EPISODE FOUR: "The End of The World as Wii Know It?"
As the runaway success of The Wii seems poised to kick-off a second Nintendo Age, so-called "hardcore gamers" are predicting a dire outcome from the influx of "casual players." The OverThinker isn't so sure... because he's been here once before.
This is an excellent video that taps into the things I really enjoy about your previous endeavors. It's a holistic approach to gaming that takes into consideration the history. Thus making it both enlightening, as well as entertaining. People compare you to yahtzee, but you're doing something entirely new here. So kudos. I would love to see you tackle some new gen issues as they relate to where things were in the past. For example, perhaps looking at Virtual Console versus something like XBLA and PSN... and what that means for retro gaming. Keep up the great work, and I'll definitely visit this blog often to see the updates.
If I could sing, I would sing the word "awesome." That was fantastic. Gaming is supposed to be fun, so, in the words of Heath Ledger as the Joker, "Why so serious?"
I live in Argentina and i didn´t see, at least in my country, this nerd vs. hardcore, but i don´t think you shouldn´t underestimate a great console. I grow up with playstation and I agree with you in this hardgamer games, i really don´t like neither halo, nor half life, nor resident evil, etc. There way too fucking monster or alien everywhere, which are soo fashion right now. But the playstation also put the kind of game you say. Games that didn´t have place in nintendo. Crash bandicot, Chrono Cross (ex-Nintendo), Legend of Mana(ex-Nintendo) and Final Fantasy 7 and 9 (also ex nintedo) And this games are cute the flag for this old console, I recomend to you to play it.
Impressive stuf man, i originaly only played nintendo 64 till the internet dared to show his(or her) face. No i play pc games only, nice to see where it came from, and who we have to thank for it.
my first Game Overthinker video... and it utterly blew my mind. Wonderful video Bob.
When it comes to the hardcore vs. casual argument, I'm the first guy to start trolling somebody for choosing something based on how it looks or cuz they by into some hype (Halo, Gears, Wii motion control).
However, I just can't really take a shot at someone so buys a game just cuz they want to have fun, whether they just want to use it to have fun exercising or to play with their family or because they want to sit around, blasting aliens or foul mouthed human players.
This is one of those times where I really think personal preference of quality is subjective. After all, I love Half-Life, but I hate Killzone. I love Phantasy Star but I hate Final Fantasy.
Anyway, I think I'm losing site of my argument. Gamers are gamers, as long as you posses some manner of control used to interact with some sort of digital image on a screen created by video output, you're a gamer.
Besides, even if there's a possibility all games become motion controlled waggle fests, frankly I say who cares? We've had over 30 years to develop hundreds upon thousands of games, a great deal of which are available for play as roms on the internet.
If you ask me those old games, like for instance Double Dragon, Space Harrier, Tempest, Shinobi, just too name a few, are all amazing. Even if you beat them once, they still prove to be fun, especially when you attempt to beat them with higher scores or whatever.
What I'm saying is, even if the future looks bleak, the past is as bright as red giant sun. And I know I'm coming across as sounding unprogressive, and a stuck-up classicfag by saying "stuff from the past is better then stuff now." But there's a reason why the good things of yesteryear are still good today, and they are there if anyone should feel there's something wrong with games or unsure if there was anything right.
'Scuse me for such a long and possibly incoherent comment.
This was one of the first "Game Overthinker" episodes I watched and I have to say it's my favorite. Why? Because I used to think like this myself at one point, mostly thanks to other hard-cores like Yahtzee and the co-authors of Penny Arcade.
Now, I was there (abiet really, really young) for the original Nintendo and I stuch with that company for a few years until college and economics forced me to give up gaming outside emulators, flash games, and the occansional free MMORPG.
That being said, I still was interested in gaming news and from some sites, I was being fed a fear about the newcomers (let's just say that I never noticed that the Playstation brought in "new kids" because where I grew up, I was one of the few kids into video games, so even the cool kids thought the Playstation was "lame").
As such, I was concerned about the Wii and everything...I until I watched this and your other video about the comic book implosion and how it *could* happen to gaming outside the Wii. As such, you have opened my eyes to the truth that gaming belongs to everyone willing to pay the price and there is no reason, both socially or economically, to restrict gaming to a small population, espeically one that is aging. And I thank you for that, Moviebob.
