I had a chance to try out Switch 2 at Best Buy the other day, and I played a demo of Mario Kart World. The first thing I noticed was that the Switch 2 is awkward to hold due to its larger size and weight. Perhaps this might change if I were to play it more, but that was my first impression. Regarding Mario Kart World, the drifting is looser than in Mario Kart 8, and it just feels off. I thought the driving in Mario Kart 8 was perfect, so to change it in any way was just a terrible move.
You recently mentioned that you won’t buy Switch 2 because you don’t like the games. But even if the games were great, there are a lot of people like me who won’t buy Switch 2 simply because Nintendo has not earned our loyalty. I’m referring to the company’s anti-consumer policies and just general laziness. The first year of Switch 1 was great. We got so many great games. After that, we just got Wii U ports of bad games for the next two to three years. The fact that Nintendo released less software when they now had only 1 device to support instead of two was just insulting. And tying all their classic games to their crappy online service was the final straw for me.
So even if Nintendo suddenly starts releasing the most amazing games ever, I won’t be buying Switch 2. I suspect I’m not the only one.
Apparently, you are the only one, emailer. No one else thinks like you. Nope. Not one person.
Switch 2 is the fastest selling console of all time. It will break all records. In fact, emailer, you should go ahead and throw away your old consoles and games right now. All you need is Switch 2. Make sure you buy ALL the games! Especially the $80 games. Those are the best because they are $80!
Once you get your Switch 2, make sure you buy your Pro Controllers along with the camera and the $80 Mario Kart World. Then, and only then, can you achieve pure gaming bliss (which only occurs online with a paid NSO subscription).
If you want the full Switch 2 experience, you need to purchase both the Switch 1 version of the games as well as the Switch 2 version of the games. So you need to be buying Metroid Prime 4 for both the Switch 1 and 2 to be a True Nintendo Gamer.
And you are, aren’t you, emailer? You are a True Nintendo Gamer? You don’t want to disappoint Miyamoto!
game designer Shintaro Jikumaru revealed that Mario Kart World’ss controls and mechanics heavily referenced extreme sports like skateboarding, snowboarding and BMX – especially when it comes to moves Rail Ride and Wall Ride. Expanding on this comment in the Famitsu interview, Yabuki says that a lot of these mechanics were inspired by Mario Kart World’s development staff, many of whom love skateboarding and similar sports.
“We even have some staff members who go skateboarding or ride their bikes outside of the development team’s office building during lunch breaks.” According to Yabuki, the programmer who was in charge of vehicle controls is actually an avid fan of not only cars, but also sports like skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing. Having experienced many of them firsthand, the programmer implemented a lot of the elements of these sports into the game in order to make the character controls feel smooth and satisfying.
$80 for this shit.
They could just make their own skateboarding or snowboarding game. But no. It has to get thrown into Mario Kart. Remember when Mario Kart was about go-karts in funky Mushroom Land worlds?
In other words, it is a Switch 1 game on a Switch 2 cart. Run out and pay your $70 for it.
This also indicates one of two things. It means that A, Nintendo dev cycles are now approaching a decade which is very, very bad for Nintendo. But it also could mean B, that Bonanza was in ‘development hell’ which means the game is going to come out as a clusterfuck like Yoshi’s Island for the SNES (there! I said it!). Seeing Donkey Kong ‘transform’ into different ‘things’ really reinforces this.
It seems clear to me that the game started as a ‘dig anywhere type game’ and Donkey Kong got shoehorned in because he is the character with ‘strong arms’. And everything else got shoehorned in as well. Since it is such an expensive game, they had to tie it to a main IP.
This really should have been a 3d Toad game. Toad is the Nintendo character that knows how to dig.
When I see Donkey Kong Bonanza, I see nothing but ‘slop’. Everything about the game feels wrong especially tied to Donkey Kong. The production elements such as all the singing come across to me as damn annoying. You couldn’t pay me to play Donkey Kong Bonanza.
You guys go and buy that slop. I’m staying far, FAR away.
