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Videogames have had a pretty rough time ever since their conception in the early 80s. Like Marmite, it seemed you either loved them or hated them. Since Mario appeared, running across screens in and out of pipes, it seems that you either wanted to play a console or wanted to smash one.
Looking back, you can’t blame them really. The Mario Vs Sonic wars did indeed seem a little idiotic – who’s your favourite, a 40 year-old plumber or a blue hedgehog? The gamers went crazy for it and everyone else just thought we were all a bunch of geeks.
And to some extent we were. The simplistic nature of most of the games back then (nearly all platformers) were no reason to get all excited about. So why did we play them all so much and with such passion? The non-gaming community couldn’t understand that, so we were labelled geeks and losers playing on low-power machines, with simple games with bright graphics.
With the advent of PC gaming a new genre was born. Strategy games such as Command and Conquer or DUNE were far too complex for most non-gamers to understand and so they mocked us for our stupid kiddie consoles, and hated the PC Gamers with their way-too-complex strategy games and drop-down menus.
But then the world went into 3D. The SEGA Saturn arrived with crude Polygonal games and crappy FMV. It seemed to be the horrible spawn of Kiddie consoles and nerdy PC Gaming – the public hated it and it flopped. We hated it because it had no good games. It seemed as if Gaming was going downhill, until of course everything changed.
Sony arrived on the scene with the PlayStation. All of a sudden the hardcore SEGA fans were lost in a sea of nothingness – their console had gone. Nintys sat and twiddled their thumbs while Nintendo got to grips with things. The Public, who hated the Mario Vs Sonic wars and kiddie systems, sat up and took interest. This console had something that the others didn’t have. It was pulling Videogaming out of the nerdy cesspit and making it reasonably cool. Suddenly thousands of casual gamers flooded the scene and the market was filled with terrible PlayStation games. The Nintendo64 came out and suddenly the Nintys had a new lease of life again, despite being hated by the shallow PlayStation owners. Dreamcast appeared but by then all the casual gamers had forgotten who SEGA were and all the hardcore gamers who could remember had already given up hope.
It seemed as if Videogaming had taken a new direction and whether you were an avid gamer or a casual one, it was either good or bad. Many people missed the SEGA – Nintendo wars and when SEGA pulled out of the console industry many blamed and hated Sony for it. The market was left with Sony and Nintendo…Nintendo were trying their hardest and did a damn fine job, but Sony had the public behind them and the result was inevitable.
It seemed Sony was unstoppable but then the market was slowing down. Production of games on both consoles slowed as both companies were designing their next-gen stuff. The Sony punters got bored while Nintys waited patiently. The PlayStation 2 came out. It sold well but didn’t have the impact Sony was hoping. The console had some serious flaws and the casual gamers were losing interest. Microsoft announced plans but nobody really got excited about it, it seemed as if the market was not going anywhere. The general public started to see gaming as nerdy again.
All three consoles are now released but the public doesn’t seem to care. Maybe at last they have accepted the pastime, or are they just ignoring it? Shigeru Miyamoto himself has voiced concerns that the industry just isn’t going anywhere and people are getting bored. The hardcore gamers are shaking their heads and wondering where it went wrong.
We can’t go back to the kiddie platformers, nor can we return to the complexity of PC Games. What we need is an influx of deadly simple, yet downright fun games and the only one I’ve seen so far is Super Monkey Ball.
All we need is to get the public to pick up a pad and get them to play a game that they’ll understand, will be able to play and enjoy without having to ask “What does X do” and “What do I do here?” All the time.
The way forward is to simplify and go back to basics. We don’t want people to buy consoles just because they’ve got a DVD player or can surf the internet, we want them to buy consoles because they want to play games.
Looking back, you can’t blame them really. The Mario Vs Sonic wars did indeed seem a little idiotic – who’s your favourite, a 40 year-old plumber or a blue hedgehog? The gamers went crazy for it and everyone else just thought we were all a bunch of geeks.
And to some extent we were. The simplistic nature of most of the games back then (nearly all platformers) were no reason to get all excited about. So why did we play them all so much and with such passion? The non-gaming community couldn’t understand that, so we were labelled geeks and losers playing on low-power machines, with simple games with bright graphics.
