The Envelope, Please - January 09, 2001 - Ed McGlothlin
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. My sincere apologies for the lack of half-nude pop starlets at our awards. Don't say we didn't warn you.
The GIA's staff favorites have been revealed to the world, and no one should be overly surprised that Final Fantasy IX and Vagrant Story top the list. Square managed to release both the most polished traditional game and the most innovative game in the genre, which is especially good considering that it may all come crashing down with PlayOnline. Besides, until Square announces an RPG besides Final Fantasy X/XI, our RPG fix will have to come from last year's games instead of the this year's.
There were at least three cookie-cutter awards show on television this week, so why not enjoy ours instead?
| An obviously enlightened man |
| Double Agent,
Generally, I'm happy if an end-of-year (or decade, or console lifespan, or whatever) awards feature actually presents itself as the writer's opions and not some holy judgement which will forever write in stone that Zelda 64 is the best game of the millenuim or that SSX had the best sound effects of 2000. "Best of" awards really amount to little more than a message board opinion poll, so the judges may as well tell me why a given game is their personal favorite indead of vainly trying to convince me that Summoner objectively had better characterization and plot than Vagrant Story.
-Davon
|
I hate to keep taking shots at VGS, but they keep deserving them - they actually said in their feature that the debate between NFL2K1 and Chrono Cross for game of the year took over an hour. Over an hour! And for what, exactly, to decide a better game between a football title and an RPG? The entire charade that such awards are objective exercises of journalism instead or personal opinion is silly. My philosophy for awards is just tell me what you liked and why, preferably more than one game so I can get a feel for your general taste, then move on.
| Another obviously enlightened man |
| Double Agent,
Personally, I like the idea behind The GIA's holiday awards. I understand that games should be acknowledged for excellence in specific catergories (graphics, music, etc.), but excellence in one category does not a great game make. While some gamers can overlook, say, a lackluster story if a game is aesthetically pleasing (ahem, Crono Cross), the best games are those that seamlessly combine each element to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Vagrant Story, MY personal "Game of the Year", was recognized in very few categories in the GameSpot awards. Take the music, for example. Easily Top 5 quality. Why then, you ask, did it not place in the Top 5? Well, because Vagrant Story's soundtrack did not draw attention to itself in the game. It was not meant to be recognized as an individual achievement (although I believe it is), but it certainly heightened the quality of the game.
The GIA's awards, on the other hand, strip the game to its core. "Best Graphics, Technical" don't mean squat if the gameplay is crap, and at The GIA, games will not be recognized unless they are complete packages. This is good, people.
Eagerly awaiting the blurbs,
~BlackCracker
|
It may seem self-serving to print two letters that clearly agree with me, but they explain our rationale about as well as I could. Awards in generic technical categories are a waste of time, especially when the sites involved never even take the time to name the programmers whose achievements they are lauding. It would mean a whole lot more to see Hideo Minaba win an award for FFIX's art direction then to see something arbitrary such as "Best Graphics, Artistic." That's why the song of the year Oscar is always such a joke, as it usually honors the song outside the context of the movie it was written for and used in.
What about venerable shows such as the Academy Awards, you may ask, don't they use specific technical categories? The point behind specific awards such technical Oscars is to recognize work that would otherwise go unheralded. I'd love to see awards for best texture design or best dynamic audio, but those are beyond the reach of the casual gamer at this point. In the meantime, giving awards for each type of game is like giving awards to just comedies or dramas - best left to second-rate shows like the Golden Globes.
| The yang for our ying |
| No, Bouncer didn't debut in number one...
... but might it have something to do with the Gameboy (the console that the top two games debuted on) have a, oh, I don't know, multi-tens-of-million console base advantage on the PS2? Take a percentage of PS2 users that purchased The Bouncer against the percentage of Gamboy users that purchases Crystal or that other monster-collection game and I'm pretty sure the Bouncer percentage will be higher. I'm not defending the PS2 with this argument, only your sales logic. It's like saying the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon isn't doing as well as Cast Away when Cast Away's on about 1800 more screens, yet Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is grossing $15,000 more per screen. Yes, the overall sales aren't close, but it's a matter of availability. However I will defend the PS2 by saying that within my dorm community there are five PS2s (one of them mine), and we play them like crazy... DOA2, Madden, NHL, SSX, Tekken, Dynasty Warriors, Timesplitters... it's all in good fun. And that's why we got our machines, good fun. No amount of "Dreamcast is a better deal" or "c'mon, that's game has jaggies" will stop me from having fun. Also, just so you know, the second-most popular console after the PS2 is the 8-bit and still wonderful NES... odd, but true. We just can't go for more than a week without a bout of Bubble Bobble or classic Tetris score battles.
