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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

Its an even scarier thing. Most people are stubborn, whether conciously or not, such as you, but in my Media we did a little test on how advertising affects you - such as in your perception of yuorself, with or without a product etc. Its terrifying how much the ads/products affect your personal feelings.

We all want games, and feel perhaps sadder when we can't have them, don't we? Why? Because of the ideal the advertsing is selling to you. I try not to be a sucker for adverts, but most of the time, you can't help it - it is implanted in your mind, and will either appeal to you or not, depending on who you are.

Cyclone wrote:
> Probably.
>
> Its a scary thought though.
>
> Thats say, 2/3000 products rammed into your subconscius.

Thankfully I'm so stubbon in things I will and won't buy it doens't affect me!

:D

Probably.

Its a scary thought though.

Thats say, 2/3000 products rammed into your subconscius.

Drunk Cow wrote:
> RM18 wrote:
> That's the point I made. Starfox is being shoved down our throats
> when
> its, to quote Tiltawhirl "a pile of toss", when a
> certifiable classic like Animal Crossing doesn't even have a PAL
> release?!?
>
> Hahaha, I can't believe that.You guys should really import AC it's
> great. You could play almost all the original SNES games on AC. In
> America that game has had lots of advertisings though.

I have done! Just waiting for it to arrive...

*twiddles thumbs inpatiently*

I think they had that many in Die Another Day alone...

:D

RM18 wrote:
> That's the point I made. Starfox is being shoved down our throats when
> its, to quote Tiltawhirl "a pile of toss", when a
> certifiable classic like Animal Crossing doesn't even have a PAL
> release?!?

Hahaha, I can't believe that.You guys should really import AC it's great. You could play almost all the original SNES games on AC. In America that game has had lots of advertisings though.

I concur.

Advertising, Drunk Cow, is always forced upon us, whatever it sells.

We apparently see 6,000 advertising images a day.

That's the point I made. Starfox is being shoved down our throats when its, to quote Tiltawhirl "a pile of toss", when a certifiable classic like Animal Crossing doesn't even have a PAL release?!?

Sad thing is that they advertise so much for Star Fox and it really wasn't that good. Advertising is just a trick to get us to buy games.:-|

I saw a Starfox poster (or 5) in my local Warner Brothers. Along with Reign of Fire and the LOTR game.

I loved Rush 2049, but very few others seemed to. Shame.