Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Kicking ass and taking names
A story about Nick's life.
Just kidding, though it would be kind of funny to chronicle the underground fighting circuit Nick participated in his youth.
I came across a quote in the newest issue of Game Informer I thought was kind of interesting. Ok, I didn’t come across it. I haven’t read GI in years. But, someone quoted it for me. Anyway, it’s from Reggie, the PR man at Nintendo. I assume after giving the quote he kicked their ass for their lame Paper Mario review.
“We believe that the consumer wants more in the area of community, and we are looking at how to deliver that. We think the online approach of today is a bit flawed. We think the consumer wants a better way. And that's what we're looking to do with Revolution. What I am saying is that with our next home console we will address the area of gamer community. You said "online." I used "online" as a description of a flawed business model. We are passionate about enabling our gamers to play with their friends [and] to play with others across long distances. There are a number of different ways to execute that.”
Apparently, the Revolution refers to how Nintendo will approach online in the next generation. It appears that Nintendo is trying to completely reinvent online gaming. In a few years, everything we know about online gaming could obsolete if Nintendo has their way.
First, a brief note about Nintendo’s online history: they don’t like it. Yes, they begrudgingly released an online adaptor for the Gamecube, but they didn’t market it, didn’t make a game for it, and don’t really care if anyone buys it. Why is Nintendo so down on online? Simple, they can’t make money off it now. With the added development time and the cost of maintaining servers, Nintendo sees online gaming as a money pit. Tie in the fact they don’t realize there is a world outside of Japan, where people have to pay just to make a local phone call, and you have a company that won’t jump into the internet fray until things are much different.
This community idea seems to tie in with the money making need Nintendo has expressed. Right now, pretty much no one goes online with their console. I read somewhere less than 10% of all Xbox owners have Live. Let’s be generous and say 49% go online. That is still less than half. The majority of gamers do not enjoy going online. It’s as simple as that. Why? Because it’s a dark, isolated place where people are free to be jerks and the nice are left on the sidelines. Not the most welcome place for the average gamer.
Maybe Nintendo is thinking about making an honest to goodness video game city online. A place where every gamer knows every other gamer’s name. A place where you are accountable for what you say and what you do. A place where fun takes center stage. Where the overly competitive, ranking whores are left to wallow in their own sad misery. Maybe Nintendo has devised a way to set up a virtual community, where people can talk about various things they have in common and enjoy a friendly game of Mario Tennis.
Clearly, this seems like a pipe dream. And, as good as this seems to someone like me who has met his fair of assholes online, it still isn’t enough to get the average gamer interested. In addition to this community approach to gaming, Nintendo also needs to find a way to make online gaming necessary. I’m not talking about getting patches or upgrades to games. I’m talking about games that use online so well that they add infinite amounts of fun and replayability to the average game.
Just like Nintendo needs to create software for the DS that not only supports the touchpad but makes them much better because of it, Nintendo needs to find a way to make online essential. They have standardized other attempts at changing games before – look at analog control and the Rumble Pack from last generation. I really am curious how Nintendo will convince the masses to go online, because clearly this is where the future lies.
Just kidding, though it would be kind of funny to chronicle the underground fighting circuit Nick participated in his youth.
I came across a quote in the newest issue of Game Informer I thought was kind of interesting. Ok, I didn’t come across it. I haven’t read GI in years. But, someone quoted it for me. Anyway, it’s from Reggie, the PR man at Nintendo. I assume after giving the quote he kicked their ass for their lame Paper Mario review.
“We believe that the consumer wants more in the area of community, and we are looking at how to deliver that. We think the online approach of today is a bit flawed. We think the consumer wants a better way. And that's what we're looking to do with Revolution. What I am saying is that with our next home console we will address the area of gamer community. You said "online." I used "online" as a description of a flawed business model. We are passionate about enabling our gamers to play with their friends [and] to play with others across long distances. There are a number of different ways to execute that.”
Apparently, the Revolution refers to how Nintendo will approach online in the next generation. It appears that Nintendo is trying to completely reinvent online gaming. In a few years, everything we know about online gaming could obsolete if Nintendo has their way.
First, a brief note about Nintendo’s online history: they don’t like it. Yes, they begrudgingly released an online adaptor for the Gamecube, but they didn’t market it, didn’t make a game for it, and don’t really care if anyone buys it. Why is Nintendo so down on online? Simple, they can’t make money off it now. With the added development time and the cost of maintaining servers, Nintendo sees online gaming as a money pit. Tie in the fact they don’t realize there is a world outside of Japan, where people have to pay just to make a local phone call, and you have a company that won’t jump into the internet fray until things are much different.
This community idea seems to tie in with the money making need Nintendo has expressed. Right now, pretty much no one goes online with their console. I read somewhere less than 10% of all Xbox owners have Live. Let’s be generous and say 49% go online. That is still less than half. The majority of gamers do not enjoy going online. It’s as simple as that. Why? Because it’s a dark, isolated place where people are free to be jerks and the nice are left on the sidelines. Not the most welcome place for the average gamer.
Maybe Nintendo is thinking about making an honest to goodness video game city online. A place where every gamer knows every other gamer’s name. A place where you are accountable for what you say and what you do. A place where fun takes center stage. Where the overly competitive, ranking whores are left to wallow in their own sad misery. Maybe Nintendo has devised a way to set up a virtual community, where people can talk about various things they have in common and enjoy a friendly game of Mario Tennis.
Clearly, this seems like a pipe dream. And, as good as this seems to someone like me who has met his fair of assholes online, it still isn’t enough to get the average gamer interested. In addition to this community approach to gaming, Nintendo also needs to find a way to make online gaming necessary. I’m not talking about getting patches or upgrades to games. I’m talking about games that use online so well that they add infinite amounts of fun and replayability to the average game.
Just like Nintendo needs to create software for the DS that not only supports the touchpad but makes them much better because of it, Nintendo needs to find a way to make online essential. They have standardized other attempts at changing games before – look at analog control and the Rumble Pack from last generation. I really am curious how Nintendo will convince the masses to go online, because clearly this is where the future lies.
// posted by Tom @ 11:43 AM 
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