I have been pondering how backwards compatibility and remakes might impact system exclusives, especially for third party developers in this day and age.
The Switch 2 has a dearth of titles available through backwards compatibility. By and large, most of this content *is* garbage. If you look at what is currently available in the Switch store, you can get a sense for what is currently available in the Switch 2 store. It is a mess of shoddy Switch games, peppered in with mostly remakes and ports. The Switch 2 games cannot compete on volume, and let’s be honestly, the quality of the ports don’t have to be that good right now since there’s really not much else to buy.
This sets a pretty low bar for Switch 2 games, they basically just have to exist to get interest. For the time being.
Which made me wonder, is Nintendo intentionally releasing new Switch 2 games like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza as somewhat shoddy, lower craftsmanship games because they can? These games are currently competing with things like Cyberpunk and No Man’s Sky. Good games for sure, but I have to assume that the audience for these games, one that can afford a Switch 2, probably already have a computer that can play these games, and the only real novelty is the portability. Which, just feeds back into your statement that the Switch (and 2) are handhelds with “big boy console pricing”.
The Switch 2 launch almost feels like “engineered novelty and nostalgia” to me. There’s nothing really novel here, and I’m not nostalgic for 5-10 year old games, but it just seems like that’s how Nintendo’s marketing wants me to feel.
We’re about to see a handful of third party exclusives on the Switch 2. For example, the new multiplayer From Software game looks like a sub par game to me. It got me wondering though, are we about to hit the age of gaming where the games don’t have to be that good to stand out on a specific platform, but are also not so good that they are worth porting elsewhere?
If I were From Software and Nintendo was going to bankroll a game for me, even as a timed exclusive, I’m sure it’d be an easy “sure why not, we’re not taking much of the risk” as a decision for the company. They could reduce their financial risk, and as they get feedback on the game, they may decide that it doesn’t make financial sense to port it anywhere else.
Where this leaves me wondering, is, have we hit the point where third party system exclusives actually indicate that a title has failed?
I feel like there are going to be leading indicators for this, and was wondering if you had a take on this domain of quality for the gaming space in general.
I wish you the continued best for your health, and hope you find a path to health!
The Naval Gazing Reader
Uh oh. It is the Navel Gazing Reader! We better beware, readers…
From Nintendo’s perspective, Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bonanza are not ‘low quality’. They believe they are high quality which is why they are charging $80 for Mario Kart World. I know that when other big game companies get their games to ‘ship’ status, Nintendo has the game still go through another year. This is why Nintendo games have the reputation for quality and bug free (relatively speaking). Nintendo also likes to release their games to fulfill the single player and the multiplayer. They will have different games for it. For example, for Wii’s launch you had Zelda: Twilight Princess for single player but Wii Sports for multiplayer. In this case, we have Mario Kart World for the multiplayer and Donkey Kong Bonanza for the single player. I expect Nintendo first party to check both of those groups in timed releases going forward. For example, next year you might see a new Splatoon but also a new Fire Emblem.
Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bonanza are both Switch 1 games up-ported to Switch 2. They were not originally developed as Switch 2 games. Perhaps this is the fault of the long development cycle, but I think it is due to Switch 1 sales being good enough to not need them released then. Poor Metroid Prime 4 was announced for Switch 1 eight years ago so it HAS to appear on Switch 1. Metroid Prime 4, even the Switch 2 version, will be a Switch 1 type game.
We might see a surprise when native Switch 2 games inevitably arrive. Obviously, the next Zelda will be such a title. I think the ‘began development on Switch 1’ games are weak because it shares the graphical height of the Wii U. So instead of the game looking eight years old, it looks like the game is thirteen years old.
Switch is really a handheld device with handheld games. These ‘mega games’ just feel wrong to me for some reason. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bonanza come across to be as big, bloated games. I don’t want that. Leave that to the RPGs or to open worlds like Zelda. I want my Mario Kart to be arcade precise, not ‘open world bloated’. I want Nintendo handhelds to have $30-$40 games that it used to have!
