Topic: You Can't Spell Ignorance Without IGN.

[Jericho]

OK, ladies and gentlemen, boy do I have a story or all of you. Recently, another sensationalist piece on "what's killing video gaming" went up on the gaming web review site IGN courtesy of one Patrick Kolan. As you would expect, there were the usual suspects such as casuals, lazy devs and business stuff. Then this one particular post took a turn for the amazing when he started stating that things such as Mario & Sonic rivalries & appearances are old and boring. THEN it became legendary when he single handedly bitchslaps the women's rights movement and maturity of the medium by stating that strong, believable female leads (as per his examples) are unnecessary, gimmicky and a bad cliche.

Needless to say, this was another gem that GAF put me on, but I just want to know, how many of you will get a facepalm of massive proportions upon reading this one. Also, as an extra fun tidbit, the writer of the blog post  pretty much states in a previous entry that the gamers and people that make up GAF and message boards in general aren't intelligent enough to see through this bullshit and we are the cause of the problems in the gaming field, likening us to a virus of sorts that people should stay away from.

This post was so bad that in retaliation, GAF has now word filtered the site. When you read the actual article (which I copy-pasta'd below, the link doesn't deserve hits), you will agree and say wow.

1. A Great Cast with a Dud Script
Quote:
How many times has a game proclaimed its cinematic virtues – highly enjoyable story, Hollywood-grade (or at least, prime-time TV quality) voice actors in a staggering production of unparalleled genius? Then, when we sit down with the final game, the story and dialogue plods along limply before fizzling like bad internet fan fiction? There's nothing that can deflate the overall authenticity and quality of a game's setting than a poorly written story, sub-comic book pulp dialogue and bad cliche after bad cliché.

Solution? The writing department in your average developer is usually a tiny fraction the size of design, and many staffers end up wearing multiple hats in writing roles – spending time creating manuals and support documents as much as creating a compelling setting. More focus on the writing process and creating a compelling world can pull a game out of mediocrity and make up for any visual shortcomings. Great examples are Braid, the Baldur's Gate series, the GTA series and just about everything that came out of the minds of Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert. You don't need A-list celebrities to tell a great story.

Worst Recent Offenders:
Gears of War 2
Prince of Persia
Sonic Unleashed

2. Unreal Engine Overdose
Quote:
Once a claim to fame, highly enjoyable's middleware engine has become all too common in the industry. When in the right hands – and with tech support from its creators – the engine can make games sing. The engine is capable of a gamut of industry standard rendering effects and presets, allowing developers to take a few essential shortcuts and help get their heads around volumetric fog, high resolution bump mapping and so on. That's a best case scenario. At its worst, the Unreal Engine 3 tends to make games look very generic too, and sometimes at the expense of true artistic direction and skill. If every game looks like Gears of War, then Gears of War stops being special or interesting. Every landscape need not look like an industrial cyberpunk wasteland, tinted brown and pale blue. Games like Damnation, BlackSite: Area 51, Army of Two and Turok are all guilty of this.

Conversely, when the engine is used to fuel true artistic endeavor, the results can be marvelous. Just take a look at Mirror's Edge, Bioshock and Mass Effect. Better still are games that have been developed from what are essentially original engines entirely – Grand Theft Auto IV, Pure and Resistance 2. All three of these games take the industry-standard effects and wrap them around an engine that looks just different enough from Unreal Engine 3 to stand out.

Worst Recent Offenders:
Damnation
Turok
Army of Two
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

3. Sequelitis

Quote:
This is a contentious category because it is dominated by outside forces more often than not, meaning that developers are, to some extent, swayed by the influence of the markets buying their games. That means if a game sells well, it has established a brand name in the market and a sequel is almost assured. Two companies, beyond most others, are most guilty of this – Activision and EA – though they're clearly not the sole parties responsible for the glut of sequels and installments. To be fair, EA has recently taken steps to stem the flow of sequels and foster more original IP which we completely commend. Activision has yet to follow suit to the same extent; its business model still focuses strongly on brand retention and sequels.

Sometimes, an annual installment is a welcome thing – some would argue that Guitar Hero needs its downloadable content and expansion discs to stay fresh. Others might say that the novelty has passed and that more time is needed between versions. You need only look at the ragged, sallow husk of a series that Need for Speed and Tony Hawk have become to see the results of oversaturation in the marketplace. The Sims is another; when The Sims 2: IKEA hit the market, gamers grabbed their buckets and worked through the nausea. Some never survived.

You might be asking yourself where Mario and Sonic are on this list, and it's true – those two, Sonic in particular, have been played out and spun in weird, uncomfortable directions for too long now. See below for a more in-depth look.

