Mark Griffiths, Nottingham Trent University, quoted by Yahoo! News UK
Patients recovering from chemotherapy have been shown to need less painkillers if their minds are occupied by games — and the same has been shown to work on children with skin conditions.
The cognitive side effects of addictive games offer health awesomeness.
Lorne Lanning, Oddworld CEO, quoted by Polygon
“Money, means, and the ideas that figure out how to do it without getting dull and standing on a soap box, which quite frankly nobody wants to listen to, and if they do they will go to documentaries. But as we are seeing, the more audiences realize that deeper content reflecting relevant truths can be more refreshing and engaging, [the more] we see documentary films having greater successes than ever in history. This is reflective of an evolving appetite that more people want more meaningful content and want to walk away from their experiences with more lasting impressions that add ‘more value to their lives.‘”
I find it oddly coincidental that two similar arguments on the lasting power of video games were published by two of the largest video game publications on the same day. What is the catalyst?
The bulk of the indies that reach the market are more akin to the early days of gaming. There is much more experimentation; however, indie devs in this evolved market are not making games to turn a profit but express themselves through the means created by gaming forefathers, thus unintentionally shaking gamers out of an empty dark-age before it has time to swallow us whole.
I’m giddy thinking of the ideas and stories Ken Levine could tell without the pressure of sales figures. I can’t be the only one who wished BioShock Infinite were simply an exploration game rather than FPS. Alas, shooters sell. Maybe Cyan could bring him in as a consultant on Obduction?
The answer for IGN’s Mitch Dyer may lie on the Dark Side of the Moon. However, Toxic is a damn good song.
Furthermore, no game you and I are excited to play right now will continue to sell copies like A Tale of Two Cities. The majority of enjoyable games are disposable. Even the number of brands that could predictably succeed in this capacity is microscopic. Part of this comes from the brand problem, which is that every video game sequel seems to be about doing something better rather than having something to say. They don’t really add to the art — they improve on past mistakes. Games are too often too busy chasing the technology ahead of them that there’s little room (or budget) left to chase anything else — design, emotional engagement, or individuality, for instance.
“A brave and brilliant article” or “Suddenly, I feel empty”?
Chris Grant, Editor-in-Chief of Polygon, on reasons to invest in PC gaming with the launch of next-gen consoles on the horizon. An incredibly good argument for anyone who cares about art, history, preservation, media, and/or video games.
Begin video at 24:08:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8teBHQ6L8Q&feature=share&t=24m7s
The problem for me is that if we are going to consider video games as a viable, meaningful art form, we have got to stop the forced obsolescence of software every five years. It’s untenable. We can’t keep treating these things as disposable junkets that you play on your new toy and then throw out and get a new toy. These things have merit, they have value over time, they’re still important, they’re still valuable. We keep listening to two giant companies tell us that they’re not and to get a new piece of hardware that plays new games.
One of the really cool things about PC gaming is that you have the opportunity to assume some of this responsibility yourself. If your old game doesn’t work and it frustrates you, somebody’s probably hacked apart an executable that will work. Go look and see all the work people have done to get System Shock 1 to run properly because System Shock 1 is a really important game historically. Especially if you bought it in the past, which I did, being able to play it again now in the context of BioShock and in the context of Dishonored and all of these other games that have sort of been born off of that original philosophy. That’s important to me and that is meaningful.
As somebody who really feels connected to the history and chronology of games, I just got “last straw” with this new round of consoles which has seemingly, almost flippantly abandoned it’s entire history. Sony will kind of coyly say “oh… well… the power of the cloud and Gaiki will do this…” Any request for clarification on how that’s going to work is met with silence. I know Microsoft said the same thing but I don’t buy it. So for me, some it’s about that, it’s about having some personal responsibility over what I’ve purchased, where it goes, what I can expect to do with my purchases, where I can give that money to and I increasingly just didn’t want to pump another 200 x $60 a pop into a closed ecosystem that was almost aggressively [pushing obsolescence].
Note: Prior to this quote, Chris fully acknowledged the difficulties around backwards-compatibility and the ability to simply plug in old consoles to play old games.
Alex Seedhouse, Nintendo Insider
Wedbush Securities estimates for NPD Group’s next sales report, indicate that the Wii U has seen an estimated 79 percent increase in sales month-over-month.
Link moves units.
