So famous games business analyst Sean Malstrom had this to say:
>I have observed a strange phenomenon with computer geeks, or, rather, those who merge with their machines. They get absorbed into ‘geek culture’. They think ‘geek culture’ is ‘real culture’. They literally begin to think they are geniuses. I watch computer programmers watch something like ‘Cosmos’ and then believe they are at the level of astrophysicists. The narcissism is extreme.
>They did not go to the video game industry to make video games. They came to the video game industry for eternal adolescence. They may be adolescents, their co-workers may be adolescents, but the PAYING CUSTOMERS are not.
>...Do you know what hardcore gamers are? They are geeks. They are only given the label of hardcore by marketing departments who want these fools to keep buying their crappy games. Most ‘hardcore’ gamers hate their jobs, hate their existence, and wish to live in ‘Geek Land’ which is what the video games represent to them.
>As video game developers become more child-like, their products are going to reflect being a man-child. I believe this, more than anything, creates the stigma against video games. There was no stigma against Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, Tetris, Wii Sports, or Wii Fit. The only stigma that came against something like Wii Sports was from geek culture, i.e. the ‘hardcore’ gamers.
>The best thing a video game company can do is to destroy their geek culture and bring their developers screaming into the real world. Imagine what video games they would make then! Imagine the new markets they would reach! Imagine the new gamers it would create. But no, the only customers they want are other geeks. Video game industry has become a geek culture providing entertainment to a geek culture.
Do you agree /v/?
>>333018094
sorta
most people make what they like, our creations are a reflection of who we are after all
Sure, only retards play videogames these days, anyways.
Sooo... pandering to otaku taste with specific kind of comic book heros again?
>those who merge with their machines
What did he mean by this?
So Malstrom made an elongated "stop liking what I don't like" shitpost. How dare people make what they enjoy?
source, please.
This is the dumbest shit ive ever read
I really hope this guy isnt actually famous because he seems like he gives no fuck for the medium at all
>>333018486
Means someone somewhere stuck their dick in their computer.
>>333018601
seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/email-the-otaku-ization-of-nintendo/
>Video game industry has become a geek culture providing entertainment to a geek culture.
And how exactly is that bad?
> what games they could create
Woo.. walking simulators with waggle. Great.
>its a people try to claim whats "real" is objective episode
Ugh time to change channel
Really difficult to understand what he's even actually trying to say
>>333018094
>They literally begin to think they are geniuses. I watch computer programmers watch something like ‘Cosmos’ and then believe they are at the level of astrophysicists. The narcissism is extreme.
I really don't have any idea what is he talking about, I've never experienced or seen that. Rest of the post is just whining how games are made for geeks and why most games aren't ultracasual games like Wii sports.
>>333018094
I disagree that video games would become more interesting if they were made solely for mass consumption of the average man. It seems to me that's what the majority of AAA games are attempting to become, and instead of becoming a great example of game development loved throughout the ages, they instead become a quick romp that everyone can enjoy but ultimately wind up being replaced and forgotten.
I can't think of too many child like big name developers in the industry anymore. It seems like this article suggests devs should focus solely on profit based gaming for the masses, and that's exactly what should be avoided, lest we wind up repeating the same mistakes the music industry and movie industry fell into -- a pit of lowest common denominator entertainment with lasting examples being pushed by the wayside and forced to be developed in small, independent circles. If you look at any great book, movie, or piece of music, you'll notice that it usually only caters to a small audience who enjoys it, rather than being something for everyone. When you boil a work down to something everyone can enjoy, you lose a lot of nuance and meaning to the original target culture group.
>>333018818
Profits?
But they are already pandering to SJW and the non-geek culture so i dont even fucking know how they are suppose to be providing entertainment to my culture
>>333018094
>The best thing a video game company can do is to destroy their geek culture and bring their developers screaming into the real world.
Naughty Dog did a pretty good job of this.
>>333018968
That videogames are shit because they aren't made for him.
This is probably the same kind of guy that thinks Marvel films are good.
>>333018094
Is this person complaining that people don't live how he expects them to.
>>333018094
Oh look, a huge opinionated baseless piece of bullshit
Whatever will I do with this
>hide thread
>>333018968
>I’m becoming very concerned because software dens are not just ‘geek worlds’, but that they see and respect no other world than ‘geek world’. They have no ballast. They have no connection to reality. Finance, which an expression of reality, is despised because it brings in business models, cashflow, profit, and all that. “We don’t want to make customers. We want to make the games we want to make.” In other words, we wish to stay in the sanctuary of geek land.
basically
>we're not making enough money off these fucking goyim
this is basically the plot of Welcome to the NHK
>>333018094
This is so fucking biased and hateful, i wonder why this man is taken seriously.
>>333019000
So he actually wants to have games made with maximum profit in mind?
That's pretty much what most AAA games these days are. Just that maximum profit doesn't neccessarily mean appealing to hipsters and normalfags.
>>333018094
Who is this faggot and why do I wan't to deck him from just reading a few paragraphs of text written by him?
Hardcore gamers are trend setters. Your analyst is a fucking moron.
>>333019363
Because your a nerd who needs to start living in the real world :^)
>>333019436
I've lived in the real world all my life, it's pretty shit. When's the virtual world going to open it's borders to refugees?
>>333019318
>That's pretty much what most AAA games these days are.
Sean Malstrom actually argues the opposite.
He claims that most AAA games these days are made for "Gamers" and "hardcore gamers" (terms he claims were made up by marketing departments). He claims that it is arcade gameplay like you found in old school arcadey games that is actually what most people want.
Games like the original mario games, the original zelda games, Pacman, Tetris etc etc.
He's respected in the industry because he has a very good eye for predicting what will be profitable and successful and what will fail, he was one of the people behind Nintendo's blue ocean push with the wiii.
>>333019523
So basically he wants the entire world to be full of stagnated 80s games, not even SNES era games.
What a fucking loon. League of Legends, as much as I hate that piece of shit, must blow his mind.
I wonder if this is the last generation of consoles.
>I am angry because there are people that enjoy things I can't!
Ok
>>333018094
Who gives a shit about some fucking suits opinion? This guy obviously doesn't give a shit about the actual games, only their profitability.
>>333019523
Wait a second, is this guy seriously trying to argue that a piece of art should function like a commodity?
I agree with him on the 'hardcore' being a marketing tool. And yes the narcissism thing is true too. (Burch's statement that his writing makes the world a better place comes to mind)
But
>Geek
What is this supposed to mean? 'Geeks' aren't only a video game thing. There's the music geek, sports geek, film geek, hell anything anyone has a passion for can be considered a geek.
