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Forums - Gaming - In our current culture of gaming, does quality matter

 

Is popular appeal more important than quality for critical acclaim in our industry?

Obviously. 30 41.10%
 
Perhaps 21 28.77%
 
Unlikely. 8 10.96%
 
Definitely Not. 13 17.81%
 
Total:72
Skullwaker said:
It doesn't matter to the masses. If it's not perceived as cool, people won't play it.


Sorta this. Quality matters for critical acclaim, but critics can howl all night long about how well-made a game is and yet a majority of gamers will skip over it because it doesn't interest them for some reason. Same thing with animated movies, many will skip over such things on principle of them being for kids or whatever. Splatoon won't sell Wii-Us, but might garner plenty of critical acclaim (as Nintendo games are wont to do). Same with Tearaway Unfolded and Drawn to Death, these are games that might get the critics' attention but will not sell systems.

Well, Splatoon and Tearaway could theoretically sell systems with enough smart advertising behind them. Theoretically.



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Define "quality" ... 

"Quality" was ALWAYS defined by the masses in hindsight. Critics however never ONCE defined what is a quality product and what isn't. 

After all, isn't a $60 price tag while consumers are buying the game in droves are enough to show that it IS a quality product ? 



nintendo isn't doing well so no



It better matter. Quality over quantity any day of the week.



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Uh, Mario Kart and Smash are cartoony cutesy games and won plenty of awards recently.

Quality matters.



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Skullwaker said:
It doesn't matter to the masses. If it's not perceived as cool, people won't play it. They would rather buy mediocre games that give them a better reputation.


This man gets it



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Mystro-Sama said:
Teeqoz said:

What ifs. A bunch of what ifs.

OT, no, not to any big degree. But does that matter? No, because this won't ever happen. In the end, nothing really matters, does it. This isn't just for Nintendo games though. There are plenty of cartoony games that get discarded because they are for kids. Stop making it sound like the whole world is against Nintendo, I've seen people imply that far too many times.


Yea, Puppeteer and Tearaway suffered the same fate. But no, the whole world is out to get Nintendo.


Nintendo certainly gets hit badly because of the same 'perception' effects but a number of Nontendo games also get it. In every case its disturbing. You've got a very nice demonstration and an important one.  Tearaway is close to what I hope for in terms of Splatoon's quality and is a very relevant example of the phenomena (and an already proven example of a console having a great game which should sell systems fail to - ironically the Vita being a Nontendo example of 'The Nintendo Problem' in that regard, frankly until I found out the Little King Story for Vita was a minimally updated remake I was nearly sold on getting one though).

 

So yeah.... that insight of yours kinda gave me an 'oh shit' moment!



Journey dethroned BorderLands, Mass Effect, Halo in 2012, so if it's groundbreaking, it will matter.



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Skullwaker said:
It doesn't matter to the masses. If it's not perceived as cool, people won't play it. They would rather buy mediocre games that give them a better reputation.

Examples are CoD, Destiny, and AC... The last games in the following series are full of bugs, glitches, and all feel rushed... but yet the masses shell out massive amounts of money just because they are "cool" to have and they want to be down... It really sucks because they have no idea how much they are short changing themselves...



Teeqoz said:
Twilord said:
Teeqoz said:

What ifs. A bunch of what ifs.

OT, no, not to any big degree. But does that matter? No, because this won't ever happen. In the end, nothing really matters, does it. This isn't just for Nintendo games though. There are plenty of cartoony games that get discarded because they are for kids. Stop making it sound like the whole world is against Nintendo, I've seen people imply that far too many times.


Actually my experience is Nintendo fans using it to point out why we're superior rather than the world being against Nintendo. - A concept I made a point to deflate in my first post. 

 

Also holy shit you've got some Wind-Waker ending levels of nihilism in your post. Call me egotistical but I'm gonna argue it does matter because I am a designer and my education has been entirely dedicated to specializing me in video games who comes up with ideas that wouldn't be too far from Splatoon in style. Thus if a potentially mind blowing experience does get passed over (assuming it proves mind blowing) by the masses, especially one that seem like the type of ideas I come up with, you can beat my sweet ass it matters.

(assuming it proves mind blowing)

There's the "what if" again. Now, forgive my doubt, but I doubt you will make something so mindblowingly good that everyone would enjoy it if they tried, I also doubt Splatoon will be that amazing. I doubt any game ever will be that amazing.

My point was, this scenario doesn't matter because it'll never happen.

...but would it matter to the masses if a cartoony game on a Nintendo console....

There it is, "On a Nintendo Console". But this problem occurs on every console.

As I stated in my first post, cartoonish games, with a few exceptions such as Mario, and LBP, and Minecraft as you said (not carttonish, but very much 'cutesy') don't go mainstream. However, that migth be because there are very few AAA cartoonish games. Nearly all cartoonish/cutesy games are indie games, not AAA, and indie games rarely go mainstream, they might get a cult following, but will almost never sell in the millions (again, there are exceptions).

 

If you're developing an indie game, you should try to get a deal with one of the big three (it is possible!). I don't know about MS and Nintendo, but Sony has this pub fund where they'll pay you a certain price, in exchange for exclusivity or timed exclusivity. They'll also help you to make it easier with various fees and stuff.

 

Finally, one more time, Splatoon will never go mainstream, regardless of how good it is. The same can be said about plenty of other games. If that's all you wanted to here, there's your answer.


Cool, nice read. Personally I'm planning to go with Wii-U for my first console project (primarily working on an Android project right now) - the fanbase has shown that indies are mostly immune to the 'third party stigma' on the console and I figure there is room for lower budget titles to cash in on "experimental gaming" on a console which, honestly, feels like it was designed for awesome experimentation and then kinda forgot about it for a while.

 

Also last I checked, free licensing.