Erik Aston said:
That's a pretty terrible interview excerpt. Kaigler is combative and interrupting. She leads the interviewer into making her point, but its not a good point.
The core isn't satisfied because there aren't many traditional, content-oriented games that rank among the best on the console, or decidedly better than past gens. If you look at past "winning" consoles, they all have 8 or 10 different traditional, content-oriented series that are the biggest sales drivers, and were considered to be "game changers" or "bar raisers". The core wants to experience content, while most of the top games on Wii are oriented around a social experience, or starting with Wii Fit, a practical purpose.
Just list out all the traditional, content-oriented series which were considered to be "raising the bar" when they came out.
NES had:
1. Mario
2. Zelda
3. Metroid
4. Mega-Man
5. Final Fantasy
6. Dragon Quest
SNES had:
1. Mario
2. Zelda
3. Metroid
4. Final Fantasy
5. Dragon Quest
6. Donkey Kong Country
7. Street Fighter
8. Star Fox
9. Mario Kart
PS1 had:
1. Gran Turismo
2. Final Fantasy
3. Crash Bandicoot
4. Tekken
5. Resident Evil
6. Tomb Raider
7. Metal Gear Solid
8. Tony Hawk
PS2 had:
1. Grand Theft Auto
2. Gran Turismo
3. Final Fantasy
4. Need for Speed
5. Metal Gear Solid
6. Kingdom Hearts
7. Medal of Honor
8. Ratchet and Clank
9. EA Sports
And on Wii? It has plenty of the old "raising the bar" type franchises. But some of them, like Metroid, Animal Crossing and Zelda, Nintendo failed to raise the bar this time. Some, like the EA Sports games, Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, are either totally collapsing, or utilizing the HD systems to raise the bar, and leaving Wii with leftovers. The full list of traditional, content-oriented games which have been received by the core as "raising the bar" on Wii is:
1. Mario
2. Mario Kart
3. Smash Bros.
The "moving goalposts" comes from frustration and disappointment with Nintendo. Some look to the old franchises to up the ante for the first time in a decade. Some look to all-new franchises to be treated with reverence, instead of just to round out the lineup. Some give up on Nintendo and turn to third parties.
Personally, I'm entirely satisfied with Wii. But I had one foot out the door before Wii showed up. If you look at the PS2's list up there, other than GTA, none of the games are as big a game changer as many of the games on the first three lists. It was becoming harder to raise the bar with content-oriented games, and HD may be the last chance to do so. But I've really enjoyed social-oriented games like Rock Band and Wii Sports, and so a balance of those with Galaxy and Brawl has been perfect for me.
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