-- Nick Ware
|
Yawn. I knew this would come up after another staffer mentioned it, and the answer is simple - you overextend the comparison and miss the point. The biggest 3rd party in Japan (Square) cannot get one game (The Bouncer) to top sales for one whole week despite massive advertising, massive hype, a lack of competition game-wise, and the fact the game that beat it had been out for weeks already. The idea here was to compare killer apps against unproven titles, and while making it into a PS2 vs. Game Boy comparison just because I mentioned monster breeding may suit your viewpoint, the simple fact remains that PS2 software sales are pathetic in Japan despite hardware being wildly available. Arguing "availability" as reason for lackluster PS2 perofrmance in Japan is a joke.
By the way, I'm happy that your dorm enjoys their PS2 time despite calculated and repeated attempts to "stop [you] from having fun." Keep the faith, you brave rebel you.
| Quantity over quality - it's about time! |
| There isn't a finite number of possible killer apps or makers of killer apps that the box builders have to fight over. In fact, the term killer app probably can't apply to the console market, since no game, alone, will justify the expense of designing a box. The games sell maybe a couple million copies, if they're outstanding. For the gamer, a good game probably lasts 50 hours, 300 tops (if the gamer in question has an amazing attention span and nothing else worthwhile comes out). At best, consoles have a few games (usually at least 3 or 4) that inspire people to buy the box. And if they (or the second/third parties) don't continue to produce, the box goes splat. It's hard to see how any console game (or even franchise) could be called a killer app when its life on the market is 3 - 6 mos, max, and so few games even come close to that.
Which brings me to the idiotic point of commenting on all this console critiquing crap. I bought the N64 for 3 games, and since I bought it, they've produced 2 more I actually liked (I've got maybe 7 total). I bought the PSX for 0 games and the promise of a Final Fantasy. I've now got around 40 games that I don't want to sell. The Dreamcast hasn't gotten a single game I can't live without. In fact, only one even piqued my interest, and it turned out to suck (or so I hear--Shenmue). The X-Box is a total unknown, as yet, but I'm not buying it for Munch's Oddysse. I'll start to think about the GameCube for Link and Samus, and if they throw in another 5 or 6 games and fail to generally suck for at least a year, I might risk it. I bought the PS2 for Kessen and TTT and the promise of FFX and MGS2. Killer apps, killer shmapps--it all comes down to which company is the best gamble to produce the most games of a high enough quality to keep me entertained constantly. I'd rather have 40 3/5s than 5 5/5s. And that means Sony (despite any botched launch).
--DarkLao, who is amused at how readily people criticize the PS2 launch titles, when the DC's launch titles were just as bad and worse.
|
That line about 3/5s versus 5/5s is the key here, and you make a common mistake among gaming enthusiasts when analyzing the market - you forget that we are not the average consumer. According to NPD, the average consumer buys roughly 5 games a year. Let that sink in for a bit... five. They don't buy consoles based on the ratio of probable quality software to yaddy yaddy blah blah blah. They buy it because there's a game - as you phrased perfectly - that they "can't live without."
I was at my local EB one day a few years ago saw a guy amble up to the counter with an N64, 3 controllers, and a copy GoldenEye. His roommate and the resident N64 owner had just graduated and left the rest of the guys Bond-less. This happened 2 days ago, he said, and they would have been in yesterday but needed time to scrape together enough money to get all 3 controllers. Getting the idea?
It is just as important to have games that sell consoles as to have games that sell copies. Consoles are a Trojan Horse designed to get you buying software that actually produces profit margin, and the key games are those which get that console into the hands of potential software buyers. The killer app at launch is often the launch itself - the fact that new systems are new and presumably the most powerful one on the block is enough to get a few hundred thousand units out the door. Once the competition catches up with technology, though, it is the killer app software that carries the day.
