Recently, the video game industry has been hitting certain 20-year landmarks in the face of the media challenges of the new century. When digital cinema, Web 2.0, the YouTube/MySpace/Facebook revolutions, reality TV and mobile entertainment are redefining the way we are being entertained, the video game industry has been making certain statements. 20 years ago, Mario set foot in the hands of people around the world, and began that twitchy, indefinable essence of what millions now know as gaming. 20 years ago, The Legend of Zelda was the first game to give players an open world to explore, a grid of 10x20, and revolutionized the linear paths that were all we knew. Today, entirely new barriers are being broken down. They are similar in a sense; they change the way people think of interactive entertainment. On the other hand, they are so radically different in changing the way people think about using the space around them in response to a digital screen, the form of community that exists in invisible airwaves, and the rush of emotion that we only thought could be caused by a great book, film, or television series.
I’ll begin with the Nintendo Wii. The impact this console has had on the international entertainment market is nearly indescribable. Let’s look at the numbers, first: “Nintendo has announced that the Wii has become the fastest-selling console to reach 200,000 units in Australia, after 50 weeks of release. The console was released in the region last December, and sold almost 40,000 units in its first four days on sale. The launch of the console helped Nintendo of Australia record sales of AUD 138.8 million for the financial year ended March 31, almost double that of the previous year.” (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=30905) Nintendo has announced its half-year financial results to September 30 and it's more extremely good news for the Wii and DS manufacturer. Sales were up 132.5 per cent to JPY 695 billion (USD 6.08 billion), resulting in an operating income of JPY 189 billion and a profit for the six month period of JPY 132 billion (USD 1.15 billion) - up 143.7 per cent on last year. (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=29954) ” , “Nintendo's market value has peaked at over JPY 10 trillion (USD 85 billion / EUR 60 billion), taking it to a lifetime high. Stock rose 5.3 per cent to JPY 71,300 on Monday – a fivefold increase in the past two years.” (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=29597)”
Now that it’s clear what the financial world has in stock for the Wii, allow me to explain exactly what this product entails. The singularly revolutionary element of the Nintnedo Wii is it’s controller. A simple white wand, the shape and half the size of an average television remote contains a certain number of accelerometers and an IR sensor. What this means is that in order to play many of the games on this console, the player must make real-life motions to affect the character on screen. The greatest and most successful example of this was found in Wii Sports, a game that shipped free with the console when it was launched in November of last year. Wii Sports allowed players to golf, box, bowl as well as swing a baseball bat and a tennis racket in the comfort of their own homes. The innovation of this remote went on to spawn a number of “party games”, an increasingly popular genre according to analysts “Since the Wii came out, I have called it the "board game for a new generation" -- using the metaphor of a board game that many families still [play] but did more often before TV.” (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16593) .
Among the more serious game critics, there is little effort to make secret the industry-wide concern when it comes to Nintendo. While they still staunch advocates and borderline fanboys when it comes to the company’s true first-party magic, the new mainstream strategies could be taking gaming in the wrong direction. Yes, videogames should be for everyone (and one of my personal goals will be attained when they are for everyone), but any time a business wants to broaden its appeal to the lowest common denominator, it’s rarely a good thing.
So, with Wii Fit, Nintendo is looking to penetrate the mass market even further, capitalizing on the global obsession with weight and body shape and enticing more non-gamers into the Wii family. The much talked-about Balance Baord, yet another new Wii peripheral, is key here, with all manner of posing exercises and over-saturated mini-games requiring subtle shifts in weight with your own feet. The market may be growing more casual by the minute but Nintendo is still leading with innovation at the fore.
During the company’s recent Mind, Body and Console showcase in Seattle, WA, a selection of Wii Fit’s mini-games were on show, including ski jumping, marble nudging, football heading, and hula hooping. “Immediately, the sensitiviy of the Balance revealed itself. It really is quite a piece of kit. Even minor shifts in weight across the toes have consequences, especially in the aforementioned marble nudging game. A twitch of a right big toe was all it took to nudge the marble into the hole after nearly a minute of near misses. As we have already said, it’s quite a piece of kit.” (Games TM, Issue #64 Wii Fit Preview)
The other mini-games seem to have been less successful pieces of video fluff that will likely make grandmothers smile but are far too simplistic to engage anyone who’s picked up a controller before, but even Nintendo itself knows that’s not the point. Wii Fit may not be for the major core gamers, but the Balance Board itself could really impact the Wii’s future. All reservations aside, Wii Fit is going to be massive, but just like Brain Training and other mainstream casual games of it’s ilk that have extraordinarily broadened the demographic, the majority of Wii Fit isn’t for those of us who are looking for the broad leap into the future of hardcore gaming. Still, that’s not going to stop huge sections of the gaming demographic I belong to from buying it for their girlfriends and wives in a thinly veiled attempt to justify videogames. Heck, I just convinced my Aunt to buy it yesterday!
