Written by Chris Jones (Final
Fantasy XVIII) -
March 29, 2001 - Chris Jones
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.
What? I can dream, can't I?
Don't say we didn't warn you.
The Game Boy Music title is odd enough, but it gets me thinking: what
would US culture look like if Nintendo released this kind of weirdness on
us on a regular basis? What if we got Vib Ribbon, and what if Samba de
Amigo and DDR were found in as many houses as Mario? Would we be significantly more
Japanese, or would there have been a backlash by now, turning the clock
back to the 1950s? Might make a good alternate history fanfic, or something.
Onward.
| Self-referential |
| Hey Chris,
The more popular games get, the more they will try to bring name
recognition into their marketing. It's starting now, Z.O.E. says "From the
Producer of Metal Gear Solid," perhaps MGS2 will say from the producer of
"Zone of the Enders." Maybe on the backs of the game box there will be
some credits, such as Producer, director, and head designer and so
forth.
Now that we have trailers for videogames playing in theaters, they will
probably start having title cards like "...From the creator of Super Mario
Bros....and The Legend of Zelda...comes Super Mario 6..."
It couldn't hurt to try and bring the average gamer some knowledge of the
people's names who created the games. If anything it will bring repeat
business. Joe Shmoe sees that this game was from the same guy who created
Final Fantasy and buys it on the spot.
Of course I think this would only really work with the Kojima's, and the
Miyamoto's of the industry. I think it would be sad to see something like
"From the producer of Army Men 3-D!" on a box somewhere.
Greg Spenser |
Interesting, I hadn't thought of the movie trailer angle, but if the GC Zelda is advertised in the same theaters as Lord of the Rings, it only makes sense that Miyamoto's name is mentioned with the same prominence as Peter Jackson's.
| For the elite |
| I think it has everything to do with affecting hardcore gamers, reviewers,
trade show attendees and others who are in the know, in the hopes that they
have an impact on those who aren't. Maybe it won't significantly impact game
sales, but it certainly won't hurt, eh?
There is also the fact that while Americans watch movies for the actors,
others around the globe tend to pay more attention to directors and
cinematographers. Or so I hear. So maybe the little vanity tag won't do much
in America, but will have an impact on more savvy Japanese and European
markets (if indeed they are).
--DarkLao
P.S. Watched the opening movie, snapped a few necks, was suitably impressed.
Then went back to Ring of Red. |
Another possibility is that this is something of an education process - maybe 90% of the people who buy MGS2 don't know who Hideo Kojima is, but if his name is visible enough, and the game is good enough, a lot more will know who he is the next time he releases a game. Of course, one developer doing that looks like an ego maniac, but if multiple big name developers do it then we may have an industry shift, which makes the packaging of other future PS2 games that much more interesting.
| Setting apart the best
of the best |
| For placing names from the development team on the cover - absolutely!
Konami has produced some stinkers in the past, so a mysteriously titled game
might not sell well without some clue to the producer. Its the same
reasoning behind Sid Meier's name being on Alpha Centauri, or why "8mm" was
constantly referred to as "that movie by that guy who made Se7en".
When the advantage of recognizeability is there, companies will take it,
except of course for special cases like Nintendo, where the whole idea is
that every game should be good in the first place.
As I have found out with my import GBA, for every Castlevania: Circle of the
Moon, there are several instances of "Tweety and the Magic Jewel" or "Wai
Wai Racing".
Ugh.
KZ
|
But that's not a guarantee of quality either - look at the contempt some people had for the Chrono team after Xenogears. (OK, that's not exactly a universal sentiment.) On the other hand, I don't know how many people would be excited about a PSX Tactical RPG coming out in late 2001 if it wasn't called "Hoshigami, from the developers of Final Fantasy Tactics".
| The 30-second ZOE |
| Chris-
Yeah, I know, this was yesterday's topic. Blah, blah, wanted to spend some
time gathering impressions, yadda yadda, I'm probably not the only one etc.
.. . .
Anyway, below is a rough transcript of the first several bits of
Z.O.E.
Jehuty: Would you like to play a game?
Leo: What game shall we play?
Jehuty: How about Orbital Space Station Thermonuclear Warfare?
Leo: Why don't we play chess instead?
Jehuty: Wimp
Leo: Fine. But I'm not killing anybody.
Jehuty: Wimp. Let's go. <I can't believe they let a kid pilot me! I'm worth
more money than this little punk can even dream of!>
<Insert lots of fighting that Leo agonizes over and the player thoroughly
enjoys>
Leo: Hey! My possible love interest is in trouble. Let's save her and not
kill anyone while we're at it. Well, ok maybe a couple people. But that's
it!
Celvice: Help! We must save the children.
Leo: Stay here. Jehuty and I will save you! And maybe some kids. Unless we
need some collateral damage.
Jehuty: I'm not saving any kids. You're supposed to follow orders and go
destroy the satellite dishes that are cooking the rest of the colony.
Leo/Celvice: Pleeeease?!
Jehuty: Fine. <Stupid kids>
Leo: Hey Celvice! Hop on up here. You should check out the view.
Celvice: Ok!
Jehuty: [. . .] <Stupid kids. *sigh* Here I am, Weapons of Destruction
capable of wiping out a planet and my user wants to go park of all things .
.. .> Oh by the way, heh heh, we need to pick up some of my programming and
weapons drivers which are randomly scattered about the colony 'k?