>>333019720
He's a business analyst. Everything is a commodity in his line of work.
>>333019523
>he was one of the people behind Nintendo's blue ocean push with the wiii.
What an idiot.
>>333018486
>>333019720
Malstrom is a hardcore Austrian school economist.
He doesn't believe art has any value beyond it's price.
>Westacuck having a bitch cry about glorious Nippon game
>>333019523
What
AAA games now are fucking absolutely nothing like old arcadey games
This guy doesnt know shit
>>333019523
>He's respected
No one respects that clown.
>>333019720
>vidya is art
lmao
>>333019523
>He's respected in the industry because he has a very good eye for predicting what will be profitable and successful and what will fail
like that's fucking hard to do. i can predict a flop or success with 99% accuracy as can most of /v/ i imagine. this guy writes nice and has nice vocabulary, but this fucking guy is someone that bullshitted his entire way through life. i see people like him all the time
>>333018486
People who want to be JC Denton, in da fresh.
>>333019523
I mean, sure, there's a potential market of people who do not play games yet and getting them to play them will increase your profit.
But I don't see how, as he said it, "destroy[ing] their geek culture and bring[ing] their developers screaming into the real world" is gonna make that happen.
There's not a single tangible thing that companies could act on other than that in his nlog post.
Nice source, faggot, but I'll bite and assume it's legit.
>Video game industry has become a geek culture providing entertainment to a geek culture.
i.e.
>Making video games for gamers is a bad thing
The first line is horseshit since that's how the industry STARTED, and the movement away from "non-geeks" already been happening for over a decade, so I don't even know what the fuck he's talking about. The vast majority of games now are Frankensteined together by code monkeys and built on research that prevents the alienation of the "casual" crowd and caters to their narcissism. I hope he's seriously not counting the Farmville crowd as "geek" gamers, because who the fuck else is lower on the gaming rung? Not surprising that I'm reading shit this stupid from a senior businessman.
>>333019523
>respected
He's no different from Michael Pachter.
>>333018094
>Wii Sports, or Wii Fit.
>n! Imagine the new markets they would reach! Imagine the new gamers it would create.
>Imagine a world filled with wii fit and sports shit
>>333018094
>The narcissism is extreme.
The irony is extreme.
>>333019825
Yes that is his point.
For gaming to return to peak sales of the NES era (where a single game could sell tens of millions of copies) games must return to being easy to pick up and play and have arcade gameplay at its core.
he claims that modern AAA games don't appeal to mass audiences. When he talks about "mainstream" he's talking about everyone, which is why he praises the Wii because it was an "arcade" console with easy to understand, fun, arcade games at it's core (Wii sports, NSMB etc)
>>333018094
>Published April 1st, 2016
>>333019695
This.
>They should abandon their primary demographic and pander to me instead!
>>333019083
He doesn't want to play games at all, he only cares about making money.
>>333019817
>it's a lolidom facesitting episode
>>333020095
So the argument is "make more Angry Birds!"
I love it every time a new group of "hardcore" gamers get pissed off at Malstrom's blog. He loves games, loves insulting nerds, and doesn't give a fuck.
I've dropped off reading his blog for the last few years. It's hard to continuously talk about how much Nintendo fucked up this gen; you eventually run out of things to say.
>>333019906
People who want to burn like the brightest star.
>>333020209
If that were true he'd be all over the F2P model of LoL/DOTA and the market model of CSGO.
>>333019523
>He's respected in the industry
Whatever you say, Sean.
>>333020095
>For gaming to return to peak sales of the NES era (where a single game could sell tens of millions of copies)
Gaming was much, much more centralized then. Of course single games could sell more, and that has nothing to do with being "easy to pick up and play", which by and large they weren't, given that they were obtuse, poorly translated and Nintendo-hard.
>>333020264
Holy shit, sounds like the insane ramblings of a man in his 60's.
Who the fuck calls playing vidya 'geek culture'?
>>333019918
>Game Gods are presented as if all goodness flows through them. Instead, good games work because they successfully hold a mirror up to Human nature. The game is not good because the developer is ‘magical’. The game is good because it successfully massages the gamer.
What did he mean by this?
>>333020568
well Hiroshi Yamauchi did say that RPG players were depressed losers sitting alone in the dark playing loser games.
Instead of just saying "Stop liking what I don't like" he's just saying, "Force people who make what I don't like to make what I like."
>>333020264
My favourite one anon.
>>333018094
>But no, the only customers they want are other geeks.
what an idiot. The casual players are the target since years.
>>333020621
again, games are a commodity, and successful commodities fulfill certain purposes.
Game developers are not "artists", development teams are more akin to workshops trying to make the most refined product.
A successful game is a game that makes a profit, and an even more successful game brings in new players who weren't interested in games before.
Video games are toys
>>333018094
No one cares about your blog
Fuck off
>>333020705
not this past generation. This generation is basically all three consoles trying to cannibalize the same market, while staving off smart-phones which are cannibalizing that same market.
Wii actually appealed to "casuals" which meant it was successful and a cultural phenomenon, and did not need to compete for the shrinking profits of the traditional gamer crowd that Sony and MS fought over.
>>333020786
if film is art then video games are art. it's literally the same workshop process
>>333018968
>I am superior
>they are silly
>>333021041
that's besides the point, because determining artistic value is entirely subjective; thus the only way to determine value is through monetary success. People can call games art all they want; that won't make better games (and very often it makes worse games: see - walking simulators).
>Capitalism panders to all tastes and this is bad
>We must include socialism in gaming
>>333018094
tl;dr: stop liking what I don't like
>>333020786
Based on this view of the world, the dude's model is busted. One of their axioms they are building their argument off of is flawed. What he's trying to say is basically "why doesn't this music by Miley Cyrus appeal to 100% of the human population? How come the industry cannot produce a Miley Cyrus that appeals to EVERYONE?" From the first note of the song, a certain sub-population of people will realize that the music is not right for them and people will start to drop off as the song continues until only a niche is left.
>>333021167
>thus the only way to determine value is through monetary success
>>333019318
Yes.
>>333020040
Right?
>>333018486
He menat that polaying handhelds in public is unacceptable.
>>333021167
>because determining artistic value is entirely subjective
When will this meme die?
We had objective art standards for centuries and the work they produced is immediately recognized as superior to modern art even by people who are completely "art illiterate".
>>333018094
so pretty much "games need to be for normalfags like me, fuck weebs"
what a retard
So what this dick is arguing is that gamers game because they want to extend their adolesence?
