The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
As I lay in bed last night having played Ikaruga some time earlier, I thought about why quality games like that aren’t seen in the all-formats charts. Then I remembered that in general, the games buying public is stupid.
There is no finer an example than Enter the Matrix.
Some say it’s great, some say it’s crap, but no matter your opinion, the game is currently flying off the shelves and will sit proudly atop the charts for some considerable time no doubt.
But the common consensus is that the game is poor (I don’t know about you, but no reviews available before launch smelt pretty fishy to me), so why is it number 1? Hype and the gullibility of blinded mass-market zealots are the number one suspects.
I’m looking forward to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines as I’m a big fan of the series and of the Austrian Oak himself, but will I buy the game if it looks crap? No, no I won’t. So why so many people are buying a crap game baffles me.
-“But it’s the Matrix, you can do kung fu.” Never heard of Street Fighter or its modern successors?
-“There’s two cool characters whose levels intertwine with the film.” So, two uninteresting characters adding depth to a highly overrated film, big deal.
-“You can do hacking.” So, buy a crummy flat and a load of computer equipment and try the real thing.
-“It’s fun.” So is Zelda: The Wind Waker, so is Ico, so is Rez. They are fun beyond belief, but did they sell shed load of copies? Nope.
-“It’s cool.” The killer line. What does “cool” have to do with the quality of the game? Absolutely nothing, it’s the thing most people are influenced by. It’s definitely *not* cool. In fact, it’s so bad I’d call it uncool.
In the end, the mass buying of a poor product like Enter the Matrix will ruin the games industry. Think of it; you have enough money for one game. You browse the shelves and see two games: Enter the Matrix and SOS: The Final Escape on PS2.
Which do you choose, the hyped up film conversion that relies on the movie to influence geeky zealots, or a highly original, though pretty much unheard of title?
It seems the majority like their healthy dose of mass-market mediocrity and are willing to ignore little gaming gems.
The problem with this is money. Eventually, smaller games companies *will* go out of business because of this sort of ignorant buying. It has already happened with a number of veteran games companies, and will happen more and more when people favour games like Enter the Matrix over better, more original games. Just by the fact that Nintendo, undoubtedly the greatest developer, is struggling proves that the majority of gamers don’t favour great games but mass-market rubbish instead.
The success of Enter the Matrix will also prove that instead of spending time and huge effort in creating an amazing piece of software, games companies can just get a movie license and churn out a poor rushed game to coincide with the film’s release and that will sell due to the name of the movie alone. This will happen more and more leading to plenty more mediocrity instead of well-made titles.
At the end of the day, you’re not just going to ruin the games industry for yourselves, but you’ll ruin it for me too, someone who doesn’t buy into the hype of your Enter the Matrix, FIFA or Lord of the Rings cash-ins, someone who favours SOS: The Final Escape over generic shallow crap pumped out for healthy profit. But that’s the way the games industry will go.
I can just imagine the games industry in 5 years time, with the charts filled up with crap sequels and movie tie-ins, and no Nintendo or other sparks of flair or originality to be seen, still, if that’s the way you want it. In 5 years time when you realise the poor state of the industry, just remember that it was the success of Enter the Matrix that planted the seeds of mediocrity and that whoever was foolish enough to buy it was partly responsible.
*slow hand clap for blinded zealots*
Enjoy playing Enter the Matrix, and enjoy the downward spiral in quality it represents.
There is no finer an example than Enter the Matrix.
Some say it’s great, some say it’s crap, but no matter your opinion, the game is currently flying off the shelves and will sit proudly atop the charts for some considerable time no doubt.
But the common consensus is that the game is poor (I don’t know about you, but no reviews available before launch smelt pretty fishy to me), so why is it number 1? Hype and the gullibility of blinded mass-market zealots are the number one suspects.
I’m looking forward to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines as I’m a big fan of the series and of the Austrian Oak himself, but will I buy the game if it looks crap? No, no I won’t. So why so many people are buying a crap game baffles me.
-“But it’s the Matrix, you can do kung fu.” Never heard of Street Fighter or its modern successors?
-“There’s two cool characters whose levels intertwine with the film.” So, two uninteresting characters adding depth to a highly overrated film, big deal.
-“You can do hacking.” So, buy a crummy flat and a load of computer equipment and try the real thing.
-“It’s fun.” So is Zelda: The Wind Waker, so is Ico, so is Rez. They are fun beyond belief, but did they sell shed load of copies? Nope.
-“It’s cool.” The killer line. What does “cool” have to do with the quality of the game? Absolutely nothing, it’s the thing most people are influenced by. It’s definitely *not* cool. In fact, it’s so bad I’d call it uncool.
