Gaming Isn't What It Used To Be | TryHards Are The New Norm
- brianybarra0
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
I've been gaming for a very long time now. It started on my older brother's old Game Boy. I spent months grinding away just to pass the simplest Super Mario levels, but I absolutely fell in love once I heard the school kids talk about their heroic encounters in the Call of Duty battlefield.
I didn't have an Xbox 360 like the other kids, not even a PlayStation. My parents couldn't afford it at the time, but what I did have was my God-given gift of yapping. I remember my parents were considering buying some kind of home entertainment system for family time.
Then I ever so skillfully lured them into believing buying a Wii would be a better investment. I boasted about all its features, the family games, the amazing interactive controller system, and how it would benefit the family, and somehow it worked. Not long after, the Wii became MY Wii and entered into the dungeon of my room, never to see the life of my family ever again as I discovered the shame of modding, as well as the Wii's UNREGULATED internet browser app, ON A HEAVILY CHILD-CENTERED buyer's market...
As time passed, I heard this Call of Duty my friends were talking about on their fancy game systems began to get releases for the Wii system. I was in disbelief. I, in the mind of a young child, believed I would be able to join the lobbies with my friends' Xbox and PlayStation systems, and quickly decided to purchase said Call of Duty games, beginning with COD4. And although there was no cross-platform support, I was not disappointed. I was hooked by the fun you could have as you fought for your life in the pixelated trenches of the Middle East. Thinking I was some sort of online super soldier, I pretty much served my country in spirit as I spent nearly a decade enlisted as a virtual COD soldier. Saving countless teammates' lives, earning so many gold camos I could start a jewelry store, times were good, but it wasn't until Black Ops 2 that things in the gaming industry took a turn for the worse.
Around Black Ops 2 I noticed the "try-hards" were different. I was used to having to solo against a stacked lobby of your local virtual gangs known as "clans." These guys would grind out senseless hours in the game discovering meaningless exploits just to get the upper hand in one gunfight, but although it was "sweat" behavior, it was in fact all for the love of the game.
But the newer player base in BO2 wasn't like that. I was running into more than one solo player who possessed the skill of these stacked five-man clans, but didn't need the help. Their names no longer boasted their clan tags; rather, they displayed their YouTube channels. The end-of-lobby banter changed. It went from racial slurs that challenged even Satan's darkest thoughts to nothing. Silence... No one celebrated, no one talked smack, not a sound.
It was only when these YouTube gamers lost that they decided to open their mouths, and that's when I noticed something wrong with the industry. You could hear it in their tone. The words they spoke weren't just those of a couple of sore losers; it was a person who lost at something that meant everything to them. It wasn't just a bad night, it was their literal hopes and dreams of making it big being crushed. I stopped having fun when I'd hear that. I thought, "How could something that once brought countless people joy now be something that destroys a person's entire self-esteem?" And it wasn't until I aged a bit that things started to make sense.
When you start recording your games for content, the entire purpose of the game changes. It stops being about having fun. Now you need this win to pay your bills. Sure, some people can manage doing both, but not everyone is like that. And after seeing decades of people losing their entire self-worth over a couple of bad games, I really don't believe most people can manage making money out of their passion AND having fun. But that's life, in a way. Not to get too philosophical, but I can't help but consider it.
I even went through this myself. I tried uploading my games and recording them in hopes of getting views, but the harsh reality of what I was doing set in. By hitting the record button, I'm lowering the value of this hobby that once brought me so much joy down to the value of a single view from someone I know nothing about on the internet. I think there's a way to do both in peace, but that's not the point of this post.
Things have really changed since the years following Black Ops 2. People are working that game just like a job, and I have to admit sometimes I feel guilty for having a series of good games. I think to myself, "Damn, did I just ruin someone's chance of income because I popped off?" I quickly come back to my senses because it's really not on me to manage other people's problems, but should gaming be this serious?
Personally, I don't know how to separate gaming and income, but I don't think things can stay the same in an industry when you have your average Joe playing for the love of the game beside your unaverage Kyle who's literally practicing pixel-perfect flicks two hours before the game starts in hopes of hitting an ungodly HS ratio.
I can't be alone here, but good lord, I think it's getting nearly impossible to play against these career gamers. What was once a rare experience of getting clapped by amazing players is now becoming a nightly experience. I think it's safe to say the tables have literally turned, where now most of the lobby is made up of these career sweats, and you rarely find an average player.
But that's how I feel about it. What's been your experience like? I'd love to hear about it in the comment section below! And if you ever get some time, check out our CPU & GPU pairing tool at the link below. It's a free-to-use tool that helps you ensure the GPU you're set to purchase will work nicely with your CPU (avoid bottlenecks)!
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