Hello Malstrom,

I’m a bit surprised you bothered acknowledging those crazy Metroid (or really Sakamoto?) fans. Sounded like they had enough to freak out and pop a vein over already. Anyway correct me if I’m wrong, but would you agree that the fans who are all about the narrative are really just low on imagination? Like, they can’t handle the ambiguity of the magical world of video games and must have some sort of logic or excuse to rationalize it?

I’ve always liked making up ridiculous explanations as to why certain things happen in video games. How can Bowser keep coming back despite falling into lava (maybe he uses one-ups too)? How come all the old men in caves in Hyrule look the same (maybe it’s the style of the times)? Why does Dracula hide pot roasts in his walls (maybe he… well, I don’t know)? How can these narratologists possibly enjoy having all the questions demystified? The only reason I can think of is that they don’t enjoy the mystery at all.

I think these are the people who desire sequels to stories that don’t need them, who hate a film that ends without a clear resolution, as if you need the writer to hold you by the hand and explain everything for you. They need to be told what Samus is feeling, because they can’t imagine themselves walking around Planet Zebes. Maybe she’s scared, or frustrated, or totally pumped? But Sakamoto explains it for us that surely, because she’s a woman, she must be feeling girly thoughts of babies and boyfriends. The beauty of “Samus” was that you only saw armor; no face, no dialogue, it might as well be you in that suit. Remember way back when Metroid was new and people didn’t know it was a girl under there? Did it make a difference who she was? You had to be good at the game to even find out it was a woman. You could have played the whole game through, done decently enough, finished, and never learned her identity. Really, when it comes down to it, Samus is the suit. The woman inside is just a bonus. The fans of the narrative and Sakamoto himself seem distracted like an employee who keeps drooling over a female co-worker and is wasting both their time by hitting on her. They really ought to just be getting back to work, killing space pirates and metroids.

I feel sorry for these fans because what they really want is either to have a relationship with Samus or some kind of movie or book about a girl in space who has maternal feelings, and they’re stuck with a video game. I feel worse for the real fans who want a video game about aliens and missile-shooting armor and we’re stuck with cutscenes. Make no mistake, I like Samus as a character, but I don’t need people telling me who she is or what she’s thinking.

PS: In regards to that email about hype, I’d say Mario 5 was really good about it, as it was introduced and released within a matter of months. Just enough time to become aware and save up the money if you don’t have it, but not so long that you forget or get frustrated. The fact that we saw a complete game in action at E3 and months later had it in our hands seems unreal today.

I bolded the above. The thing is that these fans do not remember playing Metroid and not knowing who Samus was. They are young and may not have even been born then. Remember, if you played NES Metroid when it was brand new and understood it all, you have to be at least 30 years old now. You’re a fuddy duddy!

What is animating them is Game God worship. If Sakamoto says Metroid was a certain way, then that is the way how it was. A Game God cannot be disputed.

I posted that exchange with the Metroid fans for this main purpose: to reveal that younger fans shout down the older fans. For example, if I say of Zelda: “Why are there so many puzzles in Zelda? Zelda is not about puzzles. It was Link being a swordsman. Let us get back to that.” That comment, itself, was “shouted down” on many forums if I make it or anyone else makes it. So the older fan either thinks, “Gee, gaming is not for me anymore,” and does something else or thinks things have changed in gaming and that what he wants does not deserve to exist anymore. This is exactly how fans of 2d Mario felt.

Through the 90s and 2000s, gaming has really gotten off track. Perhaps a big issue of this is that the people who stopped gaming never articulated their disinterest. And the reason why they didn’t articulate their disinterest is because they kept being shouted down by the more die hard fans.

You know this Mario in 3d thing? It just isn’t the same as Super Mario Brothers. I don’t like it.

“Who are YOU to say? Shigeru Miyamoto is a GENIUS! A GENIUS!”

So what we get is a parade of praise for the game. If you have noticed, there is a trend in gaming where games keep getting higher rated yet their sales keep going down (despite their higher ratings). It is as if games are given a “Game God Curve” where if a game comes from a Game God, it gets ten points higher than usual.

And there are other reasons to not like the ‘Game God’ route. The “Game God” himself may like the attention and get a very big head to actually believe he IS a genius! Have you ever worked with a genius? They are horrible to work with! It is because they think they are right in everything! So the games that start to come from someone who thinks they are genius ends up being ‘terrible’. And worse, we have many people, who have no business in games, rushing to join the ‘Game Industry’ so they too can become a ‘Game God’. Is this the most strangest thing you have ever seen!?

The young are very vulnerable to “Game God” type worship. Perhaps it is a feature of youth as we all need heroes.

