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