Worst Recent Offenders:
Guitar Hero series
Tony Hawk series
Need For Speed series
The Sims / MySims series
Tenchu series

4. Too Human Syndrome
Quote:
Lesson learned: there are few things as needlessly arrogant as announcing a trilogy before the first game is out the door. Too Human, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Gears of War and Half-Life 2 Episodes, we're looking straight at you. Speaking frankly, look – there's nothing wrong with ambition. You want to make an highly enjoyable, sprawling universe? That's totally fine. But start with getting the first game right and then let the market decide if it actually wants a sequel, let alone a trilogy. If your team is stuck under the thumb of three games in a row, you're looking at potentially between five and ten years of development time – which means you might be spanning two console generations – or more.

Too Human: the trilogy nobody asked for. Incidentally, running on Unreal Engine 3.

Building needless anticipation of an highly enjoyable series also causes disappointment if eager adopters never get the final chapters. Shenmue, anyone? If the first game doesn't shift the units, then you've effectively shot yourself in the foot by creating a game that never ties up its storylines and leaves gamers disappointed and unsatisfied. Never announce a trilogy before you've proven yourself in the marketplace – or, do so at your own peril and at the expense of credibility and the potential loss of major dollars.

Worst Recent Offenders:
Too Human
Mass Effect
Assassin's Creed

5. Wii Production "Values"
Quote:
Something's gone very awry on the Wii. For the console with the greatest number of releases in 2008, it also had the largest number of games that scored 4.0 or lower on ***. That's almost a quarter of the Wii's catalogue – and that's a shocking percentage. One in four games released on Wii in 2008 flat out sucked.

What's going on, Nintendo? What does that Seal of Quality stand for?


Houston, we have a problem.

Rhetoric aside, here's the deal, kids. This is why the Wii is chock full of shovelware: it's smart business. Games that only require three programmers, two artists and no marketing means that the overheads are low. If it costs you less to make, you stand to gain a hell of a lot more. The Wii is the perfect platform for this approach to development, as is Sony's PlayStation 2. The hardware is relatively inexpensive, which means that the adoption rate is high. If the console is in lots of homes, then the chances of someone buying your software is markedly higher. If your game only costs twenty bones on the shelf, next to a game that costs a hundred (in AU dollars), then which game instantly looks more appealing to mum and dad?

Who cares if the game looks sub-N64 and plays like a poor Flash game? If the cost is small enough and the concept has the potential to suck in uninformed parents, then you can count the dollar signs. We really hope that – despite the Wii's massive install base – the current glut of awful Wii titles in the market can't sustain itself. Surely stores will become oversaturated with third rate shovelware and they won't sell. There's only so much shelf space, after all, and Wii owners will only buy so much software.

Worst Recent Offenders:
PlayZone Movie Studios Party (Wii)
Balls of Fury (Wii)
Clever Kids: Pirates (Wii)

6. Sonic and Mario Visit the Rainbow Dentist (WTF?)

Quote:
There's a wide valley of difference between Super Mario Galaxy and something like Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. And there's an ocean between Sonic the Hedgehog II or Sonic and Knuckles and Sonic Unleashed. Why is this? As two console titans gradually start to age, the desire from big business is to keep their star characters active and fresh. In this case 'active' means 'frequent appearances', and 'fresh' means 'it's time to take Mario bowling' or 'Sonic now has wings and break-dance moves'.


Seriously, Sonic should kick his ass in like, every event. He's a tubby plumber.

The overuse of two of gaming's biggest icons has, in fact, watered down their appeal to the gamers who made them a success in the first place. By wearing out their welcome over and over again, the inferred quality of these brands is lessened – even if sales remain steady. Ultimately, audiences will move on if the characters lose their appeal. Even expected sequels and updates like Mario Kart Wii need to ultimately do more than just the bare minimum to really maintain credibility long-term. Maybe it's time for other characters to have a moment in the sun? How about a Waluigi and Bigs the Cat double-team? Maybe not.

Worst Recent Offenders:
Sonic Unleashed
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

7. Motion "Control"
Quote:
Motion control can go one of two ways: it either works and is great, or it doesn't and it detracts from the experience. If you can't implement motion control in an accurate, convincing and most importantly relevant way, then don't bother. Both the PS3 and Wii have plenty of titles that don't utilise motion controls properly or only in a tokenistic way, and it's not pretty when controls go horribly wrong. Who can forget the disastrous Sixaxis implementation in Lair? Or who truly prefers motion controlled steering in a racing game like Mario Kart Wii when there's no resistance on the wheel?


Lair died at the feet of the Sixaxis, wriggling, spasming and thrashing.

