Why Nintendo Won't Grow Up - Wired

Matt Simis

Interesting Bonkey, but I must confess Ive never heard of "ex-onliners" before. Usually the reason we in Ireland get our asses handed back to us Online is our lack of fast Internet connections.

I recently got ISDN to give Online another shot (I know its not Broadband, but the best I can get for now), and let me tell you, its a totally different experience.

I used to play CS near the beginning, but found it boring and moved on. I play BF1942, and found that it doesnt really matter if an individual is good, it really is a team game. Typical CS games are not.

I truely believe the future belongs to massively multiplayer environments, surely if not competive, then COOP RPGs ?

The "kids" argument was not really about profit, it was about the future of good games BTW.



matt

bonkey

Originally posted by Matt Simis
I recently got ISDN to give Online another shot (I know its not Broadband, but the best I can get for now), and let me tell you, its a totally different experience.

No need to tell me. I started with ISDN, moved up to NTL cable during its initial rollout, and have DSL here in Switzerland. I actually dont understand how people can play with pings as high as some I've seen on dialup.

I've only ever experienced online games from a perspective of a connection large enough to handle everything it needed to and then some. Its not enough. Once you get over the initial revelation of how different it is, you may start to see what I'm driving at.

I do not have problems with game performance. I have problems with how the mechanics of online gaming works. On single-player games, I can choose a difficulty level. On multi-player games, I cannot. I have it, and the quality of gameplay, dictated to me by the other players. Thats fine for some people, but not for everyone. And while its not for everyone, then it is, at best, only part of the future.

BF1942, and found that it doesnt really matter if an individual is good, it really is a team game. Typical CS games are not.

And like any team game, you need to train yourself for a certain position, and then hopefully get a good enough mix of ppl to be able to fill your various requirements. It also makes the game even easier to disrupt by muppets who refuse to team-play : they put their own team at a serious disadvantage.

Not only that, but what about the people who dont enjoy team sports? IRL, I've always preferred "solo" sports to team events. Is my fuiture of gaming not going to cater for me? Am I that unique?

I truely believe the future belongs to massively multiplayer environments, surely if not competive, then COOP RPGs ?

You're entitled to your opinion. I, however, would be more of the opinion that there is only a certain percentage of game types which translate successfully into multiplayer, and only a portion of them are going to be suitable for online gaming. To believe that this small core will become the future is kinda flying in the face of your whole beef with Nintendo only focussing on one small area, rather than on the genre as a whole. Surely you should be the one advocating that online is only one aspectg of gaming, and that it shouldnt be the focus or the future for just that reason?

The "kids" argument was not really about profit, it was about the future of good games BTW.

Fair enough....in which case I'd like to know what possible categorisation you can be using that prevents "good" and "for kids" existing in the same game? I would argue the opposite - that if someone isnt focussing on producing kids games like Ninty is, then there is a whole arena of goodness which will be irrevocably missed - much like what will happen if online gaming becomes the future of gaming, and thats all that people focus on. Funnily, you havent put much of a complaint about that one.

Ultimately, it sounds more like a beef that Nintendo arent producing the games you want to play, and that you see online games as your future in gaming.

Homogenisation is not always a good thing - especially when it comes to creativity. Personally I'm delighted that Ninty are going down the path they choose to.

jc

BOP

I think Nintendo should change thier approch to games and move away from the cutsy/childish stuff. I'm playing Mario Sunshine at the moment and altough I really enjoying it I don't give a sh*t about Princess or the poxy island, the same way I dont give a sh*t about Bob the builder. If the plots were more realist and the characters had some sort of personality (a decent anti-hero?) it would improve the experience ten fold. Zelda's a great example, it's cute an' all but atleast you can relate to it in some way. I just want the games to be "cooler".

I fully agree that games like BMX XXX that go for cheap gimmicks (nudity,naughty language,guts flying all over the place) are embarrassingly immature. What kid of sad fools are going to buy BMX XXX, buy a porn vid you idiots:)

Quigs Snr

Mafia won't appear on GC ? Probably not. However, games every bit as kid-unfriendly have appeared such as Resident Evil.

Conkers bad fur day on the 64 was not quite disney either (Although a fantastic game).

Nintendo are the Disney of the gaming world. There are other pretenders who come close and occasionally match them, but none other consistently produces the magic on such a regular basis. Can anyone even name a bad Nintendo developed game ?