[quote name='blandstalker']The whole enterprise does beg the question why they are even bothering to update.
I mean,
really? A shitty Genesis port of a game absolutely no one is asking for? A poorly implemented party game featuring pirates, which were the big thing like
two years ago? I'm sure there are worse games
somewhere. Maybe. Ones that companies are even asking money for. [/quote]
I'm sure the app store is a good place to check for worse games.
Couldn't they just have the decency to say "Sorry, we were so busy counting our money that we didn't have time to prepare anything worth your money or time". It would have an honesty and integrity that Family Pirate Party seems to lack.
Two things: The first is that you're sort of perpetuating this idea that Nintendo themselves is masterminding all the shop releases. I guess in a very indirect way they kind of
are, but not beyond an approval process. They aren't contacting people and saying "Hey could you make a family friendly series of games using a pirate motif for us? Great. And also could you come in this Saturday? We lost a couple of people and we need to play catch up.
Greeeaaaat."
Second, yeah, no one here likes those series. But that isn't to say others don't. So on some level you can't just dismiss everything. I have to assume at some point that these games are generating revenue for the companies. Maybe it's only a few thousand dollars. I have a friend who is trying to write app store stuff, and he's doing it almost purely out of the hope that it'll literally get him another twenty bucks a week. Further, that if he were to have three or four things out there, he'd have a more substantial return.
So in the end, really the only answer here would be to see sales figures, which we can only glean based on developer interviews. And even those tend to only be one of the extremes - either "our game sold poorly and we hate the service" or "our game made us lots of money." See: Steel Penny Games (Bruiser and Scratch) versus Capcom (Megaman 9).
Rather than throw recycled vomit up in the air and hope it comes down money, couldn't they just spend the time working on, oh I dunno, games people actually want to play? Ideas that seem, y'know, good?
Goes along with the above, but the point here is that it's not in Nintendo's best interest to start censoring companies and being draconian about what gets released and what doesn't. If rumors are to be believed, they already do this with their payout mechanism, which says "you have to sell X amount before we pay you," which sounds kind of extortion-y, but everyone seems to say it's an effective measure against stuff not getting released that doesn't retain
some quality. I'm guessing after ESRB fees and general development, there's no company out there releasing stuff that says "this is a crap game and we're not going to meet the threshold."
I think the whining would go down if there was some actual response to demand, some reassurance that the people choosing the games aren't using dartboards and blindfolds, or that there is a plan, a vision, or even a clue.
And I agree. I will caution that digital distribution still won't come into its own this generation, which is why Nintendo won't start releasing, say, Super Mario World 3 or whatever.
Sure, you can order that cone of dependable Rocky Road or Cookie Dough that's been there for months. But you'd also be within your rights to bitch if the store hypes up its new weekly special flavors, only to find they're Chili con Carne and Earwax.
Again.
Oh come on - where are they hyping it up? We all know they aren't outside of a small press release. This is the heart of the matter I'm saying, which is that we pretend they tell us they have gold in their pockets, when instead it's just sawdust. But part of that is because we're that easily excitable.
I'm not complaining that this week's XBLA deal is some crap brain game, for example.
[quote name='yukine']Well you can't blame him for being disappointed in the VC thus far, Nintendo touted it around as being a reason to get a Wii. I remember us CAGs being very excited about it, "It will be like the Sega Channel! AWESOME", Nintendo marketing didn't help any.[/quote]
But again, part of that is our own collective faults when we start dreaming what it
could be versus what it probably
will be.
[quote name='Ryukahn']It seems like it's a huge problem to you, not me. All I said was that the VC was the main reason I bought a Wii, and you make a ridiculous analogy that was basically a way of calling me stupid, which was totally uncalled for.[/QUOTE]
No, I'm calling a lot of this whining sensationalistic, built around a lot of exceedingly high expectations that can't possibly be fulfilled, and further augmented with the realization that there's already a good amount of quality retro and new games available. Taking all of this into account, there's more than enough to satisfy even a 10+-hour-a-week gamer busy for months, if not a few years, on legacy titles alone.
It's annoying to update this thing and know it's a bad and boring week, and then having everyone start pretending their legs are broken by people in Family Fun Pirate costumes. If you're that angry about it, just watch the thread title - I'll mention pretty easily "It's a good week" in whatever stupid words I decide strike me at that time.
All this Dour Dora-ness can be checked at the door. Blandstalker was talking about everything in a "why even bother?" way, and that's the mentality I've got here - why bother showing up to the party just to complain about the music, especially when I've put a sign on the door that says WE'RE PLAYING BEEGEES ONLY ALL NIGHT LONG.
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