The Core Gamer Episode

[fishbang]

The new episode for Wednesday, October 8th is available here (http://ingamechat.net/audio/IGC081008.mp3).

Sometimes you just can’t see it coming. You’ve got half a dozen game enthusiasts in a room filled with microphones, and their sole intention is to light upon a subject worth talking about in the hopes that it sparks a conversation worth listening to. You reach for news items, you compare notes on recent games played, and if you’re lucky someone has done their homework and has a stack of timely opinions waiting just at hand. And sometimes, during an edit break, someone suggests that we all take a moment to watch a 40-second clip of the new Punch Out.

Lively discourse follows, and it’s of the sort that reminds us how much we owe to our own diversity. If the cast was five Scotts, or three Jeremys and a Dennis, then we’d never be able to deliver anything like what we bring you today. You can decide for yourself if that’s a good thing, but whatever the case, we invite you to listen and we thank you, as always, for your time.

[kropotkin]

I found the show to be an interesting one with James becoming increasingly exhasperated with the concept of sequels, new ip and franchises. I honestly became muddled by it all as did many of the hosts in the show. I think James turned it around eventually and made his point. Which was (I think) that Nintendo are content in releasing NES games from 20+ years ago because that is what their 'core' audience wants. When in fact what we really want is either a reinvention of an old franchise or a new IP that doesn't appeal to our parents/grand parents. His citation of Metroid Prime was a good example of the former whilst I worryingly can't think of an example of the latter. Oh dear.

On a side note we Europeans really don't get it with the NES nostalgia trick mainly because we didn't buy the sodding things in the mid 1980's. Historically Nintendo viewed Europe and all other PAL territories with distain for many years. This was primarily due to the myriad of languages we have and the PAL TV signal Nintendo were not familiar with.

The other nail in the coffin was the PAL vs NTSC signals from games consoles in that era. With the reliance on RF feed as opposed to RGB Scart and latterly HDMI the 50 Hz vs 60Hz signal was a major issue, especially back in the NES days. Many games from that period ran 15-20% slower on PAL machines vs their NTSC counter parts. The worst example of this was Waverace 64 which on PAL N64's was utterly abysmal with black borders to make up for the increase in lines to display and an FPS drop of 25% you can hardly blame us for finding Nintendo's output to be somewhat 'meh' in the mid 80's to late 1990's.

So the next time you start to hark back to the glory days of the NES be sure you're not in ear shot of a PAL territory residing individual. For if you are you're more than likely get a cold hard stare from them. We just don't share that your thoughts on that score.

As to what we were playing as opposed to NES machines that my friends is a story for another time...

[Phades]

Great episode guys, I really enjoyed it. I 100% agree with James about Nintendo and knew exactly where he was coming from. I think that's a big part of my problem with Nintendo games. I think that aside from the recent Metroid games, all Nintendo does any more is make "games." I want more than that. I still enjoy traditional games, but I want games thatgo beyond that and are experiences that I get sucked into.

It sounds a little odd and counterintuitive, but I wish they would look a bit beyond just gameplay.

[Deadend]

I get both sides... but I don't want the same fucking game with better graphics and a bit of change. The only space Nintendo innovates in is in making casual games.

[Iron Past]

No Friday show? :(

[Psykoboy2]

We explain that in the Saturday show.

You'll get that either late tonight or sometime tomorrow.

[KingGorilla]

I get both sides... but I don't want the same fucking game with better graphics and a bit of change. The only space Nintendo innovates in is in making casual games.

Core gamers hate change. Exhibits A-D

Madden
racing games: Pole Position never gets old
Shooters without the zero point energy field manipulator, click on zombies
platformers; collect this crap, jump on crap,

All of those R-tards were talking about how amazing, deep, and hard Bioshock was...the rest of us liked the Andrew Ryan meeting, felt it to be a fine shooter, but could not hold a candle to SS2 or Deus Ex.

[Calgar99]

Guys just want drop into say that your podcast is always a joy to listen to and can't wait for the next one to drop. Keep up the good work.:)

[fishbang]

Thanks a lot!

With any luck that drop should be coming your way momentarily.

[Deadend]

Core gamers hate change. Exhibits A-D

Madden
racing games: Pole Position never gets old
Shooters without the zero point energy field manipulator, click on zombies
platformers; collect this crap, jump on crap,

All of those R-tards were talking about how amazing, deep, and hard Bioshock was...the rest of us liked the Andrew Ryan meeting, felt it to be a fine shooter, but could not hold a candle to SS2 or Deus Ex.

Wow... thanks for pulling some bullshit out of what I said.

The hate for Nintendo stems from their Nostalgia drenched games. That is all Nintendo has to offer anyone who is not "casual". Retreading on their old ideas in a way to try and make it feel exactly like the old game... only better.

Nintendo is sort of like if there was a movie studio that kept doing remakes of the same goddamn movie every few years, updated with the latest stars and a few new filming techniques, but also featured lots of shots and devices designed to remind you of the OLD version.

I'd be cool with a new punch out game... but what I saw was a game that I doubt due to it's heavy usage of Nostalgia. Nostalgia is the enemy of good things.

[Widgetcraft]

I get both sides... but I don't want the same fucking game with better graphics and a bit of change. The only space Nintendo innovates in is in making casual games.

Funny how they've probably created more new franchises over the past two generations than any other publisher out there. Not to mention how they continue to keep Mario fresh after all of these years, with interesting new mechanics and level design. But whatev, I don't need to convince anyone to enjoy Nintendo; most people already do.

EDIT: Got sick of listening to the podcast about halfway through. Basically, it boiled down to one person ranting about how all new games must have new stories, and new characters, to offer anything beyond "nostalgia". Apparently, gameplay doesn't matter to this self-described "core gamer", who finds that his opinion is the opinion of all core gamers, and who is tired of all of these Nintendo fans speaking on behalf of the "core gamers" like himself.

Honestly, I'm getting really tired of trying to explain what gameplay is to the hordes of misguided film enthusiasts that have latched onto gaming as their niche, and label themselves as "core gamers". Frankly, I don't think that video games are a great, or terribly interesting medium for story-telling, but even if they were that isn't why I'm playing games today (in a time where such a thing has never been demonstrated); or at least not the primary reason. I want interesting new gameplay mechanics and level design; I really don't care if this comes along with new or old characters and stories. If someone can tell a good story while providing good gameplay, that's awesome, but it's not why I'm playing games. There are many people writing a lot of interesting stories for novels, plays, movies, television shows and comic books; they don't seem to suffer for their lack of interactivity.