funguy2121 said:
(1) This is a PC gamer perspective. If you want to be able to turn and aim with superhuman speed, then you're right. If you want a setup that feels and functions more like the way that people moving about in the real world do, a good controller is more precise.
(2) It sounds like the fact that your hands will be a couple of inches farther apart is what's really bothering you. Do you really think this will make the controller uncomfortable? Did you read the text that you quoted? All of the journos said it's very comfortable, even after they've used it for a while.
(3) Anytime a company like Nintendo (or their competitors, for that matter) try something different, a whole bunch of fanboys cry "gimmick," usually without even qualifying it. To this day, people still talk shit about the N64 controller, even though we have it to thank for the analog stick and rumble support. And fanboys still talk shit about the system itself, even though with a much smaller catalogue it still had a great deal more 3D games than its jaggie-fied competitor, the PSOne, and had out-of-box 4-player support. That's what I was saying.
(4) This isn't exactly a bold statement. Almost nobody purchased the Virtual Boy and almost no one thinks that it was a well-advised idea.
(5) The tens of millions of consumers who bought a Wii in lieu of an XBox or a PS3 disagree with you, as do the creators of the XBox and PS3,, who designed peripherals to emulate the Wii. Also, the gamers who appreciate what the IR pointer has done for control, especially in FPS shooters, and can't go back, disagree with you.
(6) How does allowing new kinds of games to be made equate to a gimmick in your mind? And how does having to pause to combine and then use potions, equipment, weapons and spells, and pause or obscure part of the main screen to see the map, mean "precise and intuitive" to you?
(7) And a brand new gamer would have to spend a good deal of time figuring out how to use the controller for the N64, X-Box, Gamecube or any one of the Playstations. Is not learning to play a new way part of the fun? You know what? Scratch that. I took for granted that your assertion was accurate, which of course it isn't. Being able to pause the game but not having to do so to look up inventory or map details or use a tracker or cam chat with NPCs won't have much of a learning curve, and if it does, you can pause the game. How is having a touch screen going to confuse gamers?
(8) That's not the definition of a gimmick.
(9) Remember that you said that in a year, when Tecmo, EA, Sega, Ubisoft and all the rest keep on making games for the new system.
1. Right, which is also why I suggested a control stick and more standard buttons for movement/weapon selection and etc in one hand, while the mouse would be used purely for accurate aiming and firing/scoping. Infinitely more accurate than a second control stick would be.
2. Yes, that does/would bother me on a controller. Speaking purely from my own perspective, it wouldn't be comfortable, regardless of what the game journalists say.
3. Perhaps so, but again, I don't remember anyone calling Nintendo's innovations in the N64 era gimmicks. Before, during, or after the fact. If it did happen, it was rare. Whereas a lot of their newer stuff is called that often, and with good reason. With the N64, you had optional controller attachments, so everybody was happy using or not using them. The Wii and WiiU, on the other hand, have non-standard functionality that's absolutely integral to the functionality of the console.
4. Which just goes to show that Nintendo doesn't lay a golden egg every time. There's selling well, and then there's accomplishing the task which they have set forth for themselves. On point one, I think the WiiU will do very well. On point two, which is to say, an attempt to reclaim the core gamer base they lost after the Gamecube, I don't think it will succeed.
5. See point four. Selling well doesn't make it any less of a gimmick. The pet rock sold very well too, but I don't think that even the people who bought it would claim it to be a useful purchase. There's no way to gather data on how many Wiis just sit on tables gathering dust.
6. If these "new kinds of games" rely entirely on the console's unique functionality as spectacle in order to sell, that's the very definition of gimmick. After all, how many mini-game compilations did we see released on the Wii as a result of it's rather singular usefulness?
Pausing the game isn't intuitive or necessary. But that's why mini-maps and hotkeys were invented, yes? So that you never have to look away from where the action is happening and won't get killed due to poor game design. Or in the WiiU's case, poor console design.
7. I never said it would confuse them. I said that there would be a separate learning curve for each game on the WiiU. Because it's entirely dependent on how each developer decides to utilize the controller. Whereas if you learn one FPS game on an Xbox 360 gamepad, you've pretty much learned them all. Confusing? No. Annoying and unnecessary? Yes.
8. You're right, but the WiiU does fit at least two definitions of gimmick:
an ingenious or novel device, scheme, or stratagem, especially one designed to attract attention or increase appeal.
to equip or embellish with unnecessary features, especially in order to increase salability, acceptance, etc.
Basically it's unnecessary functionality that looks cool at first glance, and thus increases sales, but then later turns out to be very limited in scope and follow-through.
9. Like I said,
VERY LITTLE third-party developer support. I didn't say none. And I don't even want to guess at the outrageous number of mini-game compilations the companies you listed produced for the Wii. Third-party developer support only really counts as support when they're releasing the games which are the main focus of those developers on your console. The WiiU will probably get that type of full support for a year or so, until the next generation of consoles is released by Sony and Microsoft. At which point Nintendo will be thrown right back under the bus.
This is all quite off-topic, however, as we were discussing the perfect controller. And while the Gamecube controller or some of Nintendo's older hardware might be in the running, the WiiU's controller is another story entirely. It's an unknown for the most part. Based on looks alone, however, I don't think most gamers would be so audacious to make the claim that it's perfect. Or even close.
S3
