It's Nintendo! And they're winning me back!

The Game Room
101

Poppycock. Hogwash. Other old-timey words for “ridiculous”.

There is a list of great games on the Wii as long as my arm and not a single one of them is available on another platform (OK, the music games are also on the PS3/Xbox 360). Anyone who says the Wii isn’t for core gamers (and is only for their girlfriends) obviously doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

Besides, the Wii is more powerful than every system ever released except for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Does that make someone who only played a PS2 in 2001 not a core gamer? Does that make someone who owned an SNES, Genesis and gaming PC in 1994 not a core gamer? Does that make the inventor of Pong not a core gamer?

Come on, you all know better than to spout nonsense like that.

102

Why are you acting like this is a point in your favour, when this is the reason why we’re saying Wii gaming is separate to gaming on everything else? Apart from the music games, Call of Duty and Resident Evil, these games are practically all that is available. Compare that to how many well known games are available for at least two of the other three systems.

Yes, it does. They might have been a core gamer at the time, but they sure aren’t now.

103

Until recently I sold the bloody things, so yeah, I know what I’m talking about. There are virtually no games on the Wii in the same league as Halo or Bioshock or Mass Effect or Civilisation or Oblivion. The majority of the Wii games are for families, fitness, or parties. You can deny it all you want but that’s the reality. It’s not a hardcore gaming system, it’s not intended to be a hardcore gaming system, and that’s all there is to it.

That doesn’t make it a bad system- the Wii games are a lot of fun and no-one’s arguing that- but it’s the Coke Zero of consoles.

Yes, basically.

The guy who stopped watching movies in 1995 is no more a Cinephile than the guy who stopped gaming when the PS1 was the bees knees is a “core gamer”. Being a hardcore gamer is a commitment- you need to keep up with it, and if you don’t, you’re not a “core gamer” anymore.

104

Of course it’s a point in my favor. People who don’t own a Wii can’t play some of the best and most important games of this generation. Therefore, they’re not core gamers.

See how that works?

And there’s nothing on the PS3/Xbox 360 like Mario Kart Wii, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Boom Blix, De Blob, House of the Dead: Overkill, MadWorld, Zelda: Twilgiht Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Metroid Prime 3, No More Heroes or Punch-Out!! on the PS3 or Xbox 360.

So no, it’s not the reality. And you saying it is doesn’t make it so.

You totally misread what I wrote.

105

Wait wait wait, go back and READ the post that I responded to. His claims were:

  1. I had an Atari 2600.
  2. I had an Xbox and liked it alright.
  3. I have a Wii.
  4. I have no desire to get a 360 or PS3.

You other dudes may keep track of what everyone posts outside this thread but with that being the information available to ME he is not a “core gamer”.

Additionally it is quite possible to be a “core gamer” for a period in your life and then cease to be. Just like I USED to be a baseball card collector but am not anymore. Just because I still have 100’s of boxes of cards doesn’t mean I still collect.

106

I ask again, why? Isn’t the Wii a video game system? 'isn’t the Wii home to some of the best games this generation? What specifically makes him not a core gamer?

107

God I hate when you start with this crap.

You can’t be serious? There are games like ALL of those on the 360, they just don’t use the weak/imprecise waggle and aiming controls that the Wii does.

108

Half those games don’t use any waggle controls. The other half implement it very well. That’s why they’re the best Wii games. And really? Which PS3/Xbox 360 games are similar to these Wii games? Wouldn’t that make the Wii a “core” system?

And I’m still waiting on an explanation of why the Wii isn’t a “core” system (whatever the hell that means). If you need me I’ll be playing my Xbox 360.

109

Please don’t hold Twilight Princess up. It’s a pretty bad game.

110

Your opinion is a very minority opinion.

111

The fallacies here just burn.

First of all, it’s not as if I’m hermetically sealed off to the PS3 and 360. Two of my good friends have PS3, and 2 of my good friends have 360. I’ve played a few of their top games this week. I just don’t like them as much as what Wii has to offer. It’s one of the few instances in my life where I’m 100% sure I made the right choice between competing products, and I’d do it again and again and again if given the choice.

So was I a “core gamer” last generation when I had a “cool system,” and I’m just not one this generation because I have a “girlie system”?

I’m thinking about what games I’ve purchased for each. Over the entire 6 years I had Xbox (Christmas '01 until I got my Wii for Christmas '07) I bought:

Unreal Tournament
Sega GT 2002
KOTOR
KOTOR 2
Psychonauts
Colin McRae
Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
Battlefront
Morrowind

(Halo is one of my favorite games of all time but I never actually bought it.)