Accuracy and fun are paramount, and if motion controls are loose or inaccurate, the experience ceases to be fun. Then it simply dissolves into gimmickry, which is just one short stop away from irrelevance – which Nintendo has fought hard to prevent. Nintendo's upcoming MotionPlus peripheral is aimed at addressing just this problem; here's hoping developers learn how to leverage it, or Nintendo ultimately incorporates it into its remotes by default.

Worst Recent Offenders:
Lair
Mario Kart Wii

8. Promises, Promises, Promises
Quote:
The promise of downloadable content. The promise of patches. The promise of a sequel or series or TV spin-off. The promise that this is the next big thing – or the only big thing. Get onboard the hype train or risk losing out. The gaming industry is full of promises, and most fail to live up to the shiny marketing words.


Best movie game ever? Well... we'll see.

If you call your game 'the best movie game ever made', you damned well better prepare to put up your dukes, 'cause thems fightin' words. This exact sentence was proclaimed by marketing materials for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and underlined by the game's producers on video. Now, it's great to see that level of ambition and confidence in a game – but come on – pride comes before the fall.

Just ask Dennis Dyack.

On this same point, we'd also like to put on our cynical hats for a moment (or is it already on?) and call out publishers who release a game just to put out a 'premium content' with extra features and gameplay at exactly the same time. This is a really ugly practice given the content really should've been included in the retail release of the game.

Worst Recent Offenders:
Too Human
Gears of War II
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

9. STRONG FEMALE LEAD CHARACTER = EDGY, CLEVER AND DESIRABLE

Quote:
Well, sometimes this is the case – Jade from Beyond Good & Evil, the old Lara Croft (from circa 1996 or thereabouts) and Samus Aran from Metroid all spring to mind; even your character from Portal – sometimes stoic, always tough and entertaining. But lately, there's been a resurgence in the 'strong female lead character' category, and we get the feeling that this isn't about sexual equality or women's lib. It's about boobs and ass and forced sexual equality. It's manipulative, in fact. She might be 'one of the boys', but she's still eye-candy and catwalk-perfect.


This is your fault.

Take Mirror's Edge's lead character, Faith; Asian to appeal to the Asian markets, female to soften up the lads and potentially sell to a female audience too. How about Elika from Prince of Persia? That's not clever design - that's clever marketing. There's a big difference. The Final Fantasy series has had its share of strong female characters, like Yuna in X-2 and now XIII. Again, it's a deliberate move (particularly X-2, which aimed at a female market with fashion-based equipment and magic-slotting).

Lara Croft still kicks around, as does Samus. But alongside those two comes Alyx Vance (Half-Life 2), Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark), Rayne (BloodRayne), The Boss (MGS), Zoe and April (Dreamfall: The Longest Journey), Jill, Claire and Ada (Resident Evil series), Elika (Prince of Persia) and the list goes on. It's not clever anymore; it's not special. It's become a bad cliché that is as predictable as it is ultimately degrading. Let's stop pretending that's it's still a unique feature.

Worst Recent Offenders:
Resident Evil 5
Mirror's Edge
Prince of Persia

10. CASUAL GAMING

Quote:
Our final point is ultimately one that has divided gamers and the gaming market as a whole –and it's as much a positive point as a negative one (again, look out for our next feature, where we'll delve into the positive points of casual gaming). Nintendo has a lot to answer for – a lot of it good, a lot of it not so good. While Nintendo's 'Blue Ocean' strategy has unquestionably broadened the market, bringing in new demographics to the fold, it has been at the expense of genuine game content.

Gone is the time when games were simply challenges and stories and adventures with rules and levels and boundaries. Now, the game has become the toy – a device, a thing with a set function or goal – Brain Training, Wii Fit, Ubisoft's Imagine series – EA's casual games. Equally, it has also become about short-burst games that are quick and easy to develop (relative to traditional games), can be played on your iPhone or DS or downloaded from an online service like WiiWare, PSN or Xbox Live Arcade.


Hey - at least it's not running on Unreal Engine 3, right?

Now developers, hoping to make a quick buck off the back of a particularly prevalent trend, are flooding the market with knock-off products that take proven successes like Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training and Wii Fit or Wii Sports and turn them into something almost indistinguishable from the source material. All kinds of mini-game collections, maths tutors, language teachers, calorie counters, cookbooks, e-books and other 'toy/device/function' games eat up shelf space alongside an ever-shrinking number of traditional game releases. And this applies to every platform out there, from Xbox 360 to PSP.

It's not a pretty picture if you're one of the many long-time players who just don't find these kinds of products appealing – but that's the way the market is going right now. You're going to have to contend with products that aim at housewives and techno-grannies and your kid sister, while you and other 'core' gamers slowly begin to wonder where all the games have gone as you realize that Nintendo's half a dozen first-party releases (in a good year) may not tide you over.

