An Open Letter to Nintendo

[Zilla]

Originally Posted by Grand Master Kickface

Even though the article is 3 and a half years old, it still holds true today and makes Nintendo's strategy perfectly lucid. Basically, if Nintendo doesn't expand the market base, no one else is going to, and eventually gaming will become more and more of a niche hobby until it stops existing altogether. It's only because Nintendo continually ropes in new players that video games have any longevity as a medium, and Wii was an absolutely necessary move for the industry's long-term health.

I disagree with this. Gaming as a whole was better when it was niche. The development structure was FAR less corporate and you didn't need to pour millions of dollars into a game to get it to sell. From the crash of 1984 until about 1998 or so when some serious 3D games broke into mainstream media, video games were at their most creative and impressive. Now, we've got the countless unoriginal sequels and the pandering to casual audiences and crazy demographic analysis that makes the industry more lucrative for the giant corporate monsters with fat wallets to fund that stuff, while making independent and lower-cost games pale in comparison, doomed to fade to obscurity.

[Mirai Gen]

Hm.

On one hand, Zilla, I agree with you, because lots of the material that's being produced such as the Wii's gimmicky, tacked-on controls (of otherwise perfectly fine games) with extremely inexpensive, out-of-date parts, or SEQUEL MANIAAAA, or franchises that I love suddenly being shot in the ass*, or a million other things. There's also the necessity of marketing and advertising, and if you want proof of how crucial they are, just look at Psychonauts.

On the other hand I just can't agree with you, because honestly it doesn't matter if you've got voice acting and expansive world and an incredible combat engine and gorgeous graphics and cutscenes like Mass Effect, or Fallout 3, or GTA4, or whatever. Because in the end, these don't matter provided you've got a good game. If you can get someone hooked on your game you make absolutely tons of cash. Just look at Puzzle Quest, or Geometry Wars, or any other extremely profitable XBL Arcade/DS game. I'm reminded of the XKCD strip, "The most powerful gaming technology in the world just can't match up with the addictiveness of in-browser flash games."

So I'm still on the fence there.

*yes, I realize the irony of that statement put after the previous one.

[Jagos]

Originally Posted by Zilla

I disagree with this. Gaming as a whole was better when it was niche. The development structure was FAR less corporate and you didn't need to pour millions of dollars into a game to get it to sell. From the crash of 1984 until about 1998 or so when some serious 3D games broke into mainstream media, video games were at their most creative and impressive.

I'm thinking that's a bit flawed...

Before 1984 was when games were a niche market. We have so many versions of Atari and Intellivision it took ET and Nintendo (a corporate card seller) to destroy and reinvigorate and bring games from the brink respectively.

[Mintaro]

Dear hardcore gamers,

Times are changing, and the world changes with it. Once video games were owned only by the few, and practiced by the select. Now every pair of thumbs is pressing buttons and calling themselves the champ. What dose that mean to the core of us? Those few and select that played in the beginning, when the princess was always in another castle?

It means that the companies that once nurtured an art form, now paint mostly for capital. Companies like Nintendo are interested less in what their fans want, and more about what there market will buy. Their market? Why its that dreaded word that has haunted all things beautiful sense the beginning of time, family.

While family can be fun, and family can be pretty, and family can be entertaining. So rarely dose it fill the cold spot we have learned to stuff video games into. After all if we had family, how many of us would have needed the warm glow of the screen?

To those of you who regret the directions of their favorite companies. My advice is for you to move on. Do not dwell on the greats of the past if you wish to purchase to future. Instead make the most of what you can get. Interplay is gone, but Bethesda pays them homage. Blizzard seems to have lost their path, but their works hold great promise. And even the EA Giant, can occasionally uncover gold.

Countless others how hold the flame of Game in their hearts. So too should you let yours burn bright. Let go of the past and focus on the great games of the now. If they do not exist on your system, buy a new one, and don't look back until you pull your attention with an act so glorious you cannot help but weep, I have.

