Before we start our dive into the world of video games and how bad they are, we need to settle a few things first. This will be the first and only time you will read the following on this site, but…

Video games are not that bad.

It pools the talent of everyone from the creative fields (and beyond!) - artists, programmers, playtesters, community managers, writers, voice actors, office dogs - into a beating, living, contiguous organism. With enough talent, teamwork and luck, a team will produce something that is truly extraordinary. It's no easy task. I once made a video game for a game jam and it looked like this.

To be fair, I only had 48 hours

Video games are hard to make and I have nothing but love for the people who make them.

So why am I starting this site in an incredibly off-brand fashion?

It's because of Gamer outrage. I cannot in good faith set up a website called "Video Games Are Bad" without distancing myself as far away as possible from Gamer outrage and everything surrounding Gamer outrage. Gamer outrage has ruined taking the piss out of video games. Gamer outrage has given power to an extremely vocal minority of individuals and has told them that they matter; that they know what's going on behind the scenes of a multi-billion-dollar industry. Gamer outrage might be one of the worst things in all of video games and I have scientific proof.

Exhibit A - The Epic Games Store

The curious case of the Epic Games Store represents a unique kind of Gamer outrage - brand fuelled. It's not enough in the capitalist hell-scape of 2020 that we go to a digital storefront and purchase a product. Gamer outrage now demands that we pledge our loyalty to Steam as the superior place to exchange money for goods and services.

Only Gamers could turn the discussion of the software-you-use-to-launch-the-game into a thing. It's so mundane - why don't we see arguments around Cineworld vs Odeon? WHSmith’s vs Waterstones? That's because (most) movie-goers and book-readers are well adjusted people that have a drivers licence and regularly eat fruit.

Recently, Epic Games have started to stake their claim in the incredibly exciting world of digital storefronts with the release of their own store. Not only have they managed to wrangle up genuinely interesting new titles such as The Outer Wilds or Control but have provided a steady stream of excellent older titles such as Celeste and Into the Breach free of charge.

It's enticing from a developer's perspective as well. If you release your game on the Epic Games store, then you're only giving 12% of your profits to developers as opposed to Steam's 30% [1]. This is of course, neglecting to mention any exclusivity deals that a developer may sign - Epic paid $10.45 million dollars to have Remedy's latest, Control on the storefront [2] - money that no developer in any kind of sound mental state would turn down. At a time where Steam has just sort of been the accepted thing, we might even see capitalism do its job and provide competition in the free market. Who knows? Wishful thinking maybe.

So where does Gamer outrage fit into all of this? Well it turns out that installing another launcher is just a step too far for Gamers. Anything that tries to get you to use something different is a personal attack on your identity as a Gamer and must be taken down. The Epic Games store is now 'anti-competition' even though by the free market definition, it's literally the opposite; The Epic Games store is now spyware, even though it isn't [3]; the Epic Games store doesn't have forums for each of its games like Steam, because we all know the Steam forums are a worthwhile place for discussion and discourse. A hilarious attempt at boycotting a recent exclusive, Borderlands 3, resulted in the launch day peak of concurrent players being twice as high as its predecessor [4]. Borderlands! A game stuck so far in 2009, it still thinks lolcat is a good substitute for actual jokes.

You know what the Epic Games Store really needs? It's user reviews! Those are integral to my game launcher experience.

A pattern that we'll see when talking about Gamers is that they always set their targets on the wrong thing. Instead of grilling Epic for their abhorrent working conditions, they only go after the thing that affects them. To Gamers, the slightest inconvenience is worse that the working conditions of the people that make the very thing they care about.

Exhibit B - No Man's Sky

When it was first announced, No Man's Sky was all the talk in the inner sanctums of Reddit and NeoGaf; a game with an infinite universe where you could explore procedurally generated worlds full of procedurally generated geometry and lifeforms. It certainly sounded ambitious, especially for a small team in Guildford: a place that I didn't know existed before hearing about it, yet can still tell that it's in the south.

Enter Sean Murray - the lead developer of No Man's Sky who was in the extremely rare position of being able to freely talk about his game without any restrictions. So, he did what most of us would probably do in that position and reveal as much as he possibly could, revealing what species of butterflies you could meet or if you were able to share the experience with other players.

Don't get me wrong, it was probably a mistake to do so. But this was the first time ever that we've seen a developer talk so openly about their game. And thanks to Gamer outrage, it'll probably be the last.

When the game released, it soon became clear that this wasn't the game that Gamers wanted. Instead of being a bombastic, content filled romp in an infinite universe with players to meet, it was a strangely meditative experience. While the game featured a universe that rapidly expanded outwards, your stroll from planet to planet was one that caused you to look inwards; to reflect on the being of your very soul or something equally wanky. It was certainly not for everyone, but for those that liked it, No Man's Sky provided an experience that couldn't really be found anywhere else.

Unfortunately, Gamers were not happy. Any video game that does not match their extremely narrow outlook of what they want is bad. If a developer is talking about planned features that don't end up in the final product, then they must be lying. Any developer that says that butterflies will be in the game and then does not deliver butterflies should be sent death threats [5].

And so we reach the very human aspect of what Gamer outrage touches. The collective forgets or ignores that there are human beings that make the things they love so much and hide behind the internet to attack them. Harassment of developers is the final, nasty stage of Gamer outrage and can deeply affect those targeted. Murray goes through this in his GDC talk and it's a great reminder of the humans behind games.

No Man's Sky made a comeback - or a 'redemption' if you're one of those news outlets that used that word without thinking about what it actually meant for two seconds - after its release with a series of free updates, each one adding more things to do and… turning it into a game that I can't see myself playing anymore. It's a game just like any other, with base building and power systems and multiplayer and quests and a story. While I'm not here to argue that No Man's Sky is a worse game now, I am here to point out that in an effort to pander to an audience that didn't care, No Man's Sky lost what made it special.

Conclusion

Today you have learned just how bad Gamer outrage is, from affecting our favourite games, to affecting our favourite developers. The utter horridness of Gamer outrage knows no bounds and continues to make video games a terrible place for developers and players alike. It's the cries of a vocal minority that in no way represents the rest of the community of rational, level-headed human beings.

If you ever feel like taking part in Gamer outrage, please don't. Just think about if this is really what you want. Do you really need to base your entire identity around a digital storefront? The answer is probably not. Let go. Be happy.

Unless of course they remove the bong from Dota 2. In that case, any and all Gamer outrage is justified.