Malstrom: Birdmen and the Casual Fallacy
Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 3:00pm by Jack
I would be remiss if I didn’t tell everyone here that Sean Malstrom, a long time source and even contributor here at Infendo, has been busy at work updating his web site and adding fresh Nintendo content (and having a cigar and some cognac too, it would seem).
Go take a look at his latest, Birdmen and the Casual Fallacy. Don’t let the name or even the length deter you from finishing this column. Like all of his work, it’s thoroughly researched and flows pretty smoothly. Oh, and it’s 100% accurate to boot: there are no casual gamers, and anyone who uses such a label to describe you or others is either out ot lunch or trying to label a group of people because they feel threatened that their precious complex games are going to be taken away from them.
Plus, we learn there’s a whole slew — a chronicle, if you will — of new articles planned for mid-2008. Color me excited.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Linky no worky
March 24th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Linki worki, readi goodi!
March 24th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Yay, I’m opening a new tab now!
March 24th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Always gets the fanboy deep inside me excited to read Maelstrom’s prophecies. He’s got a unique vision and a great style. He could use a good copy editor, but his insight is uncanny.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Nice article, but I think it’s making some pretty wild assumptions. Why would Nintendo want to “upstream” these people, easing them away from casual games and into more complex games? Why not keep selling them high-quality casual games in the “low” tier? Why not keep selling high-quality games in every tier?
One of the article’s points was that every “tier” has it’s place, and the lower ones have been ignored lately, which is a missed opportunity. Yet the article also wants Nintendo to move people away from this group? Doesn’t make sense.
Here’s my take on it. Take a look at the Wii Wheel, Galaxy co-star mode, Brawl remote-only mode.
I don’t think they’re trying to move people “upstream” in terms of liking more complex games; I think they’re making the games accessible to more players by allowing the games to be as complex as you want them to be.
Games that appeal to multiple “tiers” of players. The whole family can play together; that sort of thing.
March 25th, 2008 at 3:09 am
dubnobass,
It is not just Nintendo that wants to move these lower tier players to a higher spot as it is many of the players themselves. Think of “Gateway drug” as said by the Bioshock developer. Back in the 80s and 90s, gamers wanted games to become deeper, more fleshed out, and so on. Those who grew up with gaming went upstream without realizing it.
With PC gaming, new gamers in love with Peggle who want something more are not going to jump into Unreal Tournament 3. It is too big of a gap hence the need for bridge games.
The ‘casual players’ who bought a DS for Nintendogs and Brain Trainer did move up to Mario Kart DS and New Super Mario Brothers and Animal Crossing DS. Because of this, there is an opportunity for games like Mario Kart Wii to be the best selling iteration in its franchise. The upstreaming allows a better market for hardcore games.
DS started rocketing up with low tier games such as Nintendogs and Brain Trainer. Yet, today, it has become the hardcore ‘dream machine’ rivaling even the SNES. Same will occur with Wii.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Just thought I’d add or at least answer in a more longwinded way to dubnobasswithmyheadman.
As mentioned in the article, you can’t mine a tier forever and expect it to hold. You can only market and sell so many games to the same person. To stay in the low ground when you could see the flood waters coming unstoppably would be equal to the spartans from 300 not raising their shields to block the arrows that blotted the sun from their view.
Third parties are only going to become better at making retarded games that can pass as overly simple games. Getting into that area is the bare minimum to compete with a low tier game. Why do you think Carnival Games sold as well as it did for the Wii? Or what about Raving Rabbids?
Nintendo’s going one step further by moving to a higher tier for the games they’re releasing, they’re bringing their converts and followers to the higher tiers and even meeting some who were already there waiting for them. As Malstrom wrote of in “The New World” and “The Rising Continent” the Blue Ocean can’t be controlled, only used and observed. Why ignore the obvious if you had the foresight to think ahead at least once?
