Artsygamer

I’m quite happy to say that Bioshock 2’s lack of gamepad support, while personally sad for me and a reason to postpone the game until i’ll play it on a console is also a sign to me of hope: I used to think I was the only one who enjoys playing in a way that’s different from the way I work (mouse & keyboard in hand), with the kind of guilt that that brings for wanting somethign else when everybody keeps arguing how great the mouse is… but on this occasion I found articles like this one http://www.destructoid.com/bioshock-2-controller-support-dropped-internet-rages-163177.phtml reminding me that there are people out there who feel similarly. More than being just a personal story I think this is a story about the game industry (which is why i’m writing it here), a sign of it maturing, artificial barriers being broken: I think in years to come developers will take more and more note on this, and to maximize their sales they will do what is also kind/morally right: bring games to as wide an audience as possible, not just hardcore gamers, embracing the fact that we as humans are diverse, and that’s not a bad but a good thing. We’ll see in another cycle if I’m right (or dare I hope for less than 5 years?).

PS: being the conspiracy theorist that I am i believe their decision to drop gamepad support is more economical/strategice/political than design related as they argue. I don’t honestly believe “they focused on the mouse & keyboard interface”. Even for games that were NEVER made for gamepads with some clever remappings I was able to play them quite well, so I strongly believe that especially for a game where it has not only been proven in the prequel to work great, meaning they already had the technology in place, but also for one which I believe will make most of it’s sales on consoles meaning that the interface is already proven…

Most of them wouldn’t have been my choices… but they were chosen for other criteria than artwork… social impact, and in that way I think they’re prolly right (i’m surprised not to see Silent hill 2 up there though).

I happen to love gamepads. I won’t get into the full debate as to why here, but rather i’d like to touch on something else: I always thought it’s only my friends who are always teasing me about this, but I’ve had the displeasure of finding out the internet is fulllll of intolerant people. Google the name of a pc game and a gamepad, like somebody like me who might like to do that would, and you’ll certainly find a forum thread that goes something like this:
Q: "hi, i was wondering if yon play ____ with a gamepad"
A1: "gamepads suck!! keyboards and mouse rule! you’re stupid for wanting that"
A2: "gamepads? seriously! ) ha ha. you don’t have precision with those, this game was meant to be played with the keyboard & mouse"
A3: "you can’t play a FPS with a gamepad!!!!"
…
Not only is that quite rude & intolerant of other peoples’ tastes and interests (be it logical reasons, accesibility ones or simple confort & preference, I would have expected gamers of all people to be more enlightened than the people they call narrow minded who hate games), but on another level it’s totally changing the topic. That person was just looking for some help in a problem… that’s about as rude and nonsensical as another pattern i see often on forums:
Q: "hi, sorry, i’m new here, I just wanted to ask, I can afford to buy video card A or B and i was wondering which one is better. thank you"
A: "oh, you should save a little more and get card C"
again that’s quite insensitive i think to the fact that based on the question probably the person asking has probably already researched the market and established their desired price range and is just wondering in that price which one of the two to get, and then people jump in who think everybody can afford (or is willing) like them to get a super high end system…

I just thought i’d write this, not to complain, complaining is useless, but in the hopes that maybe it will remind us to be a lil more tolerant with other people’s tastes & possibilities instead of tryign to enforce our own values. So you like a mouse & i like a gamepad for our fpss? And yes, i do like games too, just like you… is it so absurd to believe that I would like to enjoy your favorite game in a way that is relaxing & enjoyable to me? Here’s a wish for everybody to accept taht we’re all different and it should be okay for you to enjoy sports games and me to enjoy rpgs and yet for us to be friends and partners in this great passion we share: games.

PS: it is though funny to entertain the debates, with both sides having such strong and passionate arguments. My personal view is that both sides are right, and one truth does not destroy the other, but it’s funny to see both sides having such strong supporters: from people getting angry even at the thought of using anything other than a mouse to people starting threads like "no PC gamepad support = No Sale!!!" ) With such strong supporters on both sides i just hope it doesn’t degenerate into crusades )

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A surprising article on Gamasutra:

Nielsen’s data, which actually covers the period from January through October, found that PS2 users accounted for 31.7 percent of the total time played from all nationwide gamers. The Xbox 360 was the year’s second-most popular console, with 17.2 percent of the time, followed by Wii at 13.4 percent.

Full read on Gamasutra.
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I was somewhat on the line with what Pachter was expecting that didn’t come out: i was pretty sure we’d see a PS3 price cut in june-july and another one in oct-dec… and none of them happened. I was kinda expecting Wii demand to drop but not as much as I expect it to in 2009-2010 when i expect it to drop very strong (maybe replaced by a new Nintendo product even?).

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My opinion:
broader audiences – yes
need for content – yes
longer lifecycles – yes
"no new consoles" – no!
I totally agree that there’s a crysis of content, but i do believe there’s also a need for more powerful hardware. Nothing in the near future (except for Nintendo *maybe*), but in 5 years i think we will see machines with 4x the computing power, power which will be used for better lighting in games. The content problem will be somewhat solved by a shift of the industry to better tools for artists and a growth of the industry to draw in more artists.

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I hate seeing variety & lack of censorship being blamed… i thin those are amazing things, but i am happy to say i think these days they can re-emerge: the internet can offer information about the things purchased AND once online distribution becomes more viable the worries about overproducing could be solved. Also I think now the market is much wider and can even suport niches… here’s to hoping the market doest not crash again… but EVEN if it did, fear not, games are too good a discovery to ever go away.

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From Kotaku: Ubisoft Acquires Visual Effects Studio Behind 300
Our glorious games industry is yet another step closer in the merger with (asymilation of?) the movie industry. It’s a shame to waste good assets, artits, footage… i do belive this is the future: why make some models/animation twice, both for the movies and games?
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my oh my! this is quite big (Gamespot article):

According to the NPD Group’s year-end figures, the US retail gaming industry took in $18.85 billion during 2007. That’s nearly twice the Motion Picture Association of America and Nielsen EDI’s record-setting US box office take of $9.6 billion for the year. The gaming industry even surpassed DVD sales in 2007, reported to be $16 billion by the Digital Entertainment Group and $15.9 billion by Adams Media Research.

Exciting, ain’t it? Now if only the rental business developed: we’ve already got movies beaten at the box office, now DVDs…
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Yep! they’re going to make animal themed games!!! How awesome is that?!?! Also a great win imo for the games industry as more people realize games are a medium that can contain a lot of great stuff, even educational stuff. Now if only we had more games had hundreds of pages worth of quality writing in them & more games that stray from the beaten path of "kill many enemies/anything you encounter" …

From the Reuters article announcing this:

Discovery Communications is partnering with the second-biggest U.S. video games publisher Activision Inc to make animal-themed games, Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav told the Reuters Media Summit on Wednesday.

 

Activision will make the games for several game systems, with the titles tied to Discovery’s Animal Planet channel, which airs popular shows such as "Meerkat Manor" and "Orangutan Island".

This exciting trend is expected to start in late 2008 … and I’m pretty sure once they start it won’t ever stop :p At the very least they can make use of the huge install base of consoles to deliver media rich content experiences of encyclopedic nature, though one can only hope they’ll also figure out how to get the full impact by making fun games out of that too.
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