Going into the sixth console generation, the PlayStation brand looked to be a nearly-unstoppable juggernaut. For a time, it was-- PlayStation 2 went on to become, and is still, the best-selling console of all time, hitting a number that may very well never be exceeded. Such was the PS2's grasp that it simultaneously finished off Sega in the hardware market and very nearly did the same to Nintendo. With all of that going, any company would've been crazy to try to take their first stab at a game console during that era-- but Microsoft was just that crazy.
Sure, the original Xbox didn't come anywhere close to dethroning the PS2, but all things considered, it made a pretty modest dent in the console market that generation. It was helped, in no small part, by the mega-blockbuster exclusive Halo franchise and Xbox Live, the first truly great online gaming service for consoles. Microsoft took that momentum and carried it over to the Xbox's successor, the Xbox 360. Which, combined with beating the other seventh-generation consoles to the market by a year and Sony's ego in thinking consumers would pay $600 for the PS3, ended up being a huge success and would cement the Xbox brand as a legitimate part of the console market.
While the Xbox One struggled a bit out of the gate, it has still been a success by any measure and proves that Microsoft has had the staying power for the console world. The millions of gamers out there who consider themselves Xbox fans would definitely agree with that-- and they'd also enjoy this collection of comics aimed squarely at Xbox fandom.
20 Don't Forget The Underscore
At one time, video games were largely the dominion of the young. The average gamer was an early-2o-something at the oldest. As the video game industry has aged, so has its consumers. These days, while concrete numbers are a bit tough to pin down, most studies put the average gaming age at somewhere around 30-years-old.
With that comes an increase in clueless "dad gamers."
As dads who hadn't gamed in years, if at all, joined the world of Xbox, it was like kids of the 90s watching their middle-aged parents try to figure out the internet. Just like with AOL screen names and email addresses, the Gamertags of casual gamer dads can usually be spotted from a mile away. We can only assume all of their passwords are also "abc123."
19 The Revolution Will Be Televised
Since the PS2, console manufacturers have been trying to sell us on the idea that game consoles will one day be an all-encompassing set-top box that lets us play games, surf the web, watch movies, listen to music, make us a sandwich, and whatever else we could possibly need. They were eventually going to replace all other electronics and be the only device we needed in our living rooms.
Well, that still hasn't quite happened yet, and probably never will. But game consoles do have a lot more functionality than they used to, and some stuff they do we actually utilize. A fair amount of people do watch television and sporting events through their Xbox Ones. Still, there was a time when Microsoft seemed to be pushing that just a little too hard, forgetting that the thing is actually a game machine first and foremost.
18 "Broken" Controllers: Ruining Games Since 1975
It's an excuse as old as gaming itself. Blaming a supposedly "broken" controller for causing someone's poor performance in game, especially in multiplayer matches. The irony is that the rage of having to deal with an allegedly broken controller would often cause said controller to be whipped across the room, thereby breaking it anyway.
Since then, each new generation of gamers has inevitably pointed to a faulty controller as a reason for failing in a game.
The reality, of course, is that user error is the true reason for failing 99.9% of the time. As if to emulate the rock gods who smash their guitars after a performance, Guitar Hero controllers would also eventually become the recipient of both blame for malfunctioning and then physical harm for said (supposed) malfunction.
17 Lost At Sea
When Microsoft first bought Rare, the company that had previously had a long and fruitful relationship making games exclusively for Nintendo, it was seen as a huge deal. This was the company that made Donkey Kong Country, Goldeneye, Banjo-Kazooie, and Perfect Dark, now working for Microsoft. Just imagine what they were going to make for Xbox!
What most people failed to realize, though, is that much of the actual talent behind those classic Rare Nintendo games was gone, and that Microsoft was largely just buying their name and non-Nintendo back catalog. After a string of largely forgettable games, Sea of Thieves looked to be the return of the classic Rare we all had grown up with. Except, so far at least, it's just been a glorified chat room with boats.
16 Sticks And Stones
If you ever want to hear just how foul-mouthed a person is capable of being, just play a multiplayer game over Xbox Live for about an hour. If you ever want to hear just how foul-mouthed a 12-year-old is capable of being...just play a multiplayer game over Xbox Live for about an hour.
Xbox Live is where you can go to hear all about how promiscuous your mother supposedly is.
It definitely begs the question of where these kids' parents are and if they aren't hearing the obscenities streaming from the children's mouths. Because, they never seem to be dropping their F-bombs and homophobic slurs quietly. Unless, of course, their parents are sitting nearby egging them on. It definitely wouldn't surprise us one bit.