I cannot even understand what Donkey Kong Bonanza is even about. If I can’t understand it, I know the game is not for me. The game comes across as extremely convoluted. I really, really hate the character design for Donkey Kong. Why is he wearing pants? Apes don’t wear pants. Stupid Nintendo.
I believe consumers see Switch 2 as a type of ‘Switch Pro’. Until native Switch 2 games arrive, Switch 2 is on track of having the reputation of being ‘Switch Pro’ or ‘Switch Plus’ instead of The Next Generation of Video Games.
I do know this: if Nintendo sells Switch 2 hardware but doesn’t sell Switch 2 software, Nintendo is cooked. The entire point of the console business is to sell the software. This is the real reason why Nintendo makes efforts for their hardware to not break. Consumers would then spend their limited entertainment money in replacing the broken hardware, which has low profit margins, instead of buying more games, which has higher profit margins. Also, better consumer experience with buying more games instead of replacing hardware. Nintendo needs YOU to buy their handheld software at $80.
I have opened the door for The Reader.
Go ahead. Rush out and buy the $80 games from Nintendo. You know you want to do so. I will not stand in your way.
Switch 2 has issues with it which is why I do not want to purchase it… one of these issues is the price of the console itself. But the biggest issue is the lack of games.
My rule for purchasing a game console has been the same since this blog started and even before it started. I require three games available I want to purchase with at least three upcoming games I want to buy. Launch consoles have some wiggle room with it being launch. But 6 games I want with 3 being available and 3 upcoming. If not this then NO DEAL. I know I am not alone with this mindset.
I did NOT purchase Wii U (until it was fire sale).
I did NOT purchase 3DS (until last year of its life cycle).
I DID purchase Switch 1 and Wii at launch.
I purchased DS nearly a year after it launched. I bought 3 games for it with 3 upcoming games I had an eye on. I think I bought Mario 64 DS (I had barely played Mario 64 at that point), Meteos, and Bomberman. Upcoming games were Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Mario Kart DS, and New Super Mario Brothers. I liked Metroid Prime Hunters Demo as well. I also wanted and bought Nanostray, Kirby Canvus Curse, Animal Crossing DS, and Metroid Prime Pinball (with the rumble pack!). I bought a red DS from Japan! I believe they might be rare today. Eventually, the DS turned into the DS Lite and went to heaven. Software for DS really went to the stratosphere. DS software was rivaling the home consoles for entertainment. In Japan, the DS just trounced everything.
With Switch 2, I look at the available games and cry. DS was more interesting to me in part was because I hadn’t bought a game console since the SNES. Some of these IPs were new to me such as Animal Crossing (which I found out was not my type of game). I also found out, lately, that games like Mario Kart or Smash Brothers are not my games. So Mario Kart World is not for me because Mario Kart 8 wasn’t for me. Donkey Kong Bonanza is not for me. And certainly not Kirby Air Riders! Why is the Square Enix title a 3DS port (Bravely Default)? Ridiculous. Of all the Switch 2 titles, only Hyrule Warriors is slightly interesting to me. But since I hated Tears of the Kingdom, that makes Hyrule Warriors TotK Edition not that interesting to me. In conclusion, the Switch 2 has no games for Malstrom.
This assumes no additional games come out for Switch 2. There will be future directs, and I will revisit this. But even if games come out that I want, I still have to get over Switch 2’s downsides such as the high price tag. It’s just not worth it.
“But Malstrom,” says the plucky reader. “You can play all your Switch 1 games on Switch 2 with better framerates! OMGWTFBBQSAUCE!!!”
Why do I need to pay half a grand to play the same games I already have? The Switch 1 games run fine on Switch 1. I don’t need a Switch 2 to play Switch 1 games.
“But Malstrom,” the plucky reader continues. “You can subscribe to NSO and play Gamecube games on the Switch! OMG! F-Zero GX! Wind Waker!”
But I already have a Gamecube and those games. I don’t need to pay a subscription service to play games I already own.
