Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

Wario is the best Mario character don't @ me

It will looks better if Wario have six pack body. 😆

@Buizel @TheBigBlue Yeah, PC gaming is less accessible than console gaming, which is inherently plug-and-play.
You have to keep the PC running in a reasonable state, you have to maintain security if you're online, you need the latest drivers to properly run the games, and even then there's always a chance a game is poorly optimized for PCs in general or your specific build in particular.

BUT, once you get past acessibility issues, you have a longer compatible backlog of games and if you take the time and learning, you can quite easily get to emulating even older PC titles and console titles. And if you put enough money in components, you're almost guaranteed to get better graphics than the consoles.

An out-of-the-box console can run hundreds of games as-is, and hundreds more if devs deign to port older titles over, but a PC gamer who knows what he's doing can run tens of thousands of games on his rig.

@Tounushi
To be fair, in terms of security PC at least have the advantage of being able to be updated and having a support window that lasts well beyond that of consoles. I'm fairly sure this is part of the reason why the Wii U and 3DS eShops are shutting down as an example. I'm guessing that the 3DS only supported an older version of TLS and allowing financial transactions to potentially be vulnerable to an attack? Probably something to avoid

Meanwhile on PC you can more or less install a modern OS on any piece of hardware. Well, to a point at least. On the Microsoft side of things they've been pushing free upgrades to everyone since Windows 7. For Linux I mean, you can fairly easily just upgrade to a newer kernel. Phones? I theory they could... but they often don't because manufacturers treat phones as disposable devices. Consoles? They're treated as even more disposable than phones

So yeah, security? MUCH better on PC. It also generally has to be because, well, people actually do stuff on their PCs

I've probably made this point before but I do have one VERY strong opinion about tech in general and it certainly crosses into gaming. People put too much emphasis on products ticking of feature check-boxes and not enough time thinking about how they actually tend to use the product. And of all of those feature checkboxes "wireless" is probably the worst one people look for

A few examples, firstly there's a non-zero chance that Nintendo's next hardware will drop the headphone jack. Some people will pretend that this isn't an issue and that anyone complaining should "get with the times". Because Bluetooth is wireless and wireless is "better". Dropping the headphone jack would not be a good thing, wired headphones are still better for portable gaming devices (you're not running while playing the Switch)

Another example, the Switch's LAN adapter. Of course now they have the OLED dock with built in Gigabit which makes sense given Gigabit is pretty cheap these days. However, 100Mbps for something like the Switch? That's plenty. For a gaming console your main concern is latency not bandwidth. Any wired connection will have consistent <1ms latency on your LAN, insignificant compared to the latency you'll get connecting to a server. The only time bandwidth on a console would be an issue is when downloading content, and I'm fairly confident Nintendo's servers aren't giving you 100s of Mbps even if you do have 100Mbps+ internet

Third example, resolution. When there are speculation threads about Nintendo's next hardware the only thing people seem to care about is resolution. And this is going to also be the only thing the average consumer cares about when buying this new hardware. But resolution doesn't really matter that much, it's almost the last thing that matters. When the new hardware comes out odds are DF is going to do a frame-by-frame analysis and show that a patched Mario Kart 8 or something hitting 120fps at 1080p with significantly higher details. And the only thing people will take out of that will be "1080p". Or the portable screen will be 720p/90Hz and people will say "720p? IT'S 2024 NINTENDO!!!"

@skywake I agree, it's just people clinging on to buzzwords to make themselves feel superior to people whose devices don't have the same buzzwords...

I think the one that annoys me the most are wireless PC peripherals. To be clear, there's definitely a use case for them. I have a wireless KB/Mouse sitting on my coffee table, a cable across the room would be dumb. But outside of that? Wireless is objectively worse

On a desk or table or something when you're right next to the USB ports, what advantage is there to getting rid of the wire? Not much. What's the cost? Well you paid more for it and now you also have to worry about batteries. And also it has batteries so it's heavier. You paid more for a worse experience. But hey, it's wireless, so you can feel smug that it's more "modern". Good job

@skywake Yep, totally agree with that, if you're sitting right next to your PC there's no excuse for wireless stuff.
Edit-Mistype

People just saw 1080p and clung onto the term like a parasite. Nintendo doesn’t absolutely require that or the company will die, as some will argue

@skywake I don't get the people who want a wireless only system. I can get people who want to use wireless devices with their systems, but for those who want to strip away a feature, what do we gain by getting rid of that option? Like seriously, what? If anything, a lot of consumers lose, since not everyone owns a pair of wireless headphones or earbuds, or prefers them. I use wired headphones, mainly because I sincerely can't afford good quality wireless ones. It sucks with phones when I want to listen to music, because I can't just charge my phone while listening anymore. Due to the removal of the headphone jack, I legit have to chose to either charge my phone or listen to music.

People who say that getting rid of wired devices is the "future" don't understand that this is just what big tech companies planted into their head. Apple and Samsung legit told people this is what they wanted, and people ate it up without a second thought. Having more options is better than having none.

