Kaplan says gamers were bored before Wii

I hate how poorly all media outlets reported this news piece. I know, this sort of stuff sells clickthroughs, which gets comments, which spawns flamewars, which spans revenue.

She said "gamers were starting to get bored", as in, in a near future, they would be bored, but Wii came to stop that BEFORE It happened.

Now, when were we supposed to be bored? After Halo 3? Starcraft 2? Portal? Thats a question for Kaplan herself.

I hadn't played video games for 10 years. I was excited by the idea of Wii. I play them all the time now. Does that help?

If you don't know you're bored, then something is probably doing a good job entertaining you. Frankly, as unique as the Wii is, it too falls into the console pattern of crappy copies and even crappier ports. Stop the useless cash ins and make some great games. Then I won't be bored. Flailing my arms won't wake me up alone.

*****

Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/

I think there's some truth to it. Sure, Halo, Guitar Hero, Melee, Zelda, Madden, etc aren't boring. But they gather the majority of play and sales. Looking at the titles offered last-gen, 90%+ were boring trash. Only about 10% were worth playing and less were worth buying.

The problem is, the Wii HASN'T changed that. It's just the nature of the medium now. And while the gamer masses are definitely aging, as is the game material, there's still a large section that devotes a lot of time to gaming. Gaming's only one of my hobbies, and I still spend about 30% of my free time playing and about $500 a year on games and accessories.

Anyway, the gist of the interview is not that gamers were bored with their hobby, but that the industry has been stalling in terms of new ideas and innovation. I think Kaplan and the Nintendo team is wise beyond its years for that insight.

Paraphrasing what i said on Joystiq

This woman is a living example of "open mouth, insert foot"

She's being a typical PR person and being arrogant with that statement, but I think if you look into it some more you can find some truth.

I think the term "bored" was the problem. I think it might better have been served as "unfulfilled". If you look at it that way, it's possible to play games and be, or start to be unfulfilled. I played WoW for a long time, but when I stopped I realised that for a long time before then I had been unfulfilled.

If gamers get the same thing again and again, and there's little variety or spice to the gaming, they slowly become unfulfilled by the experience. They still play games, but something inside them starts to change and slowly die.

With Wii I think they're helping to nip that in the bud to some extent, but it can't be done for the 360/PS3 "hardcore" gamer cause those people are generally quite jaded in their gaming habits. For others like myself who have always played all sorts of platforms and gaming styles, the Wii did invigorate things and relieve the boredom. My gaming had been pretty sparse for a number of years before the Wii, but now I'm back to being a regular player like I was 25 years ago.

I was bored before the Wii. I hadn't played video games since the N64. I'd watched other people play, and partipated in a few smash bros. melees in college, but that's about it.

Video games were boring. I felt like I had played them all already (or was never interested in the first place.) Platformers were platformers, shooters were shooters, puzzles were puzzles, etc. Still fun in short doses, perhaps, continually becoming shinier and changing little details here and there, but overall - been there done that.

I wasn't going to buy a video game console again, nor did I care. But the Wii made me care again, because games could be new again.

A well designed Wii game "cares" what the physical positioning of the player is, and is continually checking to make sure the player is in the correct physical position throughout the gameplay.

Pong is boring, but Wii Sports: Tennis is not, even though they are both the same game. Why? Because they require different things of the player, which means playing them is fundamentally different.

I don't like this lady. She's an uniformed bitch and I wanna know where she comes off making comments about her company without consulting the company and making an ass of herself by spewing incorrect details about products and later having to retract them. I can't believe they haven't fired her.

On topic here my boredom comes and goes with games. Mostly it's due to lack of variety in quality games. Most quality games I purchase in a given period of time belong to the same genre and that burns me out and draws me away from gaming until something else comes out that excites me.

But I'd have to agree with the people not playing their Wii. I love it but I can't say I play it often, or ever really. My 360 is currently getting play time until they can convence me there is a game worth my cash that I'll enjoy. Which will probably finally happen with Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros.

Woah, there was nothing wrong with what she was saying. There are two of us already who posted here about having not played since N64. Just because it hadn't happened to the hardestcore yet doesn't mean her statement that the average gamer wasn't even a gamer anymore is wrong. Don't be so offended: it obviously wasn't directed at you. I see why you have taken it wrong but if the average gamer has STARTED to get bored, then statistically you will have folks like Junorhane and myself who haven't played in 10 years and folks like you who still play all the time. The average of this is that the AVERAGE GAMER IS STARTING TO GET BORED.

Im bored after wii. Well i did play resident evil 4 on it. But thats the only game ive played on it, and none of the new games intrest me that much. Its just collecting dust.