Malik
(9/24/04)
I don't think
there could be any better day to post Malik's Bitchings than a
Friday like this...one in which I can't find any information on
certain aspects of Fable, due to the vast number of "Fable's
too short" trolls...plus, finding out today that I need to come
into work on the weekend for a few hours doesn't hurt my
bitchiness. So, without further ado...
Good Reporting
Gone Awry
So, as you all saw
on my news post (you all did see it, right?) from Monday, the news
of the PStwo coming out on the 26th of October and the news of it
being included in a probably bundle package with GTA:SA have about
as much chance of occuring as there is a chance of me retiring from
my day job and doing this gig for a real paycheck starting October
26th. In other words, it's a big load of shit that a few of the less
than bright stars of "real" journalism decided to run
with without checking their facts or sources. It's sad enough
that this happened without considering all of the other times that
it has happened.
For some unknown
reason, the supposedly professional news personal, those who can be
found with Reuters, the Associated Press, or any of the major independent/freelance
news reporters have a bad habit of losing all sense of
professionalism when it comes down to "kiddie" news. I'm
not dissing my chosen obsession any, and it's not in any way my
perspective, but it is a simple fact that most news agencies that
cover video game "news" (I consider it very newsworthy
news, and so do you, I imagine, if you're here at this site) do not
consider it to be anything important and hope to report it only to
fuel their ambitions...ambitions like attracting a younger
demographic, increasing ad revenue, or an increased chance of
selling a news story to a major publication (as in the NY Times,
CNN, etc). News on a non-gaming news source about our geek pastimes
are not published there for us as much as to drag us into their
demographical world and to become yet another paying (or revenue
gathering...as in clicking on Internet ads, etc) faceless
entity.
So, in this case,
what happened, which is quite simple and moronic, is that a report
by an industry analyst (which I never care for all that much since
they are usually a bunch of old white guys in suits who've never
even played a game and only understand the purely business end of
things, not the geek end and how the geekish things can have an
unexpected outcome on the business end of things) at PJ McNealy said
that it would be likely that Sony would mark the anniversary of the
PS2's launch (October 26th is the anniversary in the US) with a
newer and smaller version of the aging system to boost their sales.
Then, the same report noted the delay in GTA:SA (damn you Take Two!)
to that same date, and decided that it would have to be related to
the newly designed system. This, in turn, was picked up upon by
several news sources, including Reuters, who reported this
information as being a set thing. In turn, places like MSNBC.com ran
news stories on it saying how it's going to happen...all of these
news stories, despite having supposed facts, all sounded like they
were strung together with little basis and no solid sources.
However, when one
considers the nature of this news, and how it could easily help Sony
in a season in which many gaming companies stand to lose (from the
over abundance of new and anticipated titles) a good deal of money,
you have to ask a simple and singular question; why is Sony not
pushing this information themselves? Or, you could say; how are they
(Sony) keeping it under wraps and still expecting to succeed with
the concept? The answer to either question is simple too; Sony would
not keep something like this under wraps if they intended to make
any money off of it. Right now, only the game accessories or games
that are highly anticipated are going to stand a chance of
succeeding, and with no vocal support from Sony, it means either
Sony is ready to mess up hardcore and lose some major income, or it
is not real. Knowing how Sony is a major electronics company that
has been in the game longer than most of their competition, it's
obvious that Sony would not pull off such a boneheaded move. Plus,
it would be wiser for them to push a new "PStwo" on Japan
first, since sales have sagged far more in Japan than the US...which
would also mean, if they were waiting for an anniversary, they would
wait for the one that marks the Japanese release of the PS2 (which
is still a half year away)...if this is ever even going to happen.
Wow, I just tore apart the entire reasoning behind PJ McNealy's
report and the false reporting of it by Reuters with one or two
simple questions. I would say that I should be a game industry
analyst, but maybe I'm overqualified since I can use
reasoning.