Perhaps the only title I might really want is Metroid Prime 4: Purple Samus Magic. What is the point of buying the Switch 1 version of Metroid Prime 4 since we know it is definitely being buffed for Switch 2? I really liked Metroid Prime 1 and 2 but thought 3 was a disappointment (I dropped off it pretty fast). I have no faith in purple Samus psycho magic of Metroid Prime 4. And I certainly am not going to be spending $550+ Pro Controller just to play a possibly disappointing entry of Metroid Prime.
From my standpoint, Switch 2 isn’t low on games. It has no games whatsoever. Nintendo band-aiding the situation with NSO subscription games don’t change the equation since I cannot own the NSO games like I could with Virtual Console (which I can still play on my Wii U today). The ports also do not change the equation since I cannot own Game Key Card games. They might as well not exist at all. And why would I buy a port of a game when I can just buy the original game? I already own Bravely Default on 3DS. Why on earth do I need to buy the game again for Switch 2? Why, exactly, is this game being remastered except for the ability to play it on a big TV? The game isn’t that good to begin with.
Game consoles depend on a pipeline of games for the engagement. I do not like the roster of First Party Nintendo games anymore. The games have all become retreads and lame. And the ports have become worse incarnations of their original versions (since you can’t own them).
There may be some new hit game or other releases that will change my own personal demand. You never know what the future might bring. But seeing how Switch 2’s exclusives will be nearly only Nintendo made, the probability of this occurring seems very, very low.
I am more than happy to sit out this entire generation. I do not need to spend more money buying games… especially when I already have a huge backlog.
The short answer is because of Chris Roberts. The long answer is because of scaling.
Chris Roberts, known for Wing Commander and more recently for Star Citizen infamy, actually should be recognized for revolutionizing the RPG genre. The revolutionary game was called Times of Lore.
Times of Lore was published in 1988.
Before the reader spazzes out and flinches at the gameplay footage, realize that this was in 1988.
What was gaming like during 1988? On the NES, games like Super Mario Brothers 2 and Zelda 2 were being released. Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man 2, and Phantasy Star were also released. On PC Gaming, it was the release of Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny.
“What is so interesting about Times of Lore?” scoffs the reader. “It looks like a shitty game like the rest of those 1980s RPGs! Only Chrono Trigger is and 16-bit Final Fantasy are the true RPGs! Yarrr!!!”
Chris Roberts was heavily influenced by Legend of Zelda (1986). Oh? Now I have the reader’s attention. Today, Miyamoto says, “There is no world in Legend of Zelda. It was a garden. A GARDEN!!!” Being the prototype system for Breath of the Wild, this would be shown to be bullshit. And we, the gamers, considered Zelda as a world. What Legend of Zelda did differently than RPGs was that it didn’t change the scaling (Zelda 2 would do that). The Overworld Map was the same as the Dungeons and the Caves. Link didn’t suddenly become small on the overworld map. The map was entirely the same scale!
Times of Lore revolution was that the entire game is of the same scale. The entire game is on one ‘map’. There is no separate ‘town map’ or ‘dungeon map’. Not even Legend of Zelda pulled this off as the dungeons exist in a ‘plane’ separate from the rest of the game. Times of Lore did. Everything was on that same ‘plane’. No separate maps. And this was 1988.
Because of this, Times of Lore is a highly simplified RPG. Critics liked it but said it was an ‘introductory RPG’. Chris Roberts said it was made for those console gamers! (Hahahaha). [This is why there is a NES version of Times of Lore. The game was designed for the console kiddies.] Times of Lore is PC Gaming’s equivalent of Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. While Mystic Quest is a highly simplified game, it did make great strides in removing the annoying ‘random battles’ of overworld maps. In the same way, Times of Lore was very simple game but showed gaming of a ‘one map’ RPG.
It was revolutionary.
“It was not revolutionary,” sneers the reader. “I have not heard of this revolution! And what of the brilliant game journalists, those scholars of all gaming? Where are their articles on this matter? There are none. Therefore, what you say, Malstrom, cannot possibly exist.”
