As I stare down the barrel of turning 30 years old in a few months, I've reflected on the last decade or so and my consumption habits. Amongst my friends I used to have a bit of a reputation as a hater, and I certainly let my negative opinions on things be known. I'd type up tirades and binge-watch content slagging things I also disliked, in general I was a far more negative person even if in my head it was all in good fun. Not sure when it happened, but sometime in my mid-20s I just stopped being able to really take games personally enough to dig into games I dislike. Don't get me wrong, I can still play a game and decide I don't like it, but I feel pretty done as far as letting games inspire genuine spite/disdain goes.
I think a big contributing factor of this for me was being able to re-evaluate games like Halo 5. When that game launched I was deeply disappointed and felt really slighted for all the normal reasons. Rushed and non-sensical story that didn't truly payoff the marketing or story build-up leading to it, the rec system turning a cool mode like Warzone into a bit of a headache and the lack of split-screen bugged me just as much as anyone else. I'd talk up and down about how much I hated it back in the day. Fast forward a couple years to 2017 though and I just sorta realized that I kinda liked it. Years separated from my initial disappointment I was able to play the multiplayer and realize that it is one of my favorite sandboxes and movement systems in all of video games. The disappointing story presentation ceased to bug me on replays as I now understood the story they meant to tell and had a couple years of books taking place during/after the game to help me get excited for what Halo 6 could potentially be. What's more, the campaign's sandbox was also really fun! The open arena segments are up there with the most fun gameplay segments in the entire franchise, especially if you bring a couple friends along for co-op.
I still disliked all of the things I used to dislike about Halo 5, but I just sort of realized that I didn't care enough to hold some grudge at a piece of software and I was able to separate myself from the super negative first impression to just accept the game as it is. That sort of sentiment bled over into so many other games I used to dislike. Again, I can still criticize and even outright dislike something and have reasonable discussions, but it feels tiresome and cringe to really dig into a piece of media and get performatively over-the-top angry about how much it may have let me down. It's so much easier for me to play something and just take something positive/productive from the experience even if I didn't have a good time overall. It's to the point that I struggle to think of a single game that makes me angry to think about anymore.
Is hating things aggressively just a young person's game? Have I grown out of being super toxic? Considering some of the people I see spewing bile about certain games on social media or twitch that are older than me I guess it isn't, but man oh man it just feels like such a drag getting angry over a game I don't like beyond just saying that I dislike it and moving on. I'm more passionate than ever about video games, but I've left hating to the youngsters and the online grifters.
I think a big contributing factor of this for me was being able to re-evaluate games like Halo 5. When that game launched I was deeply disappointed and felt really slighted for all the normal reasons. Rushed and non-sensical story that didn't truly payoff the marketing or story build-up leading to it, the rec system turning a cool mode like Warzone into a bit of a headache and the lack of split-screen bugged me just as much as anyone else. I'd talk up and down about how much I hated it back in the day. Fast forward a couple years to 2017 though and I just sorta realized that I kinda liked it. Years separated from my initial disappointment I was able to play the multiplayer and realize that it is one of my favorite sandboxes and movement systems in all of video games. The disappointing story presentation ceased to bug me on replays as I now understood the story they meant to tell and had a couple years of books taking place during/after the game to help me get excited for what Halo 6 could potentially be. What's more, the campaign's sandbox was also really fun! The open arena segments are up there with the most fun gameplay segments in the entire franchise, especially if you bring a couple friends along for co-op.
I still disliked all of the things I used to dislike about Halo 5, but I just sort of realized that I didn't care enough to hold some grudge at a piece of software and I was able to separate myself from the super negative first impression to just accept the game as it is. That sort of sentiment bled over into so many other games I used to dislike. Again, I can still criticize and even outright dislike something and have reasonable discussions, but it feels tiresome and cringe to really dig into a piece of media and get performatively over-the-top angry about how much it may have let me down. It's so much easier for me to play something and just take something positive/productive from the experience even if I didn't have a good time overall. It's to the point that I struggle to think of a single game that makes me angry to think about anymore.
Is hating things aggressively just a young person's game? Have I grown out of being super toxic? Considering some of the people I see spewing bile about certain games on social media or twitch that are older than me I guess it isn't, but man oh man it just feels like such a drag getting angry over a game I don't like beyond just saying that I dislike it and moving on. I'm more passionate than ever about video games, but I've left hating to the youngsters and the online grifters.