And to you we say: have you ever considered taking up French or mastering the thrills of Sudoku?

Worst Recent Offenders:
Wii Fit
The Ubisoft 'Imagine:' series
Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training
Minigame collections of all kinds

And just to put everything into perspective, here's the TL;DR version:

Too long, didn't read version of the Top Trends "Destroying Gaming".

1. Believable Characters
2. Games with a focus on narrative without worrying about technology.
3. Games that sell to different audiences, thus increasing the gross revenue of the industry. (wut?)
4. Denis Dyack
5. 3rd-party Wii games (Uhh devs, 360's all you need to worry bout know what I'm sayin'?)
6. Nintendo and Sega
7. The Wii
8. Enthusiastic Developers
9. Diversity
10. Casual Gaming (oh [parasitic bomb], he came out and said this one.)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Discuss. Please. I need laughs.

EDIT - Goddamn "R" key. I really need a new computer now... >___> (Thanks for the heads up Sato!)

[HyperSonicEXE]

They're right on the Dud Scripts.

I haven't played these games, but you can use the Unreal Engine and still skin it well to where your game is distinguishable. That's like complaining about Havok. I think they missed the mark.

It's true; WT darn near killed GH. And the blame? 50/50.
Rock Band @$$-kissers: No, GH does not need to be like Rock Band.
Over-Commercialized: GH3 had only a strong hint of commercialization; it poured out of WT's every orifice.

Yes, too many series trying to build themselves as "epics". Fable, Assassin's Creed, etc.

Shovelware is shovelware; just ignore it.

What the...?! Mario has not failed, at all! Sure, the numerous sports and DS spinoffs are a tad ridiculous, but the main games are still as strong as ever! Can't say the same for Sonic, though.

If you use the Wii Wheel in Mario Kart Wii where you need some steering and you have to manage Powersliding, there's something wrong with you to begin with. Otherwise, valid point.

Not a new problem.

In the examples they pointed out, it's true. Everything else, eh, arguable. It's now a sales tool, rather than a circumstance of the story, and to be expected when developers are just starting to get the idea that female leads don't hamper game sales. Another textbook problem.

Now this. This I do mind. Listen IGN, I'm lucky that Mega Man 9 sold 100,000 or so on the WiiWare version. A great game better than most of the BS that's poured out onto game store shelves, these days, and I'm lucky because maybe, JUST MAYBE, I might get another one like it. Meanwhile, we're MORE THAN ASSURED another couple of failure-fests like the games you've just finished listing.
Shovelware is the result of piracy and lack of support towards good games. Some actually are valid; WiiPlay is a handful of fun, short games for multiple people. It doesn't require any previous knowledge, and it's not nerdy. Did I mention it's fun? If you (and your friends) like it and will get your money's worth out of it, great, fine, buy it.
Don't want shovelware? Don't give it the circumstances to sell. Quit hyping it for kids, and start supporting solid games instead of stealing them off torrents or some BS.

[Solar]

So far I've only read your summary and the TL;DR version, but I'm already laughing a lot

Now I know I need to check GAF before I go to sleep today, this had to be stuff of epic proportions over there

[Satoryu]

to be honest, some of his complaints i do agree with, like 3 and 4. everything else though is pretty much either rambling or Wiihate. i'm really tired of the 90% crap argument.

on the female lead thing, very few games actually have strong believable female leads. most of them are just there for fap material, FFX-2 being the biggest example.

and he think Sonic Unleashed had good actors? nooohohoho sir. everyone sounds terrible in that game. but it almost sounds terrible on purpose...

also,

You Can't Spell Ignoance

[Turian]

Christ,   another self righteous bastard from IGN. At least they stopped dissing Cappy for making Mega Man sequels. The only thing I would point out is that the Wii is not bad for gaming, but the idea of putting all of this emphasis on casual gamers is what is killing the hard core market on the Wii. But I still love the little white bastard.

[Tickle Buffalo]

They're right on the Dud Scripts.

MORE LIKE TEN SHITLOADS

[Protoman Blues]

3. Sequelitis

LoL, this means nothing to a MegaMan fan! 

"Even expected sequels and updates like Mario Kart Wii need to ultimately do more than just the bare minimum to really maintain credibility long-term."

This game continues to sell and sell well, despite it's somewhat mediocrity.

