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The X Button - Expo Exposed

Yeah, I really miss when gaming was more of a "nerdy" thing, like in the SNES and PS1 gens. Once Xbox came around, it started becoming a lot more mainstream and all the Americans want their violent shooters and realistic looking graphics, while before that it focused a lot more on actual fun, and not worrying about being "Cool". And now even Nintendo, the one place left that doesn't do these gritty games, is just focusing on casuals with bite size games I don't care about.

Everything you stated

Publisher 7sixty's long-delayed Phantom Breaker might ship this week, and the Xbox 360 fighter was covered in two previous columns. You're not fooling me again, Phantom Breaker.

RyanSaotome wrote:

Everything you stated

Indeed, I miss the PS1 and PS2 era, where they literally tried everything from every genre to appeal to as wide an audience as remotely possible. Those were really some of the best times of my life with video games, especially the summer of 2000. Now that was one summer I will never forget. Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana, Threads of Fate, SaGa Frontier II, the nostalgia just makes me want to cry.

Unfortunately, most (not all) of the industries can only concern themselves with earnings since they need capital to stay in business (which is understandable from an economic viewpoint). Faced with this reality, they have to stick to the formula of relying on the same spiel that put them on the map in the first place. I can't fault Nintendo's people too much; they know how to keep Mario well-seated on his throne with his big flashy Nintendo crown because they try just about anything with him while adding some extra notes that keep him appealing to the masses no matter the age level As for the others, well you pretty much said it: "Violence is cool, and so are guns and bombs! Huh huh."

It's funny you mention Chrono Trigger. I've been doing a kind of "good ol' days of gaming" theme these past couple of months. I'm playing Breath of Fire II, Chrono Trigger, Monster World IV and Phantasy Star I. Sometimes keeping it simple was the best way to reel in a crowd. You didn't need a battle system loaded with meters and bars everywhere to get a person's attention in an RPG. Sometimes all you need are the HP and MP displays and a cute little anime portrait. I ask you Ryan, what happened to those days?

To bluntly put it we are getting older and the type of games that are coming out on the market now are appealing to younger crowd. We in general are not the target audience for gaming anymore the sooner you realize this the better off you are or learn to adapt with the current trend.

Anywho...most of E3, yawn. Lots of stuff looks cool, but not for me these days.

As for the others, well you pretty much said it: "Violence is cool, and so are guns and bombs! Huh huh."

I can't agree with the nostalgia here. Sometimes, you want a littke violence in your life. And games back then weren't better or anything , it's just Nostalgia blinding you.

Cecilthedarkknight_234 wrote:

To bluntly put it we are getting older and the type of games that are coming out on the market now are appealing to younger crowd. We in general are not the target audience for gaming anymore the sooner you realize this the better off you are or learn to adapt with the current trend.

Are we all over 40 here? Gaming, nowadays, most definitely hits the 18-34 age demographic. I agree that some of us are not the target audience, though.

As long as Japan continues to produce quirky, yet fun games, I'm good to go.

We in general are not the target audience for gaming anymore the sooner you realize this the better off you are or learn to adapt with the current trend.

Quote:

Publisher 7sixty's long-delayed Phantom Breaker might ship this week, and the Xbox 360 fighter was covered in two previous columns. You're not fooling me again, Phantom Breaker.

Looks like Phantom Breaker was pushed back again...

Amazon has it at September 26th now. That's a long delay... I wonder if they're fixing stuff in the game that early reviewers didn't like?

RyanSaotome wrote:

Yeah, I really miss when gaming was more of a "nerdy" thing, like in the SNES and PS1 gens. Once Xbox came around, it started becoming a lot more mainstream and all the Americans want their violent shooters and realistic looking graphics, while before that it focused a lot more on actual fun, and not worrying about being "Cool". And now even Nintendo, the one place left that doesn't do these gritty games, is just focusing on casuals with bite size games I don't care about.

Same here.

