The Gamer's Quarter

[Mister Toups]

(something more substantive to appear later)
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where were you when nana komatsu got a wii?

[ajutla]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ajutla/76953.html?mode=reply ?
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[Mr. Mechanical]

I like it, and the ideas behind it. Ballsy move by Nintendo, I hope it pays off for them because if it doesn't they could very well alienate the people they've been surviving on for the past ten years or so. You know, gamers. Say that with a sort of snide disgust and you'll get what I mean.

Still, I'll buy one. It looks like fun, and I'll probably be able to actually afford it right from the start.

[Szczepaniak]

Edited for delirium.

[Szczepaniak]

Edited for relevance

[Lackey]

I don't think I'll really have an opinion on it until I have it in my hands and give it a go. That's usually the best way.

Also, did the colours change?

PS: Nice post, ajulta.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[dhex]

surely that's not the actual controller?
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[Tablesaw]

So, it's a mouse, right? A fancy mouse, in three-D, for the TV. Right?

The theory is sound. People like mouses. I like mouses. I use them all the time. I use them to play games. I use them in my totally non-gaming-related workplace. I'd like a TV mouse, I think.

But it looks like there's a lot of room for the technology to not work right. Which would be bad. I mean, right now, my normal remote controls don't work half the time. Admittedly, that's mostly because I have a second TV in my room, which would apparently have to go.
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It's the saw of the table!

[ApM]

You know something? How the controller itself works: not that big of a deal. I mean, I'm excited about the possibilities for gesture-based gameplay with a controller that's actually built for it, sure. Hopefully my wife will be able to more easily control a 3D camera with it.

But what makes this an exciting development is that it's a brilliant strategy for building a market for people who aren't well-served by today's videogames. It's not so much that the controller will give you blowjobs, as it is that the controller will attract developers looking to do something interesting with the medium. Not to mention getting their own designers out of their rut.

And it makes the DS make that much more sense. It's a chance for developers to get their feet wet, try new things on the cheap, maybe smack a little bit of sense into publishers. You've noticed the lack of new first-party Gamecube games, and the proliferation of new DS games? Nintendo's getting everyone in the right headspace to develop interesting things on their new platform.

If Nintendo's done their job, and by all the hands-on accounts, it looks like they have, it will just kind of work. And when my wife picks up the controller and plays a game developed by a someone who gets it, she won't give a fuck if it looks like a remote control or not.

There. That's all the armchair punditry that you're going to get out of me.

[dhex]

that's a reasonable analysis.

i think i'm getting too old for this stuff, though.
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[Swimmy]

Hello there.

So, last night, as every Thursday night, there was a drunken party in my trailer (yes, I live in a trailer) keeping me from sleeping. After being woken up for the fifteenth time or so, I decided to fuck around on the internets. And, hey, that new Revolution controller's been revealed - I forgot Japan was on a different time zone. I read the general idea. "Cute," I told myself. Thought of that Dragon Quest sword game I wanted to play so badly but never came stateside. Then I sat in bed for another hour or two before drifting off.

That's pretty much my entire impression. Cute. Dragon Quest.

Then, this morning I view the fallout. Everyone's going crazy. Half of everyone - the same half that, like myself, thought the DS was a nice paradigm shift and could Change Videogames Forever - were going nuts, and licking Nintendo's. The other half - the PSP owners, I guess - were showing some serious signs of froth in their anger. I don't really understand either reaction. Nintendo promised this controller would not be standard; they followed through. It wasn't as simple as some rehashed gyroscope thing, and I'm happy for that. It's not as easy to work with as a touch screen, though it might have more potential in the long run. If it flops, hey, Gamecube controller ports.

This is perfectly safe. It's not the least bit surprising, or brilliant, or stupid, or anything but there, and we'll see where it goes. If the console's cheap, as it's supposed to be, nothing could go wrong in getting one - even if most of the games flop, there's still the emulation and those Gamecube ports. It's the most conservative console ever. (Which either says something about Nintendo or revolutions.)

But then, I always understimate the internet.

[SuperWes]

Good post swimmy. I agree. Matt and I were working on the magazine last night and he was like, "Rev Controller" and I was like, "Lemme see. Sweet." And then I got back to working. It's really interesting and there's a lot to think about with it, but I'm not sure if anything other than the limitations are all that surprising.

Actually, there are two bits of information that people seem to keep glossing over:

1. You've got to set up sensors next to your TV in order to play the thing.
2. You can shove the remote into a standard controller and play standard video games with it.

Both of these things are very important because #1 indicates that it's The Power Glove 2, and #2 indicates that depending on how Nintendo distributes the standard controller add on, they're not completely screwed out of 3rd party support.

Yup. Read up on it.

-Wes
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[dessgeega]

item number one actually worries me a bit, because i have a very small television. will large tvs be the revolution's HD?
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[Mister Toups]

[SuperWes]

The Revolution Controller Basics: What The Hell Is It?
The controller for Nintendo's upcoming Revolution home console system is a cordless remote-control-like device designed to be used with only one hand. Two small sensors placed near the TV and a chip inside the controller track its position and orientation, allowing the player to manipulate the action on screen by physically moving the controller itself. For example, you could slash an in-game sword by actually swinging the controller from side to side, turn a race car just by twisting your wrist, or aim your gun in a shooter by pointing the controller where you want to fire.

Sucka!

-Wes
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[ApM]

I think you'll just sit closer? I'm pretty sure the sensors are solely for pointing.

Also, I have a sudden, inexplicable desire for one of these.

[DonMarco]

It's mighty homogenized.