"9. STRONG FEMALE LEAD CHARACTER = EDGY, CLEVER AND DESIRABLE

Quote:
Well, sometimes this is the case – Jade from Beyond Good & Evil, the old Lara Croft (from circa 1996 or thereabouts) and Samus Aran from Metroid all spring to mind; even your character from Portal – sometimes stoic, always tough and entertaining. But lately, there's been a resurgence in the 'strong female lead character' category, and we get the feeling that this isn't about sexual equality or women's lib. It's about boobs and ass and forced sexual equality. It's manipulative, in fact. She might be 'one of the boys', but she's still eye-candy and catwalk-perfect.

This is your fault."

I don't entirely disagree with this sentiment, about the part of companies possibly creating strong, female leads because they know that horny nerds are going to buy it solely for the tits & ass.  The death threats to EGM about the Nude Code prank for DOA:XBV make this feeling possibly true.

"10. CASUAL GAMING"

Again, gaming is all about having fun, in my view.  Plus, I don't see how the Wii is "bad" for gaming, when all it's done is bring in a plethora of new gamers.  To quote someone on Kotaku,

"That's right folks.  The Wii Saved X-Mas!"

[STM]

Alrighty, another day, another "we're the authority so read our [parasitic bomb]!" column from IGN, written in the style of your usual idiot at neoGAF. Time for another wonderful Ebony-and-Ivory-fueled trigger happy shoot down from good ol' STM.

1. Believable Characters

It's very difficult these days to write a good story without "ripping off" something else. At the same time, the story is usually added to the gameplay to give it something more for those who expect more than just gameplay. Story isn't necessarily required unless it's an RPG because lord knows... something's got to keep you going forward amid all those damn random battles without smashing your controller into something.

In Sonic Unleashed's defense here (I've not played the other two, but I have an idea about Gears 2)... it's a kid's game. I'd expect the story to be corny and bad. I'm fine with that. The whole game reeked of a Saturday morning production but that's what gave the story its charm. Yeah, it was your typical light-vs-dark plot with the little annoying creature being the thing that will save the planet... who didn't see that coming? For Gears 2, taking a stab in the dark here and using what I know from Gears 1, they're trying to give you a reason to give a damn about why you're killing these Locust creatures while painting how miserable the world is. It gives the world some depths, but I don't see the shooter audience really giving a damn if Marcus Fenix deserted a battlefield or if Dominic misses his wife, so long as they get to chainsaw some bitches.

2. Games with a focus on narrative without worrying about technology.

I'm convinced this is the Unreal Engine 3 generation since it seems everyone and their mother is working off this engine in some form. Other guilty ones would be the use of the Havok Engine for physics. Yes, it's cool in spots with... once again... Sonic, where he just blasts through some crates and you see the pieces of the former box go flying every where. But then there's instances where you wonder if it was really needed... like walking slowly into a table and watching it fall apart. Wow, I'd love to be able to walk into things and have them self-destruct!

3. Games that sell to different audiences, thus increasing the gross revenue of the industry.

Agreed that sequels need to be slowed down a little. I'm all for a continuation of a good game, but it's ridiculous how Guitar Hero is going crazy with it. We already have Guitar Hero: Metallica on the radar and another DS installment. Really? [tornado fang]ing hell, Activision. EA is another one indeed with their Madden and FIFA games. I'd encourage they start releasing a game every other year to allow significant changes to each installment instead of "MORE REALISTIC SWEAT! YOU CAN SEE THE ARM HAIRS ON THE PLAYERS!" (no, really, these were actually touted selling points), and support the existing one by updating player rosters through DLC when needed. It's cheaper and possibly more profitable.

Also, cute shot at the end. Mario's been far more guilty. Remember, kids: Sonic Shuffle died at 1 (thank god), Mario Party is going to get its 9th installment, NOT counting the portable ones. Let us also not forget Mario (insert sports here) and, the forgotten gem... Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix. Even Sonic's not tanked that low yet.

4. Denis Dyack

Seriously, don't do this. Announce a trilogy, but then realize you may not see the third game through. RIP Shenmue.

5. 3rd-party Wii games (Uhh devs, 360's all you need to worry bout know what I'm sayin'?)

Lazy Developers (IMPORTANT) + Cheap, popular console + Ignorant mass market = Easy Cash! Why put effort if your average consumer will probably buy it without much research? It does sadden me though when I go on used game expeditions, head to the Wii wall and see it LOADED with garbage third-parties. Straight put, developers are afraid of change. Do note most games on the Wii (Nintendo's own aside), can be comfortably played, sometimes better, with the GCN controller. Convenient? Sure. Makes Brawl a blast. However, slapping in motion controls as just a gimmick, especially post Summer 2007, only cheapens the idea of the console into a needless addon for the Gamecube... which it used to be.

