Sorry but I was bored at work, so I chose to write this.

Hi There.

First of all, I must say I was disappointed, not at the content of the press conference, but at the lack of information shown, and the lack of other projects shown. As I thought, I doubted that Nintendo would reach the same amount of  hype as last years press conference which was just super!


I think there should have been a lot more shown on the different games that Nintendo is working on, apparently Day of Crisis is still in the works, and Hammer has been shelved, but not cancelled. It would have been nice if more was shown on Endless Ocean (Forever Blue.)

There seems to be a lot of concern with Nintendo leaving the 'Hardcore gamers'. I can understand why there is this concern, but I think there are many factors involved and I plan to speak about them all in great detail. It has a lot to do with;

• Nintendo and their at times stubborn attitude towards certain trends.
• Misconceptions as to what a casual and core gamer is.
• The industries (third parties, gaming press) treatment of anything Nintendo like.
• Convergence and the illusion of it being a necessity in the industry.
• Artistic Direction versus Technical abilities.

Nintendo, have been around for over 100 years now, they are like a grandfather who has acquired a large amount of wisdom over the years. However, at times they can do some things that end up doing more harm than good. I think they really need to try harder, to have a better relationship with third parties, and increase the quality of their software on Nintendo platforms. I say this because; No one can deny the depth and quality in a Nintendo game. However, these days, third party developers are just flinging ports of PS2 games and adding tacked on motion controls, this is bad quality. Nintendo should also really give out more information on the projects that they are working on (there are many) that would appeal to the core gamer.


So what are core and casual gamers? The industry is a funny thing, it manages to change the meaning of terms each generation, Nintendo has proved to be a disruptive force within the industry, that things are no longer the same, the ripples are being felt in all areas, and things that were the norm are no longer. A few years ago, a casual gamer was some one, who would pick up a Pro Evo, Burnout, Madden, even GTA.( I am not saying that all people who play these games were casuals) He was a male, aged between 18-35 and gaming wasn’t really a major past time. He was more interested in multimedia aspects of his console, than anything else.


The casual would often dismiss the hardcore as being geeks or nerds; they would laugh scornfully at games like Zelda, because they would say it isâ€Â a boy wearing a skirt running with a fairyâ€Â. They saw Mario as childish, yet they may well have had trouble solving one of the simple puzzles. They would skip game cut scenes. They would say immature things like “Ico is gayâ€Â or “Why would I want to play a game like Okami, who wants to play as a dog with a giant paintbrush?â€Â They would salivate over, blood in a game, and gore would be a deciding factor, on whether or not they liked the game, and they would judge a console on everything it can do apart from playing games. Woe to the gaming world! The casuals are now the Hardcore!



Years ago a hardcore gamer, was some one who is most likely, like us. They owned most of the major consoles, used to collect retro games, had an interest in the industry, and would often dig deep into the business aspects as well as the gaming aspects of this industry. They would be entertained by good quality games regardless, of genre, or target demographic, or console format. They appreciated artistic direction over the graphical power being used. So

The title of hardcore has now been taken from us.



Rejoice, we are now the Purists!



The new casuals are people like, my mum, my sister, and my girlfriend, and people who once had an interest in games but no longer do, but will pick up and play once in a while.



This industry needed a shake up; it was in such a pitiful and stupid state. Those of the purists who were following the industry would have realised that it was heading for a crash. There was a danger of all cheap shoddy clones of GTA games, and endless FPS, race simulators or some other generic mish-mashed clone.



I have something to say to a lot of game journalists and players that are moaning about Nintendo’s strategy. YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM! I must also mention third parties and their scummy below standard ps2 ports.



Journalists, a lot of them represent the worst of the gaming industry. They can be foul mouthed whiney mongrels fearful of industry change. I remember last E3 a lot of them were upset because they felt that they had been left out by Nintendo, in favour of the mainstream press. My message to them is this, get over it! Over the last ten years what did they do for Nintendo other than blast them, by creating an anti-family oriented game environment?

They have promoted the image of the 18-35 year old male, sitting playing games, in a lone room, or against faceless opponents from the other side of the world, but never promoting playtime between those closest to you. Swine!! The hour of Judgment has arrived, they either move with the direction the new industry is taking or they will become irrelevant. Score systems based on old game play will not work.



Over the years many game journalists have scoffed at Nintendo, and have not shown some games the respect that they deserve. Even Matt C of IGN recognises this is a problem with his fellow journalists. Let’s face it, if news regarding the wii was left to game journalists, it would have once again been labelled as a kiddie machine. Many journalists slated the DS in favour of the PSP, the same way many slated the Wii in favour of the other two consoles. In the shame of their past errors, they look for any opportunity to trivialise Nintendo’s products and fit it in a negative category. Shame on them. LOL Both Nintendo Machines are top of the charts, I have my own predictions to how this generation will turn out, but I fear many casuals (neo-hardcore) are not able to grasp the meaning of what I will say, so I will remain silent.



So called hardcore gamers, stop it, you must!

Stop listening to analysts, they speak from their unseen orifices! Stop listening to gaming propaganda, of the vengeful game journalists, they are as bad as hateboys. Fanboys are annoying, yes! But at least the motivation behind them is love, hate boys, simply hate a particular company and will try and tear it down; the actions are built on a destructive worthless emotion. Don’t believe the hype, just because you play a Mario game it doesn’t mean you are less of a man than some one who plays Saints Row!



Many third parties believed the hype that Nintendo was soon to be the next Sega, and they lost out on large sales. Now they are trying to make up for it by porting year old games with motion control, Nintendo should really pull the finger out and stress that new content needs to be made, and not except inferior ports.



So does my console having a toaster oven attached, or being able to wipe my butt when I go to the toilet make it a better gaming console than one that doesn’t? No! There is nothing wrong with extra features, but having these features doesn’t make you a hardcore gamer, or make your console, a better games console, it makes it a better multimedia entertainment system or kitchen utensil, or sanitary assistant.



Although I agree that at times certain changes in media need to be made, to increase the quality of a game, and the play experience, for example, cartridge> CD, holding more data. But do not be fooled by convergence I sat a great deal of my student life researching it, and it isn’t always as nice as it first seems.


I will keep this part simple. Technical power doesn’t mean better artistic direction. Shadow of the Colossus, still looks a lot more stunning to me than saints row does. Saints Row is on a technically superior system. (I am not saying that saints row has bad art direction).


So my conclusion is this, Yes Nintendo have left the Neo-Hardcore, but they have not left the Purist. The purist will enjoy lots of games on the wii that are not quirky non games. Some examples are, Metroid, Zelda, Mario Kart, Excite Truck, Final Fantasy Crystal bearers, No more Heroes, Dragon Blade. Disaster and more. The purist will not allow himself to be stuck to a certain genre or style, either, so he will also enjoy some good old fun on a quirky game.

The word family should no longer be confused with ‘kiddie’ and the words adult and mature should no longer be confused with violent or obscene.


Nintendo have a lot more grittier franchises than Pixar does, but does that ever stop us from enjoying a good Pixar flick, because we are adults? I think not.


Nintendo has also chosen to ignore the so called gaming press, realising that a lot of them do not have the companies interest at heart, against mainstream journalists these game journalists, are noticing that nothing they say can stop the disruption of this gaming system. Since the mainstream press are taking Nintendo public.


Nintendo’s (NTDOY) Wii has looked like a winner in the latest round of the gaming console wars. So the pressure was on Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT) at this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (or E3) to prove that their PlayStation3 and Xbox 360 have plenty of fight left. Both companies needed to pull out the big guns.

Yet it was Nintendo that pulled out the biggest gun of all.

businessweek.com