Gamescrap has 7 chronicles

1. 2007: The Year in Shame
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Apr 23 2008

   In a year that saw God of War II and Halo 3 become underdogs once year-end award time came around, you can honestly say that it was a great year for gaming. As the old cliché that I think I just made up goes, the bad always comes with the good. Seeing as its January 2008 now, it’s time to look back at some of the worst moments of what was truly a golden age in gaming. Get the polish ready, it’s tarnishing time.
   
   
   
   Playstation Fanboys May Cry
   
   In March, Capcom announced that Devil May Cry 4 would no longer be a PS3 exclusive and would also get a port to the Xbox 360. In a fashion oddly reminiscent of taking a rattle from a teething baby, Playstation fanboys came out of the woodwork crying, kicking, and screaming that the game would be available on an equally good console that sold for three-fourths the price at the time. Before you knew it, the Chad Wardens of the world were threatening to boycott and sign numerous online petitions to make DMC 4 a PSTriple exclusive. Their cries fell on deaf ears as Capcom knew there was just too much money involved in multi-platform releases. Dead Rising, however, would remain an Xbox 360 exclusive. Ouch.
   
   
   
   The DS becomes the new GBA
   
   What is it with Nintendo platforms and throw away Nickelodeon show-based games anyways? I remember back when we used to be able to expect innovation from the DS, but looking for a good DS gift in 2007 meant one thing: digging through a bunch of Hannah Montana games to get to that coveted Zelda: Phantom Hourglass hidden in the dregs.
   
   
   
   Bad Wii games
   
   While the Wii is still the hardest console to find and is kicking ass in retail, it’s still constantly passed over in sponsor-bought video game award shows; it’s hard to argue the console’s integrity when it’s got so many bad games being thrown its way. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the list of suspects: Ninjabread Man, Carnival Games, Anubis II, Escape From Bug Island, Jenga, Soulcalibur Legends, Spy Games: Elevator Mission, Godzilla Unleashed, Cruis’n, Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire, Chicken Shoot, Legend of the Dragon, and Bust-a-Move Bash, just to name a few. Each game is worse than the last and it seems Nintendo’s strategy of lowered production costs and smaller development teams has significantly increased the Wal-Mart quotient as far as developers go. Worse than that were the numerous half-assed Wii ports of multi-platform games that seemed to have been designed by two year olds. Look no further than Smackdown vs. Raw and NBA Live ’08 for proof.
   
   
   
   Gamespot Sells Out
   
   In November, Gamespot decided to fire senior editor Jeff Gerstmann after eleven years of service at the site. The reason? Well, the man gave his honest opinion which is, you know, his job. While Gamespot remained tight-lipped on the topic, the mysterious disappearances of the side-wide skins, reworded review, and missing video review of the game gave everyone a good lead to Gerstmann’s less-than-benevolent departure.
   
   Apparently, Eidos didn’t take too kindly to Jeffy trashing another one of their games, which they really wanted to be a big holiday hit and sunk an ungodly amount of advertising dollars into. The fact that someone is fired for doing their job and doing it well is another example of a horrible trend that really climaxed in 2007. It seems the entire industry whored itself out to in-game advertising, gratuitous product placement, and bought out award shows. Here’s hoping in 2008 that developers and publishers have a little more class, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
   
   
   
   “…FTW”
   
   This one is more of a personal opinion, but has become by far my biggest pet peeve with gaming this year. It seems come summer time the usual gamut of Chuck Norris references had been replaced with pasty skinned nerds spouting off a single word or phrase followed by the acronym “FTW” or “for the win”. While I have no god forsaken idea where this originated from, nor do I have any motivation to even put the slightest bit of research into it, FTW can join the hallowed halls of tired and cliché gamer jargon such as “n00b”, “pwned”, and “all your base…” in terms of general annoyance and ammo that politicians can use to show that the gaming populace is nothing more than a bunch of brainless neckbeards and mouth breathers. While I’ve managed to tolerate the previous statements over the years and even use them in the occasional sarcastic reference, FTW leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth…much like the one I get when I hear someone say “Git ‘R Done” where my IQ gets dropped down a couple of points every time I hear it. Isn’t time the internet moved on to worshipping Steven Segal?
   
   So there you have it, 2007 in a nutshell constructed of an alloy made of pure shame, embarrassment, and stupidity. Unfortunately, I don’t see any of these things going away into the next year and actually getting worse the more people think they can get away with it. Until then, I’ll continue to try my damndest to point out what’s wrong with our industry and showcase the injustice being done. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me…

   
   

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