Mario Kart: Fury Road - Genius

A great parody video, of a great movie

Game Design Formulas and Tricks

Although many ideas in this video are somewhat staples in the game design world, partially because of Nintendo's great game design over the years, this video briefly describes these game design principals and gives great examples of them. Whether you are interested at all in game design or you're just curious as to how some of the greatest games in history were developed, you should definitely check this video out. 

Check out this guy's channel because he has some other interesting videos on game design. Below is another one I really enjoyed on adaptive soundtracks in games

Sega and Nintendo going to mobile? Why?

Is Sega the next Atari?

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-02-23-is-sega-the-next-atari

     This article discusses whether Sega and Nintendo's recent business plans, such as Nintendo's plan to move to the mobile market. The article mostly refers to an interview that GamesIndustry.biz conducted with former CEO of Sega and current CEO of Leapfrog, Tom Kalinske, and his opinions on the matter. He believes Sega has been making bad decision after bad decision for the last twenty years, and that is why they are in the unfavorable situation they are in now, but he says that they can definitely make a comeback. He also states that Nintendo is correct in finally directing some of their focus into mobile gaming.

"Whether we called it Sega-Sony or Sony-Sega, who cared? We go to Sega and the board turned it down, which I thought was the stupidest decision ever made in the history of business. And from that moment on, I didn't feel they were capable of making the correct decisions in Japan any longer."

"Stupidity," Kalinske laughed. "They're hard to kill. You have to really make a lot of mistakes to kill a strong brand. I do think some great brands obviously have been destroyed, Atari being one of them. Why didn't that survive? I think there's a lot of bad decision making involved in killing brands like that. I hope Sega isn't the same thing."

     The article doesn't discuss some recent news that is actually very important when discussing Sega and Nintendo's future. Sega has recently released a full blown Sonic game for android devices, Sonic Runners. This is a big deal because the game was developed by Sonic Team unlike Sega's previous mobile games. If the game does well it will most likely encourage not only Sega to dive deeper into the market, but also Nintendo. Sega has also recently announced that they will most likely stop making games for console in the next few years and focus only on PC, which many consider a ridiculously uninspired decision. Then again Sega did produce two of the most highly acclaimed games of last year, Alien: Isolation and Bayonetta 2, both for console, but I suppose that wasn't enough to keep them from deciding to go PC exclusive. Sonic, Sega's most well known IP isn't doing so well with his last two console games, Sonic Lost World and Sonic Boom being critically panned and not selling as well as Sega would have hoped, which most likely contributed to their hesitation to stay in the console market. I believe that Sonic's success, whatever medium he is published to next, whether it be mobile, console, or PC, will have a huge impact on what Sega decides to do in the near future.

week 8

Nintendo is Cheep Cheep and Youtubers are Thwomping mad

YouTube star PewDiePie criticises Nintendo's new revenue-sharing plans

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/02/youtube-pewdiepie-nintendo-revenue-sharing

http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/27/5754560/nintendo-youtube-affiliate-program

     This article delvs into Nintendo's new YouTube revenue-sharing system and how the YouTube community is reacting to it. The main reaction that is analyzed is PewDiePie's reaction. PewDiePie is a lets player, person who plays games and records himself playing it, and the most subscribed to YouTuber at the moment with almost 35 million subscribers. He says that although any game company definitely has the right to do what Nintendo was doing by taking the revenue from their videos, they should be making restrictive systems like the one they are putting in place now because it is disrespecting YouTubers who are basically giving them free advertisements in their videos (for more information about Nintendo and how videos of their games are being dealt with on YouTube go to the polygon article by clicking the second link below the title).

“First off all, they have every right to do this and any other developer / publisher have as well. There’d be no ‘let’s play’ without the game to play. And we (YouTubers) are humble to this fact.

But what they are missing out on completely is the free exposure and publicity that they get from YouTube / YouTubers. What better way to sell / market a game, than from watching someone else (that you like) playing it and enjoying themselves?”

"He went on to describe the Creators Program as “a slap in the face” to the community of YouTube channel that focus entirely on Nintendo games, and suggested that in other cases, the gamer is more important than the game when it comes to YouTube popularity."

“If I played a Nintendo game on my channel. Most likely most of the views / ad revenue would come from the fact that my viewers are subscribed to me,” he wrote. “Not necessarily because they want to watch a Nintendo game in particular.”

     I do agree with PewDiePie that Nintendo should just do the same that other game companies are by giving the YouTubers their full share of revenue generated from those YouTubers videos. This would probably get the larger YouTubers to play a lot more Nintendo games, which I would love to watch, and it would probably drive sales of those games through the roof since the demographic of those Youtubers is similar to that of most of Nintendo's games. The way Nintendo is restricting the ad revenue right now causes YouTubers to not want to play those games. I think the YouTubers are overreacting a bit, calling it "a slap in the face", but Nintendo isn't really pulling this off in the smoothest way possible, and they are starting to come off as a bit greedy.

week 7

Nintendo is remaking and re-releasing, is that good or bad?

