Fair enough. So, how many of them, then? If companies are looking at a potential audience in the millions, and you have a thousand game testers, does that mean that each game tester's opinion is comparable to a thousand people?
Question: How exactly is a company supposed to objectively measure this 'quality' thing?
"Dammit, are all your arguments that air tight?"
That's not really my place to say. Although I can say that unfortunately my powers cannot work on the unreasonable, such as those who dwell in the Open Zone and who are immune to logic.
@ Arius below: Many thanks! It's always nice to know someone appreciates rationality.
Hopefully the second article will take into account Wiiware games, My Life as a King, Lost Winds, World of Goo, et cetera. Some of which I've enjoyed more than most retail games of this generation and it'd be interesting to see how they're faring.
Also, in before the obligatory "[Insert alternate system name here] has way more original IPs! [Insert list of games here]" comments.
"Also, Red Steel was sh!t, so I don't know why you used that game as an example."
I can't speak for voice (pun not intended), but Red Steel's interesting to consider because it wasn't a mini-game collection and wasn't aimed at the 'soccer mom' demographic. Unlike the mold of, say, Carnival Games, Red Steel sold a million plus copies in *spite* of being shovelware, not because of it. Sure, it's one of the worst games released on pretty much any system ever, but it doe...
Sorry everyone, double post.
I feel like this list neglected some of the really great downloadable content that's come out this generation, but at the same time, I can't really disagree too strongly with a list that gives the #1 spot to Portal.
"Remember when the platform was sliding into the fire pit and I said 'Goodbye', and you were like 'NO WAY!'? And then I was all 'We pretended we were going to murder you'? ...That was great~"
"There are some good third party games like Boom lox, etc, but a majority of them are horrible."
While this might be true, it doesn't really mean much, given the sheer number of third-party titles that have been released on the Wii. Let's say theoretically that there are two-hundred third party games, and 25% are good. Now, that means that 75% aren't good, but still gives you 50 that are. Is 50 games really an unacceptable number?
"Even Haze, Lair...
"What I want to know is who are all these people who are buying the Wii? I don't know anyone who has one or wants one."
This logic is flawed.
Observe: I don't know anyone who is of Chinese descent. Ergo, there are no Chinese people in America. Or in the entire world.
"Are these numbers we keep reading for real or is it Nintendo propaganda?"
Given that most of the numbers we're getting are from independent sources ...
Excellent. Now if only Capcom would just do the right thing and greenlight another Zack and Wiki game...
"But then Nintendo decided it didn't want to be associated with a mature title and sold RARE to Microsoft."
That's a bit of a distortion: It's a little difficult to hold on to a company when the people who founded it sell their majority holdings to a competitor.
"Why would companies make third party games for the Wii when they see the sales figures of a game like Okami?"
Shot in the dark: Because they see the sales figures of other, more successful third-party titles?
Well, I feel a little cheated. I was expecting (and kind of hoping) that the review would be a vicous deconstructing of the game as some kind of horrendous crime against the world.
'It's actually pretty good despite some issues' doesn't make for as compelling a read. :/
"Are all the million sellers that Craptain is talking about shovelware or something? carnival games, ravin rabbids ??"
I don't think you understand the definition of shovelware.
Old Wizard managed to omit one of my own pet peeves: that of featuring the word "Unleashed" in the title. Jaws: UNLEASHED, Godzilla: UNLEASHED, Star Wars: The Force UNLEASHED, Destroy all Humans: Big Willy UNLEASHED, Scooby Doo: Monsters UNLEASHED, Sonic UNLEASHED.
I don't where or how it started, but this practice needs to stop.
"We all know DRM's had it's problems. That doesn't mean it can't work if done right."
'Doesn't mean it can't'? You're operating from the assumption that it's the evidence's job to prove a negative. It's one of the major ideas within historical Western thought (as well as the foundation of the legal system of the United States) that the function of evidence is to prove positives and disprove negatives. I've yet to see you, or anyone, provide a single reason to believe ...
"and piracy is?"
Certainly not. Men and women of good conscience should never resort to piracy, which is precisely why it is immoral for companies to punish them.
But the questions we should be asking first and foremost is if effectively policing piracy in this day and age is A. possible in the first place and if so, B. if it's actually viable and worth pursuing. Until we actually have a suitable answer to both questions, I don't believe we can (nor tha...
"When did we start drawing a line between copy protection and DRM?"
Um, since DRM's inception.
"Whereas copy protection only attempts to prohibit unauthorized copies of media or files, digital rights management allows the issuer of the media or file to control in detail what can and can not be done with a single instance. For example, an issuer can limit the number of viewings, number of copies, which devices the media can be transferred to etc.&qu...
Um, if DRM doesn't actually deter piracy (it doesn't), is a major hindrance to consumers and developers alike (it is), and stifles competition (it does), then it is by definition a bad concept because there is absolutely nothing to offset any of its negative effects. Heck, in some cases, like Bioshock or Spore, it's been observed that the DRM has actually led to *increased* piracy because pirated versions don't have the same superfluous restrictions.
Pirates are going to pirat...
"But is it hard for people to actually say things that could help improve their games?"
It's not hard at all, which is probably the issue. It's all to easy to get feedback from anyone and everyone. The problem is that not all feedback is necessarily good feedback. Different kinds of people have different kinds of suggestions. Are you familiar with the phrase "Too many cooks in the kitchen"?
And when companies try to *mandate* these sorts of th...