Visit the Ironworks Gaming Website Email the Webmaster Graphics Library Rules and Regulations Help Support Ironworks Forum with a Donation to Keep us Online - We rely totally on Donations from members Donation goal Meter

Ironworks Gaming Radio

Ironworks Gaming Forum

Go Back   Ironworks Gaming Forum > Ironworks Gaming Forums > General Discussion

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 05-08-2006, 12:56 AM   #1
Spirits Reborn
Anubis
 

Join Date: February 21, 2005
Location: ....
Age: 35
Posts: 2,473
Cause Spirit is here with some inside scoop on the Revolution- now called the nintendo Wii (pronounced we)..

Seems like times got their hands on the system and there's an article on it. I got it from my cousin, who got it from ussnet, who probably got it form a dude who put it online..

here it is.

Quote:

SECTION: TECHNOLOGY; Pg. 36 Vol. 167 No. 20

LENGTH: 2246 words

HEADLINE: A Game For All Ages;
Nintendo gave TIME the first look at its new gadget, which it hopes
will turn girls and even granddads into video gamers

BYLINE: Lev Grossman/Kyoto

BODY:


It is cherry-blossom time in Kyoto, Japan, and I am dancing the hula
for Shigeru Miyamoto. It's not easy to get into the hula spirit in a
hushed conference room in a restricted area of the gleaming white
global headquarters of Nintendo, with several high-ranking,
business-suited Japanese executives watching my every (undulating)
move. But I'm doing my best. I'm trying out an electronic device that
the Nintendo brass devoutly believes, or at least fervently hopes, is
the future of entertainment. Outside, drifting pink petals remind us of
the impermanence of all things.

You may not have heard of Shigeru Miyamoto, but I guarantee you, you
know his work. Miyamoto is probably the most successful video-game
designer of all time. Maybe you've heard of a little guy named Mario?
Italian plumber, likes jumping? A big angry ape by the name of ...
Donkey Kong? The Legend of Zelda? All Miyamoto. To gamers, Miyamoto is
like all four Beatles rolled into one jolly, twinkly-eyed, weak-chinned
Japanese man. At age 53, he still makes video games, but he also serves
as general manager of Nintendo's entertainment analysis and development
division. It is an honor to hula for him.

But Nintendo is no longer the global leader in games that it was during
Miyamoto's salad days. Not that it has fallen on hard times exactly,
but in the vastly profitable home-entertainment-console market,
Nintendo's GameCube sits an ignominious third, behind both Sony's
PlayStation 2 and even upstart Microsoft, which entered the market for
the first time with the Xbox only five years ago. Miyamoto and Nintendo
president Satoru Iwata are going to try to change that. But they're
going to do it in the weirdest, riskiest way you could think of.

All three machinesPlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube--are showing their
age, and a new generation of game hardware is aborning. Microsoft
launched its next-gen Xbox 360 in November of last year; Nintendo and
Sony will launch their new machines this fall. Those changeovers, which
happen every four or five years, are moments of opportunity in the
gaming industry, when the guard changes and the underdog has its day.
Nintendo--a company that is, for better or for worse, addicted to risk
taking--will attempt to steal a march on its competitors with a bizarre
wireless device that senses a player's movements and uses them to
control video games. Even more bizarre is the fact that it might work.

Video games are an unusual medium in that they carry a heavy stigma
among nongamers. Not everybody likes ballet, but most nonballet fans
don't accuse ballet of leading to violent crime and mental
backwardness. Video games aren't so lucky. There's a sharp divide
between gamers and nongamers, and the result is a market that, while
large and devoted--last year video-game software and hardware brought
in $27 billion--is also deeply stagnant. Its borders are sharply
defined, and they're not expanding.