YEAH, I WENT THERE!!!
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Collector of over 1,538 strategy guides. That's weird, right?

[dhex]

no wonder greek guys are so hot.

i'm seriously considering getting one of these for work, however.
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[TOLLMASTER]

When I first saw the controller, I said "What the hell?" loud enough to wake up my mother.

Now, I'm a little bit more calm now. That may be a residual effect of medicines from my hospitalization however, so tomorrow if I'm WTFing please take these comments with a grain of sodium chloride.

But I think this is, ultimately, a step in a horizontal direction. To be brutally honest, the thing looks fun, but not particularly practical. The object seems designed to give one carpal tunnel syndrome, but seems neat and obvious in a "light gun" way. The important thing I'm thinking about right now is, though, is this really "revolutionary"? The technology for this kind of stuff has existed for a while, and while potentially a force to reckoned with, I get the feeling this is just an "alternate universe" version of our standard PS2 controller, where they got motion sensor technology before analog stick technology. The touch screen on the DS was a step up, a challenge to the video game industry to innovate. The Revolution controller seems to be --well, a different way of doing things, but not really innovative.

I still, however, plan to kick some monster ass in Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Online with it.

[ninjaboyjohn]

I'm thrilled by the possibilities, but that's all we have to go on now.

Possibilities.

Two things:
1.) If you want the system to come with the "standard controller cradle" included then you are entirely missing the point.
2.) I think the brilliance of the controller is that it should *decrease* the amount of add-ons needed. The remote can become an endless amount of custom controllers... just by itself... without having to purchase dongly things.

ok... three things

3.) Maybe the "not quite PS3 or 360" graphical power that is speculated from the Revolution is a really, really good thing. Designing a game around that controller is probably not easy. Capturing gestures and interfacing it with a 3d virtual space will be difficult regardless of how well Nintendo develops its devkits and resources. The time, effort, and money that most Next-Gen games are putting into post-production effects and new useless ways to use physics engines would be better spent, for a Rev game, on perfecting the control, because unlike the other two systems, that's where it's gonna be.

[wankerwitson]

[Mister Toups]

[dessgeega]

[Szczepaniak]

I've debated this with people, and I must admit, that it does have possibilities. It has, potential. I reserve final judgement for when I hold it in my hands.

But there is one problem I do have, that I think will force people to use plenty of add-ons.

Have you noticed how there are quite literally only 2 action buttons on it? A and B. Theres a big A and a trigger B, and then theres two little a and b buttons.

Are these two sets of A and B seperate, or do they behave as the same?

I have heard several unique ideas put forward by people, several of which work around the idea that they behave differently. IE you can fire with the B trigger, but the b button will preform a different action.

Do you think is to be the case? Will we need additional button add-ons?

How much will these add-ons cost? Remember how they made you buy the GBA link cable, which cost quite a it in Europe. I simply never bothered to buy it. Or many of their other add-ons. Nintendo is notorious for high prices for things like that.


If those 4 buttons are not independant, then there may be problems. In all seriousness, I feel that at bare minimum, some games will require at least 4 action buttons. Now, I suppose that select and start could be used as an additional 2 inputs, but somehow I feel Nintendo went too far with it's unique ideas.

God, why can't I make myself like this controller? The best thing for me is that it flips over to be a NES/Famicom pad...

Oh! The irony! The banner above me as I type this is the one of the dogbone NES pad.

[dhex]

i saw an nes controller last night (my friend's studio is entering the "stuff to put in the lounge to keep idiot hangers-on out of the way" phase) and i never realized just how fucking small it really is.
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[Lackey]

Its true! If you haven't used one since childhood they seem like tiny toys. I suppose its obvious who Nintendo's original market was.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[SuperWes]

[Szczepaniak]

[player 2]

I think people need to stop thinking in the, "HOW ARE MY FAVORITE GAMES GOING TO PLAY ON THE REVOLUTION!??" mindset. The Revolution is about new types of games and breaking out of genre stereotypes. Fitting X type of game into the Revolution isn't going to work. The Revolution is about carving out new types of games.

And the way it seems is that the Revolution dongle will attach to your favorite system's controller (NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube) and then you'll be able to play that game. It'd be the perfect way to bring back retro.
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Wii #: 8749 9109 9732 3653

"It is a peaceful way of understanding life, to play"
_Marcel Duchamp

[Legal Step]

I like it, but I don't know why. I need some time with it to judge how I really feel. Its kind of hard to judge something just by looking at some pictures of people swinging it around and whatnot.

I give nintendo credit for trying something new.

[Lackey]

[Szczepaniak]

[david]

Seems like the real party is in here, so I'll repost what I said in the other thread:

Another barrier to entry is how lame conventional controllers look to hold. We're all like rodents clutching food pellets in front of us. We give up the free motion of our arms to service these contraptions, our tiny masters with whom we so earnestly fiddle. A one handed controller doesn't demand that you hold your hands in the middle of your body like begging paws. We'll be able to sit with whatever attitude suits us. We can hold iced tea or scratch our jaws or talk on the phone. Even with the plug-in analog stick, there's more flexibility than before.

Every time someone walks in to see me playing video games, I feel like I was just caught lip synching in the mirror.
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[SuperWes]

This is a good post. Both times!

When you said the thing about lipsynching in a mirror it made me wonder whether Nintendo will incorporate a microphone into the revolution controller. If not into the standard controller, than as an add-on to the bottom. If they did this, Karaoke Revolution could pointlessly track your character around the room and rate your stage presence while you sing. That would be both unneccessary and incredible all at once.

Also this:



-Wes
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[Mister Toups]