I think the hubbub over Other M is funny, but isn’t some of it an example of the power of imagination that you keep talking about? True, none of the early really have what you could call a story, but people see to imagine that they do. I think it’s because the little surprise twists are so surprising that they stick with people and grow in their memories.

The thing is, though, that doing anything to expand on those moments ruins everything that made them special in the first place. More story will just make more noise. It’s like what Tolkien said about Lord of The Rings: “Part of the attraction of the L.R. is, I think due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist. To go there is to destroy the magic, unless new unattainable vistas are again revealed.”

Man, it’s depressing thinking about how the Iwata Asks interview that will no doubt come about from Other M will not include Gunpei Yokoi. Not that I think he’s some kind of gaming god. He did, after all, make the Virtual Boy. It’s just that there will surely be a big chunk of the story missing.

You’re right about the power of imagination. This is why many companies put out trailers for their games well in advance. They get the imagination running and hype, hype, hype to pre-sell it. Then the unfortunate gamer goes home and discovers the game is a dud.

One of the big problems with Metroid: Other M is that it all exists in the imagination; no gameplay footage has been shown. We really don’t know how the game will play. So many people are thinking Other M will be Super Metroid 2. If they think this, they will become very disappointed.

This is one reason why I keep highlighting those Sakamoto quotes. Whatever is coming from Other M, it sure as hell won’t be Super Metroid 2. It is going to be different.

Sean,

Okay, let me tell you something for a moment here, Mr. Malstrom.

Making an article about bashing three Metroid games is one thing, but taking low blows at the fans who disagree with your arguements is really childish.

It will not accomplish anything and you’ll only be acknowledged as a pretentious hypocrite, who wants nothing more than receive absolute agreement.

I don’t care how much point you have in your article, because taking lowshots at people has already drew me away. If your rationality about the situation is this awful, how can I be sure that the rest of your articles are not the same? Atleast when Yahtzee does it, he did it in tongue-in-cheek and the fanboys were obviously overreacting.

That’s why I request you to erase that article, for it has serves nothing good for to you or anyone else. That is ofcourse, if you still have enough rationality to be recognised as a decent human being.

When you put anything on the Internet, from a message forum to a blog to comment on a website, it is considered public and is fair game in the public arena. Remember, someone emailed me the link to that forum thread with the title: “The Metroid fans have spoken…” as if I should shut up because there is a message forum thread disagreeing with me.

One of the things I have been astonished by this website is how often people tell me what I can or cannot put on my own website. It is pretty easy to make a website these days. Blogs are very easy to make. Anyone can do it. But I find it fascinating how people tell me what I should put onto the website as well as tell me to take things off.

Just to let you all know that I am the boss of my own website, I am going to post some flamingos. You cannot stop the flamingos. So here they are:

I have more of a confrontational type of personality. This isn’t the type of gaming website where we all hold hands and sing praises about the ‘community’ while posting pictures of cakes with video game characters on them. What type of response do you expect when people publicly post about punching someone? That’s not very nice.

And, let me say, those are glorious flamingos. I should post pictures of animals more often!

Everyone is soon going to be laughing at this just as they laugh at “Wii is a fad”. So I hope more people keep posting about “Wii HD” and keep posting stories bases off of stories who are based off of other stories based off of a story where Miyamto said (not a direct quote) that Nintendo has new hardware in development.

The more interesting question is when has Nintendo NOT had new hardware in development? 1981? 1980? No, because Nintendo was making toys so you had to go back even further. Someone should look this up. The time when Nintendo was not working on new hardware had to have been before they shifted to toys. This had to have been in the 70s sometime. It had to have been before the Love Tester.

I hope we keep hearing more stories about ‘Wii HD’. The story is beginning to jump the shark.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?s=2da3e3704dec630426aa3ae8456e24cd&t=387241

I dunno. Look at all the people loving day one DLC or loving that the industry is trying to shut down the second hand market.

Most likely. Regular gamers do not go around glorifying DLC and how we all need to buy it to support the ‘developers’. How stupid do they think we are? Developers are not making games in garages anymore. NeoGAF is a high priority for viral marketers to target because of the traffic and due to how many developers look at the forum.

Industry 2.0 keeps falling back on the “We got to support the developers” line whenever they try to ram something anti-consumer such as game consoles that cost half a grand to raising the price of games to DRM and now to DLC. The Industry is very consistent with their faux support of developers for a very good reason.

Industry 1.0 died with Atari. The original gaming crash didn’t occur because of the customers or because of disinterest in gaming. It was the Industry that destroyed the consoles due to their unquenchable greed. They were so greedy, they cheated the developers and wouldn’t even put their names on the box or in the credits (as well as paying them very little). Developers began to bolt. Activision came into existence because of those developers leaving.