Thanks.
And so on.
I like it. The controls are very nice (although I really need to work on
ascending/descending in order to maximize my Giant Robot Fighting Skillz to
their fullest potential) and the graphics are pure eye candy. It's been
mentioned in the past that Square would occasionally throw out a game in
order to test some new gameplay elements. I think Konami may be doing a
little of that here. Whether to create a sequel which is a little more
involved or for something else entirely is unknown. But that doesn't change
the fact that this is an enjoyable game thus far. As for the MGS2 demo . .
.. well, I can't add anything more to what's already been said. Wow.
dkun
Who has nothing to say about that actual topic other than it seems to be a
natural progression from following the game publishers themselves. So sure,
it's a logical marketing step. |
I liked the WarGames ref, but didn't read further because I didn't want to spoil anything. So, um, ok.
| Another script |
| Hy Muffin Man (what can I say, I like the
nickname)
"Produced By Hideo Kojima"
Hardcore Gamer (who has, for the purpose of this experiment, been living
under a pile of 7th Saga copies for the past two years) : "Wow, Hideo
Kojima! That's the guy who did Policenauts, and Snatcher, and the Metal
Gear Series. Gee, a whole new game! And a MGS 2 demo!"
[picks up copy and walks away]
A couple of casual gamers walk up.
Casual Gamer #1 : "Z.O.E....Zoe? Is this about some girl or something?"
Casual Gamer #2 : "Just when you thought that Pokémon crap couldn't get any
worse."
CG #1 : "Hey, Pokémon is pretty nice..."
CG #2 : "But what's this written in the corner? 'Produced By Hideo Kojima'..."
CG #1 : "Who's that?"
CG#2 : "Haven't got a clue. Must be one of those Hong Kong Action Flick
guys.... like John Woo."
CG #1 : "Action flick guy, huh... works for me."
CG #2 : "Uh-huh."
[picks up a copy and walks away]
Chris, sometimes all you need is an exotic name --- believe me, I've seen
the above situation happen a lot of times (even without exotic names).
Sometimes people think that if your name is important enough to put on the
cover, or say "From the Makers of Etc.Etc." then this new game/movie/what
have you must be a good thing too, even if they have never heard of you or
your previous projects.
ˇVb! --- "World Famous in India"
|
Hmm, good point - some people are easily duped idiots, it's true. But looking at the actual package, nowhere on it does it actually say "ZOE" - that seems to be just a acronym found in the press. Metal Gear Solid is featured higher up and in slightly larger type than is Kojima's name, and interestingly enough, the 2 is in red, which makes it harder to see. In fact, it looks like the game's being sold almost entirely on the name of the original Metal Gear Solid, even more than the sequel or Kojima's name. Maybe developers aren't as highly ranked as I thought just yet.
| Made by... who cares? |
| I'll give you a prime example. How many people think that Eidos made Tomb
Raider. Of course to gamers we all know that Eidos is the publisher, Core
is the developer but the average person has no clue about such things. I
think it would be nice for independant developers to all get the credit they
deserve first before one individual person does. Granted Kojima is MG, so
in that case maybe it's better to play to a person that has been with the
series throughout it's life. Hard to identify with a person who's only been
on a Mario project for a year.
In the end I think it'll be quite a while in America before a person like
Miyamoto or Kojima have the same drawing power as Spielberg.
Y@
|
I don't think the independent developer scene is quite so desolate - take a look at Rare, for example. Even though Rare's a second party developer for Nintendo, even casual gamers are aware that Perfect Dark is a Rare game. When someone like Core allows themselves to be so closely allied to Eidos, they have to be ready to accept the consequences... and the few millions of dollars they got out of the deal should help.
| This could have been me
but for the grace of EB |
| I just want to say "Screw everyone who already has their copy of ZOE."
It's 9:12 pm on March 28, 2001, and not one single store in my area
(Los Angeles) has recieved it yet. Well, some might have, but if they
did, they were stores who told me that they had already reserved all of
their copies and I didn't bother calling them back later in the day.
What in the hell happened? It wasn't so long ago that new games (and
albums, CDs, videos, DVDs, etc.) were (almost) ALWAYS released on
Tuesdays. Like clockwork. It was just the way the entertainment media
industry worked. Release dates were scheduled on Tuesdays, and
distributors would ship them in plenty of time to make the date. In
fact, I remember when it used to be common for stores to say "We
recieved it last week, but we can't sell it until Tuesday. Sorry."
Also, I used to be able to by new games on my lunch break, because they
would arrive in stores in the morning. No more. Now they rarely hit the
shelves before 4 or 5 pm, and a day or two late to boot. Ah, I miss the
good old days. So this is what it means to grow old and bitter.
Druff
|
I remember an entirely different "good old days" than you did. Some games showed up when they were supposed to, some never showed up at all, and store employees were far more clueless about what they currently had in stock, much less was coming out when. I remember calling Toys R Us 3 times a week for over 3 months trying to track down a copy of Super Mario Bros. 3. Now I may have to preorder really hot software or hardware months in advance, but that's a lot fairer than having random people get stuff because they were in the right place in the right time.
Then again, considering how I got my PS2, maybe I shouldn't talk...
Closing Comments:
Free topic day tomorrow, catch you then. Adios.
-Chris Jones, "but what I really want to do is direct"
|
