Shall we play a game

[jward]

Ok, so writing a review of the new Game Boy Advance was little more than a ploy to get free games but come on....I deserve them right? Anyway, let me know what you think about the GBA or just the gaming industry in general.

And if all of you guys get a Game Boy we can link them up and play on helluva game of Tony Hawk.

Jonathan "blatently trying to support my gaming habit" Ward

[chiquita chad]

what does this have to do with propaganda?

[jward]

it is meant as a response to the article that i posted on the front page of winamp.com. This whole forum is dedicated to those articles.

[Xerxes]

Ha - as far as that article, I would say the end justifies the means, Jonathan :)

As far as the gaming industry goes, I think it is transforming into the movie industry- and what I mean by that, is that

A. it is beginning to frequently turn out more and more uninspired crapola for the masses, while better games
that do not have the money in the budget for their own PR departmentget overlooked.

B. it has a GIANT spin machine- possibly bigger than hollywoods. SO many magazines, websites, and other media tracking the next "big gaming revolutions" with all of these people on the hook for "what's next" when all the mags and sites are just reading and quoting press releases / PR people that give them free games verbatim.

... I have not seen anything really NEW in gaming for a long time(with the exception of Maxis games)- all of these polygons and what not only serve to mask what the gaming industry is incompetant at doing- making good games.

[jward]

I think Xerxes raises a couple of good points but neither of them are new. One of the reasons that the gaming industry crashed in the 80's was because the market was flooded with sub-par games. Come on, they produced more ET games than there were systems to play it on.

As for the "Hollywood/Corporate Machine" aspect if the industry, well that has always been here too. We are dealing with a multi-billion dollar industry here. Everyone wants a piece of that. Will they get it? Nope. But there are bound to be a few companies that put shit in a shiny package and make a mint. It is all in the marketing. With a market this big there is bound to be crap.

People need to know that there are good games out there. Innovative games that aren't all hype. Hell, everyone in our office is addicted to Super Puzzle Fighter but that game barely made a splish much less a splash when it was released.

Here's the deal, I love games, I play games, and I like to think that I am very informed about my purchasing. If some PR department gives me a game and asks me to review it, I will do so honestly. That is that.

At present, I am not in any position to change the industry. I can, however, help people to make better purchasing decisions. Is that something that Winamp.com should be doing? You tell me.

Thanks for your input Xerxes. I want to know what other people on the forums think as well.

Oh, and if you plug-in developers out there are making any games I really want to know about it. Maybe Denny will be able to help you out a bit. He loves making games.

jonathan "just wanna play" ward

[Xerxes]

Originally posted by jward
If some PR department gives me a game and asks me to review it, I will do so honestly. That is that.


And... I would probably do the same; DAMN why does the promise of free trinkets make everyone so corruptible :p

Puzzle Fighter is an awesome game- yet I don't think the
Game industry would like to let anyone think that- after all, Puzzle fighter doesnt have an impressive "polygon count", a high "Frames per second", "dynamic lighting" etc etc etc. All it is- is a damn good game... with more replayability and fun than 75% of the shite out there...

Who is the "Puzzle fighter king" at your office out of curiosity? :)

[NeoRenegade]

The problem in the 80's was that Atari refused to give up making crappy games and Nintendo hadn't quite taken hold of the industry yet (just look how damn good it go once they did!).

Anyhow, I have Gameboy Advance, and although Super Mario Advance is the only game for it I have, I carry it with me everywhere I go.