With the advent of PC gaming a new genre was born. Strategy games such as Command and Conquer or DUNE were far too complex for most non-gamers to understand and so they mocked us for our stupid kiddie consoles, and hated the PC Gamers with their way-too-complex strategy games and drop-down menus.
But then the world went into 3D. The SEGA Saturn arrived with crude Polygonal games and crappy FMV. It seemed to be the horrible spawn of Kiddie consoles and nerdy PC Gaming – the public hated it and it flopped. We hated it because it had no good games. It seemed as if Gaming was going downhill, until of course everything changed.
Sony arrived on the scene with the PlayStation. All of a sudden the hardcore SEGA fans were lost in a sea of nothingness – their console had gone. Nintys sat and twiddled their thumbs while Nintendo got to grips with things. The Public, who hated the Mario Vs Sonic wars and kiddie systems, sat up and took interest. This console had something that the others didn’t have. It was pulling Videogaming out of the nerdy cesspit and making it reasonably cool. Suddenly thousands of casual gamers flooded the scene and the market was filled with terrible PlayStation games. The Nintendo64 came out and suddenly the Nintys had a new lease of life again, despite being hated by the shallow PlayStation owners. Dreamcast appeared but by then all the casual gamers had forgotten who SEGA were and all the hardcore gamers who could remember had already given up hope.
It seemed as if Videogaming had taken a new direction and whether you were an avid gamer or a casual one, it was either good or bad. Many people missed the SEGA – Nintendo wars and when SEGA pulled out of the console industry many blamed and hated Sony for it. The market was left with Sony and Nintendo…Nintendo were trying their hardest and did a damn fine job, but Sony had the public behind them and the result was inevitable.
It seemed Sony was unstoppable but then the market was slowing down. Production of games on both consoles slowed as both companies were designing their next-gen stuff. The Sony punters got bored while Nintys waited patiently. The PlayStation 2 came out. It sold well but didn’t have the impact Sony was hoping. The console had some serious flaws and the casual gamers were losing interest. Microsoft announced plans but nobody really got excited about it, it seemed as if the market was not going anywhere. The general public started to see gaming as nerdy again.
All three consoles are now released but the public doesn’t seem to care. Maybe at last they have accepted the pastime, or are they just ignoring it? Shigeru Miyamoto himself has voiced concerns that the industry just isn’t going anywhere and people are getting bored. The hardcore gamers are shaking their heads and wondering where it went wrong.
We can’t go back to the kiddie platformers, nor can we return to the complexity of PC Games. What we need is an influx of deadly simple, yet downright fun games and the only one I’ve seen so far is Super Monkey Ball.
All we need is to get the public to pick up a pad and get them to play a game that they’ll understand, will be able to play and enjoy without having to ask “What does X do” and “What do I do here?” All the time.
The way forward is to simplify and go back to basics. We don’t want people to buy consoles just because they’ve got a DVD player or can surf the internet, we want them to buy consoles because they want to play games.
So you're saying that to entice new punters we need to release games on DVD format from now on? Well all the three consoles are on DVDs now. But still I'm thinking that to get people to accept videogames and get into them we need to 'break them in' to the videogame world. That means simple games which can't be mocked because of the sound or graphics, but are really fun to play.
But the DVD comes as standard becuasde it has to due to all the X-BOX games running on DVD Roms so it was easy to program DVD's to play on it. The console designing companies are the ones responsible for the DVD players and modems, Microsoft's X-Box is a develpoers dream, when a comapany like Sega or Codemasters designs a game for it the DVD drive is irrelavant until it is time to writing the data and programming it to DVD Rom, the hard-ware is there for our pleasure only and developers do not even need yo use it, with games on DVD Roms the quality is 100% better and we can enjoy next-generation gaming!
Some valid points but the general public aren't going to get into videogames just on those reasons. If they want to play a DVD then they'll buy a DVD player. I don't think they'll even consider online play until they've discovered offline play. I'm not saying your points are bad, but I'm thinking on how gaming could become a more well-known and enjoyed market.