Sadly all great things must change. After all, Sean Connery could not be Bond forever. Yet we have had so many great faces sense.

[Mike McC]

Originally Posted by Mintaro

Once video games were owned only by the few, and practiced by the select.

I just love how gamers think they're the only ones who have played games in the past and this influx of 'non' gamers is totally leaving their cake out in the rain. I got a news flash for you: at least since the era of the NES, video games have had a fairly wide audience. Shit, in grade school, back in the long long ago, the way back when, Practically every kid had at least a Nintendo or a Sega. Several had Game Boys and Game Gears. An they weren't nerds or dorks or geeks in the slightest. We are not a select group that played video games as a kid. We are an entire generation that grew up with them. Getting all bent out of shape because companies DARE to make games in genres you don't like is frankly quite ridiculous. And believing you are the sole heirs to an exclusive dynasty is even more ridiculous.

Just focus on the games you do like, and ignore the rest. You'll save a lot of your sanity and be all around more zen if you do this.

[Mirai Gen]

Originally Posted by Mike McC

I just love how gamers think they're the only ones who have played games in the past and this influx of 'non' gamers is totally leaving their cake out in the rain.

While I generally agree with your post, you're being really condescending by quoting him and then using him as a cypher for "gamers" in general and what you think is amusing (IE 'what I love') about their behavior. This kind of treatment is even furthered by:

And believing you are the sole heirs to an exclusive dynasty is even more ridiculous.

When his entire post boiled down to this:

Originally Posted by Mintaro

Instead make the most of what you can get.

Which is, incidentally, exactly what you said here:

Originally Posted by Mike

Just focus on the games you do like, and ignore the rest.

[Kim]

Well, I generally think the purpose of the entertainment industry is to entertain me, as far out there as that may sound, so when a company, especially a company like Nintendo, I tend to get a little frustrated.

"Do your job!" I call out from the street, picket sign in hand. I understand that they have to make things for casual gamers, but I expect to be treated nice, too. You ought to try to keep the customers that you've had for a long time. They've been loyal to you, can't you be loyal to them?

[TheSparrow]

Originally Posted by NonCon

Well, I generally think the purpose of the entertainment industry is to entertain me, as far out there as that may sound, so when a company, especially a company like Nintendo, I tend to get a little frustrated.

"Do your job!" I call out from the street, picket sign in hand. I understand that they have to make things for casual gamers, but I expect to be treated nice, too. You ought to try to keep the customers that you've had for a long time. They've been loyal to you, can't you be loyal to them?

The purpose of the entertainment industry is to entertain the people willing to spend the most money. Unfortunately, these people dont always make good decisions, and the rest of us are stuck with it (Just look at the current #1 movie right now). The Gaming Industry is going the same way the music and the movie industries went. People with MONEY are in charge and they wont do anything that isnt guaranteed to make them more money. So now, just like how the best bands are independent and the best movies are made by tiny indie companies, the best and most original games, for the most part, will come from small independent companies who have the freedom to create, rather than have to make something to that pleases a corporate board of directors.

[Kim]

There are still some good games, but not as many. Capcom still does good stuff, and I'm hoping that Bayonetta will surprise me. Okami was awesome, and I have hope that MadWorld will be as well. There are still lots of good games, but I can't help the feeling that fewer and fewer companies are actually producing them.

Also, guess what... As long as the entertainment industry is focused only on catering to the people with the most money, pirating will keep going higher and higher.

[Mirai Gen]

Originally Posted by TheSparrow

The purpose of the entertainment industry is to entertain the people willing to spend the most money. Unfortunately, these people dont always make good decisions, and the rest of us are stuck with it (Just look at the current #1 movie right now).

This is actually what goes on with 99% of entertainment media today, unfortunately. I mean look at what happened to Heroes, or RA Salvatore, or the death and return of great Batman movies, and yes videogames too.

From what I hear, the entire team for Dead Space over at EA has already been laid off after they got assimilated. Which pisses me off because Dead Space has become one of my favorite games of all time. That might be the economy talking but still, jesus.