I used to love reading gaygamer.net as part of my daily habits of perusing the internets series of tubes looking for infotainment on my favorite upcoming products to buy. But lately, its been getting tiring just to read about gaming news, in particular the pathetic lack of professionalism in video game journalism. Now I for one, am aware that this is not 60 minutes were talking about here, or Frontline in PBS, but is it too much to ask for some restraint from the vapid politics that i see is destroying the gaming community. I mean Jesus H. Christ, its getting to the point were i am beginning to see similarities between the flamewars of Nintendo and Sony fan boys and the blind hatred of conservatives towards our community. I’m sorry, but the bias in this media towards one company over another is getting sickening. I ask you why is it that you constantly post statements like this
“just go buy a Wii instead.” It’s almost enough to endear one to Nintendo’s new console more than that other one coming out soon…” I’ve gotten to the point where I generally assume the worst about anything Sony’s involved with.Look at all the ugliness these launches (particularly the PS3) has brought out in people THE TICKLE ME ELMO DID THE SAME THING!!! There is always some damn product every year around Christmas that everyone and their mom wants to get their hands on. This year it seems to be the PS3 that people will seemingly do anything to get thier hands on. Now its Sony’s own fault that they LIED and didnt have enough units to have an orderly launch with. But even if they did this kind of shit would still happen because everyone in the media was reporting on how scarce it was going to be. And lets not forget the abysmal launch of the 360 where cat fights and theft happened as well and the whole sell the console for huge profits on EBAY thing started in the first place. I degress, my point is there is a decidedly pro-Microsoft pro Nintendo bias in the gaming media, you need proof I’ll get there in a sec. Most people have probably already labeled me a HUGE Sony FANBOI and stopped reading this rant already, fine but it is too you that i write. I hope that you are still reading and at least willing to listen to an argument that is not you’re own, (we’re gay people where supposed to be open minded). Now back to my rant, Why do people love to hate Sony. They certainly make it easy what with there famously and endlessly blogged about arrogance. Lest we forget the huge DRM scandal and exploding batteries this is a company that appears uncaring arrogant and shitty, that only has one thing in mind and that is making money. In case some of you were unaware as i am sure that none here are, businesses are in the business if one thing only, making money. If any of you think that Nintendo and Microsoft are not just as arrogant and greedy as Sony than you are all guilty of having very bad short term memory. Need i remind you that in the early nineties Sony approached then all powerful Nintendo with the intention of going partner on a cd -based gaming system, Sony had in fact made the audio chip for the Super Nintendo, They were pals right? In considerably longer terms Nintendo told Sony to go fornicate with itself and stuck with cartridges throughout the 32 bit era. Now, we all now how that turned out for Nintendo, The N-64 (which i Bought when it came out) was a huge runaway success that ensured Nintendo’s dominance of a now two way market right? Unfortunately for them it didn’t turn out that way, the Sony Playstation was a huge success and now Sony was in the position of arrogant top dog. Now Nintendo gave up on cartridges and went with discs for their dolphin then called Gamecube (again i bought one). Now of course that little exchange does nothing to prove that Nintendo is guilty of anything other than an arrogant mistake. I certainly do not mean to make the argument that Nintendo game designers and company execs don’t care about their fanbase, they know their base is their lifeblood. However, consider the Wind Waker sans RE4 possibly the best game on the cube, but n64 had two Zelda’s, so along comes the twilight princess, but not so fast, who comes along to spoil the plans of Nintendo for their new cube showcase title than the company that everyone seems to FORGET was SUED by the U.S. for being a monopoly, and still is in Europe. Whoa there, Microsoft hate speech coming up right? WRONG. Let me just try to put things back into perspective for everyone. The company that Bill founded used to be the butt of every negative article a tech rag could run. So what happened, Microsoft, like Sony got into the console race to make money. Their Xbox was a success for one reason, HALO. Now why was it such a huge success in America and not Japan, for one thing, pride on both sides of the Pacific helped or hurt the console. The Xbox got online gaming right too, owners could always point at the PS2 and laugh, the cube was just sad in that area. There is a lot of love going towards Microsoft and people have seemed to forgotten that this is the company that strong armed competitors out of business, and bought out smaller companies so that they couldn’t compete, even the Simpsons got in on the nineties Microsoft bash with Homer being bullied by Bill Gates. So what happened, Microsoft released a pretty successful console. So why do i have a problem with Microsoft and how did Microsoft cheapen its original console and rush the development of next gen software and hardware from its other two rivals. The 360 came out of nowhere, the market wasn’t clamoring for a next gen system and neither were XBOX owners. Nintendo had to move twilight princess to the revolution in order to move a system, they had no time to improve over the cube so they came up with an innovative control solution, given more time to develop its likely that they could have come out with a more powerful console. Sony got cought with its pants down and ended up making promises about a system that they could not possibly release in 2005. The Cube got screwed by Nintendo execs needing a AAA title to move the rushed wii. The ps3 should not be released in 2006 they cant make enough of the complicated beasts. Microsoft has ABANDONED the original XBOX, i mean it came for three years and it was thrown aside like so much cheap garbage(not that it was i loved my BOX) The ps2 is still putting out amazing titles even in its twilight, what song was sung for the XBOX at its death, no orignal titles just ports of other consoles games. In the end of its life PS2 had FFXII, Okami, Bully, so many more that i still havnt gotten around to beating. I cant put a price on good entertainment, i don’t think 600 dollars is too high a price to pay, FOR GOD’s sake look at the price of a VISTA capable video card. You need to ask yourself questions the next time you bash Sony and elevate microsoft and Nintendo. One, did i have a ps2? Two, did i enjoy it? Three, is their reason for me to believe that the ps3 will not repeat this success(there are many). Is bashing another persons console of choice just an excuse to be petty and rub shit in their faces and say “HAHA I’m better than you”. People don’t want to be stuck with the console that doesn’t have the MOST and BEST games, thats a matter of opinion anyways, When i was waiting in line for the ps3 which i didn’t end up getting, thank you scalpers, someone came along and called us all retards. I thought it was worth it if i could get a system, he preached the Wii to me, and was roundly well received he then called us all retards and left. Why, he will be camping for a Wii he told us, we didnt call him retarded. To make a long story short i dont think anyone should shout about one console over the other. You cant read the future you dont know if we have another situation like the N64 and the Cube. The Wii will do exactly what the people who want to get it want it to do, it will have Nintendo games, which means two zeldas one mario game, super smash, and two metroid games. They will be great and they will make the wii owners happy that they got a wii. The ps3 will also be great, it will have alot of AAA titles (I hope to get less sequels and more orignals) and the Xbox 360 has already proven itself. So please gaming media stop being FOX news, actually, FOX is better than you guys because they at least pretend to be “fair and balanced” instead try to at least understand that journalism should be as unbiased as possible. Not that i am of course, I’m a poster and i can rant a shit all i want…