In the just over 2 years I’ve had the Wii, I’ve bought:

Sports (came with the system)
SMG
Zelda: TP
Mario Kart Wii
New SMB Wii
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario 64
Donkey Kong
Super Mario World
Wii Play
Star Tropics
River City Ransom
Mega Man IX
Contra Rebirth
Metroid
Tales of Symphonia

And very soon I’ll be buying:

SMG 2
Cave Story
Mega Man 10

I count the Virtual Console games because 1. they’re fun as hell, and 2. I bought several of those Xbox games used at similar prices during the last year I had the console.

(I’ve borrowed and rented a ton on both systems, so don’t come back with “HAW HAW, that’s all you played?” These are the ones I found to be worth buying.)

So within 2 and a half years, I’ll have bought more than twice as many Wii games than I did Xbox games in 6 years. I haven’t bought or played this many games since the SNES generation. But I’m sure I was a “core gamer” back then and I’m not now because I play a girlie system :rolleyes:. You guys have bought MS and Sony’s marketing hype hook, line, and sinker.

112

Sure, if you want to concede defeat. Anyone with any knowledge at all about critical thinking would know that that was begging the question, and thus not a valid argument.

See, you can make an argument that makes sense. It has a few flaws in the examples*, but at least it defines hardcore gamers as people who have played certain games.

I personally just define hardcore gamers as people who spend quite a lot of time playing non-party games, and continue to buy and play new games.

*Mario and Sonic are obviously available on the Wii, as are a lot of retro games.

113

The biggest flaw is that he’s deciding what’s going to be a “classic” and what’s not, instead of letting history and critical acclaim decide with the benefit of hindsight, like they did with Kane. It’s going to be pretty funny one day when he realizes that Mario Galaxy is more of a classic than most of if not every single last one of the games he’s thinking of.

114

Right, a game that’s considered “better” on its GameCube counterpart, where the motion controls don’t feel tacked on and fishing isn’t counter-intuitive. It loks like shit, it plays like shit, and if it weren’t “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” and were “Bob’s Super Adventure Game”, it wouldn’t get those scores.

Super Mario Galaxy? Really good game. Motion controls aren’t too jacked up, and it’s fun. Twilight Princess? It couldn’t be any more of an opposite.

115

I’d say that you should keep the NES and SNES games out of the equation. I wouldn’t trot out “Super Street Fighter 2” when I list the games I have or have played on the 360.

116

Why not? If you paid for it again and you’re playing it again because of a service that this generation brought about, then it’s part of this generation. I’ve downloaded a lot of those games onto my computer over the years and not spent 5 minutes playing them, even though they were free. Now that I can comfortably sit in my living room and play them with a nice console controller on my big tv (which, yes, I technically could’ve done before, but would’ve had to go out of my way), I’ve been playing the hell out of them.

117

Bolding mine.

I agree with your basic definition. However, there are 2 flaws with your argument. First, Cisco does not have to own the systems and games to experience them. Just playing and being exposed to them should count. Owning just one console if fine as long as one continues to experience games on other systems.

Second, Wii does have games that should be considered “classic” for this generation (see Justin’s post and No More Heroes 1/2). So in order for someone to be considered “hardcore”, they need exposure to BOTH the Wii and the shared experience of Xbox 360=PS3=PC. If someone only has the Xbox et al and refuses to expose themselves to the Wii (huh), they cannot be hardcore gamers.

Additionally, Wii Fit and Wii Sports are classics. They have changed the industry significantly and in ways we don’t even know about yet. Natal and Sony Move only exist because of the Wii. I’m sure many old school cinephiles bemoan Jaws and Star Wars for introducing the concept of summer blockbusters. Yet they are necessary viewing for understanding movie history. The same with the Wii motion controls. Any future generation consoles will have some type of motion controls from the very beginning. We have no idea where this will take us. Maybe in 20 years you’ll love your Natal like games for being super-responsive and immersive on the Xbox 1440. They had their start with Wii Fit and Wii Sports.

118

It muddles things. You can download them (legally) if you have the cartridges, and the Wii is just a vehicle to do so. Again, I wouldn’t point to arcade games on the 360 either when describing all the games I have for the 360. The only games that you bought for the Wii are Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, Super Mario Kart, New Mario Wii, Wii Play, and Tales of Symphonia (which is even dubious because it was rereleased on the Wii after it was released for the Game Cube). Out of 17 games that you have for the Wii, 7 are games actually designed for the Wii and released during the Wii’s lifespan.

Then again, I’m a stranger to this nostalgia gaming. I don’t understand it and can’t pretend to either.

119

I disagree, but even by your standard, you have to add Mega Man IX and Contra Rebirth, which brings me even to my Xbox purchases. Once you add SMG2, Cave Story (yes, it was redesigned for Wii), and Mega Man 10, I’ll be quite a bit ahead, and in not even half the time.

120

I’m not taking offense to it being ahead of behind the Xbox purchases, I’m just saying that I think it’s silly to talk about the games you bought for the Wii and include SNES games.

And yes, I forgot about Mega Man and didn’t know Contra Rebirth was a Wii release.