Solution
This type of
crappy journalism, however, goes far deeper. It has continued for a
long time and will not disappear anytime soon. As long as the
journalistic world is convinced that they need to be trendy to win
over our lost demographic, we will see them pull out one big load of
crap after another to try to lure us in. The important take-home
lesson from this is simple; only believe our brand of news from a
"professional journalistic" source as long as you're
willing to be disappointed or as long as your willing to do the
research to back it up. Better yet, you can go with the geek news
sources, like Gamespot.com (which didn't report on this news issue
until afterwards to say the falseness of it all) or whatever other
site is your cup of tea. Plus, I like to think I've done a good job
with sorting fact from fiction on this type of crap since I usually
will do the things that MSNBC.com didn't do...like remain skeptic
until I verify something...or follow up when something is shown to
be wrong (I haven't seen a correction on MSNBC.com yet). That's what
journalism is supposed to be about, but then again...our brand of
journalism is not considered important by the people in charge...teh
suxors to be us.
Who Needs a Game
When You Can Have a Demo?!
So, when the new
Nintendo DS comes out in about 2 months,
we will all be treated to a demo of Metroid Prime Hunters or
whatever Nintendo is calling this awkwardly controlled (as of E3
this year) portable FPS. However, while a demo seems like a major
step up from the nothing you get with a new PS2, a GBASP, a GBA, a
GCN, or an XB, it is still a petty insult when compared to the glory
days of gaming...when a company knew how to reward you for investing
a couple hundred dollars into their company.
I'm not trying to
sound like a crotchety old man, but (those magic words) back in my
day, the game companies used to show a little more respect. When the
Intellivision came out you got Triple Action (or a different game
depending on the current deals) when you bought the system, you got
Super Mario and Duck Hunt with the NES (or another bundle...they had
a good number of them, and it only cost $20 more than the base
system despite how NES carts could run up to $75 and above...yes
they got that high...ever heard of Romance of the Three Kingdoms?),
with the original Genesis you would get Altered Beats, and with the
SNES came with Mario World...in the past, before video game consoles
lost Sega and before Microsoft and Sony entered the realm of gaming,
you could ensured that a system would be good to go right out of the
box.
Now, if you buy a
new console, you are stuck with having to drop an additional $50 (or
$35 for a portable system) when the system is first released if you
want to do anything more than hook the console up and stare at it.
Games are pricey, and so are the consoles, yet we get nothing in
turn for a $300 investment in a new PS2 when it came out. In fact,
because of this disrespect for my hard earned money, I'm getting
attacked, in turn, by the game stores.
When a new system
comes out, ever since the release of the PS2, you are forced into
buying a bundle package. This wouldn't be so bad, except if I'm
dropping $300 (plus Washington state has a horrible sales tax that
put me up to about $330 when I got my PS2), I don't have the money
to blow anymore on that system for a good couple of weeks or a
month. But, then comes the bundle idea that forces you to (usually)
get 3 games with the console. The newly released systems always have
the same starting prices for games ($50 for a console and $35 for a
handheld), so this just turned the price up to a whopping $450 (in
Washington, this would equal $495). Plus, these same stores are
usually not satisfied with forcing a measly extra $150 out of your
pocket, so they will try to force an extra controller on you ($20),
maybe a crappy DVD movie if the console handles DVD playback
(Armageddon for me...I hate you Amazon.com...that's $20), and if it
doesn't have built in DVD playback you will have to get the DVD kit
(another $20 or $30). In the end, after I got my PS2, for example, I
was stuck with a crappy movie I never wanted to own (bad enough I
watched it in the theaters...I can't even blame that on being
drunk...sigh...), Madden (every bundle at Amazon came with
Madden...maybe they don't understand that some people don't like
football games...or maybe they are greedy whores), Ridge Racer
(which was flat out crap-tacular), and SSX, and a second control,
which is all well and good, but I would rather have gotten a memory
card (which I couldn't afford for about 2 weeks after I got my
PS2...since I spent so much on the console, I needed to wait for
another paycheck).
