Aaron Hoffmann Principal UX Product Designerthought of the day: much like new jeans sold as ‘pre-worn’ or ‘weathered’, i hope someday Subaru releases a full-priced model named the Fubar that is sold with visible dents and paint blemishes for that extra-rugged look. “Subaru Fubar—fuck you granola-munching, off-roading hippies/yuppies.”
A couple recent gaming articles I’ve written:
Prince of Persia: The Fallen King (DS) review
MadWorld hands-on impressions!
![The Sun And The Moon Complete [2 CD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-SgfI-cqL._SL75_.jpg)
listening to:
The Sun And The Moon Complete [2 CD]
The Bravery
thought of the day: sometimes, when i swat a mosquito, for a moment i feel like a vampire slayer.
So last week marked the beginning and end of the E3 2008 expo in Los Angeles, California. Traditionally, each of the main gaming platforms holds a pre-show spectacle to kick things off, and this story’s title suggests the chronology of how the three shuffled out this time around. But how did things go down? Nearly like a page from Goldilocks and the Three Bears: one was too hot, one was too cold, and one was just right. Here’s part two of three…
I’ve kept it no secret among friends and other gaming journalists that my opinion of this year’s conference comes somewhere between a papercut and genital mutilation on my scale of things I’d rather not endure; it was bloody painful — not just to watch, but also to listen.
From mommy dearest’s fake, over-enthusiastic stage presence to the contrived duel of the executive fates, to Ravi yes-my-last-name-is-“Drums” awesomest gig ever warming up for the Shiggy All-Star Band and their audio-in-audio (picture-in-picture) deaf-mute sound of Wii Music… I couldn’t tell if (EVP of Sales and Marketing) Ms. Dunaway was trying to teach me my ABC’s, or if my vast collection of Koji Kondo, Yasunori Mitsuda and Motoi Sakuraba had spoiled my taste in good game music.
Sadly, while the overall content of their show didn’t turn me off completely, it was the presentation that was just a little too Humpty Dumpty having a great fall for my preference. It was a sloppy, disorganised mess with very little structure…the little info they DID have was scattered and discombobulated. Compared to the slick shows put on by the other two giants, Nintendo’s was left looking like the slacker in class who turns in their homework as a pile of crumpled papers.
I can’t say I was surprised by any of the announcements… or lack thereof as it was. While E3 may tend to be the show–at least traditionally–for the real gamers out there, Nintendo’s conference was clearly a photo op of sorts… a flim-flammery of soundbites intended for The Today Show, Ellen, Oprah, and other similar demographic shows. Perhaps they’d have done well to focus more on real announcements and information, instead of spending nearly 2/3 of the show spouting the same tired braggadocio anyone who’s seen the empty store shelves could already tell you.
A few of the puzzling details:
- a 2-minute video for the major Animal Crossing title on Wii, and then it’s all but ignored?
- an awkward 5 minute tease of Wii Sports 2? And what exactly about this title requires development until 2009?? It appears that between the original title, Wii Play, and Wii Fit, all the assets exist.
- 5-10 minutes talking about a Guitar Hero DS sequel when the original is barely two weeks old?
- hearsay about experimental DS technologies in airports and kitchens, but zero proof of any of these wonders?
- not even a mention of the new kick-ass Wario platformer coming to Wii soon?
- the ungodly mess that is Wii Music–or as i have dubbed it, Wii Cacophony? I had to put that rubbish on mute and look away. I love Shiggy to death, but that “game” is missing something…a whole lot of something that curiously should have been added after over TWO YEARS of development. Rhythm is a vital component of music, and to ignore that in lieu of freeform pretending is clearly not good. I may as well turn on MTV, iTunes, and my clock radio to all different channels. Same difference.
They showed software for everyone, but didn’t show stuff for everyone, if that makes sense. Nintendo has built itself up as a company of innovation and leadership in the industry, and that’s just not what anyone saw this year—casual, hardcore, or otherwise.
If Nintendo is a TV channel, it seems they’ve been airing reruns from the Home Shopping Network lately. Infomercials are fine to fill out the schedule, but we need regular programming too. Which leads me to wonder… if it’s Nintendo’s aim is to bring everyone into the “gamers” fold, what are they going to do with them once they’re there?