Chris Roberts worked at Origin and Times of Lore was an Origin game. It greatly influenced the next Ultima game.
Some major changes were made that distinguished Ultima VI from earlier Ultima games. Several of these changes were influenced by Origin’s 1988 action role-playing game, Times of Lore, created by Chris Roberts,[4][5] and FTL Games‘s 1987 RPG Dungeon Master.[6] One such change was the world design, 5] where no longer would towns and castles be represented by icons on the overworld map, but where everything in the game world is represented on the same 1024×1024 tile map, except for dungeons and smaller outdoor maps. The caverns and dungeons beneath the land were also no longer represented in first-person view, but changed to an overhead, oblique isometric view, like the rest of the game.[4][5] Another such change was the incorporation of some real-time elements.[5]Richard Garriott also based the game’s new icon-based point and click interface on Times of Lore, streamlining the commands into ten icons.[4] Garriott expressed annoyance at not having thought of it sooner, realizing that “it was clearly the way to have gone” for earlier games.[7]
Ultima 6 is the landmark RPG that did many things including destroying the overworld maps. Everything would now be on one world. However, Ultima 6 still had dungeons and caves be on a ‘separate map’, however they were still on the same exact scale. And the interface has been greatly simplified with ten visible icons to use. This great revolution would be complete only with the next game in the series: Ultima VII.
Above: Note how the player moves from town to field in a seamless way. Everything is now on one map.
Of course, The Reader is still unhappy with these affairs. “Malstrom, fella, I’ve just got to say. Why ditch the overworld map for this ‘one plane’ existence? Does it not make the game seem less small? Alas!”
The reason why Ultima was doing these ‘revolutions’ which every other RPG copied such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest (and Elder Scrolls and Divinity and ‘open world Zelda’ etc.) was because there was something unique with the Ultima DNA that other RPGs, to this day, do not have. The entire reason for Ultima’s existence of a video game was to create a ‘virtual world’. Since Richard Garriott was told he could not go into space, he would do the alternative: create a digital world for him to explore. Ultima is the original Open World Game.
How do you make things to become more ‘Virtual World’? You get rid of abstractions. And one of the biggest abstractions was the multiple maps. For Ultima V, a multiple disk game, you had the Dungeon Disk, the Town Disk, the Overworld Disk, etc. You had one screen for the overworld, another screen for towns, another screen for dungeons, another screen for battles. Ultima 6 destroys all that for one singular screen. One sense of scaling. Now, the entire game wasn’t on the same plane yet. Dungeons and caves were not. However, the ‘overworld’ and the ‘towns’ were.
Removing the abstractions also includes demolishing the interface barriers. Ten icons work better than the entire freaking keyboard.
Real RPG gamers (not the kiddie gamers then who are today’s RPG youtube influencers who think ‘Final Fantasy 1 is an oldschool RPG game’) were playing UIltima 6 during 1990. The game was so advanced that, aside from the infamous NPC schedules and all, every item in the game had its own distinct weight. Not even ‘open world’ Zelda dares to do that today (but it should!). It is ridiculous when Link can hold 50 different swords or that the ‘weight’ is governed by ‘slots’ which you must ‘expand’ through korok seed collecting. STUPID JAPANESE DESIGN there. Eventually, Nintendo will throw that out and adopt the Western design like they threw out other stupid barbaric Japanese designs of Zelda to adopt civilized Western gaming standards.
During 1990, we saw the magnum opus of Super Mario Brothers 3 released on NES. We saw the release of Tetris and the Gameboy. We saw Dragon Warrior IV, Ninja Gaiden II, Mega Man 3, Dr. Mario, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, and Castlevania III for the NES. For PC Gaming, we saw Star Control, The Secret of Monky Island, Railroad Tycoon, and Sim City. Also, on the NES was the release of the original Final Fantasy 1.
