Email: Wheels of Disruption

Hello Mr Malstrom,

Hello Mr. Reader

I’ve been reading your column for a few months now, and find it amusing and highly interesting to see how you look at the gaming industry. Previously you state that you essentially “left” the console gaming scene in the late 1990s, citing disinterest in the types of games that were beginning to dominate.

It wasn’t about the games so much as it was about the mission of gaming. Think of me as one of those guys at the beginning. It was understood, from essentially everyone back then, that gaming had to expand and grow. During the Atari Era, it was amazing to see gaming expand. There were competitors to Atari, sure, but Atari was out innovating them and racing ahead. While they were playing copycat, Atari was putting out games like Asteroids. Then it all crashed. There were computers and all but the big splash came with Super Mario Brothers and the ensuing NES craze.

The NES is extremely fascinating to me. The first half of its lifespan, at least, was truly like the Wii. Everyone wanted it. Hardcore computer games mocked it. If you had the NES, the entire neighborhood would come to your house (sort of like the early Wii days). You had a zillion different types of peripherals to choose from. NES games were a type of ‘shock’ since many had Japanese heritage within them. It was like watching Robotech in 1985. It might seem cheesy today, but back then no one had ever seen anything like that before.

The NES games then began to get ‘too big’. Parents who would play with their children stopped doing so. They just didn’t have the time to invest in learning or exploring the games the same way children did.

Sega was when I first remembered the ‘counter-culture’ marketing start being used for gaming. Before then, games were meant to be for the family or to be something to make your neighbor jealous that he didn’t have! (which happened frequently hehe). Sega intentionally targeted the ‘growing older’ NES children who were becoming teenagers with their ‘counter-culture’ marketing to make the Genesis ‘cool’ and Nintendo ‘dumb’. Mario was untouchable during that time. Yet, Sega had the balls to go after Mario and made Sonic to do so.

The 16-bit Console War was, at first, interesting. The 16-bit generation was, at first, interesting. It was neat to see gaming with better graphics, sound, music, as well as new gameplay. One of my specific memories was telling everyone that I would be going to buy *this* game, and I pointed to it in an issue of Nintendo Power. Everyone laughed at me! They said, “That is a baby game!” or “That is for children!” The game that I pointed to? Super Mario Kart. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a game in my possession that was in so much demand to be played, so many requests to be borrowed, than the SNES Super Mario Kart. It had fantastic single player. Fantastic multiplayer. The replay value was absurdly high. I had bought it day one (which I’ve noticed I curiously tend to do with the ‘classics’ before we know they are classics!). There were other great highlights as well. It was a huge deal when Sonic 2 came out. I remember playing Final Fantasy IV for the first time which really made the SNES seem magical. That game was worth $90. Final Fantasy VI was also very much worth it. Contra 3 is another very memorable title. Who can forget Street Fighter 2 landing on the scene? There were many great games on both the Genesis and SNES at the time (though I feel the SNES games have aged better. Genesis was mostly home to the sports games at the time which haven’t aged too well).

When I say there have been no ‘great’ games, I refer to games like Street Fighter 2 that just come out of nowhere and seriously rocket the console in sales because everyone must have that game! Over the years, these ‘great’ games are becoming fewer and fewer. Grand Theft Auto 3 was one of those games that ended up rocketing the PS2 to success. In the last few years, the only games that I feel that are like that would be World of Warcraft, Wii Sports, and Wii Fit.

I specifically remember the 16-bit generation getting lame when the Mortal Kombat ‘controversy’ caught steam. Games were becoming more and more about ‘technology’ and ‘violence’. Mortal Kombat was not a family friendly game. The commercials for the consoles began to have a more ugly tone, including cussing, to say that “My game is more of a rebel than your game!” The button combinations of fighting games became absurd. Games stopped being fun. I noticed I was the only one playing games anymore. Family and friends didn’t want to play these games.

So I focused more on computers which WERE in a golden age in the early 90s. You just cannot emulate those great days of Kali online multiplayer in DOS today. I remember when Ultima Underworld came out. No wonder that game made John Carmack mad. It was stunning back then. Wing Commander was a huge moment because that was the first video game that truly pushed the cinematic feel (which consoles would copy ten years later and claim they invented it).

But yeah, the 16-bit console war made gaming retarded. The ‘console wars’ that followed were equally retarded. And there was no more 2d Mario so what the hell.

From my own memories, this is about the same time I started playing more games (though this is probably more a product of disposable income rather than choice – I grew up with Amiga). 

Oh, I am so sorry to hear about that.

