Speaking to Edge Magazine in an interview about his upcoming game, Command & Conquer 4, Producer Raj Joshi laments that real time strategy gamers get their kicks "entirely ... from smashing another human in a videogame."
The full Joshi quote as pulled by Gamerzines reads: "RTS players are great people but some of them have very little balance in their life. So their enjoyment is entirely derived from smashing another human in a videogame."
On the one hand, I want to disagree because I like RTS games and consider myself a level-headed person who enjoys all kinds of balanced things like butterflies and nail polish, etc. But, yeah, I enjoy smashing another human player in a competitive video game — that's kind of the point, isn't it?
On the other hand, I do agree with Joshi because I once watched a friend fling his expensive keyboard across a room during a total rout in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. "Unbalanced" just about sums him up.
And on a third hand that I don't physically have, couldn't you say that by Joshi's logic all gamers who get off on crushing other players in any genre are unbalanced? Why pick on his own audience when there are so many other worthy targets to choose from (*cough* first-person shooters *cough*)?
Oh, but here's another Joshi tidbit to sink your teeth into: "Now the gameplay is no longer tailored to beating the opponent's base and having that be the source of victory. It's now about capturing objectives. So there's less of that head-to-head 'I'm going to crush you' mentality going on."
I'll let you handle the arguments behind that one, commenters.
RTS players "have very little balance in their life" - C&C4 Producer [Gamerzines]