Thomas Jan

Stock up those arcades in the afterlife for when we follow. RIP

While I’m not on the doomsaying side of Mr. Khan, I think his point is valid, if not imminent. Since the market is sectioned off into pockets by hardware vendors, the overall audience for a particular title is limited to a fraction of the whole market, with additional returns to be had from investing in a port if such a thing is salient.

The market opens up to everyone with a shared hardware platform. Barriers to development are also brought down not only because there are fewer (presumably the fewest) platforms for which to develop, but the strength of the industry as a whole can be brought to bear upon providing usable and powerful development kits. Rather than letting Sony mash together a usable but unwieldy SDK on its own because they are not a software company after all.

With the horde of people extolling the obvious-ness of the PC as a multi-proficient platform, there is somewhat of an understanding that the PC is not a console. Why aren’t console titles ubiquitous on the PC? I don’t have the answer to that. It is easier to sell games for consoles on consoles. That much is apparent, at least for now.

But the roll and the market perception of the PC is changing. As media PCs are poking their heads out of the niche, as set-tops become more and more PC-like, as console hardware comes up to speed with that of the PC by incorporating increased storage and networking capabilities, devices seem to be straining to become alike. At the very least, they are borrowing from one another’s feature set. As this continues, I think the picture of what a shared hardware platform might be will become clearer.

Emulation is an interesting topic to bring up here. The idea of cross-emulating every console to each other was the first thing that popped into my head when reading this article. Given tractability and performance constraints, this isn’t really a realistic option, but I think the idea of it fits into the subject. If industry caliber weight could be given over to the emulation effort, rather than leaving it chained up in the backyard sandbox, I wonder what might come of it. Alas, it’s an answer we’ll probably never know. Even though VC and MS-marketplace open the door a bit, the likelihood of seeing anything current gen is slim… That is without a largely cooperative effort. Which happens to be the topic at hand.

I don’t think anyone is going to be convinced by words alone. With the point made about developers getting larger and becoming less creative, less forward-thinking, I don’t know if the idea of a shared hardware platform really solves that problem. I don’t know if enabling EA to make more gobs of money will convince them to reach out and nurture less mainstream ideas the way film has.

I want to play it all.

But I do feel ridiculous for contemplating the purchase of no less than three consoles in order to get access to what the industry will provide in the coming years. I assume that most (non-fanboy) gamers feel similarly.

While the NPR commentary has a valid point, I think it's a little disparaging to automatically assume that a steeper learning curve will deflate the ambitions of youth. Games that are well designed are a great tool for encouraging the engagement of those learning curves.

Lobbying the infliction of anguish on other individuals might be the wrong message, but I think there is a point to be made in the corrolary, which is perseverance when you end up on the receiving side of hard fought basketball anguish. A little corny, I know, but I think we all know someone who could stand to take defeat in a more grown-up manner.

Not to bash NPR too much, but they're a little quick to judge with their 'antique' viewpoint on gaming and could've done with more balance in perspectives.

Isn't this eerily similar to the floating camera described in All Tomorrow's Parties by Gibson?

I think 'too small' means "I cannot play Starcraft on this." or possibly, "People cannot watch me play Starcraft on this."

Most of my gaming is done on the weekends, and sometimes on the weekdays after work.

If there's something I'm really into at the time I'll sneak away at lunch for a quick session.

One trick I use to get the gears rolling is to do a bit of gaming right when I wake up, usually puzzle gaming of some kind. I keep my GBA on the bedside dresser for these. I find it helps grease the skids for those first few and often tough hours at work.

The Atlus booth was low key but awesome all the same. They also had some 'fresh released' video of a game tentatively titled Odin's Fear. The gameplay was reminiscent of Namco's Tales series back in the 2D days.