Well whoppidy fucking do, pretty much every mainstream hobby is a continuation of adolesencent activities. Sports, music, comics, cars, you name it.
Malstrom seriously thinks he's a genious for figuring this shit out.
Who the fuck is malstrom anyway? There's no online bio, no credentials, pretty much all articles are about who the fuck he is.
Sounds like a 50 year old nostalgia fart with delusions of grandeur
Looks like you need to be manchild to work as a games business analyst too or how does he explain those blatant generalizations, buzzwords and stereotypical ways of thinking and looking at things.
>>333018094
Fuck off fishcake.
>>333018094
>amous games business analyst Sean Malstrom
Literally who? From the bullshit you greentexted there, he looks like yet another myopic doomsayer who thinks he knows more than he actually does, and makes sure to tell everyone at every opportunity.
It's great that he conveniently ignores the fact that the only people actually fucking making games nowadays are going to be fans who can put up with the shit pay, shit hours, and lack of job security. It's also great how he ignores all the games that are made to appeal to a broad range of people, and not just "geek" fans. Did some nerd beat him up and steal his lunch money? What is this guy's problem?
>>333020660
He was just butthurt Square left them
>you will never see a company being btfo as hard as Nintendo was by the ps1 and ffvii
I wish that would happen again only with today's internet
I could actually see the suicide live streams
Hasn't gaming been growing massively in all sectors for years? This analysis reads like a post-mortem on a failed business, and as such is completely undermined by the failure of reality to bear that picture out.
>>333022094
> What is this guy's problem?
Probably a game he invested in did not make the ROI he expected and he's venting on the chuuni-ness of the developers.
>>333019960
This. Am I wrong or is this guy retarded? The good old easy to pick up and play era of the NES? Weren't NES games considered hard?
Games today are for the lowest common denominator, they are the easiest thing in the world except for a handful of them that only core gamers play.
Larger audience means appealing to a lower comman denominator.
Budgets increase but quality decreases
>>333018094
>April 1st
Now that the fallacy is out of the wat.
The problem with gaming is not that the "People making them" are geek with no sense of real life, it's that the people in charge are businessmen with no touch with reality. It doesn't matter if your code monkey think he's god's gift to programing he has zero input on the finished product and will do what's asked of him, or if he's an indie dev end up like Phil Fish. What need to be realized is that making video game is now like owning a factory. You have your machinery that you bought or more rarely made in house (the vidya engine) You have your minimum wage worker (code monkey) and you have your overseer (the team leaders). Then marketings come in, take control of everything and has you buy out all your competitor so you can sell chinese knockoff version of their shit. When you ask them why you're losing money they tell you they don't understand they were only playing god it's all the consumers fault for not enjoying the third iteration of your now dead competitor item, now made with 100% nuclear waste by Pakistani with no quality control.
>>333022404
They were easy to learn hard to master. You can teach anyone to play SMB in like 2 minutes.
>people shouldn't have a target audience
LOL
>Imagine what video games they would make then! Imagine the new markets they would reach! Imagine the new gamers it would create.
Like what?
>people still take sean malstrom seriously
lol
>>333018094
There is some truth in what he's saying but a lot of that quote is just insults and generalizations with no actual facts to back it up. I mean, he called the DEVELOPERS manchildren for catering to the tastes of the general audience. That's fucking stupid.
Keep to business, Sean. Sociology is not up your alley.
>>333018094
Funny that 20 years ago someone was saying the same thing about pc programmers, 40 years before that it was about radio transmitter guys.
And in 20 years one of us will be saying it about the next big thing
>>333018094
>famous games business analyst Sean Malstrom
lol
>>333022978
Uhhhhhhh wii fit apparently
Good for the people who like that
>>333023007
>people still fall for the console meme
>>333023350
>everyone has 1000 dollars, time, knowledge and patience to make a super fragile pc that requires a lot of upkeep
lol
>>333018094
Wow, what a load of bullshit.
>>333023350
Play any PC game online that doesn't have effective anti-cheat measures. Then talk about how great PC gaming is.
>>333023516
>I spend a lot of time on my hobby but I won't even put in a modicum of effort
>>333019523
>Games like the original mario games, the original zelda games, Pacman, Tetris etc etc.
One of these things is not like the others...
>>333020381
Those people are gonna burn, alright.
>>333023616
>if i dont scramble thousands of dollars and screw together some computer parts i care less about video games than you do
lol
>>333018094
Yes but gaming is worth billions now. So clearly it's doing something right.
I mean fuck me, the car industry is, in this day and age, a basic necessity, and that shit hemorrhages money.
>Tablets and Handhelds together.
>Tablets not considered mobile games
that's the stupidest thing I've seen on /v/ all week.
>>333023701
Well yeah, if you limit yourself to a really restricted console with few genres in a hobby that's already little time-intensive you're kind of a casual shitter
>>333018486
TO TRANSCEND THE MORTAL COIL OF FLESH AND BECOME ONE WITHIN MATRIX AND MACHINE, A GLORIOUS GOD STANDING ABOVE THE HEADS AND SHOULDERS OF MEN, STEPPING FORWARD INTO THE GOLDEN AGE OF DIVINITY BROUGHT THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
>>333023998
Bro theres nothing on pc I care about. I have some prebuilt from like 2009 that lets me play csgo every now and then and thats the only pc game I care about. csgo. I can get everything and anything else I want on my ps3, ps4, or 3ds.
>>333018094
No.
Because business analysts are fucking spergs when it comes to stuff they don't really get.
Source; I am one.
The thing is guy doesn't get it why the fuck would breaking down the "geek" market do anything?
Normal people who like games already play them. They have casual games to cater to them, and they enjoy them.
Hardcore gamers enjoy their games, and so do casual gamers.
Why the fuck should they not cater to a portion of the market.
Destroying "geek culture" would just nuke profits for these companies.
most people who get into game development and are actually involved in making it like coding etc don't last long because of the ridiculous demands. if you can get into that job, you can get a much easier and better paid job.
unless they're donig shit like Q&A or some other unqualified shit. or they're "writers" or "creative guys" which basically means they couldn't make it in any other stuff.
>>333019523
>he was one of the people behind Nintendo's blue ocean push with the wiii.
You mean that flash in the pan that Nintendo tried to perform a second time and may just very well be dying because of it? He wants the gaming industry to capture the normie market.
