Why video games are the ultimate entertainment medium

Within the United States alone, there are 211 million people who consider themselves gamers. These individuals regularly play video games, indulge in its culture and make it a large part of their daily lives. The types of experiences video games can offer gamers is vast and leads to many different preferences and opinions of what makes a good video game. As a passionate gamer who actively plays and discuss them with friends, I have my own opinions of what makes an excellent game. While I love that games are a fun and pleasant way to spend free time, the three reasons I love video games and consider them as a hobby is; unlike a book or film you’re able to interact with a ‘living, breathing’ world resulting in engaging and immersive storytelling, they encourage social connectivity both in the same room and online, and are a combination of many different art forms such as literature and painting. Although people who aren’t familiar with video games may not see them from this perspective and simply view them as wasting time. This misunderstanding leads to incorrect stereotyping and has unfortunately resulted in them being viewed simply as children’s entertainment and for geeky antisocial teenagers. This poor attitude towards gaming is largely a result of how relatively young video games are compared to other mediums such as books and film. But once society becomes better educated and understands the positive aspects of games, video games will become accepted in our community as the powerful medium it is.

Don’t pay attention to the stereotypes; this is not your average gamer

Any type of medium can tell a good story, but none can give the same sense of importance and interaction in quite the same way as a well crafted narrative in a video game. Whether it is a TV series, anime, book or film, you are the bystander of someone else’s story. You can’t affect the outcome in any way, shape or form. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, a story becomes much more engaging if the onlooker has a personal connection. Due to the interactive nature of video games, storytelling can take on a whole new meaning. The ability to interact with characters and environments allows the player to feel truly immersed in that particular world. Other unique qualities video games have is the option for gamers to make decisions that have an overall effect on the characters and environment around you. A great example of this is Infamous, a game were you play as Cole, a man with super powers. During the course of the narrative you are able to choose how you use these powers, for good or bad. Your decisions effect the whole world around you and even the final outcome of the game. No other medium can achieve this interaction. It is unique to video games, and that is why video games are my favorite way to lose myself in a tremendous story.

Whether you want to be a hero or villain, it’s up to you. This is your story

When it comes to stereotypes about video games, gaming causing antisocial behavior is usually at the top of the list. While spending an obsessive amount of time glued to a screen isn’t socially active, video games can quite often have the opposite effect and bring people together. Since the early days of gaming, friends have gotten together and had fun by playing games. Whether it be for unwinding after a day of work or to celebrate someone’s birthday, gaming is a great way for people to meet up, mingle and enjoy themselves. With the introduction of the Wii six years ago, games can now have a more ‘casual’ approach thanks to motion controls, allowing people who aren’t necessarily familiar with video games to pick up a controller and have fun. A feature that has been improved in the last few years is the use of the internet to chat and play other gamers across the world. You can play people in your town, country and anywhere in the world. Even though online gaming is often considered even more antisocial than regular gaming, it can be used as a means of communication between people who can’t meet each other to play games. Xbox Live, an online service for the Xbox 360 allows you to talk to and play games with gamers all over the world. Online gaming has quickly become a social portal to playing games, with friends and strangers alike. Having more people to play games with is never a bad thing. As technologies advance and developers imagine new ways to connect people through games, the social aspect of video games will only grow. With their upcoming home console the Wii U, Nintendo plans to launch an online service called Miiverse. Miiverse is essentially the gamer’s answer to Facebook. While the people on Facebook talk about a vast range of topics such as politics, movies and daily life, Miiverse aims to become the place where gamers talk games & share achievements. This will be an intuitive step in the right direction to enhancing social connectivity in video games. I enjoy playing games like Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart with friends, games that are competitive but still make us laugh together. While I don’t play games online, I look forward to using Miiverse on the Wii U later this year.

Playing video games with friends and family can be an enjoyable way to interact and have fun with one another

‘’To me games are like the ultimate art form. It’s just the ultimate medium. I mean, it’s the sum total of every expressive medium of all time made interactive. Like how is that not… It’s awesome! ’’. This is how Phil Fish, the creator of the indie hit, Fez, expresses his feelings about video games in the documentary Indie Game: The Movie. To me this is exactly how I feel about video games as an art form. Visual style, story script, music, gameplay mechanics, and levels design are some aspects borrowed from other mediums like creative art, literature and film. The art style used in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was inspired by 19th century French painter Monet, while Gravity Rush’s style was inspired by the work of Bande Dessinee comic artists. Many video game developers have turned towards artists for inspiration. The Uncharted series takes inspiration from action adventure movies such as Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones, which makes for an engaging cinematic experience. The series includes all aspects that make for a good movie. Compelling story, interesting characters and dramatic camera angles, but the difference is that it is a video game, meaning it’s interactive. This enables the player to become much more immersed in the events that take place during the game. Okami released back in 2006, is a perfect example of what stunning art direction, compelling storytelling and unique gameplay mechanics can achieve. The game is based upon Japanese folklore and the art style uses a combination of sumi-e and cel-shading techniques, resulting in a stunning Japanese canvas painting look. The protagonist is Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess in the form of a white wolf. You ‘embark’ on an adventure to vanquish evil from the land of Nippon and restore the land. The main gameplay mechanic used in Okami is the ‘Celestial Brush’ which allows Amaterasu to draw in missing objects or items used for combat. Okami is the ultimate example of what video games can achieve as an art form. A beautiful art style, compelling story, unique mechanics and interesting characters and setting make for a wonderful experience and it really shows what games can achieve when all aspects of art and gameplay are harmonious.

With a stunning visual style, compelling story and unique mechanics, Okami truly shows what video games can achieve as an interactive art form

Video games are the ultimate medium for delivering engaging narrative, social connectivity and artistic creativity. While not everyone is familiar with the benefits gaming can give them, if people keep an open mind and give them a go, they will understand why millions of people around the world love to play video games.

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Drew Agnew is a passionate gamer who also loves animals, music and sport. You can catch me here, My IGN or Twitter @iMo_Joe_. You can also find me at Another-Castle, a friendly Australian gaming forum with focus on community. 

(Also posted on My IGN and Another-Castle)

How relevant will Nintendo be in the next generation of console gaming?

Ever since their debut to video games in the early 80's, Nintendo's ideas and innovations have been used right across the gaming industry. They have introduced many of the features we know and love on today's game controller, like the left and right bumpers, analog sticks, directional pad and the four standard input buttons to the right of the controller. Although that alone is not the main reason to why they have become so successful. Nintendo is also the home to some of the most well known and unique gaming experiences ever. Franchises like Pikmin, Star Fox, Metroid, Pokemon, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda and the hugely popular Super Mario Bros, all brought something new to the gaming universe. Whether it was The Legend of Zelda which was the first game to allow you to save your progress and set off on an adventure, or Super Mario 64 which showed the industry how to use 3D graphics effectively. A lot of the innovations Nintendo brought in their games are now the standard in modern video games.

Not only did Nintendo put in place the ground work for what all console manufacturers work from but they also re-invented gaming, and put a new perspective on the way 'Wii' play games. Nintendo launched the Wii in 2006 and six years later in 2012, to spite its strange yet 'unique' name, it is on the verge of 100 million units sold worldwide making it Nintendo's most successful console ever. The key to Nintendo's recent success was a business strategy called Blue Ocean. This involves creating something unique and making it appeal to a market that has not yet been broken into. This is exactly what Nintendo did with the Wii. They created a unique gaming experience that anyone can easily learn and enjoy. While Sony and Microsoft were competing in a blood bath to sell their consoles to the same audience, Nintendo were tapping into uncharted territory. Along with fans who wanted more Nintendo exclusives, the Wii appealed to anyone who wasn't familiar with video games. Nintendo did this with motion control. Whether you were returning a ball in tennis with your 'Wiimote' or sliding down a ski slope on your balance board, the concept of the games were easy to understand and simple to grasp.

The Wii was brand new and unique idea that took the world by storm

Though, despite how much of a commercial success the Wii had been for Nintendo, it has had a slightly negative impact among the gaming community. When Nintendo shifted their sights to the new casual market, they left their hardcore fan base to concentrate on the more casual gamer. This is not to say that Nintendo didn't release any good games to cater to their fan base on the Wii, in fact, it could not be further from the truth. The Wii has some of the greatest Nintendo games ever, period. Mario Galaxy, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Metroid Prime 3 are just a few examples of the excellent games Nintendo brought to the Wii. But that is not the reason Nintendo has earned a negative name within the gaming community. A huge amount of triple A multi-platform titles from 3rd party publishers never made it to Wii. Where were Bioshock, Red Dead Redemption and Assassin's Creed? Where were Darksiders, Mass Effect and Battlefield 3? A countless amount of 3rd party content never even made it to Wii and what did make it was often a watered down version of what could be found on other consoles. There are three reasons to why Nintendo lacked 3rd party content on their system and they are - low system power, poor online capabilities and a different control scheme. Unlike Nintendo, the other two consoles on the market, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 share many attributes. Their power is about the same, their online capabilities are very similar and their controls are almost identical. This allowed 3rd party games to be easily ported between the two systems. If these games were ported to Wii, the developers would have to spend time and resources on lowering the graphics, changing the online component and working out a way for their games to be controlled by the Wiimote. All this so the same games would work on the Wii. Most developers just did not see the value of putting in the effort.

These two consoles received hundreds of 3rd party games

So here we are in 2012, where the Wii's lack of features today's video game industry considers standard, has resulted in the system seeing absolutely none of the games gamers want to play, coming out on the system. On the other hand, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are still going strong with 1st and 3rd party publishers pumping out quality games every month. It is worrying to know that the company that was once the king of video games in this odd situation. I asked Samuel Claiborn, editor at IGN.com about what he thinks about Nintendo's position in the industry and whether they will remain relevant. This is what he had to say:

‘’Nintendo will always be relevant as a software developer. It's flagship property, Super Mario has, at times, been more recognizable to kids than Mickey Mouse (see David Sheff's "Game Over"). It remains to be seen whether people will still find consoles and portable gaming devices relevant, though, and Nintendo's future as a hardware maker is questionable.’’

Claiborn believes Nintendo will always be relevant as a games developers, but questions whether they will continue to produce video game consoles.

Nintendo obviously (and thankfully) has not quit the race just yet. Last year at E3 2011, Nintendo lifted the lid on their brand new video game console called, the Wii U. Despite little change to the name, the Wii U is a very different console to the Wii. Nintendo's approach with the Wii U is to keep the casual audience they have built with Wii, but also cater to the hardcore audience they previously ignored with Wii. This is what the name Wii U represents. Wii meaning 'we', a group of people gathering around a television having fun, and U, meaning 'you' which represents the extra personal, hardcore experience. The biggest innovation you'll notice to the new system is the new controller which looks a bit like an iPad surrounded with a button layout similar to one you might find on an Xbox 360 or PS3 controller. Nintendo refer to the controller as the Wii U Gamepad, which has a lot of cool features such as a touch screen, motion controls, NFC capabilities (ability to scan objects such as toys, cards, etc) and a forward facing camera. They have displayed lot of demos showing off how the second screen and how it could be used in games to enhance gameplay. One demo that got people talking was The Legend of Zelda tech demo that showed off Link fighting a Gohma in beautiful HD.

The Wii U's new and unique controller

At the recent E3 2012, Nintendo discussed the Wii U and went into more detail about its features. What we learnt was:

•  Wii U uses Wii U Gamepads as well as a more traditional controller that resembles an Xbox 360's (good for 3rd party content).
• Nintendo is pushing online connectivity with Miiverse and game purchases with the e'Shop).
• Wii U will have a bit more power than the current Xbox 360 and PS3.
• A fair amount of 3rd party games are being ported to Wii U
• Nintendo will be supporting the console with Pikmin and Mario at launch.

Personally, this is all very good news. The three sections the Wii struggled in are being addressed by the Wii U. Its power is capable of the same highs the Xbox 360 and PS3 can achieve, meaning games can be ported to Wii U with not much hassle. Its online support is being pushed to become a main part of Wii U and offer a good service, but the best thing is its new controller. Not only can the controls match those of the other consoles, but it can offer an even better experience. For example, a game like Call of Duty could use the screen on the controller as a map to see where team mates are, spot enemies, point out care packages, etc. That is a feature the Xbox 360 and the PS3 can not offer with their 'boring' normal controllers.

It is hard to judge whether Nintendo will be relevant in the next generation of video game consoles. We don't know what what Microsoft and Sony are going to do with their next consoles after the Xbox 360 and PS3. But Nintendo with their well known Wii brand, highly respected franchises and features that reach out for the more hardcore gamer while maintaining a casual approach; Nintendo should be able to replicate the huge success of the Wii while remaining relevant in this industry.

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Drew Agnew is a passionate gamer who loves everything the video game universe has to offer. Be sure to give him a shout on MiiVerse once the Wii U launches November 30th!

(Also posted on My IGN and Another-Castle)