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK 3D REVIEW: TIME AFTER TIME

http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/4/7874951/zelda-majoras-mask-3d-review-legend-new-3ds-xl

   Polygon's review of The new Majora's Mask remake gives it a 9/10, saying that it keeps the beautifully dark nature of the Nintendo 64 classic, while smoothing off it's rough edges. As many have complained about recent Nintendo games and remakes, Griffin McElroy says that by being able to save between 3-day cycles and the Sheikah stones make the game too easy. Many remakes have been making these classic games easier for the next generation, but in spite of that this game got an amazing score of 9/10.

"The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D does a lot of things right, but its biggest success is how it's sanded off all those rough edges from the original's core conceit. It is, 15 years later, the grand, time-traveling adventure this game always deserved to be."

"What's remarkable about Majora's Mask 3D is how it refines that structure, and does so without compromising the premise — save for one notable exception."

"It's smart stuff, but one major change kind of undercuts the concept: You can now save in the middle of your three-day loop...While that scheme is perhaps more streamlined, it's also a bit less interesting."

     I have heard mainly amazing things about this game and it's remake, which is great for Nintendo (and the scalpers, but that's another story), but it's definitely going to reinforce the flood of remakes and re-releases that is plaguing the gaming industry. The PS4 and XBOX ONE have few good games and the few that are good are remakes. Nintendo is trying to create original content and I enjoy their new games a lot, but it's obvious that the remakes are making more money, the latest Pokemon remakes being one of the best-selling Pokemon games ever, and the Zelda remakes rating so well. This is always spoken negatively about, but the numbers (especially in the Mario series) show that this is what people want, and if it makes people happy while giving Nintendo money, shouldn't it continue? Or by pushing all these remakes, have we caused ourselves to meet with a terrible fate? I don't know.

Second to last line was a reference to the game, that's why its so deep.

week 6

The Beginning of the End of Video Game Journalism? Farewell Joystiq

Joystiq Shutdown Signals the End of Video Game Journalism?!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDoxXF4XoPw

     This video efficiently describes the "shutting down" of the video game news website, Joystiq, and some events surrounding it, from the laying off of many employees all across the video game journalism profession to the future of what is left of Joystiq. Some questions about the future of video game journalism are also raised, such as what does this mean for the future of the industry and did we really need this industry in the first place. This could have a ripple effect, soon noticeable, in the video game industry.

" What purpose does an inside look at gaming serve other than an intent to purchase? "

" ... Publishers paying journalists to have them review their games favorably, but thanks to the plethora of information and opinions now accessible via the internet, from sites like Joystiq, we can form our own opinions"

"Every day is a long day for the passionate. This is how it was for us. We had a drive to write about games and a duty to catch every little bit of information, make it fun to read and keep it grounded" (This is a quote from Joystiq's farewell article)

     This makes me terribly sad. People who's opinions I have respected and have looked to for a while now are now out of a job and I won't be able to look to them for their unique views on gaming news anymore. I've read some articles and reviews that were very obviously biased and weren't objective in some cases and I felt that I could often look to joystiq for an objective review. The name itself, joystiq, is going on to different things,  but the most of the heart and soul of the company, its writers, will be leaving. A few other websites have also been shut down recently,  and although I don't believe this is the end of  Video Game Journalism as many are saying, it could mean something worse. It could signal the end of legitimate video game journalism. These companies are losing money and its possible that eventually they will turn to purely sponsored articles, depriving the public of unbiased news and reviews.

week 5

The Amiibos have been left to the scalpers

Nintendo’s Treatment of Amiibo is Disrespectful to Their Loyal Fans

http://www.twinfinite.net/2014/12/22/nintendos-treatment-amiibo-disrespectful-loyal-fans/

This article describes the whole amiibo and NFC platform that Nintendo is diving into right now, which I have already talked about here, but later it goes into the details of how poorly Nintendo executed selling these amiibos. The author states that Nintendo under stocked because it does not believe in it's product, but since many people do in fact want these amiibos it has caused a shortage, which scalpers are taking advantage of(scalpers re people who buy multiple copies of a product to resell it at a higher price).

"'Some amiibo were very popular at launch, and it is possible that some amiibo in the United States, Canada and Latin America may not be available right now due to high demand and our efforts to manage shelf space during the launch period. Certain sold-out amiibo may return to these markets at a later stage.' That’s not an answer, Nintendo"

"If there’s a company that should completely dominate the “figures that go in a game” market, it’s Nintendo. And don’t get me wrong, Amiibo are clearly selling,but the majority of those available are re-sales, with retailers like Amazon and eBay just littered with price-gouging scalpers."

With their non-answers and plans to already abandon a product that is in high demand, Nintendo has shown that they don’t really listen to their customers. What is going on at Nintendo?

I totally agree that Nintendo is definitely not handeling this situation how they should, but one point that just came off as bitter and not thought through, was when the author said that Nintendo was at fault since the very beginning for not believing in their product, but they had no reason to "believe". When a company is seemingly failing like nintendo they don't want to overstock on a product, they learned from the Wii U and WindWaker not to do that. In this case though, they really should have produced more after the fact, but it seems like they refuse to do so. Lets just hope Nintendo doesn't go down this same path with their upcoming limited editions like Majora's Mask and the New 3DS(Awful name by the way).

week 4

Episodic video games that are written better than TV Shows?

