then the game could run nicely at 60 fps. Now yes, if the Xbox One X has more power then allow the game to increase the graphics as a bonus, but don’t reduce the fps and FOV on games to get better graphics, it’s not worth it.
There are a bunch more things about some aspects of games that bother me but I’ll stop here. Happy hunting.
