Paul Barnett 8th April 2009

[ronan32]

the WII isnt a console its a marketing tool..nintendo is evil.

[cromica]

All the the games like GH and RB and everything on the Wii is not gaming, It is pure crap. Call of Duty is gaming, Command and Conquer is gaming. If you use anything other than a pc, 360 or ps3 and think you are a gamer you are nothing but a fool and a wannabe.

[Synthite]

From what you are saying, it seems that the mainstream market is not so much as a stepping stone to other various genres of games, but as an accepted concept that developers may not want to become more in depth. Maybe a poor analogy, but perhaps like a chef introducing a kid to fried rice as their first Japanese dish, bit he is too scared to offer them sushi because it would be too much of a leap in complexity of taste, so they stick to just serving the rice over and over again.

[The111DooD]

I never realised until Paul pointed out. We lost :(

[Zer11]

Paul,

What you are talking about is the natural quality verses quantity tradeoff that occurs in anything that tries to go more mass market.

[Nallkun]

Does this mean there's going to be a Rockband expansion for Warhammer Online?

[F4R207]

With the future you'r talking in a strictly economic sense and that's also what all this mainstream talk is about : profits. Honestly personaly I cant care less about that, I'd rather have smal productions, thinsg like RogueLikes and old classic MUDs, then big moneymakeing machines, to play. I, personaly, miss the early days where the production and market value where secondary (if at all relavent) to the art and experience.

[dboyd1089]

that's right.. u don't know what to do. quit.

[Vetrid]

i see what he means, its wrong that things like the wii and rockband is what's representing games

[walo2345]

huh.. i really expected this video to be about the first king kill ever.. but regardless, very odd point.. i dont really have any idea what youre talking about.. but it did get me thinking

[screwmanx]

oh and if your stupid enough to buy an xbox 3crappy, then you shouldn't even be allowed on here

[screwmanx]

console players aren''t gamers. they are people wantting to act gamer, its got like what, 7 or w/e buttons. real gamers play Pc's where everything is suited for changing and hardcore.

[DeadlyPride88]

I think a lot of the games going main stream now(like all the "single/play along games") are a directly being affected by the NEW demographic that systems like the WII have brought out of the wood work. For example my parents are both ~50 years old and the song on rock band are songs that they listened to growing up and they love it.

[jaasonkim]

At like 0:48 are you saying people weren't supposed to buy Wii as a mainstream console? (for the record I don't have a Wii)

[doomblackdragon]

No he saying high tech games are dieing. The games on the phone are very low grade. There keep tring to make a game bigger and badder and it end up back firing. I still think the super NES had some of the best game ever made. Do to it took week if not months to finish on game. It had play back abilty. With the old favorite abilty of choose your path. Now game only have 2 ending. I remeber when games had like 10-20+ endings. They lost the game making magic and the game pay for it.

[jaasonkim]

I'm going to stick with the pricing for consoles and games. No matter how good something is I can't pay 70 bucks for a brand new game. I could either (for example) pay 70 bucks for an awesome Poker game for a console or pay 5 bucks for my cellphone. I think video game companies need to rethink their plans. Like you said, I want replay ability over great looking sunsets in dx10.

[Overcow]

Seems like the video cuts off in the end. And the audio is way out of sync. Just so you know.

[doomblackdragon]

yeah I got the same thing with the sudden ending in the middle of his sentince.

[MAUL0r1]

DID we want to go completely mainstream? Every time I see more parallels being drawn between the movie industry and the gaming industry a shiver runs down my spine... what will be the "Big Momma's House" of video games? I shutter to think that so little thought will be put into a game that gets as much publicity as any other game out there. Quality over quantity!

[joeroxor]

This happened 20+ years ago, it was called ET on Atari. What an awful piece of crap that was.

[fusk]

While I think it's great that these smaller games exist, and they definitely have a place in the world. I do see them changing the face of the industry too, where studios used to focus on less accessible, deeper games -- they're now making very small, brightly colored, very easy, very accessible games ... With no real depth at all.

I am really interested to see how divergent the two paths become. Awesome thoughts, thank you for getting me thinking.

[WalkingheadphonE]

Allright

im glad i subscribed, also im sorry that thousands of your fans have forgotten about you :P

[southeat92]

Interesting viewpoint Paul.

[CowMuffins]

That's the bad thing, all these mainstream game companies HAVE sold out. We have Guitar Hero 1,2,3, World Tour, Aerosmith, and now Metalica. Along with Rockband 1, 2, and soon Rockband Beatles. Not just the plastic instrument games but almost every game for the Wii is some type of Sport, or fitness game. The only company that makes original (not ported or based off a Sport) games on the Wii is Nintendo themselves. 16 of the Wii's 486 games sold more than 1 mil copies, nine were made by nintendo

[Calistarius79]

There is Swedish saying that fits, "slit och släng". Translated: "Wear and throw", or "Wear out and Throw away" if stretched. English equivalent would be "throwaway".

For me, many games, end up in that catagory. It fit's with a huge amount of games out there. Even many mainstream, big budget, games feels like this.

Maybe it is just me though. I have been a gamer since 1990 (finally got a NES that year). So I have gone through a lot of games, and seen huge amounts of change in 19 years.

[PiratePotatoe]

Japanese are still having those arcade places with old school machines, sit on a bike and play the game, it attracts all kind of people. It's easier to absorb the stuff on the screen for most of normal people when they are given some toy's that interact with the game itself. Wii and stuff like dance mats just refreshed the old drive imo but the fact that everyone can have "the thing" at home... I mean who didnt dream of having at least one of arcade machines at home.

[darksean99]

But I fear that the casual market will push devs toward taking more from the mainstream and will end up taking away what makes hardcore games good.

[darksean99]

Personally I separate what has become mainstream gaming, the "casual" gaming so to speak and the more traditional gaming, the "hardcore" into two different and distinct genres. They are different and should be treated differently. What appeals to one market tends to drive the other away. Now I would like the "hardcore" type games to gain more popularity, and if that comes as a side benefit to causals hitting the main stream so be it.

[SuperAtheistBrothers]

woot for gamers!  Who needs women!

[Calistarius79]

I am on the gamer side, but I can still understand your thoughts about it. It somehow feels like a huge amount of gamers, and game companies, got it all wrong.

The shorter amount of player gratification means more money for the companies. It feels sour to say, because the amount of games I feel was worth my money, are few and far apart these days.

Very few games last more then a few days, or even hours, for me, these days. And after the 1st playthrough most of them lose their appeal to me.

[gixG17]

Interesting, although in some ways the video games industry have done a full circle.

We've come from small gratification games to "hardcore" games that require hours of investment and now we seem to be going back.

[cataphracts123]

Very interesting and very accurate insight I think, Paul.

[Minifisen]

agree :|

[Wolfguard6]

Great point Paul. What are we the gamers now.

[Vinndiesel]

I never thought of it like that, but now that you say it. I totally agree.

[Calistarius79]

Even though I'm on the consumer side of games, I understand this thought. I personaly feel that many parts of the "main stream" of games/gamers/creators some how got it wrong.

Most of the games I see get released out of the big generic game (read "money") grinder, is games that don't really matter in the long run (atleast not to me). Games that are fun for a short time, like a few days, or maybe even only a few hours.

After that they lose their appeal, and you never play them again.

[Zargas]

Vid cut short?

[spacious3000]

100% agree

[Jamaz21]

Personally, I think gaming becoming more mainstream (eg Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Wii) is eventually going to turn gaming to crap. While I think people becoming more accepting of gaming is a good thing, it's quickly going to turn the quality of games the other way.

[stigblue]

1st