GDC!!!! Oh, how you tease me so!!!!!
Some Xbox 2/Next/360/Xenon stuff was announced yesterday, and it sounds pretty cool: Gamer Cards, Achievement/Rewards earned in games, a Marketplace to buy all sorts of things, and that all games will have both Live Awareness and custom soundtracks, automatically. There was a lot of talk about HD support, and that Xenon would usher in an era of HD gaming.
Today, Nintendo made their own announcement (courtesy of Kotaku). They didn’t really say how it will be revolutionary, only said: Wi-Fi, wireless [controllers], and backwards compatibility with the GameCube.
I don’t really care about this upcoming console war as I chose my side long ago — anyone other than Nintendo. That’s right, I’ve hated Nintendo ever since they hurt the Sega CD with their vaporware promises. Yes, I really like Fire Emblem and have spent the entire time playing it in a conflicted state.
What I really wanted to talk about was the themes of the two talks. The Xbox one had an emphasis on three things: ease of development, HD technologies and lifestyles’, and the triumvirate of software, services, and hardware. The Nintendo one had a lot about industry theory and ludology (without using that word, or maybe even understanding the canonical concepts).
There was a bunch on the consolidation movement that the video game industry is currently and/or going to experience. How budgets for next gen will be super high. Then the bombshell: there are worlds of interactive entertainment!!!!!!!
Do you have ANY idea what this means?
That’s right! Urania is the Muse of video games!!!! W00t!
Wait. That is still not what I wanted to talk about, even if — like everything else on this blog — it is absolutely true. Basically, Nintendo is taking the word ‘video’ and the word ‘game’ literally. So since something without a completion condition can’t be called a game, they’re correct in calling it something else — they seem to waiver between software, entertainment, and interactive entertainment. It’s actually a great perspective to have, so I’ll give them some kudos. +3 Kudos
The other interesting thing is a little bit of fluff for their next Zelda game. In the middle of the transcript the Nintendo President states that they have ‘standards … [they] … set for all software … [they] … develop: … the four "I"s’: innovation, intuitive, inviting, and interface.
Well the "I"s have it, or do they? No, they do not. Is it better than taking a dump into a paper bag and proceeding to throw it against the wall? Yes. It’s pretty sad you had to ask that, though. Now I’ll reserve my ‘four "I"s == ultimate destruction of mankind’ debate for another time.
lordpi.com 