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The Toxic Games Community. Is there any hope left for it?

Gamescom 2014 just happened and there's been a lot of anger over the Rise of the Tomb Raider going exclusively to Xbox One. That was yesterday. Today we found out that it's not really a true exclusive but a timed exclusive.

So in the past 24 hours, all I've been reading on Neogaf is just page after page of vitriol loaded posts. It's pretty upsetting. Personally, it doesn't bother me that ROTR is going to be exclusive to any platform at all. It's just one game. It's a great series, and we all know how iconic Lara Croft is. But still, the level of anger and the stuff people are saying online about it is kind of ridiculous. In the first place, if the game was fully exclusive to Xbox, it's not like Playstation owners don't have enough games to play anyway. They've got practically every multiplatform title coming for them, supposedly in full 1080p so they already get the best versions of everything. They've got Uncharted 4, which is probably going to be out at about the same time, and will be practically the same game (with the same level of respect and pedigree that it always gets)

So why are Playstation people so upset? Hell, I even saw PC people upset, which is really stupid, because usually anything Xbox exclusive is practically Windows exclusive, so if they exercised JUST a little bit of patience, I'm sure they will get the game eventually. At first I thought it was a bit funny to watch the rage but at some point it's just too much. I can't imagine being someone at the marketing departments of any game company or at Sony, Microsoft or *gasp* even Nintendo. The level of anger and hate they're getting on a daily basis, it must be tough to read that all day. And it's not even about something that important. It's Video Games, man. It's entertainment products. It's expensive, luxury items, hell it's about toys. But people were calling out Microsoft and calling them the Great Satan of our time for doing what is essentially a simple business decision.

There's nothing immoral or unethical about buying exclusivity for ROTR on the Xbox One. In fact, I'd say it was a smart move on Microsoft's part to help move consoles. They're clearly losing against the Playstation (though compared to Nintendo, they're doing just fine). So what's wrong with digging into those coffers and buying exclusivity? It's also a good move on the part of Crystal Dynamics. Tomb Raider, over time, has lost a bit of luster and is not really as big a deal as something like the Uncharted series. I think they wanted their series to get more attention by associating with a specific platform. In many cases, that does work. Look at how Gears of War blew up by associating with the Xbox. Originally that game could have come out on everything, but if it did that, I don't think it would have been as special as it turned out to be today. Also, focused development has its perks where a game developer doesn't have to make a game work on every platform available. One hardware for one game can make the game be the best it can be. Just look at Nintendo's exclusive games and how they all just surpass what is on the PS4 and Xbox One in terms of art style, polish and flair. Exclusivity does have its benefits.

I really don't see what's wrong with the whole ROTR exclusivity deal. This thing has been happening since time immemorial in this industry, and usually it doesn't really do that much damage when one game is on one platform and not another. I think, the worst that can happen to any major game console maker is to lose multiple third parties, like what is happening with Nintendo right now. Playstation losing Tomb Raider would not have caused much of a dent to that console's installed base.

But the level of anger on forums is insane. I read one theory that Microsoft was out to 'destroy console gaming' by doing this, which is a hell of a stretch. I read another one about how Microsoft doesn't care about gamers....well, maybe that is true, the truth is they only care about money. But that is true of all of them. That's the other thing I don't get. People think these developers do this because they 'care' about gamers. Well, the truth is, they are doing this to put food on the table. It's all about money and that isn't going to change anytime soon. It's just strange how some people associate games companies like their family members or like their 'friends'. They aren't your friends, guys. They're there to take your money. So treat them as such. Try to be objective about what these companies are doing. They're in business to make money. So instead of losing your cool and posting so much anger online (which you'll just share with everyone else and just make everyone feel miserable), the solution is simple: if you don't like something, don't buy it.

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