And even within that core market, the industry is deeply troubled.
Fewer innovative games are being published, and gamers are getting
bored. Games have become so expensive to create that companies won't
risk money on fresh ideas, and the result is a plague of sequels and
movie spin-offs. "Take Tetris, for example," says Iwata, 46, a
well-dressed man who radiates good-humored intelligence. "If someone
were to take Tetris to a video-game publisher today, what would happen?
The publisher would say, 'These graphics look kind of cheap. And this
is a fun little mechanic, but you need more game modes in there. Maybe
you can throw in some CG movies to make it a little bit flashier? And
maybe we can tie it in with some kind of movie license?'" Voil=E0: a
good game ruined.

What to do? Here's Microsoft's plan for the Xbox 360: faster chips and
better online service. And here's Sony's plan for the Playstation 3:
faster chips and better online service. But Iwata thinks that with a
sufficiently innovative approach, Nintendo can reinvent gaming and in
the process turn nongamers into gamers.

"The one topic we've considered and debated at Nintendo for a very long
time is, Why do people who don't play video games not play them?" Iwata
has been asking himself, and his employees, that question for the past
five years. And what Iwata has noticed is something that most gamers
have long ago forgotten: to nongamers, video games are really hard.
Like hard as in homework. The standard video-game controller is a kind
of Siamese-twin affair, two joysticks fused together and studded with
buttons, two triggers and a four-way toggle switch called a d-pad. In a
game like Halo, players have to manipulate both joysticks
simultaneously while working both triggers and pounding half a dozen
buttons at the same time. The learning curve is steep.

That presents a problem of what engineers call interface design: How do
you make it easier for players to tell the machine what they want it to
do? "During the past five years, we were always telling them we have to
do something new, something very different," Miyamoto says (like Iwata,
he speaks through an interpreter). "And the game interface has to be
the key. Without changing the interface we could not attract
nongamers."

So they changed it. Nintendo threw away the controller-as-we-know-it
and replaced it with something that nobody in his right mind would
recognize as video-game hardware at all: a short, stubby, wireless wand
that resembles nothing so much as a TV remote control. Humble as it
looks on the outside, it's packed full of gadgetry: it's part laser
pointer and part motion sensor, so it knows where you're aiming it,
when and how fast you move it and how far it is from the TV screen.
There's a strong whiff of voodoo about it. If you want your character
on the screen to swing a sword, you just swing the controller. If you
want to aim your gun, you just aim the wand and pull the trigger.

Nintendo gave TIME the first look at its new controller--but before I
pick it up, Miyamoto suggests that I remove my jacket. That turns out
to be a good idea. The first game I try--Miyamoto walks me through it,
which to a gamer is the rough equivalent of getting to trade bons mots
with Jerry Seinfeld--is a Warioware title (Wario being Mario's shorter,
fatter evil twin). It consists of dozens of manic five-second mini
games in a row. They're geared to the Japanese gaming sensibility,
which has a zany, cartoonish, game-show bent. In one hot minute, I use
the controller to swat a fly, do squat-thrusts as a weight lifter, turn
a key in a lock, catch a fish, drive a car, saut=E9 some vegetables,
balance a broom on my outstretched hand, color in a circle and fence
with a foil. And yes, dance the hula. Since very few people outside
Nintendo have seen the new hardware, the room is watching me closely.

It's a remarkable experience. Instead of passively playing the games,
with the new controller you physically perform them. You act them out.
It's almost like theater: the fourth wall between game and player
dissolves. The sense of immersion--the illusion that you, personally,
are projected into the game world--is powerful. And there's an instant
party atmosphere in the room. One advantage of the new controller is
that it not only is fun, it looks fun. When you play with an old-style
controller, you look like a loser, a blank-eyed joystick fondler. But
when you're jumping around and shaking your hulamaker, everybody's
having a good time.

After Warioware, we play scenes from the upcoming Legend of Zelda
title, Twilight Princess, a moody, dark (by Nintendo's Disneyesque
standards) fantasy adventure. Now I'm Errol Flynn, sword fighting with
the controller, then aiming a bow and arrow, then using it as a fishing
rod, reeling in a stubborn virtual fish. The third game, and probably
the most fun, is also the simplest: tennis. The controller becomes a
racket, and I'm smacking forehands and stroking backhands. The sensors
are fine enough that you can scoop under the ball to lob it, or slice
it for spin. At the end, I don't so much put the controller down as
have it pried from my hands.