In the end, the mass buying of a poor product like Enter the Matrix will ruin the games industry. Think of it; you have enough money for one game. You browse the shelves and see two games: Enter the Matrix and SOS: The Final Escape on PS2.
Which do you choose, the hyped up film conversion that relies on the movie to influence geeky zealots, or a highly original, though pretty much unheard of title?
It seems the majority like their healthy dose of mass-market mediocrity and are willing to ignore little gaming gems.
The problem with this is money. Eventually, smaller games companies *will* go out of business because of this sort of ignorant buying. It has already happened with a number of veteran games companies, and will happen more and more when people favour games like Enter the Matrix over better, more original games. Just by the fact that Nintendo, undoubtedly the greatest developer, is struggling proves that the majority of gamers don’t favour great games but mass-market rubbish instead.
The success of Enter the Matrix will also prove that instead of spending time and huge effort in creating an amazing piece of software, games companies can just get a movie license and churn out a poor rushed game to coincide with the film’s release and that will sell due to the name of the movie alone. This will happen more and more leading to plenty more mediocrity instead of well-made titles.
At the end of the day, you’re not just going to ruin the games industry for yourselves, but you’ll ruin it for me too, someone who doesn’t buy into the hype of your Enter the Matrix, FIFA or Lord of the Rings cash-ins, someone who favours SOS: The Final Escape over generic shallow crap pumped out for healthy profit. But that’s the way the games industry will go.
I can just imagine the games industry in 5 years time, with the charts filled up with crap sequels and movie tie-ins, and no Nintendo or other sparks of flair or originality to be seen, still, if that’s the way you want it. In 5 years time when you realise the poor state of the industry, just remember that it was the success of Enter the Matrix that planted the seeds of mediocrity and that whoever was foolish enough to buy it was partly responsible.
*slow hand clap for blinded zealots*
Enjoy playing Enter the Matrix, and enjoy the downward spiral in quality it represents.
Page:
Memorandum wrote:
> That's what I was trying to argue with the chemical bloke about, games
> are judged too much on appearance, name and reputation, and not enough
> on quality.
^ that was replying to Totoro's post, although it kind of applies to the end of Snuggly's.
> That's what I was trying to argue with the chemical bloke about, games
> are judged too much on appearance, name and reputation, and not enough
> on quality.
^ that was replying to Totoro's post, although it kind of applies to the end of Snuggly's.
That's what I was trying to argue with the chemical bloke about, games are judged too much on appearance, name and reputation, and not enough on quality.
Any company that releases a niche game on the same day as a release with the stature of Enter The Matrix deserves to go out of business, it's bad business - sad, but true.
I do agree with some of your points in the original post, I just object to be called a 'blind zealot' because I choose to buy and enjoy games which aren't to your liking. Besides, the games that are really, REALLY terrible never sell as much as games like ETM did. Games like FIFA etc. sell by the bucketloads because *shock* some people actually like them. Companies like 3DO, who released about 800 appaling Army Men games, are the ones that go under, deservedly so in my opinion. See also Rage, who spent millions on the David Beckham licence but went under because the game was unfeasibly crap. Its sales figures were laughable. Their good games, like Rocky 2, Lamborghini and Team SAS, will be bought by someone else and released.
I buy games for the game, not the label on the box.
I do agree with some of your points in the original post, I just object to be called a 'blind zealot' because I choose to buy and enjoy games which aren't to your liking. Besides, the games that are really, REALLY terrible never sell as much as games like ETM did. Games like FIFA etc. sell by the bucketloads because *shock* some people actually like them. Companies like 3DO, who released about 800 appaling Army Men games, are the ones that go under, deservedly so in my opinion. See also Rage, who spent millions on the David Beckham licence but went under because the game was unfeasibly crap. Its sales figures were laughable. Their good games, like Rocky 2, Lamborghini and Team SAS, will be bought by someone else and released.
I buy games for the game, not the label on the box.
Totoro wrote:
> I wrote the original topic very early this morning as I was forced up
> at an ungodly hour due to forces beyond my control,
Morning sickness?
:D
> I wrote the original topic very early this morning as I was forced up
> at an ungodly hour due to forces beyond my control,
Morning sickness?
:D
BTW, apologies for calling people “foolish” for buying Enter the Matrix. After all, everyone has their own choices and opinions, some love the game, some don’t, it’s down to opinions, so that may have been wrong, but that’s what I think about the mass-market nature of gaming. It’s not a “hardcore” or “casual” gaming thing, as I’m neither of them and never want to be, but how a poor title gains success is really doesn’t deserve when many better games don’t get said success is the thing that bothered me about EtM.
