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The Best Of GDC
Gamasutra's Question of the Week has been asked and answered, and from around the game industry there were brought forth opinions on The Highlights of GDC 2005. Overwhelmingly, people saw the "Burning Down the House" and "Spore" presentations as the most interestng, with a few other folks digging other parts of the conference more. From the article: "I think Nintendo's keynote speech was the most interesting moment for me. Coming a day after Microsoft's keynote, it highlighted the clear divergence between these company's platform strategies moving forward. If you're a gamer at heart (and have the heart of a gamer) root for Nintendo, as they seem to be more interested in gameplay innovation than making an uber-media-micropayment device. (HD-gaming be damned!) - Anonymous" The Puzzle Pirates and Game Atoms talks were probably my most amused moments during the conference. After all, Raph's talk had little monsters and the pirates brought rum.
"If you're a gamer at heart (and have the heart of a gamer) root for Nintendo, as they seem to be more interested in gameplay innovation than making an uber-media-micropayment device. (HD-gaming be damned!) - Anonymous"
Gosh. Rooting for the underdog, there's an original idea. Why would I ever want to root for Sony and Microsoft when all they ever did for me was bring over more original Japanese titles than I can shake a stick at. Damn you Phantom Dust, Katamari, Dai Senryaku VII (Yes, I know, only original to us), ICO, Magical Pengel and Digital Devil Saga and the upcoming Wanda and the Collosus! I want another Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, (a crippled) Advance Wars and Metroid in my stocking this Christmas!
No.
schild
editor, f13.net
The only reason I continue to support Sony is the variety of new IP - the sheer number of new IP's coming from that direction flatten any "innovation" coming from anywhere else. Let's face it - Zelda on a touch screen is still Zelda.
There is a good reason why the PS2 was impossible to find this holiday season, while GC's wasted away on store shelves - and guess what? If you play Madden, you are as much a "Gamer" as you or I. Its that elitist attitude that are driving new gamers away - It's just too damn difficult to get into games when your only examples are nintendo fanbois, CS Junkies, and MMORPG whores (Guilty as charged!) Nintendo fails to open up to these markets, by introducing radical changes to the fundamental way gamers interact with games, and guess who is left?
I have yet to have my PS2 fail. Granted, I traded it in on the Slimline version last fall... My Xbox has error'd exactally twice - an eject and a restart worked both times. As for my GC, well.. 2 drive failures later, I really don't listen to rants about qc anymore. Fact is the XBox has the most power, a HDD, and its games beat the crap out of most of the alternatives. Almost anything available cross platform I pick up for the XBox, I have a PS2 for Square and GrandTurismo, and the GC for the Really wacky stuff - super monkey ball, some good imports like Naruto 3, and, wait.. thats about it.
And, btw - Games like ICO fail because people like you chase off the people who are interested in casual gaming and want to start with a PS2 and Madden or Nascar. Guess what? More than likely, there going to want something else. And if you don't let them have it... 1. Game costs will go up, 2. There will be fewer games (and fewer good games) and last of all, 3. At least one of the console manufacturers will drop. And believe you me, if that happens, we're all screwed 'cause someone like the Phantom will show up. Doooooooommmmmmmm
Physics is nothing like religion. If it was, we'd have an easier time trying to raise money!