windbane said:
I did not say the controller wasn't influential, but the controller's design sucked. A tripod grip was stupid, it didn't have a good analog stick, and the button configuration wasn't the best. Also, when has rumble ever been a good game feature? Very rarely. But that's just me. Sony was the first company to have 2 analog sticks. The Dual Shock design is still one of the best ever. "The DualShock controller was given an Emmy Award for "Peripheral Development and Technological Impact of Video Game Controllers" by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on January 8, 2007." ................. Indeed, online gaming means internet, not LAN. I'm pretty sure direct links were done for a long time but not many people gathered a bunch of consoles and TVs together to play with each other until Halo on the Xbox. Which leads me to my quick recap: Dreamcast was the first to include a modem with the system, PS2 was the next to include online gaming on a decent scale, the XBox 1 greatly expanded the online console market with Halo 2 (mainly), and the PS3 and Xbox 360 continue to expand it. If you think that market wasn't there before, then why did so many people play online games on the PC? Battle.net alone is probably still larger than xbox live, but the console market is growing and Nintendo has yet to be a part of it. *sigh*. No one liked loading times, but it was a consequence of improved games and having more space for FF and MGS. A lot of people preferred sports games on the N64 and GC because of load times. The load times have significantly improved on the PS3 because of the included hard drive. Well, I've heard the load times for the 360 aren't fantastic because developers can count on everyone having a hard drive. Motorstorm could be faster on the PS3 but for some reason Sony did not include an install option to the hard drive. Anyway, every other game has had great load times that I've played. The console itself only takes a little over 10 seconds to start up. Saying Sony has set the bar low for system design is just ridiculous and shows your vendetta against Sony. If anything their bar was set too high with the inclusion of blu-ray. Wireless, blu-ray, nice size hard drive (again, for quick load times), 7 SPES in addition to the main CPU, HDMI 1.3 (which not even the 360 Elite supports months after the PS3 launch), everything inside the box (unlike 360's power brick and optional wireless connector), bluetooth support for any keyboards, mice, and webcams, and so far very few hardware problems. I'd say that is FANTASTIC system design. |
We'll be going 'round and 'round with this.
Anything played on a network of connected systems is ONLINE PLAY. PERIOD.
Now I CLARIFIED the distinction by saying Networked INTERPLAY between INDIVIDUALS. THAT'S what's going on now. LAN uses Internet. How else are you receiving the signals? Magic?
Now that I've showed you you clarified YOUR statement by saying Dreamcast was first to INCLUDE modem in system. But you SAW that Nintendo had done modem long ago. DECADES ago like I said.
I didn't say the market wasn't there. It's been here on computers forever decades back. What IS is that the market wasn't viable enough until RECENTLY. Those XBox numbers showed that. Reverie clarified it for you. And if PC was such a big deal in shaping industry there would be no consoles. PC DOES have some influence on gaming world but PC, the high-end side of it anyway, is niche and will always be as such. Else you'd be seeing more companies making games for them since the money would be there. They have their place but everything in PC world doesn't necessarily affect console world.
Load times necessity. FMV's man. That's all it was about. FMV's. Sony brought their movie background into it when they joined this business and the industry was heading more to a Cinematic era as Sean Malstrom laid out in this Theory of Cycles article.
First of all the fact that we're still talking about load times today is a bit BS. That issue should've been solved by 10 years time. 10 years later and we're STILL talking about this mess? Why not fog effects of the 5th gen era? And all the technical limitations of that time? The fact of the matter is these other competitors are not as committed to the quality of this experience as old school game companies are. They've got their own designs for this business and it serves as a bargaining chip or a side venture for each of the monoliths. That's why we have to put up with beta, gamma, delta systems to correct the mass flaws of original launch systems. Sure one or two off the line will always foul up. That's natural human error but as a rule stuff breaking down? That's frankly Bull Shoots. PS1 & especially PS2 lowered the bar, man. I'm glad they've brought back some durability to PS3. Haven't heard any malfunctions out of that system yet. But they lowered the bar no doubt about it. That's why gamers expect faulty systems at launch. It didn't use to be this way. When I went to buy my Wii I expected a well-functioning system out the box and haven't been disappointed yet. Yes I have one with original "thin" strap.