The seeds of Industry 2.0 began not too long after. What makes Industry 2.0 very different from Industry 1.0 is that Industry 2.0 has wrapped itself around the developers. “We want to make you rich,” they whisper sweetly into the developer’s ear. And who doesn’t want to become rich? “Look at the money the guys at Infinity Ward are making. That could be you. If only you worked a little harder…” And many developers have become rich. But the Industry 2.0, like a leech, has grown with it. So long as they keep developers ignorant about the ways of business, the developers end up serving the Industry by default. “We know the ways of business. Give us your heart, give us your soul, and you will make money.” Should a developer wise up and go off to make his own business structure, the Industry tells the other developers, “That guy is insane. He will be sleeping in the street very soon.” Industry 2.0 wants games to have massive costs, even at the risk of losing profit, because that ensures developers remain dependent on the Industry.

Companies like Electronic Arts got their start by enshrining the developers. The box of M.U.L.E., for example, is a very famous example of this. The seeds of Industry 2.0 began to sprout during the 16-bit generation. Ever since the 8-bit generation, the Industry 2.0 didn’t like Nintendo because Nintendo could not be manipulated due to how strong their first party software is (and yes, Nintendo did charge very high royalty rates. But then again, Nintendo saw it as their market). The very young Industry 2.0 favored Sega during the 16-bit war mostly because Sega was not Nintendo. But Sega wanted to become like Nintendo. When Sony jumped into the console market, the Industry 2.0 supported Sony very strongly. Sony wasn’t an integrated software and hardware developer like the former arcade companies of Nintendo and Sega. Sony could be manipulated. Both Sega and Nintendo fans will remember how there seemed to be less and less ‘third party’ games for their systems. The Dreamcast, while a great console, was frozen out entirely by the Industry. And Sega, as a console maker, died.

Sony was getting too big for its britches. The Industry began complaining. When Microsoft entered the market, many treated Microsoft as a savior to an extent. But the Industry has been playing Sony against Microsoft and vice versa for quite some time now. While the Industry is singing and laughing, billions and billions of dollars have been lost from Sony and Microsoft just on making some amusement products called game consoles.

Now that we know that analysts’ public statements (which are not part of their jobs) are not genuine beliefs in the future but hollow words to promote the Industry narrative, the predictions of Nintendo’s demise were actually desires from the Industry. Nintendo was OK for handhelds, but they wanted Nintendo gone from consoles.

When the Wii rocketed up like a farg out of Hell, the Industry thought they missed a big pot of money and jumped on the Wii to make games for ‘casuals’. But the ‘casuals’, who are stupid gamers, were apparently not fooled by the Industry. Their casual games never resonated with the Expanded Market. This is why they are currently looking to the iPhone and other areas to put out their ‘casual games’. They will fail there too. Good riddance to the ‘casual games’.

The big problem for Industry 2.0 is that it cannot sell to the Expanded Market. Another problem is that Industry 2.0 is unwilling to lower its costs for games since that would allow developers to leave and start their own independent studios.

Industry 2.0 is disintegrating before our eyes. They are trapped on the Titanic called “Core Gaming” and are unable to get off. Companies like EA are trying to swim, but they are having great difficulty.

What is going to be the death knell for Industry 2.0 is when developers realize they can, and should, get business savvy and overthrow their Industry chains. Developers very much admire and want to be like this guy:

Industry 2.0 encourages this. They would love their developers to make games that sell as Miyamoto does. Rather, developers need to learn from this guy:

He proves that the worlds of game development and game business can be joined. Not everyone is right to take control of a business. People have different abilities. But surely these Industry minions can be replaced with people who love games and people who make games.

When you approach a cage with a singing bird in it, your instinct is to open the cage and let the bird fly out. Why? It is because the bird’s feathers are too bright to be locked inside a cage. I get the same sense when I see all these developers stuck in the Industry cage. You wish to turn the key to open the cage of the Industry. Why? It is because their feathers are too bright.

Hi Sean,

This is just so hilarious: http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/02/09/news-FFXIII-Producers-Say-Game-Will-Use-Phoenix-Down-On-Japanese-Game-Industry.aspx

Yes! An epic HD game is exactly what Japan needed! We only had 200-300 of those so far, it’s this one that we were all waiting for!

Hilarious indeed!

While some people read the Sunday funnies, I read what video game analysts say. What we should do is whenever an analyst speaks, we should make a comic strip with the analyst’s quote in it. Do these people realize everyone is laughing at them?