They might just wind up with a growing base of “core” gamers as people expand their tastes beyond the Game & Watch or Tetris varieties, and then have an army of unsatisfied customers on their hands.
One thing they need to understand is that as people are diverse, there’s no one thing that can appeal to everyone, and as a business, diversity is always key. If GM were to have turned 100% of their focus to SUVs a few years back because everyone can fit inside one and they sold like hotcakes, GM probably wouldn’t exist in today’s market at all. If Nintendo wants to include everyone as a customer, they can’t be excluding anyone.
Sure, they’ve had a good track record so far by releasing their flagship franchises in champion time, but unless the Wii has been officially declared dead, they still have work to do, and games to release. There’s plenty of time to improve what they did show or to announce new surprises to catch us off guard. And if Nintendo fans like me are good at anything, it’s holding out hope.
May 7, 2008: the day America took one step toward parity with our Japanese Wii-playing friends as the Nintendo Channel goes live. An occasion I–and many other gamers–have been eagerly awaiting for not just the past six months, but since the launch of the Wii itself almost three times as long ago. But now that it’s live to enjoy, some of us are left wondering, “Is this IT?” A few videos and some DS demo downloads. Isn’t there a bigger opportunity for both Nintendo and gamers alike here? I’m not entirely sure Nintendo is interested in that kind of symbiotic relationship anymore, as this new channel is clearly not aimed at their core fan or the core gamer.
“How do you figure, mr. jezter?”, I hear it, I really do. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. Just the other day, Satoru Iwata marginalised Nintendo’s core audience and the core gamers as a “small number” of their customers. Not fans, supporters, pillars, or even informed enthusiasts. We’re customers; and a statistical rounding-error to boot. While image, reputation, and customer service are important to any company’s business, the core gamer is already a tiny piece of the pie compared to their current and potential demographic (of everyone); and Nintendo has bigger fish to fry than appease us, the vocal minority. They could likely cut out all of us and still be ahead of the game, no pun intended. So we can whine all we want, it’s just becoming less and less relevant to their strategy of assimilating the entire world’s population into gaming.
Plus, it’s no secret that the company’s marketing of its software is and has always been rather poor, if nearly non-existent. For the sake of this discussion, their “biggest ever marketing push” surrounding Wii Fit is excluded, because it’s primarily a hardware offering, and also being targeted at everyone, of which core gamers are again a small subset.
Now I consume a lot of media–a LOT–and can honestly say that except for a Mario Kart Wii spot last week, the last TV commercials I saw for any Big-N game was one of two, both about the same time frame last fall: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and Brain Age 2 DS (with the Crimson/Onyx DS). Either Nintendo isn’t marketing its software in venues the core gamer resides, or they’re not doing it at all; another unfortunate sign of our clan being marginalised. The Wii system hardware really needs no advertising…the thing sells itself. But with so many non-core gamers buying the system and no real marketing to support its games, how on earth does a company expect to rake in the recurring revenue? Enter the Nintendo Channel.
What better way to create a marketing campaign for a very captive audience–just the Wii owners–for free, or at least very cheaply? Give the people who might only be playing Wii Sports a chance to see what other games are out there. Of course, only show them the commercials and other marketing assets, because seeing is believing. Wait…I specifically remember seeing and hearing first-hand both Reggie and Iwata two years ago this week at E3 2006 and their pre-show bonanza touting “Playing is Believing”.
Obviously I think the biggest missed opportunity with the Nintendo Channel is the lack of Wii demos. Granted, that would put additional focus on the whole storage dilemma, but wouldn’t that really only affect us small percentage of avid gamers? We ought to be used to struggling with our makeshift solutions by now to make do. Perhaps the storage issues really aren’t issues at all. The DS doesn’t have a hard drive, but it has downloadable demos. How is it that the superior specs of the Wii make it less capable of doing exactly the same thing? If kid brother can do it, big brother can too. Or perhaps offering demos will only expand the storage needs and concerns out into the mainstream, and create the need for an internal system of rating, testing and approving the additional content; both solutions they want to postpone? That’s a lot of rhetoric…best pull myself back to reality.