This clearly beneficial stride in the technological gap between physical human interaction and software recognition is very much not alone in the many burgeoning relationships between gamers, communities, developers, critics and soon enough, government cabinets. First and foremost, the “save film” feature I mentioned in my blog, upon further research, has had a major impact on the Halo community. This community, which according to the world’s largest Halo fan site has been around for nearly fifteen years, contributed over 10,000 fan art and fiction pieces and also managed to set up various charitable donation funds (www.halo.bungie.net) .
The relationship between developers and gamers made one surprising development very recently. A massively popular site, IGN.com, often posts links to developer blogs, to which gamers have had the opportunity to interact directly with the developers for quite some time. However, just last week, Matt Tomporowski, the lead designer and producer of a very popular first-person shooter Medal of Honor Heroes 2 posted an essay on IGN. This was considered a very gutsy move in promoting mainstream education directly from the designer to the middle-of-the-road gaming community. Entitled Overcoming FPS Control Design Challenges on Wii, this article describes in a clear and uncomplicated way the challenges and choices found throughout the groundbreaking process of making a first-person shooter on the Nintendo Wii. After all, with the stunning popularity of this decade-old genre and the potential for pixel-perfect aiming capabilities, the issue of making these games for the Wii is rather all-important.
Because of the industry’s growing popularity, financial focus and respectability, critics are finding themselves in a position of far more gravity than only a few years ago. Among the many digital and hard copy publications I’ve read over the years, none has impressed me more than Games TM, a British publication that has only been around for approximately five years. Perhaps it is due to the rather new trend of taking games seriously as a crucial form of art, cultural history and economic importance that has inspired the publishers of Games TM. Never in a single issue have I found a sophisticated, unbiased and well-researched article about the outsourcing of the British development industries to Canada, an in-depth study on the life cycle of a console, a hard-hitting, no-holds-barred investigation entitled Where Do Bad Games Come From, an exclusive interview with game god Will Wright following his reception of a BAFTA award, as well as previews, reviews and full two-page, caption-less screenshots from great games of yore. Perhaps their mission statement says it all, “Launched as a highly sophisticated…gaming magazine with production values to match, games tm is an unbiased and unflinching magazine that serves to deliver truthful and honest opinions in all facets of the medium; whether it’s the latest news, previews or reviews…” (www.gamestm.co.uk) .
As a sidenote, the BAFTA video-game awards have been in existence for the past four years and their statement in regards to the this year’s field in quite impressive, “The game-playing landscape has changed radically this year as innovations in technology, the launch of two new consoles, and continued creative thinking have pushed the boundaries of both graphics and gameplay. New modes of playing have produced new types of players and the winners and nominees displayed the diversity of today’s video games and their increasing appeal to both sexes of all ages.” (http://www.bafta.org/awards/video-games/) .
This aforementioned gravity comes to critics in far more severe circumstances. Take, for example, the case of Jeff Gerstman, reviewer for a much trusted site, gamespot.com. “After Gerstmann’s savage flogging of Kane & Lynch, a game whose marketing investment on Gamespot alone reached into the hundreds of thousands, Eidos (the game publisher)…pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of future advertising from the site.” (www.penny-arcade.com/2007/11/30) Please visit the following site for the rather crude but nonetheless stylized dramatization of the consequences of Gerstmann’s review: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/11/29. (For reference sake, penny-arcade.com is a fantastic site that posts well-educated and highly critical [albeit crass] industry-related blogs and cartoon strips every other day)
Finally, in Games Tm’s fascinating article, Fall Brittania, it is becoming quite clear that government intervention in tax-related and media-influencing issues in regards to the industry is not only expected, but required in order for this multi-billion dollar business to be given the financial and educational rights it deserves. “Margaret Hodge, current minister for the Department of Creative Industries, Media and Sport, is quick to draw attention to the government’s Regional Development Agencies [RDA] which offer support for videogame companies on a regional level. But Hasson believes that this miasma of training agencies and RDAs is a poor solution, and that the government’s reluctance to focus specifically on the videogame industry—as opposed to lumping it with all other creative industries—is hampering development.” (Games TM Issue #64, Fall Brittania). In an increasingly globalized world, the threat can come from anywhere, as we are all trained. Personally, I think government recognition and subsequent involvement feels like a fairy tale, simply because the American government has been a long time critic and certain politicians have declared a clear opposition to the industry. However, as the mainstream trend continues to swell, and the financial market keeps yelling “Wii!!!”, the governments of the world have no choice but to recognize this world of console gaming, sophisticated or not.