The double- edged Wii Economic Success and Game Quality
It was the best of systems, it was the worst of systems. The Wii produces unprecedented controversies.
The Wii is undoubtedly THE most successful system of the new generation. Its success explains the way some people have attacked it and the way other have so vigorously defended it. Although its competitors have been doing much better in the last three months, the Wii dominates hardware sales worldwide and particularly in the most important market, the US – most predictions notwithstanding, among them mine. Two years ago I said that the Wii will be a very distant third to the PS3 and Xbox 360. Famous last words!
I content that the economic success of the Wii is a tragedy for game quality and the popularity of games but has also some positive aspects for game development.
The system was marketed and built around a not-so-new control scheme, the motion sensing Wii remote. This control scheme is the only reason for buying the system. After all, no one in his right mind would have paid $250 for a mere slightly enhanced GC in 2006 when the then top-notch GC cost $200 in 2001; and let’s face it, the Wii without the Wii remote is just a super-white shining version of the GC. Five years behind in technology, it can’t hold water to its competitors.
The question is if the new controls compensate for the lack of technology – the system was marketed as such promising innovation through the new controls.
16 months after its release we can certainly say that the new control scheme is an utter disappointment on all fronts. I have been carefully reading reviews of Wii games since its release, and objective observers cannot even remotely come to another conclusion. It was a marketing gimmick, nothing else - and a very successful one.
The controls simply don’t deliver – even measured by lower expectations and disregarding the euphoric sword, baton, and club swinging commercials in 2006.
The motion sensing isn’t refined enough for rich game play. Faster movements are inadequately translated onto the screen. The technological barrier produces necessarily shallow game play. The fun is short and certainly not sweet. It’s not long before boredom sets in. The exemplary role models of Wii Play and Wii Sports are as good as it gets.
1:1 motion sensing is a failure in sword games like Red Steel, Soulcalibur Legends, Dragon Blade, and Twilight Princess, in golf games like Tiger Woods, the list of disappointing games is extremely long. The evaluations range from terrible to at best ‘doesn’t mess up the game.’ Metroid Prime 3 is with standard buttons as good as with the Wii and Nunchuk. The motion sensing doesn’t contribute a thing to game play – it is nothing more than tucked-on little gimmicky game play elements..
Table Tennis should have been the ideal game for the Wii. Because of inaccurate controls the result was a disappointing party game at best while the original game on the 360 with standard button controls is one of the best sports games I have ever played.
The recent ‘No More Heroes’ actually gets praise for its Wii controls. It was a big surprise for sure; but the praise actually points to the failure of the Wii remote. Motion sensing is dramatically reduced and dumbed down. Sword swinging is done by - surprise! - the tried and proved standard buttons. It works well, we have known that for decades. Motion sensing is reduced to up and down flickers and shaking once in a while. Incredibly, some messages can be heard through the speakers on the Wii remote – truly an innovative revolution in game experience (not).
To be sure, the Wii doesn’t prevent good games. No technology does, otherwise I wouldn’t play Bionic Commando, Ninja Gaiden, or In The Hunt every once in a while, and I’ll enjoy Super Paper Mario to no end. The point is that these high quality games developed by Nintendo itself could be on the other systems or on the GC. What makes them great has nothing to do with the new controls. This is exactly the reason why the Wii controls are nothing other than a very successful marketing gimmick.
I very often hear that lamentations about the Wii are futile. In the end, it contributes to a diverse game library. You have your PS3 or 360, and the Wii is not an alternative but a complimentary system. This is absolutely right. However, the danger of the gimmicky Wii controls and image is a simple one - its extraordinary success. The more successful system will be copied.
We already have the six-axis controller which is nothing other than a similar gimmick produced by Sony to counteract the image of the Wii, and these controls made the good Lair a sub-par game. While it is not surprising that shallow games with great images sometimes sell very well, the surprising success of the Wii sets a terrible precedent for the industry. Let’s just hope we won’t get a motion sensing controller for the 360.
There are positive aspects about the Wii for sure, and they have a lot to do with why this system is so successful.
First, the Wii success reminds game designers how important simplicity and shorter challenges in games are, and how important simple controls are. The success of the Wii is a wake-up call for game developers. In the last decade game designers delivered richer game play overall with more complexity, not simplicity. More options, buttons and button combinations galore, controllers got more complex. This trend is certainly a hindrance to casual gamers who want to simply enjoy games or play them more frequently.
Game developers underestimated one of the basic needs of every gamer, the casual ones and frequent ones alike - simplicity and challenge. This is exactly why we enjoy older games, why classic gaming experienced a renaissance in the last ten years, and the success of Xbox Live Arcade and the classic NES games on the Wii. Game development has to go more in the direction of GO and not chess. Simplicity doesn’t mean shallowness. Virtua Tennis showed how simple button controls can produce incredibly rich game play.
Second, almost everyone underestimated the potential of attracting older age groups and women to gaming. Older gamers like me knew from the early arcade times that women can be as passionate about games as men and male teenagers, but women gamers have certainly been neglected during the last twenty years.
It is great that casual gamers and non-gamers are buying consoles and becoming interested in games. The stable gender gap and gaps of age groups have to be closed - something Nintendo did with surprising success. It is high time to make new efforts to explore what game elements are attractive for the other sex and to rethink game design. The more gamers, the better – unless game quality is sacrificed on the altar of sales figures. Myst which got non-gamers interested in games was a great and rich game, games purely built around motion sensing are not.
NOTE: My apologies for the length of this post. I’ve been carrying it around with me like an unborn child. It was a difficult birth.
Originally Posted by lendelin
