The Lack of Minecraft Exemplifies all that is Wrong with the Wii U
In a way its reminiscent of the film industry in the ’90s, when guys like Quentin Tarantino were causing as much buzz as names like Steven Spielberg, and for a fraction of the cost. It was a time when film studios were snatching up every indie film they could get, while others like Miramax were becoming among the most successful around for being known as the home of daring new independent films that not only excited audiences with their infinite artistic possibilities, but equally thrilled their producers with insane profit margins.
Certainly, this lends itself to some games better than others. It won’t work with any sort of scripted, linear action game, but it’s not much trouble to take a chunk of an RPG or Sandbox world, string together a bare-bones quest line, and set players loose. This allows for demos of the caliber you see with emergent games, where it’s much easier to take a chunk of gameplay and give it away – Civ V’s Demo let you play with a few civilizations on small maps, for instance, while Killer Instinct gives players one free character as a taste. I’m all for anything that allows single-player, structured games to be more competitive, especially when it provides a workable alternative to awful early-access crap.
They’re unwilling to go out of their way to adapt major third party releases. They are painfully slow to adopt an indie market that could actually make good use of the Wii U’s unique capabilities. They seem, at times, to be woefully oblivious to the current state of the game industry, and determined to turn the Wii U into a time machine that will make it 1987 again. They seemingly have a hero complex that drives them to be the only ones who make a game that turns it all around.
And understanding what initially draws a person into video games is all the more difficult today. With three major consoles on the market and an avalanche of games to play, newcomers to the gaming world have ample opportunity and choice to select from. Fans of sports games are able to experience the fun of managing their favorite player rosters with Madden . Fans of Dungeon and Dragons or other tabletop games are able to get a faster-paced and more cinematic version of role-playing with The Elder Scrolls . Alternatively designed games like Minecraft , Journey and The Stanley Parable are becoming interesting to scholars who find fascination in experiencing a story from an unorthodox viewpoint. There are so many different styles and genres to choose from that, now more than ever, finding out why anyone gets into games is a question with too many answers to list.
See, Mario and Sonic weren’t mascots because they fulfilled a certain percentage of demographic requirements or someone felt they could best be easily packed into a happy meal, but rather because they clearly represented exactly what you got with the product their faces were associated with. If you bought Sega, you got Sonic games. If you went Nintendo, Mario was your man.
But there are still those who “cannot get into video games.” Maybe the person is intimidated by a controller with 25 buttons and three joysticks. Maybe the subject matter of a 2D platformer just appears juvenile or an FPS appears too violent. These failures to get involved push some people away from gaming, but as stated earlier, gaming is no longer a single formula. We’re seeing so many ways to approach game design, narrative and control in this day and age; I’m of the mind that, with such a buffet of choice, anyone can find at least one game that can hook them into gaming. Maybe it’s not in the “hardcore” form where they’ll stand outside at a midnight launch, but in a way that they can have a favorite game that they can revisit over the years, while still enjoying it.
The real issue with Nintendo that the lack of a Wii U version of Minecraft best summarizes, though, is their general stubbornness and seeming inability to provide the most obvious things that their fans want. Minecraft has sold over 30 million units to date. Most recently it sold over one million units on the PS3, despite the fact it can be run by most new millennium computers, and has been available for the 360 for some time. It’s a game that reaches across generations, and has become a bestseller on every platform its touches.
The worst aspect about them is that each bite infects the player character with a poison that eats away at their health even after they’ve run away. Getting mobbed by a pack of these in a mineshaft deep underground is a surefire way to meet a horrible death without the right preparat
Those who are exploring the Desert biomes of Minecraft Aesthetic changes may come in contact with a Husk, and treating it like a normal Zombie is a mistake. This variant may move and act like a traditional Zombie, but their immunity to sunlight makes them a bit of a nuisa
What do I mean by that? In game development terms, a “vertical slice,” is a gameplay segment of finished or near-finished quality that showcases all the planned features of a game to potential investors. At the start of a project, these are a massive sink for time and effort, since they essentially involve doing all the hard parts of finishing a game to complete one 10-minute section. Generally, they’re seen as a bad practice. However, toward the end of development, it’s a lot easier to pull assets together for a vertical slice. Of course, if you’re shopping your game around to publishers at that stage, you’re probably in a lot of trouble, but a standalone “vertical slice” can also serve as a strong alternative to a traditional demo.