Businesses always do this, trying to market clit piercings for men because IT'S AN UNTAPPED MARKET THINK OF THE PROFITS! And it flops, every fucking time. Because these BIZNIS ANALCYSTS!!! :D are so fucking stupid, so fucking blinded by the prospect of more money that they don't listen when people try tell them that there is no market prospects. That men don't have a fucking clitoris to pierce.
>>333019861
Business analysts generally are.
The best are highly paid professionals who are genuinely fantastic at what they do to a point.
They work for huge firms, mainly banking, engineering etc.
The scum-buckets of analysts work for small, local or largely unprofessional firms.
Like me. I work freelance for small firms around my town, doesn't pay nearly as well as the city-jobs, but I get alot more freedom. Plus small-businesses are usually much nicer to work with.
>>333023524
Yeah I don't know actually, while on the second year of physics I took C++ classes on the programmers department and jesus fucking christ, they were more insufferable than biologists and mathematicians combined, it was one of the things that made me reconsider gaming as a main hobby, I started analysing my past actions and noticed that at the same time I got into gaming and internet culture my ego skyrocketed.
I watch a few videos on something read a few articles and I'm a fucking scientist, anyone who wasn't spending as much time on the internet as me was a TV/newspaper brainwashed idiot and gaming was a hobby for sophisticated geniuses.
>>333018094
Nah, completely wrong. If that was the case the game industry would function more like the anime industry. Instead it's coroporates tripping over themselves to appeal to the most banally interested consumer often at the cost of core demographic satisfaction, similarly to hollywood. Only a scant few actually cater to them thar loser geeks the author so loving pointed out. I guess you could try to argue his point is reflected in the indie industry, as that's where many games that appeal to completely new demos come from, like gone home, despite how much /v/ detests it, or her story, or the scores upon scores of games that appeal to people that I will never be able to comprehend. In that you can see his point, but at the end of the day the darlings among indies tend to be the ones catering to the loser geeks once again, surprise. Can't kill geek culture if there's nothing to fill its shoes.
>>333018094
>There was no stigma against Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers
as someone who lived through this, this is false. I am mad.
>>333024351
>gaming and internet culture my ego skyrocketed.
Because you found a thing you enjoyed.
Then you don't like the people who also enjoy it.
Its not fucking rocket-science.
I go to comic-con and intensely hate half the people I see there but I don't stop going.
Seriously; if people dropped shit because people they don't like did it as well the whole world would be a boring husk.
>>333018094
>no source
faggot
Wow, look at how angry everyone is. Looks like Malstrom has causeda maelstrom
>>333019960
>I hope he's seriously not counting the Farmville crowd as "geek" gamers
The opposite. He's saying that those are basically the only games that should exist because "geek" status of video games makes them less profitable.Essentially he's a person who misses the point of video games with a smidge bit of being up his own ass as well.
>>333018094
>people who BUY COMPUTER GAMES aren't adolescents
lmao
So what's really happened here is some nobody with a wordpress site has an opinion.
>>333020209
Haven't read his blog for a while. How is his job at the oil sector doingafter the sudden price drop?
>>333018094
Why did he put VR together with TV? Pretty much all VR is done on PC.
>>333024658
Like most people looking in do.
Its like looking at train or plane-spotting and going "WOW THAT LOOKS LIKE SHIT, THEY SHOULD STOP DOING THAT BECAUSE I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING BUT SHIT".
Seriously. People enjoy different things. Let them. (unless it includes harmful shit IRL).
>>333024708
Not bad enough if he hasn't taken the express elevator to the ground floor yet.
Is he famous for his business analysis, or famous for being a retarded asshole? Because I'm 99% sure he's not famous for his business analysis based on those quotes.
>>333018486
meme answers aside, he's talking about people who spend the majority of their daily lives using electronic devices for personal use. For example, if all you do is come on to /v/ and shitpost, that's merging with your computer.
So glad you guys are discussing my blog post so much.
P.S. https://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/donate/
:):'(
>>333024558
Then why hasn't the same thing happened when I found Savate, bass-guitar, physics/mathematics and mountaineering?
>>333019000
>they are already pandering to SJW and the non-geek culture so i dont even fucking know
That's the modern day geek culture
>>333018094
>They think 'geek culture' is 'real culture'. They literally begin to think they are geniuses. I watch computer programmers watch something like 'Cosmos' and then believe they are at the level of astrophysicists.
I'm 50/50 on this. On one hand, I'm sick and tired of the old cliche that geeks are smart. Most of them I know other than myself and my immidiate family (The average IQ in my household growing up was 148) are either slightly above average or idiots. Nothing annoys me more than mediocre dumbasses who think they've got the answers to every fucking question in the world. In the old days, even the intelligent would believe in Gods, and allow themselves to accept that they were imperfect humans. Now adays every single average Joe with a liberal arts degree thinks he's got all the answers.
On the other hand, I disagree with the "Only astrophysicists are geniuses lol" axiom that has existed for a long time. There are some really brilliant programmers out there. The shit Steve Wozniak did in the early days at Apple is much more important to society than anything done by Steven Hawking. Brilliance doesn't belong exclusively to academic types who research things that don't really effect the average person.
>As video game developers become more child-like, their products are going to reflect being a man-child.
I guess that explains Movieshit games and SJWs. The other problem is that for years we had the same fuckers who made it big in the 80s and 90s designing games, and now they're getting old. The great creators in games were do-it-yourself made men who created timeless pieces of entertainment in their fucking garages. Now? You got people who got a degree in game design or some shit and worked their way up the corporate ladder, or worse some indie fag who got sick of it and wants to make self-masturbatory "games"
>>333024921
Because they are far less accessible dipshit.
Mountaineering is pretty fucking niche. And mathematics is actively hated by half the population.
>>333018973
I've known all kinds of delusionally-egomaniacal engineers, but I think more of them picked up weird ideas from a combination of their own asses and science fiction rather than infotainment like Cosmos.
Geek culture is a stupid term, and you can very well substitute with it "obsession." Which goes for any hobby. This is a very general description of video games and the author is a faggot.
>>333020786
>A successful game is a game that makes a profit, and an even more successful game brings in new players who weren't interested in games before.
Third parties, Correct. But for Malstrom, First party game are only successful, not only if they make a profit, but also manage to sell their platform. This is why he argues that Nintendo shouldn't keep making games like Pikmin or Star Fox, since most of the people who are buying them are mostly Nintendo hardcore fans who would buy their system anyways, and as such are incapable of sustain a boom of system sales for a long time.