I really miss the old days of PC gaming when there were lots of different and cool stuff coming out every month from all kinds of publishers. It was also the time where the majority of FPS's were on PC and having a computer back in the 90s (especially one that could play such games) was a big deal. Not everyone had a computer. So, it was really fun to play online (dial-up modem) with friends (sometimes local lan) or like-minded people from bbs's - from my experience, it was less bullshit back then and namecalling going on.

Of course with consoles back then, it was the place to play those games produced by the Japanese. It was a good mix back in the day between console and PC gaming.

I agree about the Xbox changing the landscape since it's pretty similar to developing games on the PC and that was the direction PC gaming was going - more realism and making really nice FPS because you could push the hardware more. So, it was much easier to port or develop a PC like game on the Xbox for some western developers.

Now that was one summer I will never forget. Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana, Threads of Fate, SaGa Frontier II, the nostalgia just makes me want to cry.

As for the others, well you pretty much said it: "Violence is cool, and so are guns and bombs! Huh huh."

To bluntly put it we are getting older and the type of games that are coming out on the market now are appealing to younger crowd. We in general are not the target audience for gaming anymore the sooner you realize this the better off you are or learn to adapt with the current trend. I still like fps games and some over the top violence such as mad world, fallout 3/nv and god of war. my concern is releasing a game x every year, charging 50 more dollars besides the amount you paid for the game for dlc then rinse/repeat the same cycle next year or be left out in the cold

I wrote off E3 several years ago for anything other hardware news. It's become an increasingly same-y looking and increasingly gory mush of juvenile male power fantasy. I've also been somewhat disturbed at the increasing degree that the violence is being fetishized in some of these games.

belvadeer wrote:

As for the others, well you pretty much said it: "Violence is cool, and so are guns and bombs! Huh huh."

I think there's going to start being a significant backlash against this in the near future. Things are changing for the better, albeit slowly. Some of the video game press is beginning to talk about the violence issue and I suspect its going to become a bigger issue in the next few years.

People are complaining about a lack of variety and creativity, that maybe its a problem that the vast majority of games seem to involve graphically murdering people. That maybe it would be nice to have some things that branched out a bit and that maybe its not a good thing that the medium is largely represented by graphic murder simulators.

Basically, people are saying about modern (mostly Western) video games more or less what people have been complaining about "moe ruining anime" for years.

superdry wrote:

Basically, people are saying about modern (mostly Western) video games more or less what people have been complaining about "moe ruining anime" for years.

True. Japanese gaming may be headed the same way. It's increasingly becoming harder for J-developers to market outside Japan, so they're becoming insular and developing the same types of games that sell only in Japan, leading to mainly limited budget VN sims and turn-based RPGs for handhelds.

"Violence is cool, and so are guns and bombs! Huh huh."

enurtsol wrote:

superdry wrote: Basically, people are saying about modern (mostly Western) video games more or less what people have been complaining about "moe ruining anime" for years. True. Japanese gaming may be headed the same way. It's increasingly becoming harder for J-developers to market outside Japan, so they're becoming insular and developing the same types of games that sell only in Japan, leading to mainly limited budget VN sims and turn-based RPGs for handhelds.

This is a good article I read a little while ago about how the Japanese gaming scene has been changing.

http://www.1up.com/features/japanese-games-breaking-west

A little thing called moe is making a big impact on recent Japanese game development.

"Small developers make their money by selling less at a higher profit margin, while major publishers sell more for less. If you publish small games in Japan you have to give your fans what you want, and since your fans are otaku who revel in moe, you'll give them games filled with the characters that elicit that response -- which are usually young, childlike girls. Between August and December of this year there are a total of 35 games set for release in Japan which follow this exact model. There are more games like this than there are FPSs in the west. By catering to their fan base, smaller publishers have alienated many western fans."

Incidentally, "gaming" as a hobby is more mainstream-accepted in the West than in Japan. It wasn't that way a decade ago, when pretty much gaming is considered for geeks and students still in school. Now, everybody plays it --working people, family parents, jocks, girls, etc.-- with no longer the stigma of being weird but rather socially accepted. That's why games are selling so many now - there are more potential buyers. Gamers in the 80's and 90's have grown up, took over from the previous generation in powerful positions, and passed it on to their children.