Dear Sean,
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I genuinely feel like within the next few years there will be some kind of collapse. Perhaps not a full-on market crash like 1983, but a severe downturn. In that case, maybe it would be a good thing for gaming in the long run.
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Nintendo and you (the lowly peasant-like gamer) had different definitions of The Revolution. To us (lowly) gamers, we saw The Revolution as introducing new gameplay but mostly making games fun again, as fun as they were back during the golden periods of gaming (Atari Era, NES Era, etc.). Nintendo’s definition of The Revolution was to not make mainstream games but to make Gamecube games mainstream. They believed this would be possible with some interface tweaks or design tweaks.
The road that Nintendo and the rest of the Industry seems to be on is this:
“We will make the games we have fun in developing. If you wish to play them, fine. If not, then don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
There is a trend where games that THE MASSES LIKE but they do not enjoy developing are never ever made. The Wii Sports type games are things the masses love. But developers hate. With a game like Wii Sports, how can they put in their ‘genius’ story? And the cutscenes? Oh my! 2dMario (and old school games in general) are so illustrative of this that Miyamoto has flat out said, “I don’t want to make it,” (which he hasn’t for 18 years). Instead, he wants to make a game that doesn’t really sell to the masses (e.g. 3d Mario). I keep harping on this 2d Mario/3d Mario thing only to show this is a microcosm of the mindset at Nintendo.
Do you think Sakamoto knows you want a real 2d Metroid game? One without the silly dialogue and cutscenes? Of course he does! HE KNOWS IT. He has even said he is aware of the demand. But he doesn’t want to make it. What he really wants to make is a Metroid movie that has ninja action scenes in the middle of it. This is why you got Other M instead of an actual Metroid game.
Another example would be the mass audience rejecting cell-shaded artstyle in Wind Waker. It doesn’t matter. Nintendo would keep doing it and trying to sneak as much of it in.
The ‘implosion’ you speak of really seems as if games are no longer being designed for gamers. They are being designed for other developers.
In America, there is no real theater industry. What is there is a collapsed system where play directors and actors only perform the plays they want. The audience be damned. The only way they can sell this drek is on the basis that it is ‘art’ and that the audience member will be more ‘cultured’ and ‘sophisticated’ if they watch it.
Why do you think there is so much push for seeing video games in the lens of ‘culture’ and ‘art’ and ‘sophistication’ (while always dismissing sales and markets)? Game developers wouldn’t mind being like those theaters. They would make only the games they wish to work on. Then, they would get people to buy this ‘drek’ they call games by saying the buyer is ‘cultured’ and ‘sophisticated’ for the game is ‘art’. These brainwashed fools are the ‘hardcore’ gamers who are enabling gaming’s self-destruction.
The development community is so selfish that they don’t care if gaming collapses around them. Look at Japanese game developers. They know implosion is all around them. Their response is to only further make the games they want to make. It is a selfish move because it denies any opportunity to future game developers. An example would be Inafune who is well aware of gaming’s destruction but makes vanity projects such as Mega Man 9, 10, and most recently Mega Man Legends 3. These games won’t sell. But since he believes gaming is imploding anyway, he might as well do whatever the hell he wishes.
The newspaper industry in America has a similar attitude. “The industry is imploding? Fine. We’ll just start doing whatever we want. My pleasure is more important than the future of the industry.”
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