>>333025019
Eh, depends where you live, in my gf's hometown everyone and their dog is into mountaineering because they live next to a mountain, sure there is ego present everywhere but noone is smart about everything as much as wikipedia reading gamers are, they know the objective truth about everything and their hobby is the highest form of art and intelligence. As I said, it is present everywhere but not as much as in gaming and IT. I talk with a biologist about physics, he says something like "yeah I don't know that much about physics, not my field etc etc", I talk with a programmer "I READ DAWKINS AND HE SAID THIS AND THIS AND THAN ON WIKIPEDIA THEY SAID THAT I CAN GOOGLE IT FOR YOU, OH MY GOD WHY DON'T PEOPLE JUST GOOGLE STUFF HOW DUMB ARE THEY.".
>>333019245
>Finance, which an expression of reality,
Video games, the only industry where you have producers so deluded they believe that they can consistently shit all over their paying customers and in the same breath proceed to demand that those people fork over $100 for a game they don't want and didn't ask for in order to subsidize your continued insults and demeaning attitude towards them.
>>333018094
>Imagine the new markets they would reach!
I'm certain the industry has largely found the most profitable niches out there. Maybe VR opens some possibilities but even that is years off.
Besides, who cares what marketing campaigns call the games? Communities are the best ones to determine whether something is truly ''hardcore'' or not.
>>333025515
isps and apple do that as well. Microsoft too.
>>333018094
>>333024946
Continued.
>The best thing a video game company can do is to destroy their geek culture and bring their developers screaming into the real world. Imagine what video games they would make then! Imagine the new markets they would reach! Imagine the new gamers it would create. But no, the only customers they want are other geeks. Video game industry has become a geek culture providing entertainment to a geek culture.
Here's where I draw the fucking line.
This guy is obviously a shit economist. If there's an untapped market that exists, someone would release a product to exploit it.
Take a look at Iphone games. Tons of non-geeks play Angry Birds and Farmville every day.
Take a look at AAA titles. Tons of non-geeks play Madden and Call of Duty every day.
The fact is, most non-geeks don't want to play many games. Gaming isn't their hobby of choice, so they only play a few things. Take a look at the Wii for example. The Wii was one of the best selling consoles of all time because non-geeks wanted to play Wii Sports. Guess what? Very few of them bought anything else. Some of them bought Wii Fit or Mario Kart. Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music sold like ass because the people who play those games don't give a shit.
Non-geeks do not buy enough Video Games to sustane the current size of the market and the industry in general. This is why the push to focus games towards demographics that don't buy them (Women, People over 35).
Do you know what demographic does play games, and will end up being a huge oppertunity in about 10 years? Latinos. If you develop games pandering to Latino children in the USA, you will be the first to market on the next profitable trend in gaming.
>>333018973
Think redpilling. He's just trying to parse it in a way that everyone can understand. He's not wrong, really. Lot of goddamned people out there on the internet could stand to learn some basic humility. Hell a lot of people in the world could, too. In terms of the gaming world though he's got a solution looking for a problem; we've never been in a better time where there's room for every kind of definition of gamer/games/etc from the most casual whatever to the most niche. Pretty much everyone can get what they want and there should be a sustainable market for it all.
>>333024887
Just take a nap.
>>333025680
All this does is make me depressed that video game companies don't cater to people like me who grew up in the 80s, 90s, and 00s of gaming.
>>333024861
This is quickly becoming everyone.
All people do is fuck with their smart phones everywhere they go.
>>333024946
>Now adays every single average Joe with a liberal arts degree thinks he's got all the answers.
The attitude of being gods gift to man is more prevalent among STEM degree people I've found, it's why the term "STEMlord" has existed for at least a decade or more, because of how STEM students are often prone to putting down people from other fields and pretending they are experts at everything.
When I was doing Computer Engineering, pretty much all my fellow classmates were absolutely retarded when it came to anything outside the field, yet acted like complete experts. (While I did Computer Engineering, in high school I mainly focused on Arts and History)
>MFW any Stem student opens their mouth on Art, Architecture or History.
I used to get into the fucking most retarded arguments with classmates who wouldn't budge on anything even though I clearly knew what I was talking about and they didn't. (For example, I kept on getting into debates on Catholicism and Christianity, I would try to explain that Catholicism was a branch of Christianity yet everyone argued otherwise, that Catholicism was the umbrella term and the Church in Rome was "Christianity". WHHHY!? WWWWWWHHHHYYYYYYY!?)
>>333025825
I tend to try to not be that person who is on their smartphone out in public, as I don't want to look like a tech slave. But it has internet on it and it lets me browse stuff as if Im on my home computer, so fuck it. Maybe this is where humanity will lead to.
>>333018973
You and me think the same.
I just play games because I like playing games, not because I want to feel superior to everyone. Whoever wrote that article is a egoistic, belittling bigoted dumbass.
>>333018094
Well then we'd only have shit like farmville or whatever. If Dark souls exist only because there are hardcore gamers (such as myself), then I like there to be adolescents.
>>333026405
Souls became shit after Dark Souls 1 due primarily to "expanding to a larger audience"
>>333018992
It's a businessman's opinion on what games should be.
>>333025680
you don't seem very smart to me. if you were really smart (average IQ of 148 or higher) why would you be here on this shit board arguing about shit nobody gives a fuck about that will be deleted in a matter of hours?
>>333018094
Through out reading this post I thought he was talking about indie game developers.
>>They did not go to the video game industry to make video games
>>333018094
>famous games business analyst Sean Malstrom
He's just a blogger, you retard.
His actual job is unrelated to vidya.
Quick, name the oldest Nintendo waifu you can think of.
>>333019817
Source
>>333026770
Not him but I usually differentiate between intelligent and smart
Intelligent is when your brain has a lot of processing power
Smart is when you actually use your processing power efficiently
People who shitpost on 4chan might be intelligent but they're not very smart
well, in my experience pure software developers usually ARE the absolutely worst kind of engineers when it comes to inflated ego and generally being insufferable, I'll give him that
>>333022674
I fear this guy does not care about the art of it.
>>333020018
she shurfife?
>>333027036
Monobeno.Time to start learning nip though because truly never ever.
>>333018094
Eh, well I do feel like playing games keeps you grounded in your adolescence to a degree but I don't consider it a bad thing. I feel that if you lose grip with the child inside of you, all that awaits you in the end of this state of perceived knowledge is depression. The real world is a scary place, more the pursuit of knowledge is a frightening endeavor. Videogames give me something to escape my troubles, sure, but I feel the same could be said for any form of entertainment.
>>333018094
>famous games analyst Sean Malstrom
Literally.
Who.
