Email: Red Steel 2

Sean,

I’ve followed your blog posts for the last few weeks and despite your paranoia that everyone against you is a viral marketter, I do find many of the points you present to make perfect sense.  Listening to you talk about arcade gameplay, new generation games utilizing motion plus, and games without narrative, I wanted to ask you for your thoughts on Red Steel 2.

If you’ve been following the game, then you know that it’s more of a first-person brawler than a traditional shooter.  You use motion plus to slice and dice enemies in an almost Devil May Cry like fashion.  When I first imagined paying Wii, this is the type of game that was in my imagination.  It’s the type of game that you can only play with motion controls.  Do you think this game will do well, or do you have concerns about its graphical style or complicated controls (using the pointer to look around isn’t going to work well for non-gamers) limiting it’s appeal?
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I don’t think Red Steel 2 is going to do that much. With any game, you ask, “Why should anyone play it?” Well, why would someone want to play Red Steel 2? Granted, motion plus is going to put a spotlight on it. But what else? This is just my take on what we’ve seen so far but it looks generic and doesn’t look too special.
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Women make up half of the Wii market. If a game isn’t willing to try to sell to women, you can lop off half of the Wii install base. So even if Red Steel 2 is better than expected, I think it is confined by a ceiling.
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About my ‘paranoia’, I don’t think gamers are aware of just how many viral marketers are infesting various message forums, comments on websites, and so on. These games cost millions and millions of dollars. We know they buy and fudge game reviews. Do you really believe there aren’t people, paid to do so, trying to ‘excite’ people on forums and websites? Of course there are.
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Right now, you are hearing all these strange stories of Nintendo putting out a Wii HD (which is, of course, intentionally started up on and on in various message forums and websites). Remember when they called the Wii a ‘fad’ over and over? Remember when the Gamecube was ‘kiddy’?
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The point is this: these are not accidents. And they are not caused by ‘stupid gamers’. Many of these ‘idiotic gamers’ are not idiotic at all. They are intentionally saying what they say.

You can pretty much sense their lines. For example, Mario 5, before release, was a “DS port”. This kept being said over and over again. Now, how in the world did anyone think this? Anyone who watched the E3 show or seen any Mario 5 footage certainly knew it was a brand new game. After Mario 5 was released, the line changed to “Nintendo is lazy to make Mario 5”. Is it a coincidence that so many people say the same exact line at the same time? No.

After several sites linked to this blog for my summary of IGN’s podcast trolling, the virals really got worked up. After viewing my summary, it is not natural for a gamer to scream: “Malstrom is evil!” for I didn’t do anything except essentially write down what was said. Following that, there was much ‘anti-Malstrom’ stuff occurring due to those virals. This is one of the reasons why I do not put personal information about myself out there. They can’t defeat the message so they go after the messenger. I’m a Nintendo fanboy. Or I am crazy. Or something else.

If someone doesn’t like a website, they just don’t go to it. If people don’t like this website, they just don’t go to it. However, when someone goes off and goes on wild quest to go through the effort of creating parodying sites or personifying me on forums, something is up. While I am sure there are many people who genuinely do not like me, not even they would go through such trouble.

Another reason is that most of the mail you see me post on this site is not what I get in my email box. I do often get emails from people which sound as if they are trying too hard and then I see the same exact email posted, on various sites, in comments sections.

Usually, the viral marketers have an ebb and flow to them. They appear during gaming’s ‘hotspots’. For example, they are around during the holidays because most sales occur at Christmas. Come to think of it, IGN’s little ‘rant’ podcast occurred during the holidays and might be the reason why they were so furious at people were being re-directed to THIS website (the last place where they wanted people to go). Right now, in February, it is quiet so there isn’t much action from the virals. But at E3, expect heavy action from them.

Remember post E3 2009 when it appeared like someone hit a light switch and zillions of pro-Natal posters appeared from nowhere? “Natal is the best thing ever!” “Just IMAGINE the possibilities!” All of that was no coincidence. And Natal wasn’t even released or demoed to the public! If Natal is to be released, you better bet your socks you are going to get a viral marketing flood at E3 2010.

Many people are mistakenly believing the Internet is what it was during the 90s. That the Internet is ‘new’ and that the old marketers stuck on TVs are left behind. No. They have adapted. Much of what is going on in the Internet today needs a grain of salt. This is why this website does not allow comments.

How easy is it to post as someone else in a comment box? It is extremely easy. I know people don’t want to think of their gaming websites and forums as crawling with little marketers, but that is what is going on. There are billions of dollars at stake. And with games selling entirely due to hype, there is much interest in making sure YOU, the lowly consumer, believe the *correct* things.