Sean Malstrom, the Blue Ocean and Disruption

[Elzair]

Have any other codexers read any articles by Sean Malstrom?

I was quite amused by the what game made you a gamer post. It is wonderful to see that even codexers, who appear to loathe modern 'dumbed-down' 'mindless' games and have begrudging respect for only the most hard-core CRPG classics of a bygone era (either in terms of difficulty i.e. Pools of Darkness or in terms of depth i.e. Planescape: Torment), mostly grew interested in gaming by playing platformers and arcade-style games. It is also interesting to see that, after a casual perusal of the responses, the NES (and the Atari) appear to lead the pack just as Malstrom would predict (NOTE: scroll down to "Dawn of Classical Gaming" to read the relevant bit). It is interesting that so many codexers would start on a system that was decried by the hardcore gamers of twenty years ago.

I was wondering what other codexers thought about his vision of the future. Despite not liking non-hardcore games much, his vision of the future (NOTE: scroll down to "The Untouched Continent" to read the relevant bit) is quite appealing. For one thing, I see that gaming appears to have stagnated, and any 'improvements' come from unsustainable cost increases, so I welcome anything that could shake up this industry. Otherwise, we will likely see a crash just as bad as the one in the early '80s.

For another thing, I can see the political advantages of a massive influx of new gamers, since they would shatter the stereotype of gamers as shiftless, socially awkward, possibly violent man-children that has developed over the last fifteen years. While the stereotype does have some truth to it (except the violent part, of course), it is still a harmful stigmatization of a minority group by a society at large. Like many other stigmatized minorities, gamers were soon targeted both by opportunistic individuals, such as Jack Thompson, and opportunistic politicians, and this led to the (mostly forced) implementation of the ESRB in the US and the outright banning of certain games in other countries. However, gamers are not blocked from social acceptance by barriers as high as genetics and culture. An increase in the number of gamers (and a corresponding decrease of the gamer stereotype) would do more to prevent these abuses than any Gamer PAC ever could.

Finally, I also want to cheer on Nintendo out of spite. I mostly shifted from consoles to PCs in the 2000, which, according to Shamus Young was the Golden Age of PC gaming. Since then, I have watched all the hardcore idiots desert the platform for the bloody consoles I fled! (namely the PS and its MS clone) I tell you that it will be incredibly sweet watching them get hoisted by their own petard.

So, what does everyone think? Do the theories make sense? Are the outcomes acceptable, or even (Guardian forbid) desirable?

 

[racofer]

Missing essential poll option.

 

[Jaesun]

He sounds like an angry cunt. I'm surprised he doesn't post here.

 

[oldschool]

I think he should die in a fire. Preferably a slow burning one.

 

[Felix]

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Didn't this guy lie about how "strategic gaming" is limited only to an occasional RTS?

 

[ghostdog]

It is interesting that so many codexers would start on a system that was decried by the hardcore gamers of twenty years ago.

There weren't really any hardcore gamers 20+ years ago. Only the fact that you were a gamer made you "hardcore". It was the dawn of domestic gaming at that time. It was at the start of nineties were gaming really flourished.

The first games a 25-30 year old ever played in the late eighties were probably coin-ops and then Amstrad/Spectrum cassette, or the early Atari 2000, NES systems. It was Coin-Ops -> Spectrum -> NES -> PC for me.

Also when you're 10years old, you don't give a fuck about being "hardcore" and shit like that. It's when you get older and continue being a gamer that you start thinking about stuff like that.

 

[Elzair]

It is interesting that so many codexers would start on a system that was decried by the hardcore gamers of twenty years ago.

There weren't really any hardcore gamers 20+ years ago. Only the fact that you were a gamer made you "hardcore". It was the dawn of domestic gaming at that time. It was at the start of nineties were gaming really flourished.

As Sean Malstron noted in a post about Ultima IV's music, the hardcore were very much alive in 1985. They may not have been very large, but that is always the case; the Wii has an install base nearly as large as the other two consoles combined. It also certainly was not the dawn of domestic gaming; the Atari 2600 was popular back in the 1970s.

The first games a 25-30 year old ever played in the late eighties were probably coin-ops and then Amstrad/Spectrum cassette, or the early Atari 2000, NES systems.

I think you mean "the first games an average 25-30 year old ever played in the late eighties were probably coin-ops and then Amstrad/Spectrum cassette, or the early Atari 2000, NES systems", and you are right. Just like the most popular games are the Wii Sports/Fit/Play. No one remembers the truly hardcore, like Scorpia.

Rampant Coyote: We both started gaming in an era where text adventures were about as “in” as any other kind of computer gaming, and an entire game with “high resolution graphics” could fit in less memory than a screenshot does today. How did you get sucked into computer gaming as a hobby?

Scorpia: Well, among other things, I went to a combined Apple II/TRS-80 computer show, and came out lusting for my own machine. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the future. I planned on learning to program the Apple (my computer of choice). So of course the first thing I did was to go out and buy about $100 worth of games. The road to perdition was a short one

Few remember the classic PC games like Ultima, Wizardry, Archon, M.U.L.E, etc.

It was Coin-Ops -> Spectrum -> NES -> PC for me.

I hear 'ya. It was NES -> Genesis -> PC/N64/PSX for me, but just because we do not remember the hardcore does not mean they did not exist.

Also when you're 10years old, you don't give a fuck about being "hardcore" and shit like that. It's when you get older and continue being a gamer that you start thinking about stuff like that.

