The past weekend has been quite an interesting one for the gaming community, as this past week the new cloud gaming service (and console) from Google, known as Stadia, launched.
Much anticipated by many, it’s safe to say it was met with mixed regard once it was in the hands of players and media outlets alike. I personally think it was, for what was advertised, not the best launch, but it was about what I expected it to be in all reality, but some aren’t happy with my take on things, or the opinions of others.
Being completely honest, I’ve not seen this vitriolic a subgroup form this quickly in pretty much ever. The devices and service haven’t even been on the market a full week and I’ve seen fans of the service react with incredible hostility to even the slightest comment which they don’t regard as praise and, in effect, worship of the product, or cloud gaming in general.
Indeed, anything they see as negative is disregarded as people just “being haters” for the sake of it, or (as happened to me) those reporting on the general perception of the device are treated with hostility due to them personally not owning it — even though that matters not at all to commentary on how others are perceiving it. Clearly such nuance eludes the thought processes of many people who seem to think that commentary on broader perception of cultural phenomena is impossible.
With that being said, let me make something incredibly clear to everyone who’s a fan of Google Stadia, or cloud gaming in general. I can’t speak for everyone in this — there certainly are people who are knocking the product simply because of who makes it. That’s true of anything. However, again, beyond those cases and, at the very least for me personally I’m saying this now before I continue with this weeks scheduled fun:
If Google Stadia, or any other cloud gaming platform, works well for you and you enjoy it, good. I’m glad. I’m super happy you have another way to enjoy games. Seriously.
However, the fact that it works well for you does not, in any way what so ever, negate any negative experience anyone else may have with the product or the concept of cloud gaming itself. These products effectively live or die for the individual user based on both the quality of internet package they can afford as well as factors beyond their control such as service providers in their area, the quality of the local infrastructure, the actual path data packets are taking to get to and from the servers and the player, and (related to all of the previous factors) the broad geographic location of the player.
You cannot take your experience and put that on everyone else. You cannot ignore their experience, nor can they ignore yours. With that said, the quality of the game experience will vary, as a rule, from person to person, and even for two people in the same location using the service, the overall quality of the product – perceived lag, image quality, or any other factor related to the internet-based nature of such, will vary greatly, and a diverse set of equally valid opinions will form.
I’ve seen people insult those who “can’t afford” better internet access, or those who “know they have bad internet but choose to buy Stadia anyway.” Funny they say this, considering the device is marketed as a replacement for the traditional game console, not “a replacement if your internet is super good.” This ignoring that many people actually don’t know all that much about their internet service, or how the internet actually works in general, and as such aren’t as informed as you or I might be on the subject.
This comes alongside those who claim that any criticisms are people just “looking for things to attack” or are people who “just hate Google and want to talk bad about it.” Sure, that happens, but it’s kind of obvious when it does, and that doesn’t have any bearing on any valid complaints about functionality which may be included in such.
It’s amazing to behold, honestly, how passionate people are with this device / service in under a week of it being on the market. I honestly chalk most of it up to a phenomena known as “choice-supportive bias” which most definitely permeates gaming. In this case, I feel that people who have invested in Stadia feel a desperate need to defend their purchase decision against any and all criticism, even if it is valid but does not affect them. It’s an incredibly primitive defensive behavior you often see with children — literally 5 year olds will do this kind of stuff, so to see it from people in their 30’s is kind of amazing. Nuance, in simplest form, is a lost art, it would seem, to many online.
I’ll spare not words, either, on what I think of those who do commit the above — you are definitive examples of the kind of elitist and entitled mindset which has ruined so many social hobbies for a great number of people over the years, and recently has permeated gaming more heavily than ever in the past.
You are, in no short form, saying that what anyone else says is automatically wrong or otherwise invalid, and that only your thoughts on the subject are correct.
Alternately, you are ignoring what one person may collect of open opinions from many regarding a subject, and when that person presents this collection of information, disregarding the body of it since that individual has not experienced the product which, again, has no bearing on the opinions of others. It’s simply aggregate data and, in fact, that person having no opinion on the matter themselves makes them far less biased than anyone else on the subject, as they have no “stake in the game” so to speak.
I’ll spare no words here that the proponents of cloud gaming, at least the vocal ones, have truly come onto the scene with incredible toxicity and are only earning themselves, and their “cause,” more enemies than friends by behaving in this way; with a childish fanboy ferver rivaling that of the cult-like fans of the Nintendo or PlayStation brands.
Don’t read me wrong with this either — there are plenty of people who are being polite, nice, and enjoying Stadia and the like for what they are to them. Far more than the people being vocal and hostile, but still, the vocal minority is what most will see and hear, and those in the more silent majority would do well to try to nip this problem in the bud as quickly as possible, lest they be lumped in with these entitled, elitist, and argumentative fanboys.
If this article offends you or somehow otherwise upsets you, then that means I’ve probably struck a nerve somewhere. If you still can’t comprehend the above, bold text, then I strongly suggest you remove yourself from all social media, as well as the internet on a whole, and proceed to go to night classes to learn how to understand the concept of nuance and get a grasp on the fact that the world (gaming or otherwise) doesn’t revolve around you.
As the kids say, “don’t @ me.”