15 Big Hands, I Know You're The One
One of the main things that set Xbox apart from its competitors is that it was created with and marketed toward Western sensibilities. For much of gaming's existence, games were created with Japanese gamers in mind, and we mostly just had to get used to the kinds of games and consoles that suited them.
All of that changed with the Xbox, and nowhere is that more evident than in the design of the console's original "Duke" controller, made much larger and fatter than most Japanese-designed controllers so as to accommodate bigger American hands. While Microsoft would eventually make the smaller Controller S the default Xbox controller, probably because even many Americans had trouble comfortably holding a Duke. The latter is still fondly remembered and many fans still prefer it.
14 Loud Noises!
Science fiction has been promising us a future where everything is voice activated for about as long as science fiction has existed. There has been a lot of bumps in the road, but for the most part, we're basically there. Millions of people frequently talk to the AI in their phones and smart devices within their homes with very little incident and seldom having to repeat themselves.
So it's kind of strange that Kinect still feels like it runs on voice recognition tech from 1995.
We've all been there. "Xbox. Xbox! XBOX!! Run Netflix. Run NET-FLIX. RU-UHN NET-FUH-LICKS!" Meanwhile, if we had just picked up our controller and done it that way, we could've been halfway through a binge session of Black Mirror instead of spending the afternoon arguing with a game console.
13 Got Gas?
If you need proof that many video games are designed by men who still have the imaginations of teenage boys, look no further than the Gears of War series. In a mash-up on the level of Napoleon Dynamite's half-tiger, half-lion "liger" concoction comes GoW's chainsaw machine gun. Yep, it's an automatic weapon...with a chainsaw attached to it.
The problem with such a weapon in real life would be that, in addition to needing to reload the gun's ammunition, the chainsaw portion would also need gas to run. Therefor, it would need to be refilled periodically. A guy holding a machine gun that partially runs on gas, standing prone next to a gas pump in the middle of a war zone.What could possibly go wrong?
12 Fable: The Musical
Though it has kind of fallen on hard times in recent years, the Fable franchise was once of of Xbox's key exclusives, an ambitious action-RPG that promised players the chance to go through the entire life of their avatar. Eventually getting married, having kids, and all of that.
Well, it was a Peter Molyneaux game, so only about half of the promises actually happened.
But for what it was Fable-- the first game in particular-- is still very well-liked by both critics and fans alike. It was something of a bridge between console and PC RPGs, giving many console players their first taste of the open-ended, medieval-flavored RPG adventures that PC gamers had already been enjoying for years. With that, came a lot of grinding and doing mundane nonsense for the sake of experience points and gold. Thanks, PC gamers.
11 On Second Thought...
You would've thought that Microsoft would've seen how well it worked out for them that Sony thought they had the clout to get away with charging a preposterous $599.99 for the PS3-- and worse, to have Sony tell people that the PS3 is the kind of system that you'll want to get a second job to pay for. The backlash ended up driving a lot of potential PS3 buyers straight to the store to get Xbox 360s instead.
But no, Microsoft did something similar when they thought they could get away with making all kinds of crazy proclamations about the Xbox One, saying it'll always be online, that you won't be able to played used games on it, that you have to buy and always use a Kinect with it, and more. The backlash was so severe that Microsoft took most of those "threats" back almost immediately.
10 #DadJokes
Kids today think they have it so rough that their uncool parents try to game with them, and that they occasionally have to share their Xbox Ones with their dads because they want a turn at Halo or to use it for Netflix.
Having to "deal with" your dad trying to game with you is a non-problem.
What's worse is those of us who remember having dads who couldn't care less about gaming or trying to understand our games. Instead, they would just make lame dad jokes about them and would at most awkwardly lurk around ,while we played Dead or Alive 3 or Outlaw Golf before going about their dad business. Just appreciate that your dads are actually trying, you ungrateful brats.
9 Cloud Strife
Those of us who remember a time before the internet was ubiquitous, always-on, and connected to pretty much every facet of our life in some way can also remember it not being the end of the world when the internet was down. For 90s kids, the internet being down just meant having to take a break from AOL chat rooms and laggy games of Quake.
Now, the internet going down essentially renders modern consoles useless. It's not even just for online multiplayer, either. No internet basically means no gaming for the most part. So what do we do when the internet goes down? Play a board game, read a book, spend time with our family? Ha! We grab our phones and complain about it on social media, while also sending angry emails to Microsoft for daring to have a service that doesn't run flawlessly 110% of the time.