>>333018094
What an incredible generalization that is surely intentionally provocative to get more , sounds like standard """""journalism""""" these days
>>333027254
A less know version of Pachter.
He's on the ball with most of those points though. The video game market is insular as fuck and most developers have their heads up their asses. On both sides of the pond.
The video game market incorporates all the technologies and practices of cinema, computing, music and literature yet is less popular than any of the above. It's baffling that even 2016 video gaming is not on par with cinema, TV or even the Internet when it comes to being a popular pastime. The others appeal to all demographics while video game developers are happy to make tiny sums of money and fellate their nerd fans. Japan's video game culture where people of all ages, genders and interests at least interact with the medium is practically an anomaly at this point.
Not to mention that the large majority of video games are happy to pander to their genre and practically beg players to buy them instead of being good titles in their own right. The consumer should be looking for games in the genres they enjoy and buying things that standout to them. Not the other way around.
Video games could be so much greater than they are, but it will never happen because developers and studios are never interested in pushing the envelope so long as their niche market continues to fellate them and provide meagre earnings. Happily continuing to be the inferior form of art and entertainment until something better kills them off. Why make millions when you make thousands, right?
>>333027608
But that's the opposite of what's happening.
>>333027608
>inferior form of art and entertainment
No movie has brought me as much enjoyment, humor, terror, and provoking thoughts as the Metal Gear Solid series.
>>333027759
That's fucking sad.
>>333027828
What movie or book or album has brought you more joy than your favorite video game?
What's your favorite video game?
>>333019245
>“We don’t want to make customers. We want to make the games we want to make.” In other words, we wish to stay in the sanctuary of geek land.
What the fuck? Does this idiot not realize that this is true for ALL artistic endeavors? He might as well be complaining about churches being built and priests taught "because it creates religious people and not customers"
What a fucking moron. I also find his comparison to astrophysicists fucking hilarious, like the standard go-to "this guy is smart, nobody can ever be smarter than these guys" example.
He does have one point though, and that's that certain developers are god damn braindead, and stuck in the mindset of creating the same game over and over again because they're autistic like that. That being said, there are just as many money-grubbing whores in the industry, so he should at least be happy with those, right? Overall, seems like a Michael Pacter kind of dude, a self-proclaimed "video game expert" who's really just an economist. (It's not the first time an economist falls into his own trap and thinks he's smarter than everyone else at everything "because finance is an expression of reality, and everything can be explained via economics".)
>>333027759
Wow. I feel sorry for your loss.
Especially since that franchise isn't even half as good as the myriad series that it tries to ape.
>>333018094
This guy sounds like a real blast to hang out with.
Do you think he was raped or abandoned as a child?
>>333018094
That's a lot of words to say nothing other than "people who care about video games are geeks".
So let me get this straight: video games are more popular now than ever, new games are continuously breaking records (GTAV, Fallout 4, The Division) and an ever-growing diverse market is eating up games on their smartphone (Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, Temple Run, Angry Birds) - I mean there's a fucking Angry Birds MOVIE coming out with Peter fucking Dinklage. People like my mother, who never touched an arcade cabinet or game controller in their lives, are playing those vidya games on their iPads. Retirement homes have weekly Wii tournaments. GTA V made more money in 24 hours than The Avengers did in a week. TV shows like SVU (GO HOME GAMER GIRL) feature celebrities playing video games. Conan plays upcoming games on his show regularly. Dota 2, StarCraft 2 and League of Legends get airtime on ESPN.
And this pretentious asswipe has the audacity to claim that games are getting TOO NICHE? There are games for every fucking conceivable human being out there at this point. We are living in the most approachable era of video games ever seen.
>>333021167
>that won't make better games
Basing it solely on popular appeal, i.e. monetary return certainly won't either. Enjoy your mobile shovelware, faggot. This is the world you chose.
>>333027608
>It's baffling that even 2016 video gaming is not on par with cinema, TV or even the Internet when it comes to being a popular pastime
The assumption here is that video games can or should be comparable to film and TV in terms of popularity, which is where I tell you to go fuck yourself. I'm tired of everyone using Hollywood as the apex of entertainment and our civilization. American cartoons have survived in their own corner for a good century, and it makes my piss boil when people say a cartoon is good and revolutionary based on how much it copies the same tired manipulative bullshit from movies.
>>333028501
Cultural ghetto is cultural ghetto
Movies made comic heroes cool, comics themselves are still something for kids
>>333027608
>Japan's video game culture where people of all ages, genders and interests at least interact with the medium is practically an anomaly at this point.
In Japan, its expected to stop playing video games if you are over 18.
>>333021860
"Business consultants" like his are parasites, pure and simple. We have many of them attached to the company I work for. Gullible bosses with no real connection to what's going on on the ground in their company bring them in because they think they sell wisdom, but all the employees understand this is basically just a snake oil salesman who will spout some buzzwords, try to "inspire" everyone to work harder through some meaningless group activities, and then take their overloaded paycheck and run.
In this example, he's just appealing to the greed of businessmen who invest in vidya companies, pointing the finger at both the customer and the developer as the culprit for why profit growth has slowed down somewhat. "Because they're nerds xD"
What an imbecile.
>>333027608
This has to be bait because this is so specifically the opposite of true in every respect that I refuse to believe someone actually thinks this is how the market is. Japan's industry is becoming more insular and otaku-centric all the time. The Western industry is branching out more and more to non-gamers.
>>333019523
Are you sure this guy is a "famous" game business analyst? Because he sounds like a fucking retard
>>333028886
How can I get a job doing that? years of /v/ have made me fantastic at making up convenient bullshit and spouting it as fact
>>333025380
Dude, the only reason you think gamers are special in this is because gamers are more present on the net than pretty much any other hobby. Many people climb, but far fewer are online shitposting about it.
>>333026006
This. It's absolutely embarassing when STEM people talk about art or culture. One of the defining aspects of their characters I've found is that they will dismiss any modern or post-modern art as being automatically shit just because they don't understand it or the theories behind it.
Just stick to your fields, please.
>WAAAH GEEKS SHOULD STOP LIKING THINGS FOR GEEKS BY GEEKS REEEEEE MANCHILDREN I AM SILLY
This guy should just kill himself твн
>>333027759
Do you only watch capeshit and Seth Rogan movies or something?
>>333028417
Profits can never be too high anon. That's just how capitalism works, and why idiots like this guy still has a job.
>>333029331
>my bad art is good, because i have an explanation for it
Why do people that couldn't hack a weeder DiffyQ class think they're people?
>>333029230
Probably just standard econ education, but you need to be a decent public speaker. The number 1 skill is charisma, being able to appeal to people's emotions and come up with "clever" comebacks to people's questions.
