The Glade 4.0

What catch phrase/term/buzz word(s) are you sick of hearing as they relate to the gaming industry (not just video games)?

For me:

Fan Service -- Ummm duh! Games have fans. Any dev house worth its salt is going to try their damnedest to keep their fan base happy. I heard this term thrown out a lot when discussing Metal Gear Solid 4. Never mind the fact that Kojima said since before Day 1 of development that this installment would tie up the story completely, no loose ends. To do that, fan service is inevitable. This should have been no big shock to anyone.

Next Gen -- What was popularly termed "next gen" is here NOW. PS3, 360, Wii are all here, have been here, and will be here for quite some time. Yet still people like to call them "next gen" systems. Now if you're talking about the PS4, 720, or Mii 2, then the term would be used correctly.

Triple A Title -- Too nebulous to really be an applicable tag for a game. A game that gets 8's and 9's can be light years ahead in terms of actual quality as opposed to games that are getting 9's and 10's by knob-slobbering reviewers and fans. So ratings are out as a definition. A huge game that sells 4 million on the 360 is pretty much the equivalent of one that sells 2 million on the PS3, so sales are out as well. Game quality is way too subjective to outright label as "AAA."

Bomba -- As it pertains to either a game so good it's exploding with win, or a game so bad it's bursting with energy from the Plane of Fail. It's not cute, it's just annoying.

60 FPS! -- Because we all know that ONLY games running at 60 FPS are worthy of playing, right?

I'm not understanding what you are saying here. It hardly looks equivalent at all.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Triple A refers to the production value and marketing budget. Just an FYI. Maybe now, it won't sound so trite to you, knowing what it's supposed to mean.

I'm thoroughly entertained by your tacit implication that 360 games of similar quality to an equivalent game on the PS3 sell double the number.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Well what I mean is, the term is open to interpretation -- just because a game is seen as the second coming to one group of people, does not mean that it isn't seen as garbage to another group. Does the fact that the game was promoted royally by celebrities, and the parent company wrote the dev house a blank check make the game "Triple A?" No. Does a game made on a modest budget with modest advertising but of superb quality make it Triple A? No. It's so open to personal interpretation that the term itself becomes pointless.

To expand on my above example: Say Microsoft's Triple A Title 2010 hits the 360. It get's straight 10s across the board saying you cannot die without playing this awesome game. It sells 4 million copies, due to the 360's large install base.

Conversely, Sony's Triple A Title 2010 hits the PS3. Same review scores, saying the same thing as MS's. It would most likely only sell ~2 million (maybe a little more) due to the PS3's smaller install base. This is of course, at the moment. The PS3's numbers are jumping fairly well at the moment and the gap is closing, but as of now the numbers will be skewed simply due to raw number customer base.

I'm getting really tired of HD being used to describe anything and EVERYTHING. Set some standards, people!

/agree

Kinda like "next gen", there's got to be some point where you say okay, this tech level is the current benchmark and go from there.

I will take this opportunity to predict the over use of the acronym NGHD to describe the "next generation" of "high-definition". =)

Then you're still not understanding what the term means.


Yes. This is what the term means. You have defined the term, and then declared that the definition of the term does not make it the term.


Again, reference what the term actually means. It has nothing to do with quality.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I've been tired of the phrase "Killer App" for about the last 5 years.

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The Dude abides.

Kaffis, I guess we are just going to have to disagree then.

I have been to other gaming websites, and no one can agree on what the term really means.

If everyone on the game industry and the general consumer agreed that your definition of Triple A is the correct one, then it would not be an issue, but I have heard that term applied to personal favorites, sales, ratings, pedigree, etc.

Is the definiton of Triple A "correct" simply because you say it is? You're only further re-enforcing my original point.

It's even worse when preceded by "the next".

Triple A title just denotes budget and likely team size. It's a big production. That's all.

Here you go, Rodahn. Check out how it's used by wikipedia in the first paragraph of this article here. They even parenthetically define it.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

That's what I always understood the term to mean as well.

Yes I have seen that article, too.

And again, my point from the very begging is that (regardless of what Wiki, you, or I say) I have heard the term defined by others across various message boards differently. And because of its liberal and mercurial application, it is a term that I personally am sick of hearing tossed around is said manner.

Example: Killzone 2 was made on an astronomical budget with tons of hype/exposure, and got great reviews on launch. Person A who loves the game labels is Triple A, yet Person B thought it was "meh" or did not like it at all calls it a flop based on personal preferences. Who is right? Person A just because Wiki says so? Speaking of which, type in "Triple A" in Wiki search. The very first entry definition is different from the article you linked. Not only can Wiki not agree (with itself LOL) on what the definition means, but the definition itself uses terms that are very subjective.

"High quality" is in the eye of the beholder.

Person B is clearly wrong in not applying the label. Person A could be applying it for the wrong reason.

There's no confusion in the definition -- there's simply a lot of people that you've run across who are ignorant as to what it means.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Well, like I said, my original plan was just reporting that it was a term I was sick of hearing thrown so liberally out there. Then again my main source for this comes from NeoGAF, and that forum usually requires to be taken with a large grain of salt

Aaaaanyway, moving on.

Agree also on "killer app." Another liberally applied term.

"Genre Defining" is another I am seeing a lot of.

I hate when people use ".com" incorrectly. You walk into a building and someone says "Welcome to toyota.com!" Or you're listening to a podcast you've downloaded and they say "Thank you for listening, this is ThePodcast.com!"

I understand it's a marketing thing and you want people to go to your website.... but Jeebus. Use it correctly!

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!