By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming Discussion - Hardcore: Stop having fun! Games are supposed to be serious!

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/email-has-this-expert-blogger-lost-his-mind/

Read it and you’ll know that he has:

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/NelsAnderson/20090827/2845/Say_No_to_quotFunquot.php

Games shouldn’t be fun because sometimes people watch movies that aren’t fun and movies of course are the same as games!

What a retard.

Wow! Every time I think I am going too hard on the ‘hardcore’ acting as if they are ’sophisticated’ and ‘elite’, something like this comes up.

Here is a quote from that post:

It’s great that Nintendo has brought more folks into the fold via the DS and Wii. But to be honest, many of their core games are not exactly rich in emotional depth. Wii Sports Resort and Mario Kart don’t exactly speak to the human condition. I don’t think the Wii Horse Bag is going to change that.

Again, Nintendo’s games are absolutely fine. They do not have an obligation to make more emotionally deep games. But for non-core gamers, their only experience with games is as “fun” things. Being able to say those are one kind of thing and here’s another kind that are similarly interesting but won’t make you smile like Frisbee Dog will be increasing important.

As strange as this may sound, the “Game Industry” shows no interest in making ‘games’. They want to make something else.

But let us look at it. Do the Expanded Audience games speak on the Human Condition?

Brain Age speaks to the Human condition of aging and the mental impact of growing old.

Nintendogs speaks to the Human condition of loving a puppy and how that love is universal in all cultures throughout the world.

Wii Sports speaks to the Human condition in that everyone loves sports and wants to play them even if they physically cannot, such as retirement homes.

Wii Sports Resort speaks to the Human condition in that everyone is stressed and wants to go on a relaxing vacation.

Wii Fit is the game, beyond all, that speaks more on the Human condition than any game ever made for the obvious reasons.

Animal Crossing is a tour de force on the Human condition. You are constantly leveraged by someone to pay off your house. When you do eventually pay it off, you somehow strangely keep getting bigger houses which keeps you entirely leveraged for the rest of your life. The lesson in Animal Crossing could be the most important lesson any person can recieve for their financial well-being.

People on the outside view ‘Core video-games’ as shallow with their ‘great plots’ and ‘fantastic storytelling’.

All this quasi-Oxford type debate on gaming, especially on something like semantics of whether to use the word ‘fun’ or not, is a complete waste of time. None of it ever makes a better game.

I’ve noticed that I’ve never seen the great arts or even the great businesses discussed. As an entertainment business, you’d think they would debate as to why Shakespeare has such longevity, how a twenty five year old, who never had directed any movie before, directed Citizen Kane.

The ultimate limit on what games can be is not in the ‘business’ or in the technology, it is in the developers’ brains. Imagination is where it is all at.

Games are very different from other mediums like radio or writing for many reasons. But one reason never said is because it takes a staff of very different skill sets to create a game. You need a programmer, an artist, and all the rest. But a writer just needs himself as does the radio guy. Since the path to entry in those mediums is so much less that gaming, since the path to entry is so fierce and competitive, those that succeed in those mediums are intellectual giants. In comparison, game developers seem like midgets. Why else is all these ‘core’ games based on comic book or even academic nonsense?

Any look at the ’sophisticated’ works on the ‘Human condition’ is full of what you would call shallowness. Shakespeare is bawdy for an example.

But most of all, these little writings like this blog post reveals to me they know absolutely nothing about business. Business models, maybe. But not business. The last time I checked, video game customers (of any market) are quite Human. Games sell because they tend to strike a nerve within these ‘Humans’.

The true expert in the ‘Human’ condition is not the poet but the salesman, not the philosopher but the marketer, not vaporous platitudes on ‘creativity’ but real, street-smart, financial sense.

How long has this faux ‘Oxford’ style discussion been going on in the “Game Industry”? 5 years? 10 years? 15 years? If the last 5, 10, and 15 years of this approach have not generated any fruit, what makes anyone believe that the next 5, 10, and 15 years will be any different? Perhaps, it is time for a different approach.

What if Frisbee Dog speaks more on the Human condition than the ‘Core games’? Frisbee Dog is, of course, outselling those ‘Core games’. The only assumption that Frisbee Dog is selling so well is because the ‘Expanded Market’ is stupid and like shallow things. What if this is wrong? What if the ‘Expanded Market’ is smarter than even the ‘Core Market’? After all, the Expanded Market is completely immune to traditional marketing. None of the old tricks will work on them.

What if the Expanded Market has a higher standard for quality than the Core Market does? This would explain why these ‘brilliant game developers’ are finding it so hard to sell to the Expanded Market.

The only thing stupid is thinking that customers are stupid.

 



 

Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)

Around the Network

I have fun playing my ps3 :{



i can have fun with serious games :)



gansito said:
i can have fun with serious games :)

Ah but that blogger on gamasutra doesn't want you to talk about fun



 

Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)

Riiiiiiiiiiight. Look, people have fun in many different ways. I, for instance, do not have fun jiggling my hips or punching air or snow boarding in my living room. Millions of people do, millions of people don't. Get over yourselves.



A warrior keeps death on the mind from the moment of their first breath to the moment of their last.



Around the Network

I played LBP with xxain today

We had a great time, full of laughs as our sackboys died & got trapped

so am I allowed to have fun on HD game consoles with hardcore games?



All hail the KING, Andrespetmonkey

^you now want to log in a play.



Someone should make a comic about how frustrating it is to play the wii because the controls hardly work half the time



@xoj

nope sorry, I've got work to do now....exam prep



All hail the KING, Andrespetmonkey

i dont think you guys read the post did you...no just the cartoon