Well we have had ample examples proving that people involved in video games are childish, manipulative and selfish over the past two years.
Just look at both sides of the whole GamerGate thing; embarrassing eternal children thinking their videogames are an important battleground in a 'culture war'. Petty arguments on twitter, babby's first politics etc.
To make matters worse if you point out that both sides are stupid as fuck, you get called a fence sitter. Truly cringeworthy.
>>333029804
Take your holy war somewhere else, you boring faggot.
>>333029682
Thanks for proving my point. Just stick to your equations, please.
>>333029870
Stick to your Barney, Barneyfag.
>>333029918
>STEM majors in charge of witty comebacks
get rekt wagecucks
>>333029804
GABBER GUBBER
>>333029682
QED
>>333029964
>I'm the foremost expert on Barneyology. It's a real field and it means no one else may have opinions on Barney or my field.
>>333021491
That is complete bullshit and you know it.
>>333021491
>We had objective art standards for centuries
Are you really this stupid?
>>333030212
What's it like knowing a century's worth of "high art" is going to be thrown in the dust bin of history?
>>333018486
PRESENT DAYPRESENT TIME
>>333029804
>The "political battlefield" shitters represent the video game industry
I'm pretty sure the people that are involved with video games are actually making and playing them instead of creating one-hit wonders and duking it out on Twitter. These assholes will give up and move on to another medium by the end of the decade.
>>333023639
Malstrom has a massive boner for the NES Zeldas. He seems to honestly believe that nothing the rest of the series has to offer has any worth, and actively insults the focus on mystery and atmosphere they have, while praising NES Marios for "feeling like an adventure" because they force you to play through all the levels in one go. He's a nostalgiafag of he worst kind who uses his market analysis to justify the superiority of his own taste.
He's mostly right and all you "geek culture hardcore gamers" are getting super offended like the hipsters you are.
When he talks about man children making man child games with a man child mindset, he's talking about the way every fucking indie dev treats video games like some pretentious, 2deep4u art medium they can use to push their shitty ideas on people.
No point in even mentioning big publishers since they'll just do what makes money as always.
He forgot to mention the scammers who profit from the naivety of "hardcore gamers" though, be it indies or big name publishers.
That's how I see it.
That sounds about right to me. Then again everyone is a narcissist today. The part about Cosmos is unrelated to gaming but it captures perfectly how "nerds" think they are better than "normies" even though they are just as sex-addicted, identity-obsessed and generally degenerate as normies are. The only difference being that nerds masturbate a lot more.
>>333030587
To me it is more about the fact that video games are more treated as toys rather than stories
Toy games are the ones that you explore and play with until you grow bored having done everything you come up with it. Stories on the other hand tend to have a message that they want to convey to the reader.
>>333030212
Nope what's bullshit is todays music movies art and games, you really think i will stand the test of time as classical music etc stood?
Depends what he means by "geeks" to begin with: 80's style geeks, the ones who made Deus Ex, Planescape Torment, Fallout, Metal Gear, Yoshi's Island, and Zelda, or nu-male geeks, who contributed Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja and Candy Crush?
>>333030915
>This Einstein faggot is retarded and a loser, you really think he has a chance to be anyone worth giving a shit about?
>>333030915
>Nope what's bullshit is todays music movies art and games
You have the greatest information resource in the world at your fingertips yet you seem completely clueless about anything beyond popular culture. There are plenty of musicians, artists and filmmakers who are making avant garde and important work that will be considered great in years to come.
Lots of classically trained musicians have moved into electronic music or at least have begun incorporating elements of electronics into their art because that is the new avant garde. I'm not talking about EDM here, btw.
Also this whole idea that only classical music has survived the 'test of time' is a fallacy; plenty of folk music sung by common people from centuries ago has been preserved and is still performed and recorded today.
>>333018973
>>333025242
I've worked both as a computer engineer and finance analyst, and I can tell you egotistic mediocre asshats are in both places. If anything, society is the one pushing the image of the moneymaker as the successful thing to be. That guy is just grasping at straws.
>>333018094
>Imagine what video games they would make then! Imagine the new markets they would reach!
Farmville, hidden object, and crappy iOS games, this happened a very long time ago. They reached every market by making some of the most creatively bankrupt, horrible shitstain videogames to ever exist.
Thanks, analyst.
This analyst obviously doesn't play videogames, and geek culture differs extremely little from any other hobbyist culture - sports, model-building, whatever. It's like calling all sports fans drooling morons because all they see is the ball moving from one side to the other.
>>333018094
>The best thing a video game company can do is to destroy their geek culture and bring their developers screaming into the real world. Imagine what video games they would make then! Imagine the new markets they would reach!
Is this code speak for 'let's make more games with no gameplay'?
>>333029331
>post-modern art as being automatically shit just because they don't understand it or the theories behind it.
Given the way it's presented in our culture, this is completely reasonable though. As are as they know, it really is academic wankery and unless they are presented with a solid reason otherwise from someone they already trust to be reasonable, there's little reason to give it the benefit of the doubt, especially if the motivation behind it shares little in common with the values they have.
>>333031253
>taking a theory that explains the anomalous precession of mercury seriously
Please, that shit will never catch on.
>>333018094
What's with bloggers and anecdotal evidence?
>in my experience
>I have observed
Nigga, what you've seen doesn't apply to everyone else, you fucking pseudo-intellectual
>>333031663
>As are as they know, it really is academic wankery
This is the kind of view I'm talking about. The dissemination of meaning and intent is an essential aspect of a lot of post-modern art. It is an important part of the artwork itself. A lot of people don't seem to understand that or pass it off as 'wankery'. It's actually pretty interesting.
>>333030862
>Stories on the other hand tend to have a message that they want to convey to the reader.
Ha ha that's totally backwards. Adorning things with with 'messages' is just pretentious in general and is tangential to the point of art. If something can be reduced to a specific messages it has the value of a propaganda poster.
>>333032058
"Dissemination of intent" meaning speculation based on anecdotal evidence at best and projection the rest of the time.
"Academic wankery" is entirely overstating it. There's nothing academic about it.
>>333032058
>intent
Or just concentrating on what the work IS, instead of trying to become a telepath.
>>333032058
>The dissemination of meaning and intent is an essential aspect of a lot of post-modern art.
And that's precisely why I consider it to be academic wankery that fails as art. And that goes triple for the conceptual stuff. I don't even disagree that, say, Derrida has some important and interesting stuff to say, but I wish people would get over it and let me get back to my aesthetics in the mediums I want that to be upheld in.