You hit the nail right on the head. THAT is why the hardcore of the 1980s are completely forgotten.

 

[Elzair]

Here is more of his (rather creepy) article.

In 1985, one of the greatest games was released. The music of this title harkens back to a time when games weren’t made by a committee. I loved the little monsters in the upper corners. Ultima IV has ended up a very unique position in the history of games with its very unusual non-antagonist and virtue route that the game chose. To the gamer of this time, these were the golden days.

With the demise of Atari, the era of consoles was over. It was the era of computers. The keyboard allowed a variety of complex inputs and the discs allowed richer and deeper games. Games like Ultima IV.

How could I possibly know that on the threshold of gaming’s glory was its demise?

How could I know that the killer would appear in some wacko Japanese console released in America also in 1985? In 1986, I first saw this mad contraption. It looked pretty dumb with the gray box and all. I picked up the gun and shot some ducks. Hmm, that was pretty cool. I turned to my friend who was showing it to me and held up the gun. “This,” I said referring to the duck game, “is the next big thing.”

“No,” he said and pointed to the other game on the cartridge. He held the strange Japanese controller in his hand (so strange that it didn’t even have a stick! Have you ever seen such a thing?). “This,” he pointed to the game that had a great big blue sky, “is the next big thing.” Idiot. That kiddy Japanese thing isn’t going to change games. It was just another Atari wannabe.

That bloody console just grew more and more popular. Then I saw MY games get ported to that monstrosity with such primitive hardware. They (actually did) neuter my Ultima during the port!

Games on the computer were thought to be so ‘sophisticated’ that even when they ported the game to the NES, they tried to show off the sophistication in commercials. Note this commercial in trying to show off Ultima III’s ‘sophistication’.

No one took children seriously then. Computers, seen as the future, could not be used too well by kids. But looking back, Nintendo treated children, not as children, but almost as equals with respect. Children did not get that respect on computers where any games for them were very kiddy or dumbed down.

Those NES games were not dumbed down. Good heavens no. They were interesting to even adults. Everyone played the NES. At least, during the first few years everyone played it.

Don’t you see? Those who knew gaming through Archon, early Ultima, and the rest are the original Hardcore. The children, which no one really catered to, which were seen as ‘crappy customers’, they were the Expanded Audience. How could I know then that the gaming of my ways would go out of style? How could I know that the Expanded Audience that was the NES would grow to become the new definition of gaming?

There were some olive leafs to the ‘core’ at the time. The NES Advantage was very popular because that was the equivalent of the ‘classic’ controller in that time. You would see commercials of games like Metroid of people playing with the NES Advantage because the stick appealed to the core then. Little children certainly didn’t play the original Metroid and most certainly couldn’t beat it.

Electronic Arts was the big hold out then. When they became licensees of the NES, it was a Big Deal back then on both the computer and Nintendo side. Each year, analysts declared it to be the last good NES year for then it would collapse for that is what video game consoles were supposed to do. But when EA signed on, that meant the NES, and consoles in general, was here to stay.

The Expanded Market’s destiny is to rule, the Core Market’s destiny is to die, this is the way of things. I, too, thought my games would last forever. But the wheel turns. Even the history of my type of games and its experiences are now forever lost in time. To the current Core Market, your games and experiences will also be forever lost in time as the Expanded Market takes over. It is the way of things.

The difference between here and now is that I could recognize this change character prior to him getting on stage. This time, I am closely watching. I missed how a little Japanese company became a massive goliath within a few short years, bigger than many computer companies. I will not miss it again.

The feeling I have with the chaos of the Core and Expanded is that I feel I have been through this conflict before. Nothing about it is surprising. The Expanded will become the new Core. The Core will slowly fade away. The new Core, those who are growing up on the Wii, will not write about the current Core. The current Core will not be remembered except in the minds of those who lived it at that period.

When I look at an Expanded Market member, say a teenage girl playing a DS, I see the new Hardcore slowly budding. Impossible you imagine? Those growing up on Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Nintendogs, and the rest will very much become as hardcore as the hardcore are today. Don’t argue; they will.

I look upon the ‘hardcore’ today as children. It is not because they can act and sound like children with whining and all (because sometimes they do). It is because, to me, the hardcore ARE children. They were children when I was playing games like Ultima IV.

When I look at a game like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, be it Final Fantasy I, IV, VI, or the others, I do not see an RPG. I see casualized games. To this day, they are not true RPGs to me. They seem a pale shadow of what real RPGs on computers were. Even something like Baldur’s Gate seems very hollow to me compared to something like Ultima.

So it should be no surprise that I have a smirk on my face when I hear the ‘children’ then now complain of ‘casualization’ of their games. The positioning of the Expanded Market into the new Core should be finalized at the end of this generation. The change is not sudden like a door shut. It is slow. And the Core will slowly fade away as will our memories of it.

Fifteen to twenty years from now, I expect a bunch of middle age women to be complaining that games are being ‘casualized’ by a new Expanded Market arising where no one expected. These “hardcore” will remember fondly about the times when games were good such as with Wii Sports or Wii Fit. And they, too, will go through the cycle as their ways fade away.

Gaming now belongs to a new generation. It is time for one audience to step aside and let the new in. Only in that way can gaming survive.

And what about the Core? They get to join their predecessors for as we once left, so too will they.

Welcome to my world, Core gamers. It is your new home. Welcome to the Void…