I remember the anticipation for the Wii controller announcement and the subsequent forum frenzy about how “Nintendo was dead/doomed/a joke” and so on. I also remember thinking that Nintendo was doing what they had to do. If they had feature matched the HD consoles, they would have wound up in the same (or worse) position as with the Gamecube/PS2/XBox era. The self-appointed hardcore cried “Nintendo have abandoned us” with the Wii, but they fail to see how they “abandoned” Nintendo games on the Gamecube. That is the prerogative a consumer has – to choose – but it also has consequences. Nintendo had to take the path it did, or face potential irrelevance. I’m glad they went with Wii, because not only has  it been home to some great software – it is also home to new ideas.

One of the reasons of making these articles and all is to ‘catch’ the flavor of the market at the moment when it is hot. It is like catching a butterfly.

In other words, twenty years from now, you will describe the events you witnessed. You will say, “I remember when the appearance of a Wii at the store was like the appearance of a leprechaun, rare and almost immediately about to slip away. I remember when I could sell a used Wii for more than a new Wii!” Twenty years from now, people will think you are lying. They will not believe you. “I remember the ‘hardcore’ always dissing the motion controls.” They will find such a thing unbelievable.

I know this because if I describe how things were twenty years ago, no one believes me. People who grew up on the NES could not believe that there were gamers at the time who hated the NES and wanted ‘hardcore gaming’ on their computers. It is only when they see Trip Hawkins fighting to refuse Electronic Arts to start making games for NES do they get an idea. They can’t imagine a world where the joystick was the game controller. The NES pad was alien to everyone. Some people never used the NES pad and just used the NES Advantage!!!

To this day, there are still some Atari hardcore gamers who still mutter, like the walking dead, “Nintendo destroyed gaming!” Gaming was brilliantly done on Atari systems, you see, with the joystick and with computers. But Nintendo came in with that NES and ‘messed it up’. Twenty years, and they still haven’t gotten over it! There will be some pockets of hardcore with us for a very loooonnng time. They are the new retro players! “Classic controls… FOREVER!” “Yeah! Before Nintendo… ‘messed up’ gaming!”

The games that proliferated in the late 1990s and have dominated gaming since then are the big budget, epic shooting titles with very little variation between them. First person shooters, third person shooters, wrestling games and racing games pretty much describes 90% of the software in the past 10 years. I think it is a healthy thing for a platform to encourage developers to try new things, even if they fail from time to time as with Wii Music. Other times some oddball success stories emerge, such as Lost Winds or World of Goo. Ignoring external issues, if this kind of experimentation is not encouraged, the future of gaming in ten years time will look eerily similar to what it looks like now – only with less gamers.

Wii Music would be an example of Nintendo becoming arrogant. Wii Music had some radical ideas in it, true. But this was the flagship holiday game. Nintendo didn’t properly test these radical changes in smaller or lesser games as they normally do.

Anyway, I am tired of attacking Wii Music and I am sure everyone is tired of reading me doing so. Moving on, the ‘experimentation’ is exactly what Iwata wants Wiiware and DSwire to be.

This brings me to a question – you have said a couple of times that Nintendo ideally needs to become a permanent “Wheel of Disruption” in order to maintain the kind of success it has found with Wii. You also say that only a few companies have ever managed to do this. I wonder if you could mention a couple of these companies and give some examples that parallel what Nintendo has done so far, and what, in your view, Nintendo needs to keep doing. 

Sony used to be a Wheel of Disruption. Sony used the computer chip to disrupt all sorts of industries. The Walkman would be the most famous example.

Google is a Wheel of Disruption for the obvious reasons.

Apple, somewhat. Apple likes to play in the Red Ocean. Apple did disrupt with the iPod, no doubt about that. Then Apple disrupted with the AppleTV (which would be more interesting if Apple stopped using it as a ‘hobby) and, of course, with the iPhone. Christensen doesn’t like using Apple as an example so I’ll follow his lead on that one.

I’d have to look it up to give you more examples. The number of them is very small. But Sony is considered the most famous disruptor. Ironic, eh?

Your columns make for very interesting reading, and are a refreshing change from reading ‘hardcore fanboy vitriol’ directed at Nintendo for daring to capture new customers. For my moneys worth, they havent made a new customer out of me, but they have certainly stopped me from losing interest in the medium altogether.

What is funny is that all my critics think I am nothing but “Nintendo fanboy vitriol”. On a PlayStation 3 forum, one poster said that Malstrom was the al-quada for Nintendo!

What is sad is that the Console Wars have been going on for so long that no one can even imagine another way to look at things.

My passion is not so much for Nintendo as it is about attacking the game industry. I believe the game industry is destroying gaming. In order for gaming to survive and thrive, the current industry must be creatively destroyed.