>>333028417
>new games are continuously breaking records (GTAV, Fallout 4, The Division)
Don't you see the fallacy here? The reason these games are breaking records is because of the complete annihilation of competition in the AAA market.
There are very few AAA developers these days, so all of the sales get consolidated around the games that ARE released.
Not to mention, the increasing population of the world sort of makes a cycle of record breaking sales inevitable.
>bloggers
modern day pseudo-intellectuals
try proving me wrong
>>333032552
He may be an amateur, but Sean Malstrom was the only business analyst in the world that predicted the Wii would win the 7th generation console wars.
Pic related is the tripe that other business analysts were putting out.
>>333032717
>he was right once
>therefore he's always right
![melting_snowflake_by_viltsi-d4pxh6p[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/XmKGCyc.jpg "melting_snowflake_by_viltsi-d4pxh6p[1].jpg")
>>333025380
because when you are a cs grad (or better, an "advanced internet user") you understand that 99% of the common problem of the world are already being solved online and there is very little of special juice in everyone. More you merge with the net and more you understand that we aren't special snowflake but just a permutation of x characteristic. That's why mastering google-fu make you like god in front of normies eyes, because for them you know everything and they hate you for that.
>>333032502
That's fair enough. I myself have often been frustrated with a lot of art that appears to have been created by charlatans or people riding the conceptual bandwagon for a quick buck. But I think charlatanism has always been part of art and culture in general.
Also the aesthetics you talk about undoubtedly have implications beyond 'it looks good'. They are just as political and deserving of critical readings and interpretations as any post-modern artwork. In fact a lot of the writings on aesthetics from the past could be categorised as 'academic wankery'.
>>333032787
>graduate of google university
>>333032778
He predicted that 3D was a gimmick that wouldn't get sales, at the same time when every other business analyst was going into a frenzy about it.
He also predicted Wii U would fail. He also predicted Xbone would fail. He also predicted PS4 would succeed. Not even Sony know why it is succeeding.He predicted VR would fail again.
>>333032941
*3D glasses / screen popping effect I should clarify if that isn't obvious
>>333018094
Like typical market analytic he tries to find super-innovative way of generating enormous profits but never explains how. Suit asshattery is probably the worst asshattery.
At the same time he talks about destroying geek culture, okay fancy suit guy, how are you going to do it? If Activision, EA and Ubi will completely stop pandering to the "hardcore" part of the market("hardcore" being very loosely defined, basically people who are above the level of WiiSports and mobile games) to somehow "starve them" all you'll achieve are the smaller guys like Cyanide, Nordic Games or whatever entering now-vacant market niche, did he forgot all his economics knowledge when said it?
And then the best part of it is to lay off(I guess) the geek-staff and replace them with normal adults. Okay mister clever, how you're gonna do it without raising wages above the lowest possible wage you can pay to programmer? Because believe me or not, video game devs earn shit-all and he knows it very well. Even then there's a question whether you'd be able to get enough non-geeky devs on board for a studio that has 120 of them and still get people who actually work instead of slacking-off and curing their hangover in work.
>>333032717
No shit he "predicted" it, the rule is that the cheapest product always wins. It says a lot more about all the other analysts who failed to account for the one common rule that drives the entire American economy.
>>333032941
Those are literally safe as fuck predictions that even I could have made
>>333032717
No one gives a shit. This is 4chan. Why are you talking about business analysts here?
>>333033104
Forget could, those are all my predictions.
>>333033059
>No shit he "predicted" it, the rule is that the cheapest product always wins
The Gamecube didn't win, and it was the cheapest.
>It says a lot more about all the other analysts who failed to account for the one common rule that drives the entire American economy.
Every. Single. Analyst. Predicted. PS3. Would. Win
Every. Single. One.
Find me another analyst from 2006 or earlier that said the Wii would win the console war other than Sean Malstrom. Find just one.
I think he also said that the DS would beat the PSP when all the business analysts were saying the opposite.
>>333018094
tl;dr This is why you we have all of this shitty GAMER GEAR crap everywhere. Because you faggots keep jizzing over terrible multiplayer games that don't even have an ounce of immersive quality. As amusing as it is to make fun of CoD kiddies, CS:GO is hardly any better with its similar autistic focus on pointless mechanics and the same can be said of every other retarded esports bullshit. Dota, LoL, Starcraft, whatever the fuck it is, the "hardcore" players in these games don't actually play video games. They're just adrenaline addicts waiting for their next hit of Pavlovian cheering, as if being explicitly told YOU WIN is in any way meaningful.
Unsurprisingly, that low hanging fruit is the basis of all this pathetic marketing. BUY THIS GAMING MOUSE WITH 1000000xDPI TO WIN! BUY THIS MECHANICAL KEYBOARD TO WIN HARDER! BUY THIS GAMING MONITOR WITH 1MS RESPONSE TIME TO DOMINATE THE OPPOSITION!
For fucks sake, the point of a video game, and media/mediums in general, isn't to win or achieve something, it is to immerse yourself in another world, to be wholly captivated by a sense of awe and wonder at the possibility space available to you in an engaging environment.
>>333032787
>you understand that 99% of the common problem of the world are already being solved online
>>333033104
>Those are literally safe as fuck predictions
Yeah, in hindsight you retard.
It sure is a 'safe' prediction to say that the winner of 7th generation console war will come in last place in 8th generation!
>>333033203
>I don't understand competition.
shoo
>>333033308
Everyone fucking knew the WiiU was gonna be a failure and Nintendo didn't know what the fuck it was doing
Go shill your pseudo-intellectual hero somewhere else
>>333033308
Same happened during 6th-7th gen.
>>333033308
The Wii sold well because they convinced casuals it was a fun party/family device.
The Wii U sold itself with a forever alone controller.
>>333032842
>Also the aesthetics you talk about undoubtedly have implications beyond 'it looks good'.
In certain senses this is very true. In other senses, it is not, and 'it looks good' is an entirely self sufficient purpose of much art for a given, appropriate sense of 'good'.
>They are just as political and deserving of critical readings and interpretations as any post-modern artwork.
I believe that politics is important and deserves to be taken seriously. I also love art. And it is because I care about both that I am annoyed by so much of what results from people focusing excessively on the intersection of both subjects and emphasizing that above either.
Political art and art politics are fundamentally limited subjects of real but relatively minor importance. You should have enough perspective to recognize this.
Even in 2008 business analysts were still dogmatically holding onto the prospect of PS3 winning the console war.