Think about it, gaming online is great and having a DVD player in your bedroom is great too, if someone came up to you and said here you go a SNEZ, designed for games and games only, you would turn round and say 'NO'! The way forward is the next best thing.
Let me explain this the only reason why the play DVD's is becuase they are equiped with DVD players, games now run on DVD Roms so the DVD comes as standard and does not require a lot of progarmming to set, up. The way on is the internet and without it you wouldn't be posting things on here, so why should consoles miss out? On-line gaming is great fun and there are some great console games that will never appear on PC that would be great to play on-line so I have to disagree with you here.
Let me explain this the only reason why the play DVD's is becuase they are equiped with DVD players, games now run on DVD Roms so the DVD comes as standard and does not require a lot of progarmming to set, up. The way on is the internet and without it you wouldn't be posting things on here, so why should consoles miss out? On-line gaming is great fun and there are some great console games that will never appear on PC that would be great to play on-line so I have to disagree with you here.
Videogames have had a pretty rough time ever since their conception in the early 80s. Like Marmite, it seemed you either loved them or hated them. Since Mario appeared, running across screens in and out of pipes, it seems that you either wanted to play a console or wanted to smash one.
Looking back, you can’t blame them really. The Mario Vs Sonic wars did indeed seem a little idiotic – who’s your favourite, a 40 year-old plumber or a blue hedgehog? The gamers went crazy for it and everyone else just thought we were all a bunch of geeks.
And to some extent we were. The simplistic nature of most of the games back then (nearly all platformers) were no reason to get all excited about. So why did we play them all so much and with such passion? The non-gaming community couldn’t understand that, so we were labelled geeks and losers playing on low-power machines, with simple games with bright graphics.
With the advent of PC gaming a new genre was born. Strategy games such as Command and Conquer or DUNE were far too complex for most non-gamers to understand and so they mocked us for our stupid kiddie consoles, and hated the PC Gamers with their way-too-complex strategy games and drop-down menus.
But then the world went into 3D. The SEGA Saturn arrived with crude Polygonal games and crappy FMV. It seemed to be the horrible spawn of Kiddie consoles and nerdy PC Gaming – the public hated it and it flopped. We hated it because it had no good games. It seemed as if Gaming was going downhill, until of course everything changed.
Sony arrived on the scene with the PlayStation. All of a sudden the hardcore SEGA fans were lost in a sea of nothingness – their console had gone. Nintys sat and twiddled their thumbs while Nintendo got to grips with things. The Public, who hated the Mario Vs Sonic wars and kiddie systems, sat up and took interest. This console had something that the others didn’t have. It was pulling Videogaming out of the nerdy cesspit and making it reasonably cool. Suddenly thousands of casual gamers flooded the scene and the market was filled with terrible PlayStation games. The Nintendo64 came out and suddenly the Nintys had a new lease of life again, despite being hated by the shallow PlayStation owners. Dreamcast appeared but by then all the casual gamers had forgotten who SEGA were and all the hardcore gamers who could remember had already given up hope.
It seemed as if Videogaming had taken a new direction and whether you were an avid gamer or a casual one, it was either good or bad. Many people missed the SEGA – Nintendo wars and when SEGA pulled out of the console industry many blamed and hated Sony for it. The market was left with Sony and Nintendo…Nintendo were trying their hardest and did a damn fine job, but Sony had the public behind them and the result was inevitable.
It seemed Sony was unstoppable but then the market was slowing down. Production of games on both consoles slowed as both companies were designing their next-gen stuff. The Sony punters got bored while Nintys waited patiently. The PlayStation 2 came out. It sold well but didn’t have the impact Sony was hoping. The console had some serious flaws and the casual gamers were losing interest. Microsoft announced plans but nobody really got excited about it, it seemed as if the market was not going anywhere. The general public started to see gaming as nerdy again.
All three consoles are now released but the public doesn’t seem to care. Maybe at last they have accepted the pastime, or are they just ignoring it? Shigeru Miyamoto himself has voiced concerns that the industry just isn’t going anywhere and people are getting bored. The hardcore gamers are shaking their heads and wondering where it went wrong.