For me as the quintessential Ninty fan and avid gamer, a channel on the Wii to view game footage is going to be precisely 44 steps behind my web browser in both timeliness and amount of content available. I guess there’s always the DS demos…but if I didn’t already own one, it’s nothing more than a lure for me to buy one. Since the DS and Wii have virtually no other connectivity between one another, the demos almost seem off-topic. But as a core gamer, I do have a DS and will gladly accept the bones thrown my way.
In the end, the Nintendo Channel fits nicely with my weather and photo channels as novelties to show my non-gaming friends, propagating the expanded audience philosophy. It’s like one of those infomercials you hate clogging up the airwaves, but you just can’t resist tuning in. Maybe some megaton announcements in the coming months will prove me completely wrong; I sincerely hope that’s the case. Or maybe once Nintendo has converted all of humanity into core gamers, they’ll have no choice but to listen to us. But in the meantime, I can’t help but feel like the cuckold whose wife is sleeping with everyone in town, yet I put up with it because dammit, I still love her anyway.
a few Mario Kart Wii wallpapers, whipped up in 1920 x 1200 resolution. enjoy!
the other night, i finally got a hold of The Simpsons Game demo, on both the xbox360 and ps3, after much hype from EA, and how they had a game that actually used a licensed property, properly. from level design and theme to a complex visual 3D style developed to mimic the show’s 2D animation style to the content: 8,000 lines of dialogue recorded by the actual cast, written by the show writers, which also means the content reflects the show’s quirky and often satirical nature. needless to say, being a huge “Simpsons” fan, i was excited to try it. below are my impressions of that demo.
first up was the PS3 edition, mainly because i like and use it more regularly. plus, the PS3’s 1080p resolution means it’s likely to look better than the 720p/1080i the 360 can output (note that the 360 offers me the option to output at 1080p as well, but using the official hd cables from microsoft causes a signal blackout when attempting to use that resolution, so my max is effectively capped until they release a software/firmware fix). so expecting the best visual presentation was the primary reason for choosing one version over the other; being able to set a benchmark for visuals was a consideration.
as far as presentation, both versions are nearly identical. the opening cinematic while not mind-boggling, definitely fits the feel of the show, and sets up the forthcoming action quite well, with only a brief fade to black transition between the FMV and live game. graphics are pretty on par between the two, despite differing resolutions, making me wonder how well the wii edition would stack up considering the flat, cel-shaded nature of the visuals. the 360 did seem to have a slightly lower polygon count, but because of it’s style, such a shortcoming is rather hidden unless you’re meticulously scouring the screen for it.
pleased, i was even more anxious to play. unfortunately, the controls are where the game completely falls apart. perhaps seasoned vets of certain gaming genres would have no problem with the dual-stick setup governing the camera by one and the character by the other. but for me, it took some time to adjust, mainly because the automated behaviour of the camera seemed so hell-bent on disrupting my view and disorienting me, that i spent more time battling the POV than the enemies. for a level where the boss was much larger than the screen, the camera is incredibly important in ensuring enough of the objectives are visible; it’s hard to hit targets one can’t see.
it’s fair to say that the strategy for toppling this boss isn’t exactly rocket science; it’s a simple 1-2 method common to many bosses from so many games: hit a weak point to stun, then move in for the thrashing, ad nauseam. so for me to explain the problem in some detail shouldn’t be spoiling much of anything, though to actually achieve all this with the given controls was excruciatingly tedious at best, and controller-throwing, hole-punched-in-the-wall frustrating at the worst. the problem is that simple mechanics like jumping make the second and third stages of the boss fight nigh impossible, accomplishable only by what seems a fluke; some sort of lucky accident.
here’s how it works: a target on the backside of the boss indicates where you should toss a projectile. if you can hit it, a trap door opens downward to make a small platform you can stand upon. get onto it, and you have access to the wiry innards. apply some muscle to them and the weak point is demolished. a total of three such points exist, each progressively higher on the statue’s figure, making access to the panel progressively more difficult. the only way to reach them is by scaling the environment to higher ground. with the wonky jumping, that’s easier said than done, but should you manage it, you have one shot at jumping off and onto the boss’ tiny opened panel. homer simply doesn’t have the range when jumping from a building or structure, leaving bart’s caped wonder transformation the most likely candidate, which can glide a short distance. unfortunately the accuracy of the gliding controls are about equal to throwing a paper airplane off the empire state building; good luck with that.
the only upswing is that while repeating the tedium of climbing all sorts of buildings over and over, you get to stumble on the other things in the game, such as the collectable tidbits, temporary powerups, and revealing hidden features, such as the ‘comic store guy’ and his video game cliches (for example, in all your gliding about, you’re likely to hit the invisible boundaries of the level. that’s a gaming cliche: you can see beyond the level, but you can’t get there.) of course the downside to the serendipity of finding these things sets in when you realise why; not because you have all sorts of time and freedom, but because you’re just trying to beat the damn level to no effect.
for what it’s worth, whether it was the physical controller, or residual effects of slightly different code bases between consoles, the xbox360 felt more accommodating. not that i came even close to the target completion time in either case. yes, each level in the game has a preset time to beat it, in this case it was 3-4 minutes, which i found out after FINALLY beating the thing. at least it wasn’t a countdown timer–they let you go until you finish–and give you a score based on all the collectables and time. if they had made me play for 4 minutes at a time to try and beat this level, not only would i have never, ever finished, but i would have likely found two of my gaming consoles the casualties of my own frustrations. if you’re curious, my run-through on the ps3 took an hour and nineteen minutes to beat, and the xbox360 took 29 minutes; a far cry from 3 or 4. i’m not a bad gamer if that’s what you’re thinking 😛
overall, graphics get a 4.0 or 4.5 out of 5. controls get about 1.5 to 2.0 out of 5. i have to wonder if the progression of gameplay from the beginning helps to ease in a player and build their aptitude, making battles such as this level easier somehow. but as a demo without this benefit (if it even does exist), it hinders more than helps me, and really ruins the experience, making my enthusiasm for wanting to try the rest of the game absent at best. i give the demo a 2.5 out of 5; a general blend of positives and negatives. don’t say i didn’t warn you.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been so passionate about a gamer-related issue that I am compelled to write at length about it, and as always, I will be as wordy as possible, and surely rattle a few cages. As you might guess from the image to the right, I’m talking about the holiday thievery known as “flipping”; it’s when someone buys a hot item with the only intention of reselling it for a profit, a miniature economy which has evolved from the age-old ticket scalpers with the help of the internet and sites like eBay or Craigslist. However, the holiday gift-giving season adds its own finger-licking secret herbs and spices to the equation; the variable upon which the debate spins: ethics, and is the practice of flipping appropriate this time of year?
Earlier this month, RawmeatCowboy posted a couple, stories on GoNintendo which coincided with a discussion on their messageboards about this very habit, and just how ethical people consider the practice to be. Rawmeat tends to keep his opinions from interfering with news stories, which is why editorials like this or the “End of Day” posts make great places to speak one’s mind on all these happenings in our world.
Let me start by saying that I don’t honestly expect to change anyone’s mind or the world here, but rather foster some healthy discussion in either the comments or the above thread to really help explore the angles and share viewpoints. It’s a polarising topic to be sure–either you’re for or against–and little area in between.
Having in the past experienced everything from launch day waiting lines to working a customer service desk at a national toy retailer for several holiday seasons, I have seen and heard enough to understand both sides of the issue. Back when Pokémon first emerged in America, to the infamous Tickle Me Elmo, N64, and furbie, I routinely was put in the crossfire of “scalper” and “gifter”, as I will call them. In addition, my experience working in advertising–especially for retail giants–grants another unique perspective to the mix.
So what about it? To put it bluntly, all things considered, I find the practise somewhere between tacky and despicable.
[singlepic=865,250,250,right]thought of the day: what is the plural of ‘jesus’?
on an abstract but related note (leaders of large groups), wanted to post a new image…it’s a painting/retouching effort for a fund-raiser, using dick schulze, the founder of best buy, as the focus. final piece was professionally printed and framed for entry in a silent auction, benefitting a children’s charity.
and finally, a quick fun gaming link… ever dream of the world built of legos? some have, but what about game worlds? i would KILL for a lego mario game. LINK 1 | LINK 2
![Across The Universe [Deluxe Edition]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/11VojmSPX1L.jpg)
listening to:
Across The Universe [Deluxe Edition]
Various Artists