This will never fly...wait...WHAT?!

[captainaweshum]

I remember when the Rumble Paks first came out and I thought that they would never catch on. I was so sure of it, I thought the idea was stupid as all hell.

Now I realized (after the rumble feature was accidentally turned) that shooting just doesn't feel like shooting anymore without it.

Do any of you have any examples of advancements in gaming, or design choices that you thought was doomed, stupid, and pointless at the time but now see everywhere?

 

[LeonLethality]

Motion controls, but it turns out if done right they can add a lot to the game.

The Wii is my most used home console because of the really fun games on it.

 

[manythings]

Cell shading, which I consider distinct from illustrative art design. Cell shading is a technique used in comics to give 2D pictures the illusion of depth and so produce a false third dimension. Why is this so consistently applied to the gaming medium which is 99.9% 3D? And why do people love it so much? It always looks awful.

 

[demoman_chaos]

CD gaming. Fiddly and fragile, with a terrible start (Sega CD, Phillips CDi, Sega Saturn), CD's as gaming media was looking bad. Cartridges practically last forever and you don't need a special device to save your data on (after all, memory cards are just cartridges with no games on them).
And then the PS1 came around.

 

[Tophius]

And then the PS1 came around.

And the rest is history, amen.

 

[Ciran]

Cell shading, which I consider distinct from illustrative art design. Cell shading is a technique used in comics to give 2D pictures the illusion of depth and so produce a false third dimension. Why is this so consistently applied to the gaming medium which is 99.9% 3D? And why do people love it so much? It always looks awful.

Mainly because it's used to make games based off anime look more like the anime. I agree that most of the time it's not well used, but I think in the right situation it can actually present an atmosphere other types of animation cannot. Case in point, LoZ Wind Waker.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

The right thumbstick.

I started using thumbsticks with the original, the one attached to the N64 controller. I graduated to the Dreamcast controller, which had a better thumbstick, but still only one. Meanwhile, Sony had released the Dualshock Controller for the Playstation (I didn't get into Playstation until after the PS2 had launched) and I was convinced that, although adding a thumbstick was a necessary move (even if it was just following the leader), the second one was pointless. I'd grown up with the idea that the left thumb makes shifting movements to control your character, the right thumb thumps up and down on the buttons. Nowadays the prevalence of the right thumbstick used for camera control and the number of console FPS that use the right thumbstick as half of the primary movement interface has proved me completely wrong as it's now basically a standard feature on gaming console controllers (except the Wiimote, but even the Wii's Classic Controller uses one).

But I still think using a thumbstick to aim in an FPS sucks. Mouse and keyboard is the only way to play.

Cell shading, which I consider distinct from illustrative art design. Cell shading is a technique used in comics to give 2D pictures the illusion of depth and so produce a false third dimension. Why is this so consistently applied to the gaming medium which is 99.9% 3D? And why do people love it so much? It always looks awful.

Jet Set Radio Future, The Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker, Dark Chronicle, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, Okami. Your argument is invalid.

 

[Tophius]

Cell shading seems to be in most of the games that I think are epic, so they must be doing that right.

 

[LeonLethality]

Downloaded games without any hard copies. I am a convert myself(yay Steam).

Motion controls, but it turns out if done right they can add a lot to the game.

The Wii is my most used home console because of the really fun games on it.

Gonna have to vehemently disagree on this one, motion controls always ruin a game unless the game was designed around them, and even then it doesn't always work.

I'm going to have to point you to Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid Prime Trilogy.

 

[Gotham Soul]

The Wii is my most used home console because of the really fun games on it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The only one that comes to mind is Brawl. But that's just me.

Anyway.

I didn't think wireless controllers would work at all. Not sure why. I guess I figured that there'd be a lot of interference with the signal between controller and console. Because I'm a bit dense. (Feel free to replace the word "bit" with "very" or any synonym of the sort).

 

[Irridium]

Downloaded games without any hard copies. I am a convert myself(yay Steam).

Motion controls, but it turns out if done right they can add a lot to the game.

The Wii is my most used home console because of the really fun games on it.

Gonna have to vehemently disagree on this one, motion controls always ruin a game unless the game was designed around them, and even then it doesn't always work.

I'm going to have to point you to Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid Prime Trilogy.

Also No More Heroes.

OT: Sports games.

I just can't see why they're so popular that people buy basically the same game every single year.

 

[LeonLethality]

The Wii is my most used home console because of the really fun games on it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The only one that comes to mind is Brawl. But that's just me.

I take it you have never played No More Heroes, No More Heroes 2, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Brothers Wii, Monster Hunter Tri, Tatsunoko versus Capcom, Metroid Prime Trilogy and many other games on the Wii.

Come back and tell me when you have

 

[Lullabye]

The Wii.
But of course, Nintendo wouldn't stand for it, and brainwashed us all to think otherwise.

 

[LeonLethality]

Downloaded games without any hard copies. I am a convert myself(yay Steam).

Motion controls, but it turns out if done right they can add a lot to the game.

The Wii is my most used home console because of the really fun games on it.

Gonna have to vehemently disagree on this one, motion controls always ruin a game unless the game was designed around them, and even then it doesn't always work.

I'm going to have to point you to Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid Prime Trilogy.

But SMG2 was designed around it, and was designed by who I am assuming are Nintendo's best devs. Also, trilogy? Weren't the first two for the Gamecube?

Most games on the Wii are designed around motion controls, and there was a Wii Trilogy release that remade the first two games with the Wii controls.

I will admit the games with the tacked on motion controls are pretty shitty.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

as a kid i never thought handhelds would last nor have any good games on it to come

see gameboy - pokemon

see psp - dissidia

those are two examples alone that would get me to buy a ds or a psp

 

[Generator]

The right thumbstick.

Agreed. I can't think of a single PS1 game that used it, but when the following generation of consoles rolled around, it became an almost necessary part of console gaming.

 

[LeonLethality]

Yeah, but again, just because they are designed around motion control does not mean they make it work.

So you're telling me the games I mentioned that were designed around motion control don't work?

 

[Mr. Gency]

The Wii is my most used home console because of the really fun games on it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The only one that comes to mind is Brawl. But that's just me.

Dido, except brawl stopped being fun.

I didn't think wireless controllers would work at all. Not sure why. I guess I figured that there'd be a lot of interference with the signal between controller and console. Because I'm fucking dense. (Feel free to replace the word "bit" with "very" or any synonym of the sort).

I just did that because you said I could.

 

[Altorin]

Hrmmm.. I'm trying to think of something that I didn't like in gaming that caught on and became major success makers... I never liked Survival Horror games, and thought the first Resident Evil was retarded, but I chalked that up to personal taste.

Oh, Online Console gaming.

I'm still on the fence about it, but every game has a multiplayer now even if it doesn't need it, and suffers for it.

 

[octafish]

Consoles.