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You know what sickens me about this game industry?
Gamers.
For the first time in generations, the ability to push the game industry forward has been granted, and they are stubbornly trying to stop it. It reminds me of another debate going on in the US regarding Health Care. The options to do things better are granted, but it is stubbornly declined.
So why are gamers trying to stop this improvement in the industry? What improvement is it? Motion control, of course.
Gaming, for the majority of its existence, has been associated with anti-social overweight nerds with no life mooching of their parents. When Nintendo made the Wii’s main way to play a fully motion controlled one, it paid off by making that console the fastest selling console in history. What is more impressive is that gamers weren’t the ones buying it.
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It was the normal people. The same people that called gamers anti-social overweight nerds with no life that mooch off their parents, were buying a game console. The game console was mentioned on news shows, Oprah, late night talk shows, and everywhere else, not as a problem that is ruining our youth, but something that adults love and actually play more than their kids.
Isn’t that what game advocates have been trying to push since the industry’s infancy? The Wii is the best console I have purchased because it is not just me that’s playing it, but because everybody else is playing it with me. My parents play it, my grandparents play it, my parent’s friends play it, kids don’t seem to like it but everybody else does!
This is something never even thought of happening before.
But why are gamers trying to suddenly derail this progress? For the most part they seem to say many non-sensical arguments that “it’s ruining gaming”, and that “Nintendo has abandoned me, or that “it’s changing gaming to a shallow and mundane industry”. Isn’t that a good thing? Shouldn’t we be encouraging it?
When the movie industry went from this niche medium referred as an inferior way to view Broadway to maturing into the medium of blockbusters and social culture it is today, I can’t imagine people going against it. Did movie buffs moan and groan when “casual garbage” such as Casablanca became a nation wide blockbuster when it was released?
Did movie buffs simply ignored when Citizen Kane brought to theatres people who never thought that movies could be a form of art?
Are we going to deny the chance for the industry to grow? Microsoft and Sony, who both blasted the Wii for being a joke and a bad business decision, are now quickly developing their own games for the new, and much bigger, “casual” crowd, gamers are rebelling against it, saying such remarks, as “as long as it is optional and doesn’t replace the standard controller, it’s fine by me.”
That is not fine.
Natal and the Wand cannot be simple accessories. They must be the actual consoles. They must be the main way to play. Otherwise, the game industry will not grow, and will most likely spell failure for both Natal and the Wand.
Another reason many gamers are spitting out is that “casual games suck compared to ‘real’ games”. Both last and this year, blockbuster movies have been redefining this paradox. Blockbuster movies are usually considered casual trash by movie buffs, but more than four times in the past two years have those stereotypes been proven wrong.
The Dark Knight, a pure blockbuster, was considered one of the best movies of 2008. Wall-E, an animated G-rated movie, was even higher received. Star Trek, previously a franchise left for nerds, has become one of the most critically acclaimed and highest grossing movies this year, and Up, another animated movie, topped its success and critical acclaim.
Casual trash. A contender for the Oscars, believe it or not.
Why can’t casual games do the same? Wii Sports Resort, for the mere fact of being a casual game, has seen no short amount of complaint from the game community.
Yet it’s somehow a highly critically acclaimed game, with some publications that normally favor shooters or big story based games giving the game high scores.
Tetris and Pac-Man, both very old games, are still being held with great respect outside the game community.
So why can’t the game industry be allowed to move forward? Gamers don’t let it, because they want to be called anti-social overweight nerds with no life that mooch off their parents.
They loved to be called anti-social overweight nerds with no life that mooch off their parents. And everybody else will continue to call them anti-social overweight nerds with no life that mooch off their parents as they wish.
Or…. you can have fun with your new friends playing your favorite hobby. It’s your choice.