8 I Love Sports Ball
Nerds vs. Jocks. It's a battle as old as time itself. Okay, not really, but it does seem like it has been raging for a very long time. Of course, as time as gone on, the gap between what constitutes a nerd and what constitutes a jock has narrowed. One of the main things that has brought those two once-disparate archetypes together is none other than video games.
Still, the supposed divide between nerds and jocks continues to exist in some fashion, even if it's more of a friendly rivalry now than it once was. This comic imagines that the Kinect has a built-in nerd detector that is ready to call out a nerd trying to be cool and watch a sporting event on television. No, real-life bullying is never funny, but watching an Xbox One with arms and legs push a supposed nerd around kind of is.
7 Achievement Unlocked: Replace Judgey Friend
Achievements have always been divisive, some claim they are a way to enhance the gaming experience and easily share your accomplishments with your friends. While others say they are pointless and only serve to give people an excuse to show off.
Yet, even the supposed achievement-haters seem to have trouble resisting their allure.
We all have that friend who claims to "not care" about achievement points, but then we see him having completely out-of-the-way to get difficult achievements, the kind that you don't get by accident. Basically, as with so much in gaming, people just hate whatever is the opposite of how they choose to enjoy the hobby. You're lame if you don't have enough achievements, and you're lame if you have too many. In reality, the only thing that is lame is judging how other people play games.
6 Really Really Real
We've long yearned for video games to be more realistic. We want them to look real, sound real, play real (whatever that means). But what we don't always realize is that too realistic can be a bad thing. If Grand Theft Auto was truly realistic, cops wouldn't give up looking for us just because our car changed colors. If Call of Duty was truly realistic, we'd be out of commission after a single shot to the arm. If Dead or Alive Xtreme was truly realistic-- well, let's just say we don't want that, either.
Video games are supposed to be escapism. We want the fun parts, but not the boring stuff. We want the video game equivalent of enjoying the rides at an amusement park, but without the long lines, hot weather, overpriced food, and disgusting bathrooms. That kind of realism can stay in real life where it belongs.
5 I Liked Titanfall Before It Was Cool
This comic uses Titanfall as the example, but it's really about the fickle nature of video game hype in general, especially in the internet age. When a game's hype train first starts rolling, we all jump on board. We ride it for awhile, usually until the game comes out, and then we play the game. We think we like it-- until the rest of the internet says they don't. Now we don't, either.
Did the game itself change? Not usually.
All that changed is public perception and our own cynicism. Stuff just doesn't stay exciting forever, and we often come to be "over" things for the exact same reasons we were once super excited about them. Then, the sequel is announced, and the whole process stars all over and plays out exactly the same way.
4 Content Filters
As video games have become more targeted towards adults, so has the content of video games. Whereas it was once a huge deal when a game like Mortal Kombat, Doom, and Night Trap came along, all three of those games are positively tame by today's standards. In fact, two of the three of them are either already on or are coming to the Nintendo Switch, the family-friendliest of the current console generation.
Kids and/or the sensitive just have to pass up games that are too violent, provocative, or vulgar for them. That's just how it goes. Most developers aren't going to bother putting in the extra time to add content filters to their games that bleep out the cussing, blur out the naughty bits, and block out the violence. If for some reason they were ever forced to do so, it's easy to imagine that developers would have a little fun with the censorship.
3 Love Is...
The oft-repeated stereotype is that gamers are mostly men who are single virgins who still live with their parents-- usually in the basement. Of course, that is seldom the case. Not only are many gamers-- almost half, in fact-- female, but plenty of gamers are in happy, healthy relationships even though gaming is their primary hobby. Some even, gasp, play games with their partners!
Girls like games too!
Still, we gamers have a sense of humor about ourselves and our hobby, and we tend to roll with the jokes about the girlfriend-less loser gamer dude. We can also joke about the stereotype that gamer guys who do manage to have girlfriends often neglect them, spending all their time and money on games instead. However, we would like imagine a different take on this comic and say that the Amy it references would be thrilled that her boyfriend brought home an Xbox One, instead of a necklace.
2 Forge Behind
Halo 3's Forge mode was a revelation in that it allowed what is unfortunately still all-too-lacking in console gaming, the ability to make custom maps (kind of). PC users can modify just about every aspect of their gaming experience, but console manufacturers have still largely been reluctant to let their users tinker too much with the content of their games.
All that aside, Halo players had a lot of fun with Forge mode. No, it isn't technically possible to do what the player in this comic did-- though it's a hilarious thought-- but players still had the opportunity to make levels with little secrets that only they knew about. It is the video game equivalent of "home field advantage" in sports. Sadly, to this day, most console-based FPS don't let players create custom multiplayer maps which is a real shame.