The Internet went through a similar Armageddon in the 90's. It was once a domain exclusive programmers, engineers, and other tech geeks who could man a command line interface. I often wish we could go back to those days.
Many months after this video was posted, it unfortunately seems to me that the Wii was not, in fact, The End of the World as Wii Knew It. But it was part of the Cataclysm.
What I think Bob should have focused more attention on was the worrying tendency of third-party developers to jump on the bandwagon of whatever type of game seems to be selling. Whether they're trying to make a grab for the customers of first-person shooters or casual games, the lack of creativity in most modern videogames is appalling - something Bob himself said in his first episode!
The Wii is part of that, yes, but it's not the source. Videogame producing companies did this to themselves by allowing people with no love of videogames to decide what videogames get made. They're making profits as a result, but it's been a Pyhrric victory, costing them whatever semblance of loyalty their customers once had.
The other side of the coin to this, the brighter side, has been the blossoming of the independent (indie) gaming market. The word of mouth over the internet has made successes of the Humble Bundles as well as Minecraft, and Steam is a revenue machine for any indie developers who are willing to sell their games for a dollar (hint - many of them are). I was actually introduced to this trend on XBLA, with I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 as well as Shadow Complex.
For my part, I've given up console gaming and am now almost strictly a computer gamer. The initial investment is much higher, but the average cost of each videogame for me, so far - around $2.50 - as well as the lifetime ownership of Steam games, are both benefits that consoles simply cannot match. In my eyes, the dark death of console gaming created the bright future of computer gaming. So yes, The End of Gaming as I Knew It came and went. Things are different now, but surprisingly, they actually seem better, not worse.
I'm slowly going through your old videos and know it's pointless commenting on them but this made me laugh.
Here in the UK during my childhood in the 80's the nerd gamers were on homecomputers Sinclair/C64 too the Amiga/Atari.
The reason Nintendo ignored Europe while Sega consoles cost double anything less than an IBM compatible. Then Sony arrived bringing console joy too a continent ignored since the Atari 2600.
12 comments:
Best opening ever! Way to go man, keep it up!
Also, good idea with the stand-alone blog.
This is an excellent video that taps into the things I really enjoy about your previous endeavors. It's a holistic approach to gaming that takes into consideration the history. Thus making it both enlightening, as well as entertaining. People compare you to yahtzee, but you're doing something entirely new here. So kudos. I would love to see you tackle some new gen issues as they relate to where things were in the past. For example, perhaps looking at Virtual Console versus something like XBLA and PSN... and what that means for retro gaming. Keep up the great work, and I'll definitely visit this blog often to see the updates.
XD so very true, spot on, as a 21yo old school gaming girl, you got my feelings just perfectly, great job
If I could sing, I would sing the word "awesome." That was fantastic. Gaming is supposed to be fun, so, in the words of Heath Ledger as the Joker, "Why so serious?"
I live in Argentina and i didn´t see, at least in my country, this nerd vs. hardcore, but i don´t think you shouldn´t underestimate a great console. I grow up with playstation and I agree with you in this hardgamer games, i really don´t like neither halo, nor half life, nor resident evil, etc. There way too fucking monster or alien everywhere, which are soo fashion right now. But the playstation also put the kind of game you say. Games that didn´t have place in nintendo. Crash bandicot, Chrono Cross (ex-Nintendo), Legend of Mana(ex-Nintendo) and Final Fantasy 7 and 9 (also ex nintedo) And this games are cute the flag for this old console, I recomend to you to play it.
Wow dude this is one of the most impressive vblogs I've ever seen. Each video has more insight than the last. Keep it up man this is good stuff.
Impressive stuf man, i originaly only played nintendo 64 till the internet dared to show his(or her) face. No i play pc games only, nice to see where it came from, and who we have to thank for it.
my first Game Overthinker video... and it utterly blew my mind. Wonderful video Bob.
When it comes to the hardcore vs. casual argument, I'm the first guy to start trolling somebody for choosing something based on how it looks or cuz they by into some hype (Halo, Gears, Wii motion control).
However, I just can't really take a shot at someone so buys a game just cuz they want to have fun, whether they just want to use it to have fun exercising or to play with their family or because they want to sit around, blasting aliens or foul mouthed human players.