I wrote the original topic very early this morning as I was forced up at an ungodly hour due to forces beyond my control, and the sweltering heat make me kind of crazy :S
I wrote the original topic very early this morning as I was forced up at an ungodly hour due to forces beyond my control, and the sweltering heat make me kind of crazy :S
Mr Snuggly wrote:
> But sure, by buying the Matrix game, I'm 'planting the seeds of doom'
> that will eventually destroy quality gamesplaying for everyone.
Well look at it from a publishers point of view.
You may have a publisher who has released an amazing game, though on the very same day you have Enter the Matrix released.
Amazing game doesn't sell because Enter the Matrix gets all the business due to the movie hype.
As a result, publisher of amazing game loses piles of cash and either goes out of business, or follows the lead set by the success of Enter the Matrix and instead of publishing amazing/original games, publishes cack-handed cahs-ins instead.
Thus leading to the death of great games and the rise of consumer-friendly titles over a long period of time (as you've seen with the declining success of Nintendo, this is already happening).
It feels like that scaremongering Smallpox documentary that was on BBC2, but with games, all doom and gloom. But hey, if the games buying public bucks up their ideas then maybe there will be a future in this crazy video game hobby.
> But sure, by buying the Matrix game, I'm 'planting the seeds of doom'
> that will eventually destroy quality gamesplaying for everyone.
Well look at it from a publishers point of view.
You may have a publisher who has released an amazing game, though on the very same day you have Enter the Matrix released.
Amazing game doesn't sell because Enter the Matrix gets all the business due to the movie hype.
As a result, publisher of amazing game loses piles of cash and either goes out of business, or follows the lead set by the success of Enter the Matrix and instead of publishing amazing/original games, publishes cack-handed cahs-ins instead.
Thus leading to the death of great games and the rise of consumer-friendly titles over a long period of time (as you've seen with the declining success of Nintendo, this is already happening).
It feels like that scaremongering Smallpox documentary that was on BBC2, but with games, all doom and gloom. But hey, if the games buying public bucks up their ideas then maybe there will be a future in this crazy video game hobby.
I haven't played it, so I can't comment. And I didn't.
Enter The MAtrix is good, not amazing.
A fun game :-D
A fun game :-D
I still find it amusing that this guy thinks I'm a 'blinded zealot' because I enjoyed Enter the Matrix. Obviously I will be the downfall of the games industry.
I agree with almost everything Chemical said. I also own all three system on a PC, buy games on all formats and enjoy them regularly. Yet strangely enough, every time I dare to make a comment that doesn't follow the status quo thinking of some of the spack-faced goons on some forums here (I don't like Zelda, Metroid etc.) then I'm surrounded and attacked by screaming tards like the Agent Smiths fight scene in Matrix Reloaded.
And I hate the term 'casual gamer'. Sure in the past I've bought FIFA, Tony Hawk and other games that *shock horror* dare to have sequels and yes, it's very rare I spend longer than an hour playing games at any one sitting. But I've spent well over £3,000 on videogames equipment in the past, read more games magazines than anyone else on the planet, visit games websites dailya and write about videogames professionally for 45 hours a week. I have also owned games like Ico, Rez, Guilty Gear, Parappa the Rapper, Vib Ribbon and a hundred other so called 'hardcore' games. Am I still a casual gamer?
But sure, by buying the Matrix game, I'm 'planting the seeds of doom' that will eventually destroy quality gamesplaying for everyone.
*slaps wrist*
I agree with almost everything Chemical said. I also own all three system on a PC, buy games on all formats and enjoy them regularly. Yet strangely enough, every time I dare to make a comment that doesn't follow the status quo thinking of some of the spack-faced goons on some forums here (I don't like Zelda, Metroid etc.) then I'm surrounded and attacked by screaming tards like the Agent Smiths fight scene in Matrix Reloaded.
And I hate the term 'casual gamer'. Sure in the past I've bought FIFA, Tony Hawk and other games that *shock horror* dare to have sequels and yes, it's very rare I spend longer than an hour playing games at any one sitting. But I've spent well over £3,000 on videogames equipment in the past, read more games magazines than anyone else on the planet, visit games websites dailya and write about videogames professionally for 45 hours a week. I have also owned games like Ico, Rez, Guilty Gear, Parappa the Rapper, Vib Ribbon and a hundred other so called 'hardcore' games. Am I still a casual gamer?
But sure, by buying the Matrix game, I'm 'planting the seeds of doom' that will eventually destroy quality gamesplaying for everyone.
*slaps wrist*
Terminator 3 both film and game will be rubbish
Page: