From a pure perspective of educating gamers about their hobby, I think this is one of the most informative, and most important episodes so far, as it shows how the industry found its legitimacy within the American legal system. In addition to this episode, we have the show about the industry's adolescence in "Controversy!" and so the story arc thus far is almost complete.
What I would love to see for Season 3 is the latest story about how gaming has truly moved into the mainstream. Everyone seems to be playing, from schoolkids to grandmothers. You no longer have to hide the fact that you're a gamer from the rest of society. In fact, it's now become cool to be a gamer. People from other, established forms of entertainment, like Stephen Spielberg, Peter Jackson, musicians, and even Kurt Schilling, are getting in on the industry.
Games are now poised to be the supreme media.
The question I'd like to see answered by the panel is that now gaming is mainstream, we're seeing an unprecedented amount of shovelware coming to systems, especially the Wii. With echoes of 1982-83, is the industry setting itself up for another crash?
I still can't wait for a story on the meteoric rise, and then total collapse of 3dfx. I was going through some old boards I have in a box, and came across on old Voodoo 2 board. 12 MB of on-board memory... a behemoth by the standards of the time... In the early days, Glide was the standard API and Direct X was a joke... man, how times have changed...
Wow! This was a fascinating episode, chock full of obscure information, much of which I've never heard before! Now, if you could just get the powers that be to allow you to triple the episode length...
Seriously, you guys deserve a lot of credit. This show is really hitting its stride, and becoming something I seriously look forward to every few weeks...
Great episode! The show just keeps getting better and better.
This is one topic that I find consistently upsetting. Some of the "controversial" elements of games are no worse than what you'd find in a PG-13 rated movie, yet for some reason, games are vilified to a greater extent, ignoring the fact that most games these days are targeted at adults.
Even more upsetting is the breakdown in the causation vs. correlation argument. When the tragedy at Columbine occurred, critics were quick to point out that the pair were into Doom, and this caused them to kill. What about the other 20 million people who played the game and didn't hurt a soul. That two teenage boys enjoyed playing the single most popular game of the time is hardly surprising, and hardly proof that Doom was responsible for society's ills.
I look forward to the day when lifelong gamers are beginning to take office, and the hooplah over games subsides.
Oooh! That's another great idea for the show... the fight over the NFL license. I think most would agree that NFL 2K5 was one of the finest games of football ever created, and the low-ball price made it even more of a contender. EA's response was extreme, and may have set the stage for a lack of true innovation in football games.
Terrific episode highlighting one of the best rivalries that ended with the most unlikely of alliances. It's a shame that Sega is out of the hardware business, since Sega was responsible for so many great games when they were publishing for their own hardware. Now, as a developer for other systems, they've stagnated, and significantly fallen behind the curve when it comes to game design. I mean, when is the last time we saw a good Sonic game?
One of the missed opportunities, however, was a discussion about Sega's foray into the handheld battle, with the Game Gear and the all-but-forgotten Nomad. Perhaps a topic for another episode on the Gameboy.
Please don't let it be another month before we see another installment of this series, and please, PLEASE, consider making longer episodes... 8 minutes can cover a lot of ground, but episodes closer to 30 minutes would really allow for your panel to delve more deeply into the issues, and would really transform this series from a video brochure to a full-on newsmagazine.
Keep up the great work!!!
Wow! Didn't expect to get a response directly from the top! You really do have some amazing editors if you are able to get these episodes to flow so nicely. I also realize that you're trying to appeal to a broad audience, and even though I come to the table knowing 99% of what is covered, I have nonetheless enjoyed watching the episodes, and plan to return whenever I get the notification that a new episode has been posted. I sincerely hope, however, that once the Gaming History 101 material is out of the way, that you delve into some of the interesting stories in video games, perhaps to fill the void left by G4's Game Makers (formerly Icons), or Geoff Keighley's Behind the Games series he penned up until a few years ago.
One great story would be the rise and fall of Sega as a hardware manufacturer. They hit their peak with the Genesis/Mega Drive, and the missteps with the 32X, Nomad, Sega CD, and Saturn, combined with some PR missteps, essentially doomed the excellent Dreamcast to failure, despite one of the strongest initial launches in the industry. Even more interesting is the fact that a fiasco during the Dreamcast development contributed greatly to the demise of 3dfx, once the crown jewel of the graphics hardware biz.
How about the story of the Playstation, from SNES peripheral to a defiant stand against the company that stabbed them in the back and publicly humiliated them. Their revenge almost singlehandedly destroyed Nintendo's console marketshare in less than a console generation.
How about the deal with localization? It's fascinating to see what gets changed when games cross the oceans, from the removal of blood and religious iconography in early NES games, to omissions of storylines, to changes in artwork (think the original Mega Man box artwork). That would be a fascinating, and largely novel story.
Of course, looks into once-great gaming giants that fell by the wayside would also be interesting: Ion Storm is the easiest target, and Keighley covered Trilobyte, but what about Interplay or Acclaim? They were once among the most prolific publishers in the business, and then one day they were filing for bankruptcy. How did that happen?
What about a story on whether or not PC gaming is truly dying? We see shelf space shrink, yet PC software outsells most of the consoles combined, and it's not all casual games and MMOs.
What about a story on the history of MMOs? World of Warcraft didn't happen overnight. What about a look into the genres origins, its high points (Everquest and WOW) and low points (take your pick), and others that are extraordinarily popular overseas, but get little attention here (like Lineage).
Also, a story about the success of the PC Engine and the failure of its American counterpart, the TG-16, would be fascinating.
So, anyway, I appreciate the fact that someone is listening. I am happy to see a web show with great production values, and I am excited to see where this thing goes after you've covered the basics.
Thanks for your time!
I'm sorry, but these episodes just seem soulless. The perfectly interlocking delivery shows its hand rather transparently: these panelists aren't speaking from personal knowledge so much as they are each reading snippets from a script in their own voice. The delivery really undermines the credibility of the entire panel. Moreover, what is being presented here is nothing that hasn't been covered before by countless sources. These shows are bringing absolutely no new information to the table. This is more of a book report than an investigation into gaming's history, and nothing we haven't seen before on G4 or Wikipedia.
Play Value - Mine!...Gaming and Copyright
Fantastic episode!
From a pure perspective of educating gamers about their hobby, I think this is one of the most informative, and most important episodes so far, as it shows how the industry found its legitimacy within the American legal system. In addition to this episode, we have the show about the industry's adolescence in "Controversy!" and so the story arc thus far is almost complete.
What I would love to see for Season 3 is the latest story about how gaming has truly moved into the mainstream. Everyone seems to be playing, from schoolkids to grandmothers. You no longer have to hide the fact that you're a gamer from the rest of society. In fact, it's now become cool to be a gamer. People from other, established forms of entertainment, like Stephen Spielberg, Peter Jackson, musicians, and even Kurt Schilling, are getting in on the industry.
Games are now poised to be the supreme media.
The question I'd like to see answered by the panel is that now gaming is mainstream, we're seeing an unprecedented amount of shovelware coming to systems, especially the Wii. With echoes of 1982-83, is the industry setting itself up for another crash?
Again, great episode. Worth the wait... almost...
Play Value - SEGA Dreamcast
I still can't wait for a story on the meteoric rise, and then total collapse of 3dfx. I was going through some old boards I have in a box, and came across on old Voodoo 2 board. 12 MB of on-board memory... a behemoth by the standards of the time... In the early days, Glide was the standard API and Direct X was a joke... man, how times have changed...
Play Value - Colecovision
Wow! This was a fascinating episode, chock full of obscure information, much of which I've never heard before! Now, if you could just get the powers that be to allow you to triple the episode length...
Seriously, you guys deserve a lot of credit. This show is really hitting its stride, and becoming something I seriously look forward to every few weeks...
Play Value - Controversy!
Great episode! The show just keeps getting better and better.
This is one topic that I find consistently upsetting. Some of the "controversial" elements of games are no worse than what you'd find in a PG-13 rated movie, yet for some reason, games are vilified to a greater extent, ignoring the fact that most games these days are targeted at adults.
Even more upsetting is the breakdown in the causation vs. correlation argument. When the tragedy at Columbine occurred, critics were quick to point out that the pair were into Doom, and this caused them to kill. What about the other 20 million people who played the game and didn't hurt a soul. That two teenage boys enjoyed playing the single most popular game of the time is hardly surprising, and hardly proof that Doom was responsible for society's ills.