I believe that if Nintendo didn’t aim at the higher tiers then it would be trouble for Nintendo, and it would show that Malstrom has given too much credit to the business practices and strategy of Nintendo. Nintendo would be Christopher Columbus, a person who shot for something they would be specifically successful in one manner, but found untold success in another and did not know what to do with it exactly. This place is continent is called America, it only has one small district called Columbia.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:49 am
I was thinking more on the lines of educating the masses. Nintendo used these “gateway” games to introduce gaming to the “expanded audience” as Reggie calls it. However, like gamers of old, this new audience has had their appetite of “casual” games. It is a genre that by itself cannot sustain more than a few hours of gameplay. Trust me, I’ve tried.
So, Nintendo does the next logical step. They build “bridge” games. Games that don’t take a huge leap (which would leave this new educated expanded audience), but a big enough one to entice them.
I can see these games being Mario Kart Wii, and Brawl, and Galaxy. They appeal to the “hardcore” because of their history. They appeal to the educated expanded audience because of their simplistic and addicting gameplay. It’s the best of both worlds.
Nintendo can’t simple continue to make “decent” casual games because now the expanded audience has matured. They now are gamers and want something more deep.
Well at least that’s my opinion on the article. Well done again Malstrom, look forward to the next one.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Minor correction, I meant to say (which would leave behind this new educated expanded audience)….doesn’t make much sense the way I typed it before. =)
March 25th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Thanks for the responses guys. This is probably the most interesting discussion i’ve had on this site.
I still think Nintendo will continue to sell in every tier, however. Why?
1. Some people just won’t move upstream. The kind of person who keeps buying Mario Party with every iteration. That’s never going to stop.
2. There will always be new players entering at the low tier. All new gamers need to start there.
3. There is an opportunity for unique and creative games in the low tier. Look at Endless Ocean. Games can evolve and gamers can crave new experiences even while staying in the same tier.
So, I expect to see games in every tier, and games that appeal to multiple tiers (like mario kart wii with multiple control options). Bridge games will become very common. I think every 1st party Nintendo game from now on will include control options for low tier players.
At the same time, you’re right, many gamers will go upstream. I just don’t think this theory is all inclusive.
March 25th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Well as with all of Malstrom’s articles it’s a little on the bias’D side. Obviously not all with go upstream and obviously the PS3 and Xbox360 will get their head around this “boom” in gamers….but it’s what makes the article great to discuss.
My thoughts though are enclosed in this system, and as for the Wii, I just don’t see Nintendo really many more low tier titles. The reason: the low tier games are still around….ie Wii Sports and the like. It’s not like these games got bad or went away. It’s simply put, these games aren’t appealing to the educated expanded audience. As for the “non-educated” expanded audience, they can still enjoy all of those games for the first time. Nintendo isn’t pulling those games from the shelves, it’s just they are focusing on the next tier.
Think of it this way, Nintendo creates a bunch of low tier titles to get the the low tier actively involved in gaming again. They nibble and then WOW, we want something more. So now Nintendo is moving in stride with those who were early adopters in the Wii…which last I checked was still a decent amount.
Now, the low tier titles are still around, still enticing the low tier audience, it’s just they weren’t as quick on the uptake. Nintendo is moving with the people who are growing now. Not to say that more won’t follow, it’s just that they aren’t necessarily catering to them at the current time.
Who knows, this may happen again with Nintendo’s next-gen system. I can completely see Nintendo slowly converting the mid-tier gamers (Wii’s generation) to HD graphics and even more complex controll schemes. But for now, I believe there is a new tide in Nintendo’s view.
March 26th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
One important thing I took from Malstrom’s article is that Nintendo’s initial strategy with the DS and the Wii was not to go out and ask gamers what they wanted to play (that’s what MicroSoft and Sony did). Nintendo went out and asked non-gamers why they were not playing games.
That’s how the DS and the Wii were born… Now it is a matter of taking those newborn gamers to the next tier!