Tales from the Borderlands Episode One review: Busy earnin'

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/11/26/tales-from-the-borderlands-episode-one-review-busy-earnin/

     This is a review of one of the most recent TellTale Games Episodic video games, Tales from the Borderlands: Busy Earnin'. The review goes onto give a beautifully descriptive and analytic review of the games writing, design, animations and etc., but this singular review says some things that not only apply to the first episode of the Tales of the Borderlands games, but also to the rest of the TellTale games episodic series of games. It goes into the great immersive aspects of these games and the spectacular writing in these games. Some other reviews of TellTale Games explain aspects of this even better and I will link to them below.

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/12/02/game-of-thrones-episode-one-review-baptism-by-ice/

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/08/26/the-walking-dead-season-2-episode-5-review-exit-wounds/

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/05/13/the-walking-dead-season-2-episode-3-review-guts-1z4yx/

"regardless of your level of Borderlands experience, Tales from the Borderlands is a witty, well-written adventure with broad appeal. And yeah, there's a dick joke or two."

"the story is a good one, full of well-realized characters and amusing dialogue. The decisions you make feel significant – even if they don't carry the dire consequences of a zombie apocalypse – and the results will almost certainly put a smile on your face."

" it doesn't feel like two digital characters following paths of a dialog tree."

    The writing in these games ranges from heartwarming and post-apocalyptic in the Walking Dead series to laugh-out-load insane in the Tales from the Borderlands and it seems to work out almost perfectly every time, pleasing fans and entertaining casual players. I haven't been able to play all of TellTale Games' games, but the ones I have played have brought me to tears in one way or another. Since this is a choose your own adventure kind of game there is different dialogue written for the different situations your character can get into, yet each set of dialogue and plot is still beautifully immersive, despite the cartoony graphics. These games are a refreshing break from the increasingly formulaic writting of some television shows out there right now. So i recommend everyone at least tries playing one episode of a TellTale Game, whether you prefer the dark and intense drama of the Game of Thrones world, the action and heartwarming narrative of the Walking Dead world, or the wonderfully crazy antics of the Borderlands World. 

Just trust Handsome Jack down there,

week 3

Who Is the Master Hand From Smash Bros.?

Game Theory: Super Smash Bros TRAGIC Hidden Lore

     This video, made by the amazing game theorist, Mat Pat, starts off by describing the very simple, implied plot of the Super Smash Bros. series of games made by Nintendo. The plot is basically that a boy, represented by Master hand, a floating hand, in the game, pits all his plush toys and action figures against each other and those fights are what we play in the game. In later games we fight characters like Crazy Hand, Taboo, and Master Core, all which Mat Pat says represent different things fighting against the Creator,Masahiro Sakuri  as he creates these games. There is substantial proof of interviews and details in games that he uses as ways to support his theory. To truly understand the metaphors in this game you must watch the video because I cannot coherently explain the logic like Matthew does in the video.

"Crazy Hand represents the desire to destroy what you've built. That's him[Sakurai] dealing with having to dedicate more years of his life to this franchise."

"It was tough for me to see that every time I made a new game, people automatically assumed that there was a sequel coming."

    Although the video seems just like a cool different look at a Nintendo fan's dream game, it's not just that, it's also some great commentary on the state of the game industry. It touches on the fact that no matter what, if a game is successful enough it will get a sequel, whether the original creator wants it or not.

    Another interesting thin this video and the history of Smash's development is how older teenagers and men are not expected to play with toys or games that look like they are made for children. The evil Boss Taboo from Super Smash Bros. Brawl supposedly represents Masahiro Sakurai's feelings of of resentment towards society for thinking like that  because he develops games like that. It could also be interpreted that he is frustrated that this stereotypical of what games a man is supposed to play are affecting the sales of his games.

week 2

     

CES brings us the newest in VR technology

Hands-on with Razer's Hand-Tracking VR - OSVR

http://www.ign.com/videos/2015/01/07/razer-joins-the-vr-party-with-osvr-ces-2015

    This video gives us insight into the Razor OSVR demo at CES this year. The man being interviewed gives us his first impressions of the device and how it compares to previously revealed and developed virtual reality headsets like the Morpheus and Oculous Rift devices. He says the framerate was dropping and was inconsistent, something that the other headsets rarely suffer from, but the amazing handtracking is what he said separated it from the rest. He goes on to say that razor has the same intentions as other developers of VR hardware, to encourage developers, this is not a consumer product.

"Graphically it was a little behind, the frame-rate was chugging a little bit"

" This is for developers, they [Razor] wants to make it cheap easy and affordable so people develop more VR content."

    This video gives you a great first impression and pretty personal account of the reviewers experience, but it would be a little more accurate if he knew the specs of the device. For example, he says that Razor's device is graphically worse than the others when in fact, even if it has frame rate problems, the display is actually equivalent, if not better than the ones of those that he compared it to.

I posted a video below that was uploaded after I made this blog, but I figured I'd put it in if anyone wanted to see a little more objective data about Razor's OSVR and the other amazing stuff at CES.

week 1