So, why was this
type of bullshit possible? Because no consoles are sold with
automatically included (by manufacturer) games. It is that simple. I
mean, do you think Amazon.com could have forced a bundle set if Sony
included a free game with each PS2? Hell no! Some people would
argue, however, that a pre-included game would run the definite risk
of not appealing to all potential customers. I would have to agree
with that, and reply that the GCN came in a variety of colors...no,
that wasn't as random as you may think. The console makers could
have a set of two or three single game+console sets and break the
game stores from forcing us into bundle sets. Or, the included game
could be something with the mass appeal of Tetris or Super Mario,
which has entertainment value for a good 90% (or more) of the
potential customers.
Yet, in the end,
Nintendo came along with the idea of a demo game with the release of
the DS. Not only does this leave the stores wide open to give us
(the finger) a wonderful deal on a bundle set (since there is no
real game included), but it's also a cheap way for Nintendo to try
to hype a game that is already hyped enough. This is not going to
sell extra copies of Metroid, since everyone who wants this game is
already going to get it. And, most of all, this isn't a special deal
for the people who buy a DS, since it's just a freakin' demo game
and will only make us feel more ripped off when we get a pseudo-game
along with our damned bundle package.
Solution
one is as easy to
solve as you may think...the proper solution is to look at the way
Nintendo handled the NES. Back in the day of the NES, you could get
one of several packages for your console. The basic package would go
for $20 less than the next package, and it included the system and
all cables and one controller. The second package included all of
the same things, but it also included the Super Mario/Duck Hunt cart
for a small $20 more. There were also a few other variants of this
setup that came with time, but they always ensured that you could
have a game with your new console for just a tiny extra amount of
money...usually this extra amount would be less than 50% of the
price of a new game on it's own.
This would
definitely be the best way to keep the greedy stores from tacking on
the required bundle setups. I definitely don't want, if I chose to
get a DS or any other system in the future, to have to buy two
crappy games and one good one (crappy: Ridge Racer and Madden, or
Luigi's Mansion and Rogue Leader; Good: Monkey Ball, or SSX) in a
lame bundle in order to get my system. I mean, with launch titles,
it's a pretty safe bet that only one or two will be good enough to
be worth a purchase, while the remainder are merely eye-candy titles
serving the purpose of making a system look good enough in it's
infancy to lure in unsuspecting fools. If there was an included game
with a new console, beyond a half-assed demo, you could be ensured
that no store would be crazy enough to risk their sales by forcing a
bundle of a fully functional (as in, it includes a game already)
system. The bundles only exist to try to make the intended victim
feel like they are guaranteed a game and that the store cares enough
to make sure you can play something on your console.
Also, as for
Nintendo's idea of a demo game included with the DS...sigh...this is
just greedy. At least they could give us a new version of Tetris, or
some other cheap to make but still addictive game. Cell phone makers
include these types of games for free all the time since it
guarantees a happier customer and the games are so cheap that the
tiny and insignificant out of pocket cost is easily made up for by
the happy customers...and a demo may be cheap and easy to do, but
it's an insult since those who want the game will only go out and
get it, with or without the demo, when it's available. Plus, a
Metroid title that is more of the modern Metroid design (like
Metroid Prime) is not going to appeal to as many gamers as a more
old-school type of platformer or an addictive puzzle game.
So, in the end,
the real solution is, once again, for game companies to look to the
past for sources of inspiration and to forget this lame idea of
always doing something new.
Conclusion
So, this might
have felt a little different than you would expect...no constant
mention of Fable from me. Well, I have good news for those who
think more Fable is a good thing...a hint: check back here next
week. Anyway, I'm still tired and pissed with the crap
involved in the rumor mill of "PStwo" news, so I'm just
crapping out now...plus, I need to get in as much Fable as possible
since my weekend shall be shorter than I previously anticipated
(weekend? Who needs one of those when you can come into work
on your day off?!). Anyways, if you've got a little bitching
to aim my way...write
me you little opinion or put it on the forums.
Malik
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