So while you turkeys were playing Final Fantasy 1, I was far, far playing advanced gaming such as Ultima VI. This is why I make fun of NES gamers who think they are ‘old school’. You guys are still a bunch of kids. “Final Fantasy 1 is old school!” Fuck that shit.
Above: Released in 1992
This is the actual game map of Ultima VII: The Black Gate:
“But Malstrom, where are the caves and dungeons?”
They’re all on the same exact map. They are inside the mountains.
As you can see above, the mountains have the playable dungeons inside them. THE ENTIRE GAME IS ON ONE MAP.
Ultima VII not only pulls off the entire game being on one freaking map (complete with NPC schedules, weather system, day/night cycle), the interface of the game is drastically overhauled. The entire playable game fills the screen. Little windows pop up when you press a keyboard button or double click your character. All of this is to remove abstraction and immerse you further into the ‘virtual world’.
The Console Gamer is going, “Overworld maps disappeared during the 2000s with the PlayStation 2 Era!” Actually, the Overworld maps were being phased out during the 1990s with PC Gaming. Console kiddies, like most of the ‘old middle age gamers’ of today, still don’t realize how far behind their ‘console rpgs’, especially the trash JRPGs, actually were. What were you playing during that time, console kiddy? Oh? Final Fantasy IV for the SNES? That’s cute. Meanwhile, games like Baldur’s Gate 3 still go to Ultima VII for inspiration. The Ultima player literally could stop playing RPGs because they are waiting for RPGs to start catching up to what was trailblazed decades ago.
In the last Ultima, Ultima IX, Origin did do one thing interesting with the game (which is trash in every other way). Ultima IX has a SEAMLESS WORLD ON ONE PLANE. Every town, every ‘overworld’, every dungeon, it all exists on one plane, one 3d map. This was UNHEARD OF back in 1999 and, in many ways, even today. While Ultima IX is a broken mess of a game that barely worked on any hardware at the time, the fact that they had the balls to create a seamless 3d world is incredible. PC Gamer was shocked by it.
Above: Tough to show the seamless 3d world Ultima IX had, but there was no loading screens or different planes during the game. It was ALL on one map. You could literally swim (or cheese via platforming) from one end of the game to the other. This game was released in 1999! (3d seamless games like Gothic would appear only in 2002.)
The reader snorts, “Malstrom, games like Metroid Prime had a seamless 3d world when it was released in 2002.”
First of all, Metroid Prime is really a ‘super dungeon’, not an ‘open 3d world’. But Metroid Prime, made by Retro which were PC game developers, definitely used the same trick Ultima IX used to make its seamless world: by loading the textures during tight crawlspaces. In Metroid Prime’s way, it delayed opening the doors until the textures for the next room were open.
In order to get EA’s approval to make the game, Ultima IX was modeled after Zelda: Ocarina of Time (a game which did sell well on the N64). [Do not play Ultima IX thinking it is OoT quality as it is not.]
Zelda: Breath of the Wild had the error of separating their dungeons (lol BOTW “dungeons”) and caves/shrines onto another plane. Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, at least, integrated the caves onto the rest of the main map. Take a look:
Above: Released in 2023, see how Tears of the Kingdom embraces a 3d world on one map to allow abilities such as ‘Ascension’.
Breath of the Wild got heavily compared to Ultima series (such as from myself as well as Time Magazine). This ability of going from a cave to overworld due to an integrated 3d world onto one plane, which I believe Ultima IX was the most early prominent title to do so, and calling the ability ‘Ascension’ which is literally what Ultima IX is titled, is suspicious. Coincidences happen, but I do not trust coincidences.
If Zelda wishes to ‘advance further’, it should put more of the game onto ‘one plane’ such as the shrines. This will give more immersion and less abstraction.
“Malstrom, old buddy, old pal, why do you think Nintendo even thinks in these terms? You act like they are deliberately putting their 3d games onto one 3d plane to create a ‘world’. Haha. You are so silly, Malstrom! Now I leave to go to big Game Journalist Website.”