Before Pokémon launched, Game Boy sales had been steadily dropping, largely because the system didn't have a killer app that was convincing new consumers to buy it. The year after Pikachu hit the streets, Game Boy sales were up 142% and rose yet another 32% the year after that. It then proceeded to destroy the Neo Geo Pocket Color, crush the Game.com, and scare the Wonderswan right back across the Pacific. As more developers pursue cross-platfform strategies, killer apps like Pokémon or Tetris will have to come from fewer sources, making them certainly more scarce.
| You guys are all the same |
| Mr McDonald [nice job - EM]
You know, the annoying thing about any fan based gaming site is how all the folk usually get along. Hear me out. You guys have common interests. It's frustrating. Basically without exception, everyone at the GIA seems to absolutely adore Chrono Cross, prefer FFVIII to FFIX, abhor Dragon Quest VII, thinks that Mitsuda should replace Uematsu, hates Xenogears, and thinks that the Lunar games are good, but not worship worthy.
These aren't personal complaints, although I disagree with the bulk of the above statements, I'm just making an observation. Actually Ed, you seem to be the only one who breaks this mold (well, Allan did too, but he's long gone sadly). I guess the common thread is that the GIA seems more pleased with innovation over a well done tried and true formula.
I love innovation more than almost anything, but I wish you would get another traditionalist to balance out your review staff. As much as I worshipped the Chrono Cross battle system, I'd have to say that my two favorite games of the year were Lunar and FFIX. Sure they broke little new ground, but embracing the tried and true with enough style and charm to be refreshing is more difficult than it appears. Why is it so hard to get an innovative game that hits you in that soft spot? I guess that by the time you nail your progressive ideas solidly, they're no longer new, since it usually takes several games to do so. Oh well.
End of the year awards: egotistical? Maybe, but I'm still curious, and I think everyone else is too. Besides, I need to find out if I was right in my assumptions, so knock yourself out.
War and Strife,
-Sickpigman
|
The idea that there is a staff set of beliefs that is consistent across everyone is definitely untrue, though certainly understandable. Let's go ahead and use your list with a few staffers, including myself. The categories again are: adore Chrono Cross, prefer FFVIII to FFIX, abhor Dragon Quest VII, thinks that Mitsuda should replace Uematsu, hates Xenogears, and thinks that the Lunar games are good, but not worship worthy.
| The GIA Opinion Chart! |
| | adore CC? | FF VIII vs. FF IX | DQ VII |
|---|
| Jeff Davis | "No" | "Liked both" | "Don't care either way" |
| Fritz Fraundorf | "Hate it" | "8 is great, but 9 is favorite RPG ever" | "Most anticipated game of 2001" |
| Zak McClendon | "Loved it, but aware of flaws" | "Prefered 8 over 9, but enjoyed both" | "Undecided" |
| Ed McGlothlin | "Until the end" | "Hell no" | "little respect but don't abhor" |
| |
| | YM vs. NU | Xenogears | Lunar - just okay? |
|---|
| Jeff Davis | "Both good but overrated" | "Loved it the first time" | "I love Lunar" |
| Fritz Fraundorf | "Hate Mitsuda; I like Shimomura the best" | "Dislike the fans but not the game" | "Agreed" |
| Zak McClendon | "Mitsuda and Uematsu fine where they are" | "Loved Xeno, but VERY aware of its flaws" | "Great games, but not a new one in 5 years" |
| Ed McGlothlin | "Best where they are" | "Loved the game" | "Yes" |
Unfortunately, because of the limited ways our opinions come out on the site, it can easily seem like we're a group of likeminded gamers when we're only likeminded in being gamers. Although just about everyone on staff except JD hates Legend of Dragoon.
| Obligatory Uematsu Letter |
|
nilhtolGcM dE,
will you please inform the pseudo-idiots that Uematsu has actually stated that he likes the midi sounds he uses and doesn't really intend to "update" them at all. I'm sure I could find the exact quote if I really tried, but such morons don't even deserve such evidence anyway.
yours cruelly,
opultaM Forward
|
It would be great if you (and anyone else) "really tried" to find the exact quote, as it would lay to rest the idea that Uematsu is completely unaware of how his music sounds. It wouldn't absolve him of responsibility for it sounding markedly worse than his colleagues, but let's not get our hopes up. I'd be very, very interested to here him explain why he prefers the sounds of MIDI over the beautiful synth found in other games.