6. Nintendo and Sega

Simple ass-kissing to the older players while teasing the younger players that two big time game icons are going to duke it out head-to-head (see: the entire [tornado fang]ing point of Super Smash Bros. or other fighting crossover games) I do see people complain that the characters aren't up to their usual specs and, indeed, had this been true, Sonic would pretty much obliterate the running events in the Olympic Games and fail miserably at swimming (running on water probably isn't legal). It's only more stale now because kids weren't around to see the two giants (Sega v. Nintendo) practically slander each other at any given opportunity like they did in the '90s, and how at this point, there's no point to it since Sega isn't competing with anyone. It's just a retro-wank.

That said, I point back to my "Mario is doing it FAR worse than Sonic" defense from earlier. Mario should not be given the easy way out because he has around eleven damn Party games to his name, so he's probably doing it much worse. It's just Sonic's a much easier scapegoat. The Sonic Cycle (which is really only truthful for two games... Shadow and Next) shows this because of the almost ignorant hivemind level its posted. Bet you if someone slandered Mario, the fanboys would quickly jump from kissing Reggie and Miyamoto's ass and go on a tirade.

Using Unleashed, while the Werehog is quite a divisive character move, it doesn't exactly cheapen the game. The problem is people hold Sonic to a much higher platform. They expect and demand too much and whine like babies when they don't get what they want. After all, how many "Here's how they should save Sonic!" ideas from crackpots all over the net have you read?

7. The Wii

See #5

8. Enthusiastic Developers

This is largely just PR and Advertising. If you buy into this, you will be duped. Hype kills good games and cheapens great games. That said, I also hate that "premium content" crap developers are pulling if you pre-order this game at this place or buy the more expensive collector's edition with really crappy extras (Devil May Cry 4, Fable II, I'm looking at you).

DLC is iffy. If the data isn't on the disc, then sure, extra content never hurts. However, if it's something that could have easily been placed in (Sonic Next with its very hard mode and boss rushes and Mega Man 9's handful... yeah, it too), then it's just a lazy way to make more money.

Patches... my god, I hate this trend the gaming market picked up from the PC market. Developers are too lazy to even finish a game or test it for quality and just shoot it out. They make the gamers beta testers and patch it as the complaints roll in. I just paid $60 for this new game. It BETTER be finished.

9. Diversity

Hey, I'm all for kickass female leads. It's good to see women going out there and showing they don't have to be the princess that always needs rescuing (Super Princess Peach represent... yeah, that's right, I went there.) I'm not exactly thrilled about sexualizing them, even if it is for a cheap sale to an audience that probably will never see a naked girl in real life without paying for it. Samus had some great hopes in her, and I do believe that she's a strong female character. However, the skin tight body suit, while making sense, pretty much screams "cocktease!"

In retort though, the problem may not be that these girls are showing off to much (mileage may vary based on how the characters are designed), but more the nerd populace's obsession with porn and perversion. It's a really strange line to tread on since both are at fault, but the developers and animators less so than the fan side in some cases.

10. Casual Gaming (oh [parasitic bomb], he came out and said this one.)

Consumer ignorance and lazy developers are to blame here. Otherwise, so can be the daunting monstrosity of the market. Using my sister as an example, she hates gaming on anything post N64 (and even then, only Mario Kart 64) because of how complicated it gets: the amount of buttons, trying to remember what combinations to do certain actions... pretty much, it's too much work to just sit down and play a game. Since the casual market just wants to sit down and play and not spend 15-30 minutes learning how to do something, developers are trying to cater to this new area. However, the "hardcore" crowd thinks this is bullshit and sees their hobby being threatened by simplification.

It's another difficult line to tread since one side is cautious about entering the territory, especially with how certain people speak on Xbox Live if you're not good at a game (veil of anonymity), and the other side is threatened that their hobby will be dumbed down but remain stubborn that a fine balance between the two shouldn't be reached.

Pretty much, this would be a good time to remember how gaming used to be and try to aim on how to be challenging but simplistic.You know, study your history to better plan your future. I can also safely assume this is why portable gaming is taking off the way it has on both the PSP and DS, due to their sometimes pick-up-and-play nature.

tl;dr:

Shame on you for jumping down here. There's some good commentary! At any rate you can all group these ten into one quintessential reason: Developers are lazy and want to make easy money doing the bare-minimum. Name me one game that did something different in recent times and succeeded... you'd be very hard-pressed to find one that hasn't already suffered from one of the above. However, in some cases, people need to keep different expectations based on the title. You can't compare a children's title to something that older teens or adults will play due to how different the target audiences are, which is what our friend here at IGN seems to be doing.

