Editorial: Nintendo Wii, Harbinger For The Death Of Gaming

By Andrew Groen: 2007-04-09 01:47:28

Editorial: Nintendo Wii, Harbinger For The Death Of Gaming

So often in the realm of gaming certain things become vogue. For instance: Hating EA. They put out pretty solid titles for the casual gamer. What’s so terrible about that? If you don’t like it, get over it and ignore them. Loving the Dreamcast: I’m not going to judge either way on this one as I have neither the time nor the bankroll to buy all the games on this system that are said to be so amazing. Want to test this theory? Go ahead and write, “REZ SUCKS!!!” on any forum even loosely related to gaming. See what happens.

With all the positive press going around about the majesty of the Nintendo Wii, I thought it only appropriate to have a sit down and really examine whether any of it is actually warranted. And so I sat down in front of my imaginary fireplace, had a puff or two of my bubble pipe, whipped out the spread sheets and other documents and gave it a good think.

While the results of my study may be a little difficult to stomach, I assure you they are the product of tireless logic and have little if anything to do with personal bias, especially considering I’ve been a Nintendo fan since childhood.

I can think of no better place to begin an article about the future, than at the present.

It’s 2007. The Nintendo Wii is destroying everything in its path.

Nintendo is achieving their goal of expanding the idea of what constitutes a gamer. At one point they were scoffed at for such notions as getting gamer’s grandparents to play videogames. Now it is well documented that some nursing/retirement homes have adopted Wii Sports tournaments where the once iconic bingo reigned unchallenged for decades.

It doesn’t stop there though, the other side of the age spectrum is getting in on the action too. Nintendogs and its countless offspring have caught the eye of every parent who could no longer offer the “Your mother is allergic,” excuse. Just this Easter weekend in fact, my seven-year-old little cousin showed me her entire collection of Nintendo DS pets. This was a time consuming endeavor as she had to switch between cartridges of Nintendogs, Catz, Dogz, Horsez, and Hamsterz. I can only thank my lucky stars that Purr Pals wasn’t out yet. Maybe she’s just a spoiled middle class kid (you’ll find no argument here,) but I can’t imagine the scene is much different among other spoiled middle class kids.

Before long, the term “Joe Gamer” is going to have to be changed to “Dolores Gamer.”

These types of people emerging as the dominant consumers in our industry is the single greatest threat that gaming has faced since E.T. conspired to take us out of business all those years ago. Before long we’re going to learn the answer to a very important, and largely unasked question: What happens to an industry when the consumers don’t demand quality? The extremely casual gamer that Nintendo has incorporated into their business model has proved time and again that they have very low standards for quality. It just isn’t going to be logical for studios to spend large amounts of time and money creating something on par with the masterpieces we’ve enjoyed in the past, when they could slap together a steaming POS and give it a good ad campaign. Sooner or later they’ll be cutting each other’s throats for a contract to crap out the next "That’s So Raven" game. If you need more evidence for this check out the sales numbers for Enter the Matrix and every single Pokemon game (the original was outdated and archaic, and here we are over a decade later with a largely unevolved Pokemon Diamond/Pearl on the horizon.)

Nintendo can swear up and down that they don’t plan to alienate the hardcore gamer with Wii, but that doesn’t make it true. I’m sure they don’t want to alienate us, but they’ll do it anyways. Their past two home consoles have been almost exclusively a casual affair. It’s textbook Nintendo. The N64 and Gamecube were virtually identical. Nintendo churns out a handful of in-house classics for the devoted fans, and after that…silence, darkness, and then death.

This isn’t to say that I think Metroid and Zelda are going to change their style to be more casual. What I’m saying is that it’s ridiculous that we as gamers don’t demand more from Nintendo. You tell me: Doesn’t it piss you off when you see the release schedule for a Nintendo system and all you see are games licensed from Pixar movies and Disney channel shows? We paid over two hundred dollars for this system too. And Nintendo continues to ignore us and cater to the lowest common denominator: Casual gamers. I personally want more than tried formulas, mini-games and mindless fan-service (read: Mario spinoffs.)

Perhaps the worst part about all of this is that Nintendo is having a great deal of success with this formula. It’s really only a matter of time before Sony and Microsoft wake up and realize that Nintendo is destroying their sales numbers, and when this happens they’ll follow suit and change their aim to target the new gamer. There will be a new console war, one that doesn’t include us. You the gamer’s have been the hardest fighting grunt level soldiers of the console wars over the past decades. You’re grizzled old veterans with rough leathery skin marked by scars of battles long since past. The console wars are won on the frontlines by you guys providing word of mouth advertising. You are the veterans who got Nintendo where they are today and now it’s time to ask for a little something in return. You don’t turn your back on your veterans. Who does Nintendo think they are, the United States Government?

Next Week: The Wiimote: Useless

Author’s note: Don’t worry I’ll rip into Microsoft and Sony soon enough.