Now as for your controller comments. Dual Shock is just most popular because of Playstation's dominance. All it is is a souped up and redoubled SNES controller with N64 elements. The ONE thing I give them credit for is putting the rumble within instead of adding a separate pack. So they refined N64's controller. But without SNES or N64 there wouldn't even BE a Dual Shock. That is a straight rip off of Nintendo's designs but everybody does that. It's expected. They are the standard makers. Sega & 3rd party control makers refined N64's grips fusing middle and left into one solid grip but N64 is daddy that produced all these sons.
Two analog sticks? How about NO working analog sticks before N64 made it happen. Sony wasn't gonna do it. Sega wasn't gonna do it; they were still trying to redouble NES & SNES controller design. After Nintendo dropped this bomb Sony scrambled to catch them put out Dual Analog then Nintendo slipped that Rumble Pak on 'em and Sony once again scrambled to make the 1st Dual Shock. Leader and Follower. Industry foundation and industry highrise. Highrises can't exist without a foundation to rest on. Gravity and all that.
Here it is.
•Nintendo changed everything with the NES Standard. Controller rested in palms & fingers of hands, left thumb hovering atop control pad, right thumb hovering atop action buttons, alternative buttons for secondary/tertiary functions. This root standard stood for 23 years before Nintendo changed it again into Wii. All designs were rooted on this basic outlook first. The Atari Joystick standard and Intellivision "calculator" standard were done away with when the Famicom came on the scene. Sega switched from an Atari like control to NES like control in Master System. NEC TG-16/PC Engine followed suit similarly.
•Nintendo evolved the NES Standard with NES Max alternate controller bringing in for first time controller grips & ergonomic contours. Then evolved it some more with the SNES Standard. Everything like the basic NES standard but ALSO NOW with index fingers hovering around left & right shoulder triggers, action button layout set in a diamond shaped layout, furthering contour evolution. Ah and one more...color coded buttons of red, green, blue, and yellow. Sega was stubborn and stuck to their redoubled version of original NES Standards (A + B and NOW C!) and then RE-redoubled it to match SNES buttons with A,B,C,X,Y,Z. They would eventually succumb to Nintendo's hardline when they added shoulder triggers to Saturn and later abandoned their rebellion when they added color coded diamond layout to Dreamcast. Who's your daddy? Industry followed Nintendo either directly copying from source or indirectly by copying Sega's style of NES standard. Sony worked with Nintendo on Playstation so it's no surprise why that control came out like it did. And they TOO used color coding though not effectively. Check out the color of those shapes on the PS action buttons. And like Sega all Sony did was double up what Nintendo did. Two L's & Two R's.
•Nintendo evolved NES/SNES Standards further with N64 Standard. Adding in first truly viable analog stick with combination digital and analog play on one controller, adding in undertriggers like Z button and adding in camera buttons in famous SNES diamond layout, even more ergonomic grips, button size differentials, and controller bays. XBox's controller is nothing but Dreamcast's controller beyond. Sega towed Nintendo's line with Dreamcast controller. Dreamcast's L & R triggers were undertriggers on shoulder. XBox 360 uses undertriggers on ITS shoulders. Sony towed Nintendo's line and just doubled or refined everything with Dual Analog and Dual Shock.
•Gamecube only made a refined summary of all of Nintendo's standards so it didn't seemingly make as much of an impact at first but they evolved the camera buttons into a camera stick and had both analog sticks on different levels of each other. Right stick low. Left stick high. XBox & XBox 360 followed this Gamecube Standard. They furthered button size differentials making giant A, small B, bean shaped X's & Y's. Took a page out of Sega's book and made analog triggers (Sega no doubt being inspired by analog stick). THEN came Wavebird alternate control and Gamecube ushered in the fully functioning & reliable wireless controllers to finish off the Gamecube standard. The others got in line and put together their own wireless controls for upcoming 7th gen which they weren't doing before Nintendo made it viable. Leader and Followers.
•Now we're at the Wii standard which basically throws out Nintendo's old evolutions of the NES Standard. Sony smelled what the Wii was cookin' and put out Sixaxis. Only got it half right but it shows Leader and Follower once again. Still hanging on to Nintendo's old old standards not changing that Dual Shock design makes it not work and will make them old hat as Wii's potential realizes. XBox 360 even put together a power off button on 360 controller reflecting Wii's off button on the remote. Leader and Follower everytime. They will eventually follow Nintendo's Wii standard in time or rebel for awhile like Sega only to get pulled in like they all eventually do.
See why I say Nintendo IS this industry?
John Lucas
Words from the Official VGChartz Idiot
WE ARE THE NATION...OF DOMINATION!