Mason,

I would like to point out that this site is by no means mainstream gaming media. Although we were fortunate enough to very quickly garner the attention of quite a few readers (yourself included), we’re just a bunch of gay guys (and Faith) who love video games. We report gaming news that appeals to each of our own gay sensibilities, and we try to do it with flair. No one here is getting paid. We do it because we love it.

I understand if you’re upset with media coverage on the new console hype. Each of our writers has his/her own opinion on consoles. Am I excited by the Wii? Yes, because I played it and enjoyed it, but I probably play more PS2 than anything else. (Well, I do play my DS a lot.) Regardless, I probably won’t buy a PS3 anytime soon. I don’t have an HDTV, so why bother? However if you want one, and you’re excited about it. I earnestly wish you luck in finding one. I’d like to try it out myself someday. However, I realize it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. So I set my sights on Wii (which I might not even get for awhile.) The fact is that it's half the cost, and I'm much more likely to find one. Makes sense to me why it's getting more positive press.

All that being said, I’m confused as to why you chose to attack our site when it seems more a general rant is what you needed to get off your chest.

Mikey

I agree with some of what you said Mason but the general press lately about PS3 just hasn’t been all that great and PS3 hasn’t done much to fix their self image, it gives the public the perception of arrogance on their part and people just won’t respond well to that kind of thing so they’re easy targets right now. Next time it will be Nintendo’s turn if the Wii flops, who knows.

I was going to talk about how the video reminded me of when I played with the kid next door… but that rant sure in hell derailed that train.

Surprisingly unfunny.

Hey, Mason, thanks. We still love you too! For what it’s worth, part of why I love writing here is for precisely the reason you displayed – giving gay and like-minded gamers a space to share, rant, and make up. If it makes any difference, if I thought I stood any chance of getting a PS3 this week, I’d have been right there with you. I’m dreading my Nintendo World Store Wii launch day adventure nearly as much. And if you ever need help beating the crap out of water balloon throwers, you’ve got a whole blog of gamers at your back. /Hugs.