This is one of those times where I really think personal preference of quality is subjective. After all, I love Half-Life, but I hate Killzone. I love Phantasy Star but I hate Final Fantasy.
Anyway, I think I'm losing site of my argument. Gamers are gamers, as long as you posses some manner of control used to interact with some sort of digital image on a screen created by video output, you're a gamer.
Besides, even if there's a possibility all games become motion controlled waggle fests, frankly I say who cares? We've had over 30 years to develop hundreds upon thousands of games, a great deal of which are available for play as roms on the internet.
If you ask me those old games, like for instance Double Dragon, Space Harrier, Tempest, Shinobi, just too name a few, are all amazing. Even if you beat them once, they still prove to be fun, especially when you attempt to beat them with higher scores or whatever.
What I'm saying is, even if the future looks bleak, the past is as bright as red giant sun. And I know I'm coming across as sounding unprogressive, and a stuck-up classicfag by saying "stuff from the past is better then stuff now." But there's a reason why the good things of yesteryear are still good today, and they are there if anyone should feel there's something wrong with games or unsure if there was anything right.
'Scuse me for such a long and possibly incoherent comment.
This was one of the first "Game Overthinker" episodes I watched and I have to say it's my favorite. Why? Because I used to think like this myself at one point, mostly thanks to other hard-cores like Yahtzee and the co-authors of Penny Arcade.
Now, I was there (abiet really, really young) for the original Nintendo and I stuch with that company for a few years until college and economics forced me to give up gaming outside emulators, flash games, and the occansional free MMORPG.
That being said, I still was interested in gaming news and from some sites, I was being fed a fear about the newcomers (let's just say that I never noticed that the Playstation brought in "new kids" because where I grew up, I was one of the few kids into video games, so even the cool kids thought the Playstation was "lame").
As such, I was concerned about the Wii and everything...I until I watched this and your other video about the comic book implosion and how it *could* happen to gaming outside the Wii. As such, you have opened my eyes to the truth that gaming belongs to everyone willing to pay the price and there is no reason, both socially or economically, to restrict gaming to a small population, espeically one that is aging. And I thank you for that, Moviebob.
The Internet went through a similar Armageddon in the 90's. It was once a domain exclusive programmers, engineers, and other tech geeks who could man a command line interface. I often wish we could go back to those days.
Many months after this video was posted, it unfortunately seems to me that the Wii was not, in fact, The End of the World as Wii Knew It. But it was part of the Cataclysm.
What I think Bob should have focused more attention on was the worrying tendency of third-party developers to jump on the bandwagon of whatever type of game seems to be selling. Whether they're trying to make a grab for the customers of first-person shooters or casual games, the lack of creativity in most modern videogames is appalling - something Bob himself said in his first episode!
The Wii is part of that, yes, but it's not the source. Videogame producing companies did this to themselves by allowing people with no love of videogames to decide what videogames get made. They're making profits as a result, but it's been a Pyhrric victory, costing them whatever semblance of loyalty their customers once had.
The other side of the coin to this, the brighter side, has been the blossoming of the independent (indie) gaming market. The word of mouth over the internet has made successes of the Humble Bundles as well as Minecraft, and Steam is a revenue machine for any indie developers who are willing to sell their games for a dollar (hint - many of them are). I was actually introduced to this trend on XBLA, with I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 as well as Shadow Complex.
For my part, I've given up console gaming and am now almost strictly a computer gamer. The initial investment is much higher, but the average cost of each videogame for me, so far - around $2.50 - as well as the lifetime ownership of Steam games, are both benefits that consoles simply cannot match. In my eyes, the dark death of console gaming created the bright future of computer gaming. So yes, The End of Gaming as I Knew It came and went. Things are different now, but surprisingly, they actually seem better, not worse.
I'm slowly going through your old videos and know it's pointless commenting on them but this made me laugh.
Here in the UK during my childhood in the 80's the nerd gamers were on homecomputers Sinclair/C64 too the Amiga/Atari.
The reason Nintendo ignored Europe while Sega consoles cost double anything less than an IBM compatible. Then Sony arrived bringing console joy too a continent ignored since the Atari 2600.
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