[Psycho Yuffie]

About female characters... Barely any of them are strong--as mentioned by someone else. Most are just eye-candy. If anything, video games need more female characters that are truly strong. In the article, I got the feeling that the author desired that people stop putting women in games altogether. Video games are have enough [ray splasher] as it is--in my opinion, anyway. Believe it or not, there are girls who play games. Get over it.

On the issue of casual gaming, get over yourself. So your grandpa plays games now too? Big deal. Maybe if your parents play a little Wii, they might get off your ass about liking video games. Not only that, but I found where he says games have been reduced to toys as hilarious. Now, I'm going to say this once, so I hope everyone is listening. VIDEO GAMES ARE TOYS. Don't like it? Too bad. It's the reality. They were toys when Pong came out and they're toys now.

[Acid]

Obviously you can't make a serious female protagonists because then she's automatically:

-Lesbian
-GRRRRRRRIMMY
-A [classy lady]
-A [sonic slicer]

+Emotionless shell of a woman

[Satoryu]

Name me one game that did something different in recent times and succeeded... you'd be very hard-pressed to find one that hasn't already suffered from one of the above.

this may not be the example you're looking for, but No More Heroes has quite a few stand out features from games of today. it's stylistic gore as opposed to realism, characters that are psycopathic yet also have some real depth to them, much brighter colors make it stand out in this gray-and-brown generation, smaller importance on motion controls. and it must be doing something right for it to get a sequel.

back to female leads, Faith is actually a very strong lead who isn't very sexually charged at all. sure she's pretty, but not at the va-va-VOOM level of someone like Lara Croft. she has actual beauty in her design, respectable beauty. her character is far more important, and far more interesting. if she hasn't won some Best New Character of 2008 awards yet, it's a damn damn shame.

Obviously you can't make a serious female protagonists because then she's automatically:

-Lesbian
-GRRRRRRRIMMY
-A [classy lady]
-A [sonic slicer]

add emotionless shell to that list (looking at you Shanoa).

[Acid]

Ah of course. How could I forget?

[Jericho]

Obviously you can't make a serious female protagonists because then she's automatically:

-Lesbian
-GRRRRRRRIMMY
-A [classy lady]
-A [sonic slicer]

+Emotionless shell of a woman

Lol, nice edit.

This just makes me wonder how things would be different in that regard if universal characters like Mario, Link or Sonic were created female instead.

[Pringer X]

Most of the points I have to agree with on a small level. There aren't that many female leads that aren't some kind of wanna-be porno model (Zelda and Samus are one of the few that come to mind), and it's getting tiring seeing so many "boob-a-thons" in just about everything (look at "Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling"; first one was about 3 guys who were screwed in a forest, this one is about 2-3 guys who get drunk and sleep with slutty chicks). It's tiring seeing the phrase "sex sells" being applied to damn near everything (movies are much more guilty of it than games however).

Another point is the whole 'sequelitis' thing the author coined. It's one thing when a sequel is good or the number is there simply because of a lack of a better title *points at Final Fantasy*, but it's another thing when the entire series is just spawning a game every single year. Look at Guitar Hero, the first two were freaking awesome, then from Rock the 80's on, it spiraled downward until it had to copy Rock Band in order to stand on it's feet again. There's also the sports games that come out every damn year with one tiny bit of an addition that ends up becoming the main selling point, as well as the extreme sports games, but moreso Tony Hawk and anything after Underground 2.

There are a couple of other tidbits that I agree on, but the one giant thing that irks me is the casual gaming and crappy Wii-games that have come out. Yes, I hate how there aren't that many great games on the Wii and how so many of them suck, but there's also the fact that more companies that are completely random and some never even heard of are making their big break on the Wii because of how well it's sold. Considering how it has more games being put on it than almost any other system ever (or at least for the past couple gaming generations), it's no surprise that crappy game after crappy game shows up on the Wii simply because the numbers are too big. However, it's thanks to most of these crappy games that more casual gamers have shown up, so now there's a bigger audience, and finally people can start shutting up about games as far as 'negative effects' go. Even if there's a crappy game on the Wii, how many people are actually thinking about getting it (and I mean the 'take one look and KNOW it's bad' game, like the one with 'red-neck events' in it; no joke, for those that don't know there's a game on the Wii that's entirely based off of "Red-neck Olympic events" or some kind of crap)? Just because there's a casual audience now, doesn't mean that it's ruining it for the rest of us. The 360 still has it's hardcore, Nintendo still has it's money, and Sony still has it's tech-junkies.

This just makes me wonder how things would be different in that regard if universal characters like Mario, Link or Sonic were created female instead.

*cringes in fear of possible number of furries* ><

[Jericho]

*cringes in fear of possible number of furries* ><

Oh God, not like that. Furries are scary.