Oh, really reader? Then perhaps you can explain THIS:
The fact that Nintendo puts all these tracks onto one plane, one map, and then declare it a ‘world’ in a game that has nothing to do with RPGs or adventures clearly indicates Nintendo is moving the way I describe above. What’s next? Dr. Mario World where Dr. Mario can walk around a hospital and go ‘open world’ to find viruses outside? It’s becoming ridiculous, but the seamless 3d world is a huge thing going on right now. But, again, I see the start of it with Ultima (after Ultima made the MMO genre, it makes 3d seamless world).
Why Gaming will bring back abstractions
Now you know why the ‘Overworld maps’ disappeared. But before you go, I will tell you why the ‘Overworld maps’ will return.
Technology limits were why overworld maps and different planes existed in the first place. However, a new challenge with eliminating them is the sheer production costs. It is much cheaper to make a game with multiple maps than an entire game on one map. Indie games have to go this way. AAA games will keep resisting but may be forced to go this way.
Another reason why is because the Game Industry doesn’t understand the purpose of why the overworld maps were dropped in the first place. They do not understand the ‘Virtual World’ trailblazing spirit that Ultima had. In the same way, they do not understand the concept of NPC schedules or night/day schedules. They stick them in the game… just because… but without tying it to a ‘virtual world’, these features become ANNOYING. A day/night cycle without a virtual world just becomes a needless chore while you wait through night time. And NPC schedules greatly complicates the game development for little to no benefit to the player (since most RPG developers’ purpose for making the game is to ‘provide a story’, not to create a virtual world).
As we enter a Dark Age of Gaming due to shrinking costs and loss of knowledge, I expect overworld maps to return in full force. We may even see a return to Ultima V style of the screen broken up into multiple windows at once because of the entire loss of gaming knowledge of removal of abstraction. So instead of RPGs going in the direction of, say, Ultima VII, which Larian Studios would like to go in, we may see RPGs go in the other direction back into the Apple II style early Ultimas that are chock full of abstractions, multiple maps, and so on.
Gaming is crashing. The question is how far back into the ‘Dark Age’ will it be? I would hope gaming doesn’t fall further than the 1990s era. I really can’t stand the 1980’s era of abstractions.
U99 has always been one of my favorites. You are spot on with the description: it feels snappy, intense, and satisfying even for short 30 minute sessions. Never gets old.
His game studio even has a “industry must be destroyed”-esque name called Threat Interactive. I actually had no idea if his videos were legit or not until he posted a FAQ about himself just now:
The TL;DR of the whole video:
– He originally started off trying to make his own videogame, only to realize that the current engines available are complete garbage when he started tinkering with them (this part of the video gives him credibility for me to believe whatever jargon he says about the engine pipeline)
– He pivoted from doing game dev temporarily and instead started making youtube videos using the same game dev name to point out all of the flaws in modern game engines as a way to both help keep himself afloat as well as grok more knowledge out of disseminating these engine flaws
– As you’ve said several times in your blog as well as personally seeing some well-done examples of Japanese developers using a highly customized fork of unreal engine, the best game optimization is to basically make your own engine either from scratch, or make your own engine by forking an existing one to the point that the amount of customization to it makes it all but in name only. Threat Interactive is doing the latter
– Like you malstrom, he originally tried to affect change by VERY POLITELY addressing a lot of the problems he ran into with Unreal Engine to the community/company/etc., but then started becoming more angry and blunt in his messaging the more his polite requests got ignored, which ironically is when change did start happening.
– His other motivation for trying to affect change in the game industry was that the current discourse about game engines was similar to that of the hardcore game industry discourse as a whole: put up with our mediocre tools and screw you if you believe they could be better because you weren’t the one who originally made it and you’re wrong for saying otherwise.
– And finally, like you malstrom, he’s promised that whatever knowledge he learns about game engine stuff is not going to be placed behind a paywall in the future because they’re a game studio first, not an unreal game engine school (ie- learn by example, not by unshipped prototypes/projects that people aren’t going to pay money to consume outside of an academic setting)
In all honesty malstrom, if you started game development at around this time, I wouldn’t find it too out there for you to be using youtube as your platform of choice to discuss what you’ve been doing on your blog on wordpress. It’s… an interesting scenario for sure. Heck, he’s already looking to age into the next most interesting gamer in the world lol.
