25 Dumbest Moments In Gaming Concluded

Thanks to Gamespy for finishing up its 25 Dumbest Moments In Gaming set of articles by picking their Top 5 mistakes of all time. We ran a story on these articles earlier in the week, and congratulate Slashdot commenter Saige for correctly guessing Gamespy's No.1 pick, Atari passing on producing and distributing the NES Stateside. Plus, well done to, uhm, pretty much everyone for guessing a certain long-haired FPS designer might make it into the Top 5 somewhere.

Comments

John Romero

[fredrikj]

long-haired FPS designer

Damnit, get your facts right! John Romero cut his hair! (scroll down)

Re:John Romero

[simoniker]

Heh :) I guess I knew that, but he'll always be long-haired in my heart.. *swoon*.

Re:Gaming success

[Chris Mattern]

> Based on this series, its appearent that noone has actually succeeded in the console game
> market, just some people have failed less.

You think so? I noticed a distinct lack of one major console maker in this series, except for cameo appearances as the guys who ate the idiots' lunch. Hint: Their initials are S O N Y.

Chris Mattern

It's very easy to be smart in hindsight

[Anonymous Coward]

These gamespy people are pretty smarmy. They make it look like they are true business experts and were more or less able to tell the future.

Doing business in the gaming market is a risk. Doing business in any market is a risk. You can do studies and demographics and all that crap and still get products that people don't want, while bizarre pieces of crap become insanely popular.

Case in point: Tamogochi

They point at Romero and laugh at daikatana like they knew from day one it was going to suck ass. Look at it at the time, Romero and Carmack had made perhaps THE game of the century, and now he was making another. Imagine! If Daikatana had not sucked everyone would be eating crusty turds out of his toilet and liking it.

Re:It's very easy to be smart in hindsight

[NanoGator]

"These gamespy people are pretty smarmy. They make it look like they are true business experts and were more or less able to tell the future. "

I know what you mean. I'm a little surprised they felt that the GBA shoudln't have been launched without a light. They obviously don't understand that Sega, Atari, and NEC all learned lessons about that. All four systems had backlights (Sega had two, the Game Gear and Nomad), and all of them ate 6 AA's like they were candy. They also cost a good hunk of cash each. Game Gears ran $160. Lynx was $180. The Turbo Express was... what, $400 I think? (That was a niche item, though) And the Nomad was launched at $200.

My point? The GBA, as it stood, ran for $99 when it was launched. It only takes two AA batteries and it lasts for ages on it. Yes, the screen was the weak part. Nobody's arguing that. However, What if Nintendo had changed that? What would the rechargable battery plus the backlit screen have run if it had launched back in 2001? How many people would have paid $150ish for it?

Yes, it would have been nice if Nintendo had launched the SP and skipped the original GBA. I doubt that many people would have paid the extra price for it. If sales weren't good, you can bet that the game selection that makes everybody glad to have a GBA would have suffered.

I wouldn't consider that one of the 25 bad moments in gaming history, especially when there are plenty of other unsuccessful portable gaming systems that sported dumb designs.

Re:It's very easy to be smart in hindsight

[NanoGator]

". The only possible reason I can think of that they might decide not to do this was because they thought it would make the machine too complicated."

Actually, I think it had to do more with the little room they had for them. As it is, people find the unit too small. Gotta admit, tho, it's damn mobile. I think Nintendo's the only company that's ever made a true pocket-sized portable system. I haven't messed with a GP32 or Neo Geo pocket before... More buttons would have been nice, but I'd want a bigger system if they did that.

One other possibilty comes to mind, which touches on your point: Nintendo's lately been focusing on making games more direct. The Game Cube is a good example. It has a bunch of buttons, but it's got that big red A button smack in the middle. Zelda, for example, stopped using a jump button back in Ocarina of Time. Why make the user jump in an adventure game? Just have the system know where to jump. Mario Sunshine was all about jumping, and that's what the A button did. The rest were secondary functions.

I don't think it's because Nintendo's assuming people are idiots, but rather because they'd rather the games be more enjoyable by demanding less from the user. That sorta make sense? Game design really affects Nintendo's controller designs. (as opposed to making a controller with a lot of buttons and hoping developers make good use of them. *cough*Jaguar*cough*)