| Be careful what you wish for... |
|
[Warning: once you get the idea, skip the rest of this letter and go straight to my response - EM]
Ed, Speaking as a guy who has a PS2 and a Dreamcast in my home, I think that the DC is massively overrated. Too many games have gotten a free ride from critics (for whatever reason). A case in point is NFL2K, which at the time of release was hailed as the best football game. Personally, I preferred Madden and Gameday because I thought NFL2K's running game inexcusably poor. Apparently, the boosters of the NFL2K series agreed with me, because when NFL2K1 came out, they complimented it for fixing the running game (a problem they hadn't acknowledge previously). Two things bothered me about NFL2K1 A) the clarity of the graphics nosedived (probably due to the fact that said graphics now needed to be transmitted over a 56K modem), B) the stat tracking was lacking in comparison to Madden. The DC incarnation of Sonic owed quite a bit to [chop chop goes Ed - how much free time does this guy think I have? - EM] Full disclosure: I cannot comment on the internet aspects of any DC game, because I do not A) have the inclination to acquire a second internet account B) want to get another phone line.
By contrast, I think many PS2 games are underrated. While many critics named NFL2K1 sports game of the year because of the online play, Madden offers something for those of us not willing to hook up our console the internet. Madden wedded a new physics system to it classic gameplay, gave players the best graphics possible (not merely the best graphics possible over a 56k modem), had a deeper franchise mode, and much more stat tracking. SSX is IMHO the best game availiable on a next-gen system. It has huge courses, tight control, deep gameplay, a colorful cast, and very impressive audiovisuals. DOA2: Hardcore is the best fighting game on the PS2 (or anywhere else). It has [hundreds of words of further pontification removed to maintain reader sanity - EM]
Last but not least, I don't think the argument that DC games are prettier or as pretty as PS2 games holds water. I believe that the original DOA2 boasted better graphics than Soul Caliber (an argument many DC owners advanced until they learned that DOA2 was not a DC exclusive) and DOA2: Hardcore boasts sharper textures, more animation, new arenas, and new costumes. While Jet Grind Radio's cell shading is nice, SSX boasts a wonderful cartoony look, puts more characters on screen, animates them more, moves them faster, and puts them in more dynamic environments. Shenmue (the game everyone points too when arguing that the PS2 has failed to eclipse the DC graphically) sacrafices a lot of interactivity to achieve its great visuals. While there are Virtua Fighteresque controls in some fights, the really cool looking fights (where guys are getting thrown through windows and suchlike) reduce the player's contribution to a few button presses (exactly like Dragon's Lair), so I consider them cinemas, not gameplay.
In conclusion, those who wonder at the failure of the Dreamcast need look no further than its library, and the same holds true for those who wonder at the success of the PS2.
- Mark
|
The true beauty of this letter is that it stands as such a convincing monmument to its own stupidity that all I have to do is trim enough to let everyone realize just how bad it is without boring them to death.
I'm also quite appreciative of this because it made me realize just how far gaming commentary has come since days when utter crap like this was most of what was written. It's been a while since such I read such a blatant and transparent example of system advocacy. While I feel bad printing it while leaving out thoughtful letters that unfortunately repeat previous points, let this be a sign to everyone who didn't sound like this that you write a good letter I just couldn't use.
This is a clear example of somebody who makes a decision and then begins seeing things in a way that will unfailingly support that decision no matter what. Everything released on the DC is fatally flawed (you should have seen the chapters on RE:CV and Space Channel 5) while everything released on the PS2 is sex on a disc (FIFA is more than a game!). Are people like this really blind to how idiotic their viewpoint is? Why isn't it enough to just say that you think the PS2 games are underrated, why do you feel the need to take shots at what somebody else likes to validate what you like? I'm a complete sucker for Nintendo games and believe they are definitely the best around, but that doesn't mean Sega or EA can't make damned fine games as well. Quit confusing your own personal opinion for absolute qualitative fact.
| Be careful what you wish for... |
|
For the End of Year awards, I'd like to see more making fun of other game sites. Heck, they're folding so fast the option will be inviable this time next year.
-AJ
|
While this letter saw my imagination run wild, I'll instead confine it to a segue into a new topic and see what your imaginations can come up with. Consider it a challenge.
Closing Comments:
Do you get what you need out gaming journalism? Do you like IGN's 5000 word rambling reviews? VGS's ridiculous history features? Daily Radar's... ugh, you get the picture. Does it irk you that mainstream media largely ignores gaming yet reviews virtually any movie? Just like gaming itself, the coverage of gaming is something still taking shape -- if you are curious about what I mean, then read this article.
-Ed McGlothlin, wondering how many D.C. area PS2 owners expected to be downloading music
|
