Saturday, March 13, 2010

Get Off My Lawn!

This post will actually have nothing to do with lawn care or lawns in any fashion. Too bad grass enthusiasts! This blog is not yours! Anyways, the title is just because that's a generic angry old man yellin' phrase that comes to my head. I needed one of those, because this post is about them damned kids and how they are ruining the world as we know it. And by the world as we know it, I mean video games. And by video games, I mean video games.

I suppose Nintendo is the one to thank for this current trend toward these stupid motion controls. But their console could have fallen flat on it's face, failed miserable and nobody would have blinked an eye. Nerds like me would have laughed, at the fact that they got what they deserved for straying away from the people that made them who they are today in the first place, real gamers. People who actually, you know, play video games. There is nothing wrong with going after the common man, making simple games for kids. That however should not be the main focus of your console.

It's ruining video games as we know it too. I'm sure you could find a billion other posts on this topic, but it's true. With the recent unveiling of Sony's Move, I have gotten sad and needed to write about this topic. The Movie is essentially the Wiimote and Nunchuk attachment. Not even essentially. It is. With the added bonus of a colored ping pong ball on top of the remote. This is all a very disturbing trend, I'm pretty sure the Sixaxis which came with the PS3 on day one was all because of the mind boggling success of the Wii. I hate the Sixaxis, anytime a game (like Marvel Ultimate Alliance) tried to cram it into a game, it got annoying and hardly worked. I'd tilt the controller and get no feedback and get my ass kicked by the boss. Lame shit, right?

Well, who are the people we have to thank for this godawful trend? Family gamers, kids. Grand parents who don't know what's what. I guess this has been a trend for years. It's why awful movie game tie-ins happen, it's why challenging games as we know them have been disappearing. Demon's Souls was so very refreshing, because it provided a challenge. It makes you think and plan. Happy Feet the game, you hit the up button twice and you win.

Hopefully developers, publishers and the makers of the consoles themselves won't fall into the black pit of making only crap ass, movie-tie ins, remakes and the rehasing of the same game from 1986, but in 3D! (I'm looking at you Mario), then we as a the video gaming crowd will be left to wallow in what could have been a great entertainment medium, but just become another toy for kids.

Hopefully games like Demon's Souls, Heavy Rain and even the Gears of Wars, God of Wars and mature blockbuster games show this isn't happening.

The Wii's continued sales and the crap software people continue to buy says otherwise though.

2 comments:

Jory said...

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Apocalyptus said...

Still, you can't deny what Wii has done for the gaming community - bring it into the mainstream. Now that a lot more people are likely to identify themselves as gamers, they will be more likely to try other more traditional type games. Perhaps even legislators will be less likely to see gaming as something dangerous to children etc. that needs to be over regulated.