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"The 'Lost Ones'"

In the imaginary quagmire that is a games shop, be it SR Upminster, GAME or even the game section at your local Tesco, something is occurring. On simple shelves on a shop floor, a rack full of games proudly display the latest releases for all to see, enticing your money and your love. The big players have brought out their top guns – Mario Sunshine, FIFA 2003, Splinter Cell, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Smackdown 4, and they sit splendidly at the forefront of the shop and your mind, ensuring big profits for the big companies and a comfy home for the big releases. But they are not the only inhabitants of The Shelf – hidden to the far left on the third rack down, behind a half finished McDonalds chocolate milkshake carton, is another game; one that has many virtues, much promise, but will hardly ever get the chance to capture the imagination of the ordinary consumer – they are the ‘Lost Ones’.

The ‘Lost Ones’ are games that never get the publicity – adverts are never devoted to them, they hardly ever grace the front cover of your favourite magazines, yet are games that would be worthwhile additions to any games collection. Whilst copies of better publicised, or more recognised games fly of the shelf, they sit there gathering dust. There are different degrees to this problem – some games get some recognition but never that which it truly deserves, games like the Shenmue series, Jet Force Gemini on the N64, or TIF2003. Other games get hardly any popular recognition at all – games like Rez, or Doshin. Often, they are games that avid gamers like me or you will probably have heard of, but Joe Public, i.e. the regular consumer won’t have because they always gets pushed into the background, and therein lies the shame – each individual may never have heard about a game, but because it is barely mentioned or we don’t get any exposure to it, we miss out.

There are many reasons for this. Christmas. 'Tis the season to be jolly? Not if you’re about to become a ‘Lost One’. Christmas, contrary to what many companies believe, is probably the worst time for games to be developed, unless of course they’re one of the major releases. At Christmas competition is higher than never before – all the big developers bring out their major releases, and with limited money supply (something I know all to well about) of consumers, they are likely only to spend on the big releases. The smaller games that in many cases are probably better than their higher profile counterparts (e.g. Fifa 2003 will probably sell bucketloads more than TIF2003, despite the latter playing a better game), will almost definitely sell less, and therein lies the problem – if developers have a new unheard of game, why release it at Christmas? Whereas the rationale is usually ‘people have more money, they’re more likely to buy it’, that scenario never usually materialises – instead, they just get pushed aside to make way for the big games.

Why do they get pushed aside? No-one’s interested. Why is no-one interested? Because they never get much coverage, and it is down to the fault of the console owners, the inability (due to financial constraints) of the smaller developers to market it effectively, lack of advertising both in magazines, and sometimes the magazines themselves can have an effect in terms of how much coverage they give a game. Take the current Gamecube situation, and for the sake of argument two games, Starfox Adventures and Animal Crossing. One game got 90% and the other 70-odd %. Of these two games, one got the front cover of the magazine, has adverts dotting up around towns and bus stops, and is being forwarded as the premier Gamecube game this Christmas. And that, as you know, is Starfox Adventures, the 70% games. The 90% games, Animal Crossing, doesn’t even have a PAL release. Where’s the logic???

This leads to a ‘vicious circle’ scenario. Games like that will never get the recognition it deserves. It is also important to consider the effect this might have on smaller developers. A small developer ploughing their resources and expertise into a game that will be released at Christmas will probably never realise the potential it could have, either in merit or profit. This could effect their long term future, let alone the short term future of the game in question. This sort of vicious circle scenario is hurting the industry from this perspective, as instead of perhaps getting something new and original, we’re getting the fifteenth FIFA sequel.

So my message to you is next time you’re in a shop or reading a mag, don’t run straight to the games you usually get first, or the ones you’ve heard most about, instead try something different. Look at games you never usually buy – read the back, see what its about, maybe give it a rent. Whether or not a game becomes one of the ‘Lost Ones’ is down to you. Make sure you check the whole shelf rather than the usual suspects at the top or out in front, you never know, there might just find a game you’ll love.

Just be careful not to spill any of that chocolate milkshake.

Thanks for reading

I think that's why so-many games released in Japan, but nowhere else.
To us, and the Americans, many Japan-only Nintendo games are of a unique and different style that has yet to be taken-to by the public outside of Asia, and therefore they fear these games will not succeed elsewhere.
Games like Doshin, Animal Crossing, and a few others. But they really are worth the money you pay, if you are willing to spend-time on them that is.

I like trying new things, and that is why I got Doshin - and I enjoyed it.
I also had the same experience with Pikmin - a brilliant game from the Strategy genre. Usually I wouldn't touch a strategy game!

What I don't see sense in though is why Pro Evo 2 - the on-line compatible Konami footie sim - is being released on the GameCube in Japan ONLY!
What do they know about footy that we don't??
Surely we Europeans love football as a nation much-more than any other??

So what if they hosted the World Cup this year?? We love football for the beautifll game it is. Where-as they're all high-tech and futuristic, unlike us. That's just like selling it to the Baseball and Basketball loving USA-only, and not us.

Re-reading LTR for about the 9th time at the moment.....

It just gets better and better.

Also probably, seriously, on eof the scariest books I have read. Think about some of the things........

Very similar to a topic I made about the same thing RM18, but a very good opinion and some great games mentioned.

:)

I think Starfox Adventures deserves the hype - it's a fantastic game.

As for the point in hand, I think it's a real shame that things like this happen. Games like The Sims, get hyped up so much, when really they're quite poor. Then classics such as Roller Coaster Tycoon get shoved to the side, despite the fact it's such an amazing game.

And it's not just games, either. I'll bet you a bucket load of cinema tickets that xXx makes more than Donnie Darko - a far superior film. It happens with books too. It's a sad fact that Harry Potter's going to sell more than, say, Artemis Fowl or many others that have real imagination.

Fantastic post, RM18 :D. Let's see it turn gold, eh?

I really should start to read LOTR again. At least read the second book before the second films hits here!

I wouldn't mind reading the books though, seeing as a good fantasy novel, aimed at kids or not, will always be enjoyable for me. Won't hold a candle to LOTR though.

I haven't read any books for ages, so I'm starting to collect all 28 Discworld books! I've only read 4 or 5 of them so far, can't remember though.

I've read the Harry Potter books, and seen the second film *shudder....*

But I've never bought into the whol fan thing. Its ridiculous. And Harry is supposedly growing up at the same time as me (I am the same 'age' as him and everything........)

Yep, I've never read a Harry Potter book or bought any merchindise :D

But I do love Pokemon, and I had a tamagotchi when I was 7 or 8.

Indeed. Products like that and Pokemon, and say, the new Harry Potter Brand(its now totaly a brand, not just a good few books, sadly) are incredibly well focused and targeted images/brands.

You take in every ad, but you only act (usualy, not always) on the ones targeted on you. Thats what would happen in an advertisers ideal world. Except sometimes we try and resisit/don't really care.......

Oh yeah, I agree totally.

But the last thing I bought was Die Hard: Vendetta, and before that I don't think I've bought anything (bar GC games) for months!

I don't own any crap games, so crap game ads (like Ty) haven't been working on me :D


But if you want a good example of advertising, what about Tamagotchis?

*shudders*