With the headphone jack specifically I have a bit of a tin-foil hat conspiracy theory on it. The average consumer couldn't care less about audio quality, they just flat out don't care. They were more than happy with the cheap bundled headphones. But the problem with cheap wired headphones? The margin is low. Not having a battery in it they don't really wear over time to the same degree. And because they're literally connected to the device? Harder to lose them

But by removing the headphone jack? Suddenly people are paying $100+ on wireless earbuds. Earbuds that are relatively easy to lose. Earbuds that become outdated when a new model comes out. Earbuds with a non-replaceable battery in it that will wear out over time. I mean, I'm not one for conspiracy theories but.... seems a bit convenient how much that move benefited these companies

On an entirely different tangent, and this time even less gaming related, I did think of another example of this. Smart door locks. What is the point? In an office space where you're handing out NFC keycards? Sure, they make sense. But for residential use? They're just dumb, entirely pointless. But as a lock they have to have a backup mechanical lock in the event there is no power. Which means adding a digital lock to this is doing nothing but adding an additional point of entry. By definition smart locks are less secure. But hey, smart homes are the "future" so lets get them right?

... to be clear, I'm super into smart home stuff and am far from a technophobe. It's just that people don't actually stop and think about what they're actually using these things for. What is the goal. They just look at what marketing bullet points it ticks of. And it's dumb

/rant

Just to add, audio quality is worse with wireless headphones as the sound get compressed for Bluetooth compared to wired. It’s less of a concern for gamers where you’re listening to pew pew sounds and soundtracks on a loop anyway but I go with wired for when I’m listening to albums.

This has been a feature of gaming since the 90s, and it won't change. I don't know an equivalent in English, but in Finnish there's a term "hifistely" in that one puts so much emphasis on the minutiae of the tech to squeeze out the last few drops of quality a media piece could questionably provide with that expense.

I certainly hope this doesn't come to pass, or that if it does, the next-gen dock would still have the jack. I have a mixer that allows me to derp on the computer while I play my Nintendo consoles. I'm about to upgrade for one that allows for more inputs because moving the cable from the screen (got Wii U on HDMI) to the Switch to the 3DS is a bother.

Recently had to upgrade to a wireless internet connection, and the box only has two ethernet ports, so my Nintendo devices are wi-fi only. I'm certain this is situational, but I trust cables more than wireless.

I've never gamed on Nintendo for the resolution and I've never understood why so many people clamor for it. The PC exists for that. Nintendo is the engine of playability and games with great storylines, which I consider to be a far more important investment than raw graphics power. And besides, graphics are reaching the point when further fidelity is becoming a game of diminishing returns. Evolution of 3D graphics since 2005 has been IMO slower than before then. Ballooning the screen and cramming more pixels on it seems like an artificial way of making it seem like there's progress.

I will say, I don't care for Resolution all that much(At least until it drops below 420p...), But I do like FPS that stay around or above the 30s, if a game drops below that it messes me up more gameplay wise...

Mario galaxy is kinda overrated. I mean don’t get me wrong I still love galaxy but it’s not better than other games like Odyssey and Maker 2.

Nostalgia blinds people in the way that they think the games they played when they were little are better than every single game available today. That is not true. SOME older games are better than SOME new ones. I swear, people can have heavy nostalgia for games like Superman 64 and they will defend the game with their life sometimes.

Same goes with consoles. Just cause you owned a GameCube as a kid doesn’t mean it’s better than the switch. People make these comparisons all the time. “The Wii u and 3ds are both better than the switch cause they had Miiverse and themes!!!” for example. Miiverse was full of weirdos and themes don’t make or break a console. They are a want and not a necessity.

@TheBigBlue For me, 3DS was better than Switch because it had actually good games, where as the switch disappointed me with every single first party release aside from Luigi's Mansion 3 and BotW.

@VoidofLight Yeah, if a console had a killer library and it was better than another, I think that’s fair. Was a 3ds gamer for a long time, and I can say that there were some absolutely top tier games on that system

@TheBigBlue
It's the same thing with any media, nostalgia and survival bias. People develop their tastes early on in life so they tend to like stuff that existed when they were younger. At the same time people only tend to remember stuff that was memorable. So you have this two hit combo of people subjectively liking a "style" of thing that was of the time. Same reason why you get people saying "music was better in the <decade of music that was on the radio when I was 10-20>'s"

To bat for the Wii U for a second, there were definitely some things the Wii U did better. MiiVerse was a net-positive. Sure it wasn't really a place for browsing but there were games that integrated it well. There weren't many but they did exist. Also I booted up the eShop for one last look at it the other day and remembered something. The Wii U and 3DS eShops had a feature where you could rate games you'd played. Why was this dropped?

But ultimately yes, folders and themes. They're like a meme at this point and I think people just kinda forget how those UIs behaved when compared to the Switch. Booting up the Wii U yesterday, the folder system in the way it was implemented on Wii U? It wasn't better. Game/storage management and the menu system on the Wii U are so far behind the Switch it's almost comical. Themes on the 3DS? I mean, they were nice for sure. But I'd take no themes and the Switch UI over the 3DS any day....

...... with the exception of the ability to rate games you've played on the eShop

I feel the PC port (as in DOS) of Mortal Kombat 2 is better than the original arcade version. Having played the DOS version from GOG and the arcade original via Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection, I like how the AI in the DOS port is not as difficult as the arcade original (obviously meant to suck up quarters).

Unpopular opinion because I remember people on GOG didn't like it was the DOS port and not the arcade version.