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Friday, March 27, 2009

Control Freak: Just my thoughts on Nintendo

(Posted this one on Jan 1, 09.)

It's just me thinking all this, and I could most certainly be wrong, but everyone has their own opinions and these are mine. Because, honestly, it's not like you get enough of other people's opinions when you're online. *sarcasm* Whether or not you agree with them, I don't care. These are just thoughts that have been going through my mind for a while now.
Point 1: Nintendo has not abandoned their core audience. I can hear the haters shouting already but let me get to the second part of this opinion: their core audience is in Japan. All the shovel-ware games like WiiMusic, Hula Wii, and the like are aimed at little kids in Japan. Here in America they're also aimed at the young as well as those who have never picked up a controller in their lives. Which leads to Point 2.
Point 2: "They've abandoned the hardcore audience." This depends on your definition of "hardcore." One example could be those who really get into the game, shout when they're losing, or play a game months after the hype is over. Another definition could be those who play a game thoroughly, look for and learn all the secrets, or are avid collectors of a certain genre of game. I remember once upon a time there were people who were "hardcore Nintendo" and wouldn't touch anything Sega made.
Point 3: If Nintendo cared about America, you'd think Shigeru Miyamoto would have learned English a long time ago. I guess since he spends all his time developing casual titles he has no time to learn English. Did you know Nintendo has a lifetime contract with him and essentially owns every thought he has?
Point 4: I know I sound like I'm attacking Nintendo and I probably am, but
fact #1: More American game-makers need to make Wii games, whether they use the Wiimote or find a way to make them compatible with a GameCube controller. Or. heck, they could even make GameCube games and just have people play them on their GCs or Wiis.
Point 5: Not all good Wii games have to be first person shooters. It seems like the "hardcore" crowd flocks to these expecting the Halo-killer and are not looking towards the Wii. I'm pretty sure that, despite it's flaws, Red Steel was okay as well as Metroid Prime being a must-buy for the Wii.
Alternate Point #1: There have been a lot of good FPS games that were overlooked by many people only because game sites compared them to Halo. Area 51, Project Snowblind, Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, and even Serious Sam 2 would brushed to the side.
Point 6 and this is for all those who are old enough to remember: the Virtual Console offers a ton of old school NES and SNES games to play. Not being a Wii owner I can't give you any examples of what games their are but I'm pretty sure you can find a list online. Go Google it. Thing is, most of the young kids dont' care for these old games, making the VC mainly for those who grew up playing them.
Point 7: I would like to see Nintendo create a newer version of the Wii without restrictions, but design it different from the currect console as to make sure the differences are known. The lack of restrictions would allow people to add others without friend codes, Brawl codes, Kart codes, or anything else. Just implement a name system and have it registered to one person. If the person decides to change their names then their friends are notified instantly.
This has been a public service announcement brought to you by me. But honestly, I never really know how to end blogs of this nature. I'm sure I would like Nintendo more if they just paid attention to people and stopped shipping in Japanese games. They could do so much better.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Random Blog: The Future of Gaming

(I wrote this back in July 08. Thought I'd give you all something to read since the original blog I was working on was deleted thanks to having to reformat my computer.)

Something that's been on my mind for a few months now has been, as the title states, where is gaming going in the future?

This generation has taken the leap to high definition. In the last generation we saw DVD players/CD recorders added to video game systems. The generation before that had CD players even before the Sony Playstation was introduced (think 3DO). We can even connect two of the current consoles to our computers and easily transfer music and videos. And the Xbox 360 has us playing against others using a PC.

So where's the next gen going to take us?

Are we going to see a blending between consoles? Playstation 4 players alongside the next Xbox players alongside PC players?
Are we going to see newer CD-type players? CD burners on the consoles? And how much are we going to need before we realize it's all too much?
Will home-created games become a new market?
What kind of connectivity are we going to have with our handheld systems?
Are holograms and virtual reality going to make a comeback? The possibility of holograms is now a reality, we've explored virtual reality in the past but most of it was simple polygons.
Are we going to see a wider spread of DLC?
Are games going to skip being sold in stores and go direct-to-download? (In other words: putting places like Gameslop out of business?)
Are achievements, trophies, etc. going to matter?
So many games take cues from other games that many claim the creators are running out of ideas. Are we going to see old games made new again or simply a reformatting and return of what once was? Or both?
Is Hollywood going to branch out and "make" more games or vice versa?
Are pros going to be more recognized among the mainstream? Will that in turn cause more competitive games to be made?
Are we going to see a blur between media? Such as comics, movies, music, tv and games becoming more intertwined.
What types of controllers are we going to see? (Such as the rumored 'finger-tip' controllers being developed by Nintendo.)
What will companies do to bring in more new customers?


There are a million different possibilities and there are a million different directions. What do you think is a possibility? Speak your opinions, I like to hear them.

Keep Playing.