Nintendo Ruined Video Games

[JBerel]

ohhhhhh....you're one of them. We heard about you.

[Andromeda Stardust]

He was on a roll until he started talking about "Generation Y." I'm assuming he means Millennials. The earliest ones were born in 1981. He gives too much credit to 4-7 year old's for the NES' success. Many 12 year old's (such as me at the time) who were Xers were also responsible. All of my friends at the time played a big role into the success of Nintendo. I was a little different. I didn't drop Atari like many of my friends did, but I didn't hate Nintendo like some of the older Xers did either. I loved both.

 

Come hell or high water, I'm NOT a millenial. I didn't have internet until I was 16, and we only had dail up for years. Millenials to me are the kids that don't remember life before 9-11 and grew up with smart phones. It's another generation entirely. Generation Y came after X, though if I had to pick one to associate with, it would be Xers.

 

So it goes 50s baby boomers (totally skip the 60s hippie kids), 70s gen Xers (again, skip the 80s kids and nintendo generation), and now Millenials which apparently loosely defined span from 80s babies to those born after 9-11. Gimme a break. I was 20 when 9-11 happened. I will fight to get 80s kids recognised as their own generation, separate and distinct from the millenial. The gen y label was briefly popular in the 90s but it didn't stick. Probably because the true millenials would have been generation Z which sounds dumb imo.

 

I am 37. I have a couple cowokers in the 19-20 range. They're millenials. My boss is a gen y like myself, though completely different backgrounds. I also got a younger coworker by about 10 years currently slightly higher ranked than me by seniority. He's on the cusp of what I would consider millenial. What I'm saying is the age differential and what we relate to are very different.

 

My music tastes in classic rock and 80s pop, is more gen x than y, though I do love 90s pop and hip hop. My fiance is a gen x. So yeah, I can relate better to x than millenial. But this millenial label got retroactively applied to us which is a bit unfair. There are two sides to every coin and the generational groupings are too broad. It is entirely possible for a kid born in the early 80s to have had a child in early 2000s and both get grouped into the same generational label. How effing dumb is that?

[pacman000]

I remember a old PSA with this line:

 

"We're not generation X. We're generation excellent."

 

I like that label.

[HoshiChiri]

Not for seven-year-old girls, they didn't!

 

Chuck E Cheese remains the most efficient way to convert 2 hours and forty dollars into some bad pizza toots and a couple of plastic frogs.

 

I had so many of those frogs as a kid... I got mine from Aladdin's Castle, though.

[pacman000]

Those prize counters were always so cool! But the good stuff was always out of reach...

[Zap!]

There is a lot of variance among the people who assign traits to generations, but I've always understood a generation is normally marked by the significant departures in social norms, practices, technology, entertainment, etc. occurring when they come of age around 14-21 years old. So for these generations, the pivotal developments (read biggest impressions on them) are generally:

• Baby Boomers 1954-74 (Fifties boom, protests, hippies, space race, end of Vietnam)
• Gen X 1974-87 (Cold war, post disco, computer revolution, stock market boom, dot com crash)

 

Sorry, but there's zero chance that I'm a Baby Boomer being born at the end of '72. Not only am I not crazy about that Generation, but I'm old enough and you're making me sound older.

[Zap!]

The gen y label was briefly popular in the 90s but it didn't stick. Probably because the true millenials would have been generation Z which sounds dumb imo.

 

Generation Z is what they are calling the generation after Millenials. The oldest ones are around 19 now.

[JBerel]

 

Sorry, but there's zero chance that I'm a Baby Boomer being born at the end of '72. Not only am I not crazy about that Generation, but I'm old enough and you're making me sound older.

No, you're firmly in the Gen X category. What I said was the cultural/sociological period impacting the Gen X'ers was from 1974-1987. That included the larger part of the Cold war, post disco, computer revolution, stock market boom, and Black Monday Stock crash. You were a little young in that period, but that's the time period you would have been most impacted by what was going on as you struggled to learn to cope with everything like the rest of us. Most of us Gen X'ers are pissed about how the Baby Boomers benefited from great work benefits, a booming stock market, general narcissism and left of shit to deal with.

[Flojomojo]

It was confusing the way you originally posted it ... I didn't want to say anything ("generations" discussion is boring to me) but I'm glad you've clarified what you've meant. Gen X is typically considered born between 1965-1975 (and sometimes a little later). "cultural-sociological period impacting them 74-87" makes sense in your context now.

 

I'm right smack in the middle of the Gen X demographic and I don't have a problem with that. I grew up with Sesame Street and Star Wars, and those things were pretty important in shaping my worldview. It's also a big part of why I like to hang out around here, I guess.

 

What was the topic again?

[Andromeda Stardust]

What was the topic again?

 

About whethr of not Nintendo "ruined" the industry, or "saved" it.

[mr_me]

Ruin is a strong word. But wouldn't it have been better had some of the popular NES games been produced for the SMS with its better hardware. Wouldn't it have been better if more developers created more games for the NES. The idea that it was necessary to limit cartridges is questionable. I like the NES gamepad over joysticks but wouldn't it have been better for some games (eg. sports) if there was an analog controller. Wouldn't it have been better had consumers paid less for cartridges. I'll also add that it's not Nintendo's fault that Sega or Tramiel/Atari couldn't make compelling games to sell their systems.

 

...

