The Daily ‘Shroom/Points of Interest – 12/22/06
Late day today, Christmas season, etc. Not going to leave you empty-handed, but I’m just going to try and run over the big stories today, and lump the rest of the stuff in tomorrow’s editions.
- Nintendo has offered up a press release which names the games to expect on Christmas morning. Super Mario Bros., Super Castlevania IV (FINALLY), Toejam & Earl, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, and R-Type will land after Santa’s departure, with Baseball and the game only I seem to hold any appreciation for, Urban Champion, ringing in the New Year…
How very odd that they’re charging extra for R-Type…
- Forbes thinks that the days of gaming as we know it are numbered.
Me, I’m not so sure. For one thing, not to knock PC gaming, there’s some great stuff out there, but I usually prefer to do my gaming from the bed or couch rather than a swivel-chair.
- Behold, the history of the FPS… with pictures.
- Plans for DS/Wii connectivity are well under way, says Nintendo.
- And you thought the original XBox controller was huge.
Watching two guys play Super Mario Bros. has never been so much fun.
- IGN has tons of TMNT tidbits, including the movie’s voice cast, a new poster, and pics.
…Kevin Smith in a TMNT movie? Sold.
- Harry Potter takes on his final adventure in the newly-named Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
…and that’s all for tonight. Seeya tomorrow!
–LBD “Nytetrayn”
December 22nd, 2006 at 9:57 am
1. One word: Awesome.
2. That article disgusts me. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were right, but I seriously doubt it. It brings up some good points, like the “unstealability” of recurring-charge games like World of Warcraft. But can you really see that becoming the norm?
Can you really see someone playing more than one or two of these games at once? I liked WoW, but it didn’t create SO strong a hold that I couldn’t stop playing. And eventually, I had to, because I found I was lacking the time. Playing two such games? Where your character remains stagnant while the rest of the world keeps moving? Also, they are time-consuming. It’s not like you can play for five minutes, then say, “Well, I’ll play another five minutes after this show, then another five minutes later…” You could play like that, but your progress would be significantly slower than someone who could crawl a dungeon for hours and face the challenge of the deeper depths.
Also, the cost! $10 a month is not a bad deal, but again, if you play more, then the costs will stack. $20 a month, or $240 a year, is not too bad as you’d consider that would be slightly less than buying five new games a year (or maybe eight portable games). I would imagine a lot of people buy more than that number of games per year. But then you’d be trading five games for two… Or, I could just keep swapping which online game I’m playing, but I have to make sure to make the appropriate changes in billing because I don’t want to be charged for a game I’m not playing. Not quite as simple as swapping a disc or cartridge…
It’s true we seem to be getting flooded by a wave of new online RPGs like this (110% from Korea, it seems) that are trying to be the next Ragnarok or Warcraft. But I think this genre of gaming needs a revolution of its own. As nice as it is that you can log into a world and have a lot of possibilities laid out before you, I would feel bored playing in the same world for too long. As much as I like Mario, I don’t want to stay in his world forever; I want to also visit Samus and Link. And to me, online games like Warcraft are boring… As many nice things that WoW has going for it, it still seems to fit into that same old formula. It just does it better than its predecessors.
Remember when the news came out, that the next Dragon Quest installment would be for DS? It was either Toastyfrog or Chris Kohler (or both) that were saying this could signal an end time for consoles but a rise for handhelds. I have to agree that I see handhelds as much more serious gaming machines, now that they’re handling more complex games. What can I do with my DS that I can’t do with my consoles or my PC? I can take it anywhere. I can play in a vehicle, I can play at work (during breaks, of course), I can play in the bathroom, I can even play outdoors (sometimes), or I can play at home, like you said, on the couch or in bed or even in a swivel chair. And when I’m interrupted I can either quit & save or enter sleep mode, then pick up where I left off.
That article puts way too large an emphasis on pirating. But then, that’s probably the bottom line companies look at: not how much people are enjoying their games, but how much they’re paying for them. It’s still giving pirating too much credit, though. As easy as he makes it sound, a lot of sales are still being generated… They can estimate their projected lost sales all day long, but in the end they are still making gobs of money.
I think what they should focus on is convenience. I love Twilight Princess to death, but if I can’t play it, I can’t play it. However, when Phantom Hourglass comes out, I can take that anywhere. I only have to worry when I run out of battery power and electricity. Also, ease of use — we can already see the Wii drawing crowds that would not fit the typical gamer demographic. Games are changing, but I think this guy is way off.
December 23rd, 2006 at 7:27 pm
It seems to me that R-Type will cost extra because of licensing issues. If Goldeneye were ever released on VC for example, it would definitely cost more than $10 to cover up those damn license fees.
December 24th, 2006 at 7:03 am
(2) – MMO’s become the death of consoles? That doesn’t even make any sense.
(3) – thats pre-Doom history. meh. there wasnt even such thing as FPS before Doom, as far as most of us are concerned.
A Doom-and-up history could have been a lot more relevant and interesting.
December 27th, 2006 at 9:34 am
The day MMOs take over is the day I stop gaming. Unless the genre changes considerably.
Shinkuu nicely covers the problem: too time consuming. And personally, I find them too simple.