How the Videogame Industry Shot Itself In the Joystick--and Why the Wii Has Stopped the Bleeding

[cAPSLOCK]

I wouldn't say the industry was growing a few years ago, if anything it was stagnant as far as people who play games. I think one major change is that gamers spent a lot more than before on their habit.

Back in ye olden days, the 16 bit war of '92, you were on 1 side of the fence or the other. Why? Because no one had 2 consoles. This is a very, very recent development of people buying 2-3 consoles a generation. The thing is for the most part it wasn't 160 million people buying a console each last generation, it was about 100 million people total. I can't think of a person last generation I know personally who just had an Xbox without a PS2 sitting right next to it.

I'm guilty of this myself as a Wii60 owner who primarily plays PC games.

I will say one thing about the complexity argument: there's a lot of games where there is a different kind of complexity. SSX for the Wii is probably the most complex and difficult game to control this generation, but if you put in the time and effort to learn it you'll realize just how deep the controls are.

Another example was renting Madden for the Wii. For the most part me and 2 of my friends never touch Madden games, but the other guy in our group is one of those buy it every year types. Of course we make him the quarterback. About half way through the 2nd quarter of our first game he declares the controls broken and the Wii version unplayable.

Usually this griping came up when he was blitzed and consequently sacked. By the end of the 3rd quarter we figured out when the heat was on him he'd panic and do the motion wrong. The thing is on any other version of Madden when you feel the pressure you just mash the button like a maniac, and in all his years playing it never occured to him that he did this, he always took himself as a calm guy in the pocket. Sort of in the same sense that you can play shooting games all your life but in real life if you're rushed in all probability you're going to miss a target 5 feet in front of you.

We figured out 2 things that night:

1) The best regular controller Madden sucked at Madden Wii, but one of our guys who was a quarterback throughout high school and some junior college did it perfect every time when we made him quarterback our 2nd play through. Ironically our best player usually hates sports video games.

2) There are a lot of games on the Wii that, if done right, open up an entirely new type of difficulty. Generally speaking if you're bad at a Wii game, we call you Wiitarded, but everyone is Wiitarded at some game. Our good football player also shanks every shot in Super Swing Golf. There's a world of difference between pushing a button and actually having to swing a golf club straight, or remain calm and maintain your form when the blitz is coming.

It has evened the playing field a lot and made games more fun and a lot more social. As much as I love my 360 I also understand that when friends come over it's essentially a paperweight, because no one wants to bother learning a game just to get up to my playing level, it can take hours of days of getting pounded over and over again. By contrast the Wii is played by everyone, including my wife who can kick my ass at bowling, Super Swing Golf, and as a result of her getting into those games ...GEARS OF WAR.

At the end of the day, if you want video games to be a respected and mainstream medium, this is the path it has to take. It's no longer viewed simply as the preferred past time of basement dwelling 10-24 year old virgins calling each other African American homosexual people of the Jewish faith over a mic because they have to real friends to speak of.

It's become an every Sunday party thing at my house, when multiple TVs come over 1 of 2 things happens:
1) Someone brings their Wii and people are swapping controllers, games, and seats constantly
or
2) 2 people are sitting by themselves pretty much totally removed from the social aspect playing games the Xbox until we all go out to eat. It's really hostile to the party environment and kind of an unspoken downer. But it's great for just 2 people or me by myself.

3 years ago 4-8 people getting together every week to play video games would have conjured up an image of frat boys linking up for Halo, fun but exclusive. Today it's people of both genders and a huge age range (our group is ages 19-34). A couple of those hardcore gamers that play with us can actually talk to the girls in our group now instead of just hypothesizing about how they could never get one :O

In the end it's all about fun. Bottom line end of story, when it ceases to be about fun and more about who has the biggest joystick, something essential is lost.