PixlBit

I can't stand either...to me they are cancer that is slowly choking the life out of the game industry! If you think about it, corporate culture does not harbor an environment to be creative like that! Its why I always tought publicily traded companies and game companies simply do not mix!

I guess I look back at what used to be, and my real issue over Activision came around the time they ruined the CoD communities. WHen CoD was a big deal at the 4th installment, communities built around the PC game were built around servers, clans, and the creativity of the community to make their own maps, govern their own servers etc...They effectively killed that community by changing it...EA on the other hand, there are so many things wrong with what they do! Its a corporation run by bankers to try and sell a product to one of the most tech savy information hungry, instantaneously talkative bunch..and they just don't get it!

I guess I look back and see Bioware as just Bioware, and Blizzard as just Blizzard and I look at their products before and after...its this incredibly blatent difference in product quality, depth and even quantity! I mean hell you got so much more for what you paid, they supported it, gave you free stuff they liked etc...Its just hard making those comparisons.

Its being a geek though! Its like people who are really really knowledgable about baseball, or any sport for that matter. Its a capital offense to misquote their stats or fudge their name! I guess thats just the way it goes. On that same token though, girls who join the club of geek/nerd will get equal treatment for being wrong! (unless said geek or nerd is afraid of girls, in which case said offense will go on unchallenged). Its why, in geek company, I do not refer to Star Trek or Star Wars (like in good company you're not supposed to talk about religion or politics :p ). It is just the way of things, but I mean, at the end most are friendly, and socially off, but thats just geeky culture for you.

Exactly...that shouldn't be a part of any game, but it is, and its working its way into the model. What irks me the most is that we let them, by paying! I understand where you come from as to be a completionist! I use achievements as a road map to the way I feel the developers want me to experience the games! or show me cool things they did. But when absurd things like that are added...it irks me!

My issue with DLC would be that, it should have either been included with the game at release, or if it was content that needed to be finished and the time table had passed, simply been an update to the game at no cost! Otherwise it should be included int he sequal as part of an entire game! Either way, this is a display of suits (I am a suit so I can use that since its "our word" :p) who don't undertand the customers they are selling to, selling to them and ruining their reputation along the way...

I can't say that I've recently heard anyone say "I am really looking forward to the next Electronic Arts/Activision game, they make such quality products and really keep me as a consumer." Its more the developers we love, and the pain it is to watch them be defiled by such scum.  Like watching a good friend start to date an abusive partner..not a good thing ever!

I include DLC as micro transactions...DLC didn't really exist prior to this current generation of consoles tbh. Think about how many games were truly a complete experience that needed no online connection to get a full amount of joy out of! Today it feels as though DLC is thought of in the initial creation of the game, and purposely left (especially on disc dlc) to be charged for.

Cool! another one! its so hard to keep up with fellow 1uppers moving around, but I am pleased none the less! oh and I feel ya on the physical move, because it feels the same...

Its odd, because every time I move I look at the place I stayed or lived in, and make sure to take mental notes about the experienced I had there...moving is one of those profound things in my life that I reflect on as changes that mark important dates!

Gaming culture is what you make of it. Before its "mainstream" debute, it was mostly a culture of the nerdier varaiety, the people who were exceptional with computers who built power rigs on the weekends to go to LAN parties and socialize with other nerds!..Those were the days! 

And to be fair, back then, gamer girls were like finding diamonds in your backyard (if you lived Nevada) so pretty rare to non-existant. Usually when they cropped up, they were simply assimilated because as nerds we were accepting of other nerds (because no one else accepted us). Today, its not the same, when everything went mainstream, this invited a level of immaturnity to the party! a lack of tech and gamer sophistication that really shows itself (play CoD for 1 hour, I promise you can't miss what I'm talking about).

The issues here is that with the mainstream gaming co-mingling with what we enjoy, you will get the people with little to no maturity, the people who hoot and hollar at girls on the streets will be in your game lobbies doing all the creepy things they do in life. That is the price we pay for being in the mainstream. 

If you want a good example of this...go to "askmen.com" and see what kind of things they talk about there..then associate that with IGN and 1up.com...That should be conclusive enough to see what it means to be in the "Mainstream," and why small tight knit gaming communities mean so much to those in them...With our communities, we are able to control the level of mainstream we endure, and we are able to keep that level of maturity and sophistication! 

Clean up's for pledges while brothers and sisters sleep! oh...this isn't my old fraternity house *sigh* I vote Ben cleans up!

its so sad...1up is like that terminally ill patient, you've said your final goodbyes...now you just wait for the end to come to it....and now I'm depressed again :-(

Fantastic,  I will try to list them out soon, with my busy season in full swing (and yet only a small period left) I will be trying to sort out good rest of spring and summer fun!