John Schappert, a senior vice president at Electronic Arts, is
overseeing a version of the venerable Madden football series for
Nintendo's new hardware. He sees the controller from the auteur's
perspective, as an opportunity but also a huge challenge. "Our
engineers now have to decipher what the user is doing," he says. "'Is
that a throw gesture? Is it a juke? A stiff arm?' Everyone knows how to
make a throwing motion, but we all have our own unique way of
throwing." But consider the upside: you're basically playing football
in your living room. "To snap the ball, you 'snap' the remote back
toward your body, which hikes the ball," Schappert says. "No buttons to
press, just gesture a hiking motion, and the ball's in the hands of the
QB. To pass the ball, you gesture a throwing motion. Hard, fast
gestures result in bullet passes. Slower, less forceful, gestures
result in loftier, slower lob passes. It truly plays like nothing
you've ever experienced."

Of course, hardware is only half the picture. The other half is the
games themselves. "We created a task force internally at Nintendo,"
Iwata says, "whose objective was to come up with games that would
attract people who don't play games." Last year they set out to design
a game for the elderly. Amazingly, they succeeded. Brain Age is a set
of electronic puzzles (including Sudoku) that purports to keep aging
minds nimble. It was released for one of Nintendo's portable platforms,
the Nintendo DS, last year. So far, it has sold 2 million copies, many
of them to people who had never bought a game before.

The real demographic grail for any game publisher is, of course, girls.
And although females have historically been largely impervious to the
charms of video gaming, Nintendo has made inroads even there, with
products so offbeat that they barely qualify as games at all. In
Nintendogs, the object is to raise and train a cute puppy.
Electroplankton can only be described as a game about farming tiny
singing microbes (surely every woman's dream?). In Animal Crossing, you
take up residence in a tiny cartoon town where you plant flowers and go
fishing and design shirts. You can visit other players' towns and trade
shirts with them. The reaction from traditional gamers tends to be
'Fine, but who do I shoot at?' But Animal Crossing is a hit, and
Nintendogs has sold 6 million copies. (Incidentally, Miyamoto points
out that Animal Crossing wasn't originally designed for girls. "Many
female schoolchildren are purchasing and enjoying it," he says,
cracking himself up. "Also ladies in their 20s. But the fact of the
matter is, this game was developed by middle-aged guys in their 30s and
40s. They just wanted to create something to play themselves.")

It has always been Nintendo's habit, maybe even its compulsion, to bet
its big franchises from time to time. That's one reason it has been
able to transform itself so completely over the years; it began life in
the late 19th century as a playing-card manufacturer. It's also the
main reason the company keeps really large reserves of cash handy, in
case things go awry. Look at the disastrous Virtual Boy, a 3-D game
system that was released in 1995 and retired, unmourned and largely
unsold, in 1996. Look at the name they come up with for their new
console. For years it was known by the predictable but perfectly
serviceable code name Revolution. It has now been rechristened the
Nintendo Wii, an unreadable, unintelligible (that daunting double-i!)
syllable. (For the record, it's pronounced "we," and the i's are
supposed to represent the new controller ... never mind.)

But the name Wii not wii-thstanding, Nintendo has grasped two important
notions that have eluded its competitors. The first is, Don't listen to
your customers. The hard-core gaming community is extremely vocal--they
blog a lot--but if Nintendo kept listening to them, hard-core gamers
would be the only audience it ever had. "[Wii] was unimaginable for
them," Iwata says. "And because it was unimaginable, they could not say
that they wanted it. If you are simply listening to requests from the
customer, you can satisfy their needs, but you can never surprise them.
Sony and Microsoft make daily-necessity kinds of things. They have to
listen to the needs of the customers and try to comply with their
requests. That kind of approach has been deeply ingrained in their
minds."

And here's the second notion: Cutting-edge design has become more
important than cutting-edge technology. There is a persistent belief
among engineers that consumers want more power and more features. That
is incorrect. Look at Apple's iPod, a device that didn't and doesn't do
much more than the competition. It won because it's easier, and sexier,
to use. In many ways, Nintendo is the Apple of the gaming world, and
it's betting its future on the same wisdom. The race is not to him who
hulas fastest, it's to him who looks hottest doing it.


BOX STORY:

Nintendo's New Crew Sometime before Christmas, there will be a whole
slate of next-generation games for the Wii. Here's a sneak peek. Total
U=2ES. Video Game Market In billions $10.4 billion Excludes PC Games

BOX STORY:

Consoles Sold in the U.S. Through March 2006 Sony PlayStation 2 -- 33.3
million Microsoft Xbox -- 14 million Nintendo GameCube -- 11 million
Microsoft Xbox 360 -- 1.2 million Source: The NPD Group PlayStation 2
launched in '00; Xbox and GameCube, '01; Xbox 360, '05

NOTES: See also additional image(s) in Table of Contents of same issue.

GRAPHIC: TWO PHOTOS: Ramona Rosales for TIME; PHOTO MAGIC WAND: It
looks like a remote, but Nintendo's new game controller senses a
player's hand movement; PHOTO: FRED PROUSER--REUTERS THE LEADER:
Satoru Iwata started as a game designer and rose to become Nintendo's
fiercely independent president; FOUR PHOTOS ZELDA In the new
installment, Twilight Princess, Link fights with sword, bow and
boomerang. Aiming is a snap: just point at the enemy and fire away
RAYMAN With the full (and rather odd) name of Rayman Raving Rabbids, it
will feature a skewed sense of humor and lots of bloodthirsty bunnies
RED STEEL Nintendo isn't known for violent game play. But in this
yakuza-themed shooter, players will live (and die) by both gun and
sword TENNIS The graphics aren't much, but the game play is hilarious.
The controller becomes your racket ; PHOTO: FRED PROUSER--REUTERS THE
LEGEND: Gaming's answer to Steven Spielberg, Shigeru Miyamoto scored
with his first creation, the arcade classic Donkey Kong; PHOTO NEW
DOG, NEW TRICKS In Nintendogs, for the portable Nintendo DS, players
train a virtual (but very cute) puppy. It's part of Nintendo's attempt
to lure female gamers

LOAD-DATE: May 7, 2006
its pretty long, but its definitly worth the read.
And whoaa.. sword..zelda.. Bow and arrow zelda...Wah. I want one too!
Spirits Reborn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-08-2006, 01:16 AM   #2
robertthebard
Xanathar Thieves Guild
 

Join Date: March 17, 2001
Location: Wichita, KS USA
Age: 60
Posts: 4,537
That could be fun...We're on the way to virtual reality, where you actually are the "hero".
__________________
To those we have lost; May your spirits fly free.
Good Music: Here.
Interesting read, one of my blogs.
robertthebard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-08-2006, 02:14 AM   #3
Harkoliar
Jack Burton
 

Join Date: March 21, 2001
Location: Philippines, but now Harbor City Sydney
Age: 40
Posts: 5,556
close so very close my dreams of virtual reality coming true.. the big downside.. you need a bloody big tv and room to move around in.
__________________

Catch me if you can..
Harkoliar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-08-2006, 01:12 PM   #4
Lord
Ma'at - Goddess of Truth & Justice
 

Join Date: June 3, 2003
Location: New York
Age: 39
Posts: 3,302
I gave my PS2 to my cousin way back, but this...
__________________
"You're a thief and a liar."

