This is quite a nice conversation and oh my, more mature than what we can see on other sites.
See I work in the game industry and from a developer stand point; the Wii MotionPlus is in fact what Nintendo promised in the first place. After prototyping countless gameplays based on what we were told, we realised that we couldn't deliver many of our ideas. At the end, we still managed to do interesting mechanics, but they somehow feel pale compare to what we first had in mind. If the specs for the MotionPlus are true, most of these ideas would've been possible.
From a customer perspective, it's far from being shiny as well. We bought the Wii, and then got to get the secure wrist strap. Later we had to get the latex jacket for the remote. Now, we have to get the MotionPlus, which will cause another size of latex jacket to get a grab on. This is far from being convenient. I can understand that for let's say the WiiSpeak, the Wii BalanceBoard or the Classic controller that it's alright to go into the steps of actually getting them in order to play games that are specifically made for them. But we are talking about the main controller here and I think this is unacceptable.
Why not just create a brand new Wii MotionPlus remote instead of the attachment? This would at least give the opportunity to offer something slicker and also the opportunity to offer rechargeable batteries. Let's be honest here, the Remote cost a lot of money in batteries. 3rd party alternatives aren't reliable at all and regular rechargeable batteries make you feel like you are always recharging them and last for less than two hours.
While trying to appeal to the largest possible audience, Nintendo seems to be missing the point in some areas. Most developers are gamers and in order to create the best games (no matter what audience is targeted), these pals and gals have to be motivated by the tools they have at their disposal to be stimulated and above all passionate. On the other side; getting granny and grandpa to get their hands on a game console is one thing, getting them to buy all the accessories, is another more complex one. These people might never hear about the MotionPlus.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no issues against the Big N. I just don’t know what to think about them anymore; both from a developer and a customer point of view. Maybe it’s just me. While I bought a 42’ inch tv to plug my PS3, I’m not wiling to spit 10 bucks on the Wii MotionPlus… how weird is that? My wonder is... was it that expensive 2 years ago. I think not. If the Wii would've been selling for what? 20$ more? Not that much of a deal! Also, let us not forget that this (maybe on a smaller scale) has already been seen in GBA games such as Wario Ware Twisted and Yoshi Topsy Turvy.
Hey Pascal, great work on the article; really detailed with an in-dept analysis.
However, I'm not sure that the game movie projects are that much of an issue. I would believe that the ratio of good games versus bad games is about the same that it is with regular games. I think we react that way simply because they 1.) are more visible and directly benefit from the movie promotion, 2.)use a subject that we love, 3.)create higher hypes and expectations.
While the reasons you mentioned that could possibly lead to the known reality of them being generally bad, are more likely to be true and realistic and that regular games suffer from other reasons, I think it’s sad to say that it all comes down to the same old thing; money.
Some of these rights owners don’t care about the quality; they don’t even care about their own properties, so why should they care about making good games. On a smaller (or even larger) scale this is true for other situations as well. Most novel or comics to movie adaptations are horrible and so does the opposite (novel based on movies). Not all toys related to kid movies are good quality. The list could be really long.
The bottom line is simple. Not everybody care about quality. Some people care, but don’t have the means. We are all very passionate about our industry and we often criticize more than we should, or at least to point where we simply forget to enjoy the simplest things.
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SimGrave's Comments
This is quite a nice conversation and oh my, more mature than what we can see on other sites.
See I work in the game industry and from a developer stand point; the Wii MotionPlus is in fact what Nintendo promised in the first place. After prototyping countless gameplays based on what we were told, we realised that we couldn't deliver many of our ideas. At the end, we still managed to do interesting mechanics, but they somehow feel pale compare to what we first had in mind. If the specs for the MotionPlus are true, most of these ideas would've been possible.
From a customer perspective, it's far from being shiny as well. We bought the Wii, and then got to get the secure wrist strap. Later we had to get the latex jacket for the remote. Now, we have to get the MotionPlus, which will cause another size of latex jacket to get a grab on. This is far from being convenient. I can understand that for let's say the WiiSpeak, the Wii BalanceBoard or the Classic controller that it's alright to go into the steps of actually getting them in order to play games that are specifically made for them. But we are talking about the main controller here and I think this is unacceptable.
Why not just create a brand new Wii MotionPlus remote instead of the attachment? This would at least give the opportunity to offer something slicker and also the opportunity to offer rechargeable batteries. Let's be honest here, the Remote cost a lot of money in batteries. 3rd party alternatives aren't reliable at all and regular rechargeable batteries make you feel like you are always recharging them and last for less than two hours.
While trying to appeal to the largest possible audience, Nintendo seems to be missing the point in some areas. Most developers are gamers and in order to create the best games (no matter what audience is targeted), these pals and gals have to be motivated by the tools they have at their disposal to be stimulated and above all passionate. On the other side; getting granny and grandpa to get their hands on a game console is one thing, getting them to buy all the accessories, is another more complex one. These people might never hear about the MotionPlus.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no issues against the Big N. I just don’t know what to think about them anymore; both from a developer and a customer point of view. Maybe it’s just me. While I bought a 42’ inch tv to plug my PS3, I’m not wiling to spit 10 bucks on the Wii MotionPlus… how weird is that? My wonder is... was it that expensive 2 years ago. I think not. If the Wii would've been selling for what? 20$ more? Not that much of a deal! Also, let us not forget that this (maybe on a smaller scale) has already been seen in GBA games such as Wario Ware Twisted and Yoshi Topsy Turvy.
Hey Pascal, great work on the article; really detailed with an in-dept analysis.
However, I'm not sure that the game movie projects are that much of an issue. I would believe that the ratio of good games versus bad games is about the same that it is with regular games. I think we react that way simply because they 1.) are more visible and directly benefit from the movie promotion, 2.)use a subject that we love, 3.)create higher hypes and expectations.
While the reasons you mentioned that could possibly lead to the known reality of them being generally bad, are more likely to be true and realistic and that regular games suffer from other reasons, I think it’s sad to say that it all comes down to the same old thing; money.
Some of these rights owners don’t care about the quality; they don’t even care about their own properties, so why should they care about making good games. On a smaller (or even larger) scale this is true for other situations as well. Most novel or comics to movie adaptations are horrible and so does the opposite (novel based on movies). Not all toys related to kid movies are good quality. The list could be really long.
The bottom line is simple. Not everybody care about quality. Some people care, but don’t have the means. We are all very passionate about our industry and we often criticize more than we should, or at least to point where we simply forget to enjoy the simplest things.
All SimGrave's Comments