 

The "cultural shift from American to Japanese" is certainly overblown. We had Pong, Asteroids, Missile Command, and Defender, sure. But Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Galaxian, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Dig-Dug, Pole Position, Xevious, and many many more games came from Japan.

 

A lot of the best "Atari" games were NAMCO licenses.

 

Perhaps it was inevitable the next wave of home consoles would come from the East?

The industry shift from american to japanese happened. No disrespect to european game developers but it wasn't on the scale of what was going on in the US. And it doesn't mean there wasn't a japanese games industry before the crash. It does mean the american video game industry significantly reduced (and that's an understatement). Alot of programmers had to leave the industry, new programmers (with new ideas) weren't being recruited. New consoles were abandoned. But none of that is Nintendo's fault. It's organisations like Warner/Atari, Mattel Electronics, and Coleco self distructing.

[empsolo]

The five games a year rule, I think, was certainly necessary for a recovering industry. One of the major complaints from Activision was that in a flooded market, it was getting harder and harder for self-publishing developers to get noticed on store shelves. The five games a year rule ensured that smaller developers and publishers just same visibility as the latest hit from Konami or Capcom. I now Activision execs certainly liked the five game rule when they were publishing games on the NES.

[mr_me]

Publishers certainly liked it because it reduced competition and increased their profits. It was likely more the cost of entry of nintendo licensing that did it, and the five limit rule was just something publishers had to accept. But was it good for gaming? There was some truth that too much competition made it tough for quality developers to get on store shelves before the crash. But that resolved itself when all the shovelware publishers went out of business.

Edited April 23, 2018 by mr_me

[Osgeld]

Nintendo "ruined" the industry, or "saved" it.

 

 

yes

[Flojomojo]

I'll bet we can find some common ground if we try hard enough.

 

Nintendo MUTATED the videogame industry.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I'll bet we can find some common ground if we try hard enough.

 

Nintendo MUTATED the videogame industry.

I prefer the term "evolved".

 

The era of moving rectangles combined with beeps and farts for sound effects was finally over! Like the dinosaurs, extinct... :skull:

 

 

...save for a few of us old fossil holdouts, who still tend to gather in number at AtariAge!!!

 

[Flojomojo]

Sure ...can't have evolution without mutations.

[HoshiChiri]

I prefer the term "evolved".

 

The era of moving rectangles combined with beeps and farts for sound effects was finally over! Like the dinosaurs, extinct... :skull:

 

 

Now, moving rectangles over delightful British narration? That you can get nowadays!

 

[mr_me]

I prefer the term "evolved".

 

The era of moving rectangles combined with beeps and farts for sound effects was finally over! Like the dinosaurs, extinct... :skull:

 

 

...save for a few of us old fossil holdouts, who still tend to gather in number at AtariAge!!!

 

I liked pong. The hockey/soccer pong variation was always fun especially with four players.

[Dr Manhattan]

You know who ruined video games? Absolutely no one. The industry is thriving and retro gaming is better than ever before. I'm having more fun now than I did when i was a kid. Mainly because of the advancement of technology (retro flash carts, etc) and because I actually have the dough to buy the stuff I want. Gaming is great and I'm lucky to be part of such a fantastic hobby.

[Flojomojo]

Here's some 1997 hate-on for Nintendo, via a great scanner blog I like.

 

http://oldgamemags.tumblr.com/post/173243467631/next-generation-29-may-1997-is-the-nintendo-64

[Andromeda Stardust]

I liked pong. The hockey/soccer pong variation was always fun especially with four players.

I think there was also a two player mode with four sets of paddles. It felt like I was playing Foozeball, LOL!

[Tanooki]

What that NextGen magazine is a true and total hit piece pasted with all sorts of out of context comments and pandering garbage. The time that came out was well beyond when N64 had a decent going library of many of their own titles but good stuff from others, they crap on in passing calling the stuff B and C tier things when Shadows of the Empire, Killer Instinct Gold, Doom 64, and others being just back handedly mocked. They even intentionally dump on the good arcade games as old hat (conveniently out as they hit the PS1 too but not noting that) and also saying that Doom is just that old PC game which is bullshit as it's (for then) a new game using an old name which probably was a bad idea. They're not entirely off base dumping on not using discs and third parties somewhat tossing them under the bus due to it, but to contort truths was a lying unnecessary low blow. I do not miss the gaming print media of that era one bit and didn't feel a bit of remorse when the worst of them EGM ate it years later as it felt overdue. But for those in print who kept it fair and didn't play sides, I do miss that.

 

In a way you could almost say that the gaming media in ways has ruined the industry. They've created armies of mindless tools who take whatever they say as truth which give them godly like powers of influence if a game shall live or die in the market. It also created a fear factory from developers where they can bribe or threaten a mag to give a nicer score or else. Lots of options there looking back at leaks/exposes on bribes, firings, and other junk over simple game review scores. They've created a pat on the back vacuum of trouble that helps keep certain things on top and others B tier or worse.

[Andromeda Stardust]

A review needs to be an honest unbiased gamer's opinion. A review is not a paid endorsement; those are called ads. Neither is it a rival fanboy dumping on the competition; that just proves that the loudest shouting voice in a crowd gets all the attention, also true for youtube wannabe celebs.

[Flojomojo]

Video game reviews are just some dork's opinions pasted up with tacky screenshots. Print magazines exist for the advertisers, not the readers. We are better off without them.