| Grampy said: Oh you were perfectly clear, and still are. I didn't fail to understand, I simply do not accept the whole idea that some consoles and/or the people who prefer them are more or less "grown-up" or more or less “clown-like” than any other. Especially because, not to put too fine a point on it, you are judging these games based to a large extent on their amount of violent content. |
Okay, I still think the mistake is on me, as you are deriving things from my analogy that I didn't mean to present.
And I never said that the audience of a console was more clown-like or grown-up than the audience of another console, I referred to the consoles themselves in my analogy, the Wii being the pattern-breaker, so to speak. You can replace those two terms with say "Blue" and "Green" if you like, it doesn't change what I am trying to say. My point is that there is a clear distinction between the audience of the Wii and that of the PS360. You pointed out this difference in your original post:
| Grampy said: "We decided that Nintendo was going to take another route - game expansion," says Iwata, seated on the edge of a leather chair, leaning over green tea in a three-piece suit, a strip of gray emerging along the part in his thick hair. He has an easy command of English but speaks through an interpreter. "We are not competing against Sony or Microsoft. We are battling the indifference of people who have no interest in videogames." |
I maybe wrong here, but isn't Iwata himself saying here, that Nintendo is not competing for the same demographic as Sony and Microsoft are?
| Grampy said: I do not, and never have accepted a fascination of violent games as a sign of maturity; almost the opposite. The combat veteran’s I know including two Green Berets and one from Delta, if they play such games at all prefer RTS to FPS. Just like the fact that I detest GTA because of the years I have spent documenting real urban violence. You only have to see and smell a few real acts of violence to lose your taste for it. |
I think you are mostly right here, but I can't be bothered to fight over details. Also, I don't like GTA and never have.
| Grampy said: Do I feel childish to play MK Wii? Not fricking way and as far as I concerned, you’re missing just as much by not being able to play MK as I am by not being able to play MGS. The fact that two platforms happen to share a lot more software in common doesn’t make them a gold standard. Does the fact that GM and Ford make near clones make them superior to BMW who makes…BMWs. |
Perhaps instead of saying "grown-ups" and "clowns", I should have said "hardcore gamers" and "everyone". You make a fair point in saying that you are not childish because you play MK Wii, and I 100% agree. But I will ask you this, do you feel childish because you are watching a clown entertain? I certainly don't, but there is a huge difference between going to the circus and watching, say "The Matrix" in the cinema.
If one console provides more of one experience than other experiences, why is it wrong to see it in that light? I'm not saying "clown" is the right term to use here, right now I am regretting using that as it seems to have sidetracked this quite a bit. Instead go with the notion that the majority of games on the Wii are accesible to everyone.
The PS360 certainly doesn't have a library where the majority of games are accesible to everyone. This is because the demographics for these two consoles are not "everyone". They are aiming at the hardcore gamers.
A 7 year old child would most likely love going to the circus, but after watching "The Matrix" for two minutes, they would be bored out of their minds. Where as someone who is "hardcore", could easily like both.
| Grampy said: But slice it and dice it and explain it and clarify it any way you want, there was, whether you recognize it or not, a clear underlying assumption that we are the true brethren, the insiders, and the Wii is an interloper, the outsider that needs to shape up and be more like the PS360 to be taken seriously. This I categorically reject, and sales would indicate that I am not alone at this. |
And I was infact pointing towards the exact opposite of this. I said I liked what the PS360 offered better than I liked what the Wii had to offer me. I only concluded that the Wii has changed the market in such a drastic way, that a majority of the hardcore gamers haven't been able to accept for some time.
About being taken seriously though, that is a whole other story, which has nothing to do with the Wii it self, but with Nintendo and their games. Again I will refer to Nintendos E3 2008 presentation, where Nintendo made total fools of themselves (if you ask most of the hardcore gamers), but Miyamoto himself even said that Wii Music was more like a toy than actual game (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=193611 in case that was necessary). All this while the hardcore crowd was screaming for hardcore games coming from Nintendo.
What I am trying to say is that, I have full respect for the Wii and Nintendo in what they do. The Wii is a fine gaming console, and Nintendo can make good games. But instead of trying to please a minority (hardcore gamers), Nintendo are trying to please a majority (as many people they possibly can), and this direction has led Nintendo to do and release things that a minority of gamers are certainly not happy about.
I think this is the reason for why the people who have been shunning the Wii, are/were so much against it. Which is what I said in the first place.
