Legend11 said:
I think the mainstream media is just playing into the new craze of casual gamers, I mean it wasn't Super Mario Galaxy or Super Smash Brothers Brawl or Halo 3 or Killzone 2 that is getting all the attention, it's Wii Fit. A game that makes a person ask (well it makes me ask anyways) what kinds of new gamers it's going to attract and what will keep them "gaming" when the novelty of Wii Fit and the WiiBoard is over and they grow bored of the game. Will those "gamers" (many likely females middle aged and otherwise that go after the latest fitness craze) stick with the system and buy other games that take advantage of the WiiBoard like a skateboarding or surfing title when the novelty of Wii Fit wears off? I really can't see it.
Something about this entire casual gamer crazy has been bothering me and I could never figure out what it was and it's finally come to me, history is actually repeating itself. When I was very young my parents bought an Atari 2600 and my entire family played it because it was a new experience. Eventually though my mother and stepfather grew bored of the system and that was the end of their gaming for awhile, my siblings and I though continued to get new games and use it.
Then years later my mom picked up a NES with the light gun and duck hunt / super mario brothers and my mom and stepfather were fascinated with the light gun and with duck hunt / super mario brothers and we'd all play it and have competitions. They eventually got bored of it, stopped gaming, and it was my siblings and I left yet again with the system and buying games for it.
Now it's the time of the Wii with it's motion sensing Wiimote that is fascinating the non-gaming moms, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, etc (and likely mine this Christmas when they get one) and the WiiBoard that is doing the same with a subset of those non-gamers. Now I have to ask, what is going to keep their attention (say my mother and stepfather) for the long haul this time around where the original Atari 2600 and NES light gun /super mario brothers/duckhunt failed? I can't help but think eventually when the novelty of these things wear off they'll become bored yet again and the videogame system of the day will be abandoned just like the previous two times. Only this time it might be a lot worse because many videogame companies changing over to get in on the attention and noise being generated by the casual gamers will be left holding the bag with casual games and the audience for them gone.
Anyways sorry for the long post but that's just what I think is going to happen. Please understand that I'm not trying to bash the Wii or anything, if I was it would mean I was bashing the NES which was one of my favorite systems ever, I'm just letting out what I think is going to happen. The casual gamers will eventually abandon us yet again. |
It's interesting you should have this viewpoint, because Sony and Microsoft are losing tons of money and probably won't make a net profit over the lifespan of the 360 or the PS3 now. It's traditional gaming that's struggling, not mass market gaming. Nintendo makes billions, Sony and Microsoft lose billions, and you apparently believe this adds up to Nintendo losing out? That's not how the market works. This is another variation on the "Wii is a fad" claims that have gone on since the system's rise. First it was going to die in February, then March (The Storm IS coming!) then June, and yet it keeps going, and going, and selling, and selling, with more games announced and more third party games selling. It isn't losing steam at all.
Now, the only way to call the Wii a fad is to claim that somewhere in the distant future -- a time when none of us can accurately predict -- the Wii will die. Clearly, for the forseeable future, the Wii is going to dominate: so I guess the only defense now is that in the unforseeable future, way down the line where none of us can make accurate predictions, it will die.
