Video games need to be arrogant (but not their makers and players).
With the previous post being about Master of Magic, the game is incredibly ambitious. It is so ambitious that it breaks itself. The game sold extremely well (one of the reasons why people want to make a ‘spiritual successor’ to it). But despite all the bugs and the crashing, gamers respond strongly to games that are ambitious.
All the complaints about NSMB can be summed up as the lack of ambition. NSMB DS got a pass because it was ambitious to sell a 2d platformer in today’s age. At least, it was seen that way. NSMB Wii had the ambitious multiplayer. But since that time, there is no ambition. Nintendo just doesn’t care and puts their C-Team on work.
Super Mario Brothers was an extremely ambitious game that Yamauchi instantly knew would be a hit because the player could go underground, go underwater, go into castles, hop around in the sky, and so on. Each following Mario game was just as ambitious. In Doki Doki Panic, you can play as DIFFERENT characters instead of just Mario. In Super Mario Brothers 3, YOU CAN FLY. In Super Mario World, you can ride a dinosaur and eat people! The game’s ambition attracted curiosity.
Legend of Zelda? Extremely ambitious. Metroid? Again, an extremely ambitious game.
If you asked me what has changed with Nintendo from what they used to be, I would reply: “Nintendo is no longer ambitious.” Any ambition they have is in things that should have been abandoned long ago like ‘true 3d’.
My favorite game company, Origin, was outrageously ambitious in the games they put out. The Ultima games were incredibly ambitious in how detailed the game worlds would be such as Ultima 7’s interactivity. What was Ultima Online if not ambition? And holy smokes at Wing Commander. Wing Commander was an extremely ambitious game.
Looking Glass Studios was also ambitious. Ultima Underworld is an extremely AMBITIOUS game. Holy moly, Ultima Underworld was released before Wolfenstein 3d! It was that incredible.
Marketers have been trying to figure out what attracts gamers to buy certain games. They have isolated some of the symptoms such as ‘BETTER GRAPHICS’. But things like ‘better graphics’ or ‘more interesting gameplay’ are all just symptoms of something else. Gamers respond to ambitious games. Likewise, gamers punish unambitious games. A bland sequel will be punished.
You know why all these indie games are crap? The games are not ambitious. Well, it might be ambitious to their makers who thinks ‘making a game in their name’ is ambitious. But it is not compared to every other game out there. Why should I care about your game? Where is the ambition?
Minecraft had the ambition. Minecraft is one of the most ambitious games I’ve seen in a LONG time. This video below illustrates the ambition:
Detecting a game’s ambition is a surefire indicator of its market performance. Show me the game’s ambition, and I will show you its sales. What’s that you say? Your game isn’t ambitious? It is ‘just a game’? Well then. I hope you enjoy getting a real job.