Detonation, Or Why I'll buy a Revolution.

Allow me to be clear.

I think the Nintendo Revolution, may be the stupidest product that the human mind could ever conceive. It slams face first into a wall of contradiction so massive that the only manner in which it can be related to the human perception mechanism is to imagine what being at the bottom of the Grand Fucking Canyon is like. The very operation of the device goes against the physical training that gamers have gone through in their lives; games aside the very operation of this console will be foreign to your mind. And, the better you get at it, the worse you will be at any other kind of console.

But it may be the only thing that saves the day. As insane as it sounds, the Revolution, may be the last bastion against mediocrity.

My distaste for EA is widly known. Even to people who never read this site, they are aware that EA and I are in a blood feud, and that one day I will stand victorious over the broken husk of EA. The problem stems from the business angle of game creation. Without a doubt, developing is a business, intended to make money; however it's started to fall victim to the same disease that Hollywood has been infected with. Almost any movie can get made these days if it'll make a certain margin. If it costs 10 million to make it, and it will gross 19 million (a sad showing in box office terms) then it is deemed a success, as it made the necessary amount of money. Gaming has become similar to this, pick up any Madden title, you'll see what I mean. Gaming has fallen victim to loan sharking.

The notes of this tune have been floating around for a while now, and the same refrain is sung each time: The quality of Games will be crushed beneath the Jackboot of Money. Once business becomes the focus for this, then business logic must take over, and when it does they will look at titles not as achievements in the industry, not as cutting edge stones that ripple the water of our current zeitgeist, but as another "Jason" movie, praying that it hooks enough of the demographic interested in said material to make the necessary margins.

If you haven't read it yet, perhaps you should check out Costik's E3 address in which he talks about the effect of big names like MS wringing titles out of the developers. Once fear of title failure sinks it's teeth into the minds of the bean counters, then innovation will die.

I'm not a fan of the idea "Innovation for the Sake of innovation" it's always struck me as blind way to run through the darkness, but the sad fact is that they may be the only pin-point of light in an otherwise dead universe. If the creativity of so many great studios is crushed beneath the boots of business acumen our only champion may be those poor deluded bastards whose only mandate is to make something new and exciting. It's a tough nut to crack, especially when some of the most innovative people are being stomped out for certain indiscretions they fell into (Rockstar) or going quietly and inexorably into the dying of the light (Midway). I know of no other way to keep the hope alive then to back the horse that is willing to take the chance on something new and utterly fantastic, even unto their own downfall. Tennyson was never more right then when he penned;

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.