[Flame]

*Facepalm*
I sigh'd.
I cant believe this. he deserves like 15 boots to the head.

[TeaOfJay]

I skimmed through the original, and I don't think I can agree with any of the points he made. Except for maybe one point.

SO to jump on the bandwagon I'm going to give my counter arguements for most people to just skip over until somebody else posts.

1. A Great Cast with a Dud Script

Even if the story in a game was the greatest work of literature in the world, if the voice actors suck to the point that it's actually a godsend to have foreign language options in the game, then the progression of the overall story is going to suck because the voice actors are terrible.

Gears of War 2 may read like a bad fanfiction to some, but because of the amazing cast for the game the story progresses in a way that's actually believable

2. Unreal Engine Overdose

Don't most of the recent Valve games use the same engine?

While I would agree that not every game that uses <insert engine name here> engine will be great, but that's no reason to discredit the <insert engine name here> engine as a whole.

3. Sequelitis

Blame the people buying the sequel of a game they actually like instead of buying an original game that they may or may not like.

Oh wait.

4. Too Human Syndrome

I think I can actually agree with this one. MOVING ON.

5. Wii Production "Values"

Stop bitching about the shovelware and try doing something about it. If you think you can make a better game for the Wii then DO IT.

Oh, you can't? Then shut the [tornado fang] up.

6. Sonic and Mario Visit the Rainbow Dentist (WTF?)

Crossover games boring? What the [tornado fang] are you smoking?

7. Motion "Control"

Wow, there are two games with horrible motion controls? OH NOES!

8. Promises, Promises, Promises

It's called building up hype. It works even after the game is released if enough people talk about it.

9. STRONG FEMALE LEAD CHARACTER = EDGY, CLEVER AND DESIRABLE

Yes, that is tru-Oh wait, he rants on about how it isn't. Personally, a nice strong female character is a nice change of pace from the usual busty princesses I tend to see in games.

Seriously, did Nintendo really have to make Peach's bust that big?

10. CASUAL GAMING

There has always been casual gaming, bitching about it now won't make it magically go away.

He apparantly also missed the memo that video games are toys. They're just the serious kind.

[Satoryu]

Seriously, did Nintendo really have to make Peach's bust that big?

you know, i've never actually paid attention to Peach's boobs before. they've never stuck out to me. maybe because they're not all that big? if those are big to you, i want to hear what you have to say about Dead or Alive.

[TeaOfJay]

I mean big for a game series that's targeted towards children.

I know they aren't big big, but they're bigger than what they should be for what's usually seen as a kid's game.

They're espicially apparant in Brawl.

EDIT: Woah, I thought I hit modify. Guess I DIDN'T.

[Ramzal]

I'll agree with #9 to some degree. It's always nice to see a female character who takes the lead and is not always "OH HELP ME! SAVE ME! HELP ME! I'M USELESS MY KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR!" (Which, I think we can all agree on, makes women look like weaklings. Which they most certainly are -not-.)

The problem is---as it's stated, when they simply throw in a girl or two or a entire harem of them ready to play volley ball, with big racks, round butts and slim as the dickens--it gets a bit obvious where it's aimed at. You've got it. Horny nerds who aren't getting any. And it's a good marketing tactic, hell look at all the nerds who pay for hentai. But it gets old when there's nothing there but a good looking pixelated body with no meaning to it.

Christ, even -I- dislike the fact that they made Lara's chest bigger when Legends came out. I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't put up anyone like Meryl from Metal Gear Solid as a strong female character to name though. But that's just a side tidbit. >_>

[Satoryu]

I know they aren't big big, but they're bigger than what they should be for what's usually seen as a kid's game.

sounds like something 4Kids would say. boobs in Yu-Gi-Oh are actually paintbrushed to look smaller.

They're espicially apparant in Brawl.

Peach's boobs aren't any more standout in Brawl than in any other game. Samus' do catch my attention, though. and Snake's.

[VixyNyan]

Bashing furry characters and treating Peachy bad.

The thread is making me sad.

[HokutoNoBen]

The thread is making me sad.

Why be sad?

I'm just mildly amused at the notion that people are seemingly REALLY taking one guy's opinions to heart. 

Like my Grandma used to say: Opinions are like assholes. Everyone's got one, and no one said you had to like anything that comes out 'em. So, that said, why care so much for what's basically [parasitic bomb] any way? 

[Flame]

Like my Grandma used to say: Opinions are like assholes. Everyone's got one, and no one said you had to like anything that comes out 'em. So, that said, why care so much for what's basically [parasitic bomb] any way? 

This is so true...
also, Vixy, Dont get sad, get Glad!

[VixyNyan]

Yay *goes back to snuggle busty Peachy~*