I’m glad to know that even when we pass on, there are still others out there who wish for the game industry to be destroyed.P.S.- I originally wanted to title this email as “Speaking of Unreal…” but then he started using more Malstrom-esque expressions over the course of the video lol.
I’m amazed by how you think, emailer. Let’s give Threat Interactive some credit here. Threat Interactive is going to be himself. I just don’t want another Pirate Software.
The reason why I use the wordpress is because I am a writer. I have tried making youtube videos, but I am not a good talker. Other people are very good at talking. They talk all the time. So they do better on Youtube. However, I write better than I talk.
The biggest threat of the game engines is that they can pull some legal trick where you don’t own the game you developed with it. I know the Toys for Bob veterans for their game Children of Infinity (sequel to Star Control 2) have created their own unique engine called SIMPLE. This SIMPLE engine then talks to Godot and uses Godot primarily for the UI and other graphical aspects. Godot is an amplifier. This is interesting to me as I haven’t seen game engines being used in this manner before.
Imagine having a game engine like RPG Maker which would talk to another game engine, say Unreal, and you get amplification.
So the game would look like this in one engine, but when amplified would look like this…
The two pictures above are the same exact game: Dragon Quest 11.
In fact, I’m going to make a prediction here.
Game Remasters or Remakes will become a thing of the past. Technology will be made where an old game can become ‘amplified’ to another game… at least the audio-visual way. I imagine classic games becoming a ‘seed’ to some sprawling beautiful new game. Perhaps AI will do this. You use Super Mario Brothers as the seed, and you have this beautiful new game based on it.
If AI is removing cognitive fraud, do we really need every pixel to be ‘remastered’ if an AI can just sweep in and change it all to remastered? Do we need to hire all these artists to touch up the old game?
I’m not sure if Threat Interactive is talking about the legal quagmire that using these game engines can bring, but it is very relevant.
And yes, the Game Industry must be destroyed. Why do games need an industry in the first place?
The conventional wisdom is that the middle class is shrinking because people are getting poorer. From this data, it appears the middle class is shrinking because people are getting too wealthy to remain middle class.
It is an interesting spin on an idea that is baked in people’s heads. But there are some caveats to this data.
It is referring to total household income. So if both husband and wife work, the household becomes ‘high income’ but they don’t feel like they are ‘wealthy’. Quality of life deteriorates and major costs appear such as daycare for children.
But the graph does not care about perceptions or feelings. It simply looks at the income.
“But Malstrom, there is too much household debt. This is why everyone feels poor.”
But the data is showing household debt is going down.
And I believe the next two trends are related. Blue Collar wages have jumped.
There appears to be some data regarding efficiency of AI.
I suspect that the increase of AI will cause an increase of blue collar wages. The ‘efficiency’ of AI, is really an elimination of cognitive fraud. An example of ‘blue collar fraud’ would be fishermen who use fishing poles to catch fish instead of nets. Nets get the job done so much faster. The ‘cognitive fraud’ would be a doctor going through each and every x-ray while an AI can zip through them very quickly.
What is fascinating to me is that everyone ‘knows’ what the future is… and yet everyone is wrong about the future. The data, shown here, contradicts conventional wisdom. Perhaps there is something to that.
Super Mario Brothers 3 still working its magic. Word to Miyamoto.
He nitpicks and finds everything ‘wrong’ with the game. Most of the time, he is complaining about Peach’s letters until it is realized that Peach doesn’t get kidnapped until World 7. I do like how the manual has incorrect grammar and spelling. Most of his complaints are vapid.
But at the VERY END of the video, he reveals he never liked SMB3 because it was too hard for him and he died a ton. He never finished it until he made the video. THEN he got why the game was good. “I get the hype!” Hahahaha.
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