Let the games industry die.

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Let the games industry die.

(Administrator) 2010-06-18, 23:51 #1

Member since May 2011 · 2173 posts · Location: Brisbane
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Subject: Let the games industry die.

Over on insert credit I was talking about E3 and I wasn't very impressed. Microsoft and Sony tried to copy Nintendo without really succeeding: Sony's Move is a Wiimote clone in everything but colour, and Microsoft's Kinect system is an overpriced EyeToy. I also decided Nintendo's 3DS was bound to be a purchase I'd have to make, but that it'd end up in the same place as my regular DS: In a box, unwanted and forgotten. But in 3D.

And then Cracked.com had a two-part article called The Day the Gaming Industry Died and it more or less covers, with great examples, exactly why I can't bring myself to give a shit about this new gaming generation.

Quote by Cracked:
The game that launched the Nintendo Wii in 2006 was called Wii Sports, a collection of motion-controlled minigames including bowling, boxing and tennis.
[...]
So Kinect is launching with... Kinect Sports, a collection of motion-controlled minigames including bowling, boxing and table tennis.

Oh come on!

Microsoft shows off their Kinect kitten-petting simulator and according to Cracked: The audience at the conference reacted in exactly the same way you react when you notice the homeless guy next to you on the subway is masturbating.

The Cracked article is brilliant. The Sony Move is shown next to a Nintendo Wiimote, and they're fucking identical. The first thing on page 2 of the article shows three identical looking games from three different companies.

Quote by Cracked:
Sony, perhaps horrified at the spectacle that was Microsoft and its demonstration of its motion control gimmick, barely mentioned Move, their own motion control gadget. The long gaps in their presentation, when it appeared they were trying very hard to fill time, made me think they took one look at the reaction to Xbox Kinect yesterday and quietly nudged Move under the sofa with their toe.

The final nail in the game industry coffin though was the iphone (with a token mention of Android phones):

Quote by Cracked:
Yes, the 3DS can do gaming better--the graphics appeared to be roughly on par with the Wii. But as the famous saying goes, there is a limit to the number of electronic devices a person wants to carry in their pocket, and that limit is one.

That's exactly right. In my life I've got room for one portable device, and I have an iphone. I'm not taking my DS anywhere, I don't have the time to devote to it. I have friends who take trains and have other long periods of time where they can use the DS, but for me, my leisure time is either spent at home (where I have a giant TV and giant sound system), and there's nowhere left to play a portable game system, never mind the bag full of cartridges that go with it. And if you think I need to invite yet another DRM-laden bullshit device into my home, you're mad.

So where does that leave the jaded old game player?

In seventh fucking heaven, of course. My Dreamcast still works. My PS2 still works, as does my Sega Saturn, my Super Nintendo, and my Xbox, and my Neo Geo and all my arcade boards and fuck this modern bullshit.

All the good games were released years ago, and I already own 'em all. I'm pretty happy with that. Let the industry die, it's done its job. It's too stupid to realize there's nothing left to do.

BLEARGH

2010-06-19, 08:52 #2

Member since Oct 2007 · 265 posts
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I don't know if I agree that there's nothing left for the games industry to do. What I'm not eager to admit to myself is that as one of these older gamers, the newer gaming products may become less and less relevant to me as time goes by.

It's facile to draw parallels between the game companies and the motion picture companies, and this comparison is usually made on the basis of the money made and the number of people doing the buying. But really, the better analogy is to observe how the game industry acts a lot like the publishing industry. For many years (200 for books, about 20 for games) there was an accepted way to make the product, and a dedicated retail organization that sold it. Now, with new technologies and new distribution methods disrupting that method and those organizations, everybody's scrambling to catch up. But I'm not likely to prefer a collaborative Twitter novel with twenty authors, or to accept that as a suitable or equivalent replacement for a traditional novel. Likewise, blindness and slow reflexes will keep me from every enjoying a handheld, 3D augmented reality shooter that dynamically scans shapes in the room around me and turns them into creative enemy designs. But for the games industry, that's a totally valid replacement for Galaga and easily its equivalent in the marketplace.

The game industry isn't done yet, they're just done with us. I'm happy to continue buying traditional fighting games and RPGs and strategy games as they're published, but I don't have any illusions that a plurality of the titles released are meant to appeal to me in any way. Soon, that will be a reliable majority. I'm comfortable with that as I get older, if only because I have to be.

This post was edited on 2010-06-19, 09:20 by Kendrick.

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