Email: Pikmin

I can explain Pikmin in two sentences but you’re right, it’s kind of boring.

 

Pikmin is the exploration of our world in Puzzle/RTS hybrid. You interact with animal plants that do your bidding/aid in exploration puzzles while barely being larger than a cherry.Pikmin 3 is a game that should never have been made. I don’t think anyone at Nintendo, including Miyamoto, realize the economic macro-conditions everyone is going into. These are economic macro-conditions no one at Nintendo, not even Miyamoto, has ever seen.

The question is no longer whether or not they want to make a certain game. They no longer have a choice. They either make certain games, or they watch the company fall apart. “Is this a Nintendo is doomed post?” No. This applies to everyone. There will be LESS FREEDOM for developers to make what they want because the risks just increased substantially. There is a reason why video games took off in the 80s and not in the stagnation of the 70s. The 80s was also the economic golden age of Japan. Today, all three major markets (Japan, North America, Europe) are in decline. The minor markets around the world are in decline.

Video games have always been made in the warm sunlight of economic prosperity. With that gone, everything changes.

Have you noticed that gamers are complaining more and more about the smallest things in a video game? Some say this is due to a generational change or due to the nature of the Internet. But the masses have been on the Internet for decades. I suspect its a symptom of the economic decline. If everything was gushing with economic prosperity like a decade ago, all these things would be running off gamers like water off a duck’s back. It must be quite disconcerting to game companies who make a faithful sequel to game over a decade ago and have people take issues with the game that were present in the ‘beloved original’.

People say economic prosperity corrupts the people but that is wrong. Racism could only exist in an economically depressed South deprived of the Industrial Revolution. Hitler could only rise in an economically destroyed Germany where the currency was worthless. But economic prosperity tends to generate legal stability as well as fantastic art and consumer goods.

I’m hearing some Old School gamers say, “Gaming is now better than ever! Look at how cheap these AAA games are! I remember back in the day when I had to pay so much for a game.” If games are having trouble selling at inflation adjusted prices from the 80s or 90s, then video games are not becoming a more popular medium. The demand is declining on these games despite everyone and their donkey wanting to become a game developer and ‘make games for a living’.

Gaming has a very troubling future ahead. I don’t think Nintendo realizes the gravity of the situation since no one in the company (or the other game companies) know how severe economic decline can be. If Super Mario World couldn’t save the SNES from the Genesis, NSMB U will not save the Wii U. And the other games coming out for the Wii U aren’t going to do anything. Pikmin 1 and 2 only created Gamecube sales. Who the hell would buy Pikmin 3 except those Gamecube fans? And no one is waiting to rush out the door in excitement to buy ‘Nintendo Land’.

This could be a console generation where everyone loses.