I look forward to the day when lifelong gamers are beginning to take office, and the hooplah over games subsides.
Play Value - SEGA Vs. Nintendo
Oooh! That's another great idea for the show... the fight over the NFL license. I think most would agree that NFL 2K5 was one of the finest games of football ever created, and the low-ball price made it even more of a contender. EA's response was extreme, and may have set the stage for a lack of true innovation in football games.Play Value - SEGA Vs. Nintendo
Terrific episode highlighting one of the best rivalries that ended with the most unlikely of alliances. It's a shame that Sega is out of the hardware business, since Sega was responsible for so many great games when they were publishing for their own hardware. Now, as a developer for other systems, they've stagnated, and significantly fallen behind the curve when it comes to game design. I mean, when is the last time we saw a good Sonic game? One of the missed opportunities, however, was a discussion about Sega's foray into the handheld battle, with the Game Gear and the all-but-forgotten Nomad. Perhaps a topic for another episode on the Gameboy. Please don't let it be another month before we see another installment of this series, and please, PLEASE, consider making longer episodes... 8 minutes can cover a lot of ground, but episodes closer to 30 minutes would really allow for your panel to delve more deeply into the issues, and would really transform this series from a video brochure to a full-on newsmagazine. Keep up the great work!!!Play Value - Atari vs. Nintendo
Wow! Didn't expect to get a response directly from the top! You really do have some amazing editors if you are able to get these episodes to flow so nicely. I also realize that you're trying to appeal to a broad audience, and even though I come to the table knowing 99% of what is covered, I have nonetheless enjoyed watching the episodes, and plan to return whenever I get the notification that a new episode has been posted. I sincerely hope, however, that once the Gaming History 101 material is out of the way, that you delve into some of the interesting stories in video games, perhaps to fill the void left by G4's Game Makers (formerly Icons), or Geoff Keighley's Behind the Games series he penned up until a few years ago. One great story would be the rise and fall of Sega as a hardware manufacturer. They hit their peak with the Genesis/Mega Drive, and the missteps with the 32X, Nomad, Sega CD, and Saturn, combined with some PR missteps, essentially doomed the excellent Dreamcast to failure, despite one of the strongest initial launches in the industry. Even more interesting is the fact that a fiasco during the Dreamcast development contributed greatly to the demise of 3dfx, once the crown jewel of the graphics hardware biz. How about the story of the Playstation, from SNES peripheral to a defiant stand against the company that stabbed them in the back and publicly humiliated them. Their revenge almost singlehandedly destroyed Nintendo's console marketshare in less than a console generation. How about the deal with localization? It's fascinating to see what gets changed when games cross the oceans, from the removal of blood and religious iconography in early NES games, to omissions of storylines, to changes in artwork (think the original Mega Man box artwork). That would be a fascinating, and largely novel story. Of course, looks into once-great gaming giants that fell by the wayside would also be interesting: Ion Storm is the easiest target, and Keighley covered Trilobyte, but what about Interplay or Acclaim? They were once among the most prolific publishers in the business, and then one day they were filing for bankruptcy. How did that happen? What about a story on whether or not PC gaming is truly dying? We see shelf space shrink, yet PC software outsells most of the consoles combined, and it's not all casual games and MMOs. What about a story on the history of MMOs? World of Warcraft didn't happen overnight. What about a look into the genres origins, its high points (Everquest and WOW) and low points (take your pick), and others that are extraordinarily popular overseas, but get little attention here (like Lineage). Also, a story about the success of the PC Engine and the failure of its American counterpart, the TG-16, would be fascinating. So, anyway, I appreciate the fact that someone is listening. I am happy to see a web show with great production values, and I am excited to see where this thing goes after you've covered the basics. Thanks for your time!Play Value - Atari vs. Nintendo
I'm sorry, but these episodes just seem soulless. The perfectly interlocking delivery shows its hand rather transparently: these panelists aren't speaking from personal knowledge so much as they are each reading snippets from a script in their own voice. The delivery really undermines the credibility of the entire panel. Moreover, what is being presented here is nothing that hasn't been covered before by countless sources. These shows are bringing absolutely no new information to the table. This is more of a book report than an investigation into gaming's history, and nothing we haven't seen before on G4 or Wikipedia.