Games We Love but Wish We Could Love Playing
11 hours 50 mins ago
There's a bit of division (albeit friendly) within acclaimed developer Bioware - president Greg Zeschuk says the Wii offers less of a gaming experience and more a toy experience, while CEO Ray Muzyka disagrees somewhat, saying it is simply more toy-like gaming, but still gaming.
Greg Zeschuk: I think another, tangential view on that is those kinds of experiences are much more like a toy experience. They're playing, together or not, but you're not 'gaming' anymore. What's different than you actually playing tennis?
Muzyka: I think a lot of it is multiplayer, though, on that platform.
Zeschuk: It is, I agree, that's actually the strongest experience. I'm making the claim that it may not be gaming.
BIZ: Well there's the quote: BioWare says Wii is not gaming! [laughs]
Zeschuk: If gaming is defined by story, then generally Wii may not be.
Muzyka: I think it IS gaming.
Zeschuk: We don't have to agree on everything, right? The most fun you have is when you get 4 or 5 people together, right? The game they're playing is actually very different than the rest of us. What they're doing as a company is like a different flavor.
Muzyka: When you look at a moment to moment experience what a player does on a Wii game, it's different, lighter, and more toy-like. But there's also a narrative between the players outside the game and kind of fulfills the same things games do. Games are "toys" in the sense that they're fun.
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- BioWare president: Nintendo Wii is 'like a toy' (bit-tech.net)
Comments
I have nothing against the Wii personally, but compared to 360 and PS3 its definitely doesn't seem to be gaming experience rather a toy experience. I mean there is only 5 games i can think of that want from the Wii, where as i can think 70+ combined for both PS3 and 360 that i truly want.
I would like to state now that that comment is not serious, it is merely an alternative comment of a similar insult method to the other consoles as is this is to the Wii. I believe neither that statement nor the one made in the article are the case.
Way to lump the entire Wii library of games into only Wii Sports, there, Zeschuk.
By the definition he is using, that gaming is purely story driven, the vast majority of games in the 16 bit era and before are not "gaming," anything in the sports, fighting, and racing genres is not "gaming", and almost every multiplayer game in existence is not "gaming". Not every game can, or should for that matter, be a story heavy RPG or adventure like Mass Effect.
I guess since Xbox360 is most renown for its online multiplayer games like Halo, Gears of War, Rock Band, Madden, etc. it isn't gaming either. Warhawk, Resistance, Grand Tourismo, nope, looks like PS3's out as well.
I guess we should start calling them toys as well, or perhaps "murder simulators" as good old Jack Thompson suggests.
And Final Blade, your personal preferences for gaming has little to do with anything. Personally, there is only a single game I "want" for 360 and PS3 combined, yet many games for Wii I can't wait to buy. Its all a matter of personal preference.
Two thumbs down in an hour? That must be a record, especially since I really didn't say anything all that inflammatory. I'm just using the 360 and PS3 as examples of how ill informed the notion that a storyline in a video game is "true gaming".
Not all video games have to be hardcore FPSs or RPGs. Which is why Nintendo is here: to fill that gap with cartoony games with less violence. It's still gaming. I don't see how the Nintendo Wii "isn't" a video game.
Imagine this: say I posted something that said "Playstation 3 is not a video game, because it has such a vast variety of multimedia options, and it costs so bloody much. It's basically your multipurpose new and improved DVD set. Not much of a video game." I'd get shot down with flames from many. Yet, my statement makes just as much sense as Nintendo Wii being more of a toy than a video game.
Besides, isn't a game something to occupy time in an amusing way? And isn't a toy a tool used to play games with? Ahem.
I don't even see how they can think the Wii is so fundamentally different in terms of gaming. You're playing games with a controller on a screen. The games have characters, storylines, graphics, sound, and various features. How is that not gaming. Are they so blinded by flashiness that the Wii isn't a true gaming console unless it displays in HD or stores movies and music?
On the contrary; I would argue that the Wii is the ONLY gaming console of the three.
Therefore while all 3 can play games, the Wii is the only one that ONLY does gaming, and can be classified as a pure/only gaming system.
Are you basing this on the Whole Wiimote thing?
Sonic's statement wasn't "fanboyish". It just described the truth of how different the Wii is from the other systems. The Wii is a true gaming system that offers gaming exclusively and didn't turn into a multimedia console, like Flash said. Nintendo is doing its own thing and not following the crowd. So why criticize it because of how its used?
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