We can’t go back to the kiddie platformers, nor can we return to the complexity of PC Games. What we need is an influx of deadly simple, yet downright fun games and the only one I’ve seen so far is Super Monkey Ball.
All we need is to get the public to pick up a pad and get them to play a game that they’ll understand, will be able to play and enjoy without having to ask “What does X do” and “What do I do here?” All the time.
The way forward is to simplify and go back to basics. We don’t want people to buy consoles just because they’ve got a DVD player or can surf the internet, we want them to buy consoles because they want to play games.
Looking back, you can’t blame them really. The Mario Vs Sonic wars did indeed seem a little idiotic – who’s your favourite, a 40 year-old plumber or a blue hedgehog? The gamers went crazy for it and everyone else just thought we were all a bunch of geeks.
And to some extent we were. The simplistic nature of most of the games back then (nearly all platformers) were no reason to get all excited about. So why did we play them all so much and with such passion? The non-gaming community couldn’t understand that, so we were labelled geeks and losers playing on low-power machines, with simple games with bright graphics.
With the advent of PC gaming a new genre was born. Strategy games such as Command and Conquer or DUNE were far too complex for most non-gamers to understand and so they mocked us for our stupid kiddie consoles, and hated the PC Gamers with their way-too-complex strategy games and drop-down menus.
But then the world went into 3D. The SEGA Saturn arrived with crude Polygonal games and crappy FMV. It seemed to be the horrible spawn of Kiddie consoles and nerdy PC Gaming – the public hated it and it flopped. We hated it because it had no good games. It seemed as if Gaming was going downhill, until of course everything changed.
Sony arrived on the scene with the PlayStation. All of a sudden the hardcore SEGA fans were lost in a sea of nothingness – their console had gone. Nintys sat and twiddled their thumbs while Nintendo got to grips with things. The Public, who hated the Mario Vs Sonic wars and kiddie systems, sat up and took interest. This console had something that the others didn’t have. It was pulling Videogaming out of the nerdy cesspit and making it reasonably cool. Suddenly thousands of casual gamers flooded the scene and the market was filled with terrible PlayStation games. The Nintendo64 came out and suddenly the Nintys had a new lease of life again, despite being hated by the shallow PlayStation owners. Dreamcast appeared but by then all the casual gamers had forgotten who SEGA were and all the hardcore gamers who could remember had already given up hope.
It seemed as if Videogaming had taken a new direction and whether you were an avid gamer or a casual one, it was either good or bad. Many people missed the SEGA – Nintendo wars and when SEGA pulled out of the console industry many blamed and hated Sony for it. The market was left with Sony and Nintendo…Nintendo were trying their hardest and did a damn fine job, but Sony had the public behind them and the result was inevitable.
It seemed Sony was unstoppable but then the market was slowing down. Production of games on both consoles slowed as both companies were designing their next-gen stuff. The Sony punters got bored while Nintys waited patiently. The PlayStation 2 came out. It sold well but didn’t have the impact Sony was hoping. The console had some serious flaws and the casual gamers were losing interest. Microsoft announced plans but nobody really got excited about it, it seemed as if the market was not going anywhere. The general public started to see gaming as nerdy again.
All three consoles are now released but the public doesn’t seem to care. Maybe at last they have accepted the pastime, or are they just ignoring it? Shigeru Miyamoto himself has voiced concerns that the industry just isn’t going anywhere and people are getting bored. The hardcore gamers are shaking their heads and wondering where it went wrong.
We can’t go back to the kiddie platformers, nor can we return to the complexity of PC Games. What we need is an influx of deadly simple, yet downright fun games and the only one I’ve seen so far is Super Monkey Ball.
All we need is to get the public to pick up a pad and get them to play a game that they’ll understand, will be able to play and enjoy without having to ask “What does X do” and “What do I do here?” All the time.
The way forward is to simplify and go back to basics. We don’t want people to buy consoles just because they’ve got a DVD player or can surf the internet, we want them to buy consoles because they want to play games.