"No, I only lied about being a thief."
Lord is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-08-2006, 07:53 PM   #5
Spirits Reborn
Anubis
 

Join Date: February 21, 2005
Location: ....
Age: 35
Posts: 2,473
Quote:
Originally posted by Harkoliar:
close so very close my dreams of virtual reality coming true.. the big downside.. you need a bloody big tv and room to move around in.
well the tv, isn't a big requirement as the room space.


but still - haha.
Spirits Reborn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-08-2006, 08:14 PM   #6
Ziroc
Ironworks Webmaster

     
     Bow to the Meow

 

Join Date: January 4, 2001
Location: Lakeland, Florida
Age: 51
Posts: 11,720
Bah, Nintendo is dead. Their gamecube was a total joke. This sounds like all hype.

Oh, it'll look sexy, but can't run HD games. lol.. Na, I'll pass.

Dumb name. And a remote control for a gamepad. Someone is smoking the pipe at Nintendo me thinks.. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]
__________________
Ziroc™
Ironworks Gaming Webmaster
www.ironworksgaming.com

The Great Escape Studios - 2D/3D Modeling
www.tgeweb.com & Ziroc's Facebook Page
Visit My Flickr Photo Album
Ziroc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-08-2006, 08:36 PM   #7
robertthebard
Xanathar Thieves Guild
 

Join Date: March 17, 2001
Location: Wichita, KS USA
Age: 60
Posts: 4,537
...and they aren't sharing...
__________________
To those we have lost; May your spirits fly free.
Good Music: Here.
Interesting read, one of my blogs.
robertthebard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-08-2006, 11:19 PM   #8
Calaethis Dragonsbane
Legion Symbol
 

Join Date: May 29, 2002
Location: Somewhere in between
Age: 39
Posts: 7,029
*shrug* who cares? Nintendo suck. So do most consoles. PC all the way.
__________________
Skydracgrrl: Cruelty, thy name is Cal!
---
There are none so blind as those who refuse to see, none so deaf as those who refuse to hear, and none so smelly as those who refuse to bathe.
Calaethis Dragonsbane is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-09-2006, 12:28 AM   #9
Sir Goulum
John Locke
 

Join Date: February 7, 2002
Location: Edmonton, Canada
Age: 35
Posts: 8,985
I think I might get this 'Wii' and the PS3. Xbox 360 I've decided I'll live without.
Sir Goulum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-09-2006, 07:01 AM   #10
Hivetyrant
Jack Burton
 

Join Date: August 24, 2002
Location: Aussie now in the US of A!
Age: 37
Posts: 5,403
There was never a doubt in my mind that this console would kick ass, as with the gamecube, it was never meant to play HD games and have super powerfull CPU's, but the fact they are now allowed to play every Nintendo game ever made, along with most SEGA Megadrive, mastersystem and so on games, it's gonna be awesome.

The Xbox 360 was a nice device in theory, but I am a gadget man, and I love having the latest and greatest, and the Xbox 360 was the lamest piece of crap ever, the games don't look good, there are no good games (yet) that aren't already on Pc and look 100x better, and it uses more power than a damn fridge [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I do however have high hopes for some future titles, along with the PS3.

But the revolution won't cost an arm and a leg, and will have some truely fun titles, even without the half-assed eye candy (which is mainly the developers fault when it comes to the xbox)

[ 05-09-2006, 07:05 AM: Message edited by: Hivetyrant ]
Hivetyrant is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Nintendo Revolution ( Wii ) Chewbacca Miscellaneous Games (RPG or not) 61 02-27-2007 10:27 AM
Vive la revolution! Aragorn1 General Discussion 1 03-24-2005 07:22 PM
The Bush Revolution Timber Loftis General Discussion 50 11-24-2004 11:40 PM
activision\revolution JOE030303 Miscellaneous Games (RPG or not) 2 04-09-2004 08:31 AM
The Revolution will not be Televised. Rokenn General Conversation Archives (11/2000 - 01/2005) 0 03-21-2003 03:07 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:45 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
©2024 Ironworks Gaming & ©2024 The Great Escape Studios TM - All Rights Reserved