Topic 1 of this episode is “How Many Times Can Gaming Go Mainstream?” While a person might think this would only happen once, according to the media it occurs every 10 years or so. We think this is rubbish and pull out a lot of numbers to support our theory – with the basic premise being Nintendo did it, but 20 years ago, not last fall. Also touched on are things like the N64 being considered a failure, yet selling more than either Xbox or the Gamecube.
Continuing our examination of sloppy journalism and misplaced labels, Topic 2 involves Hardcore VS Casual gamers, and when did there magically become a difference? 10 years ago a hardcore gamer might have been some dude playing Quake 8 hours a day on his PC, but now, to understand gaming press it appears to be anyone who owned a console before or other than the Wii? Granted, our journalism is just as sloppy, we just take it from another angle and look back through the history of gaming to form our opinions, rather than the last 2-3 years. Also a person often hears that hardcore gamers – despite the fact they buy the most games and systems – “don’t matter”. We take that to task as well.
Finally Topic 3 asks the question “Could another gaming crash happen?”. Our opinion on what could cause one shouldn’t surprise longtime listeners, but we felt this topic tied in well with the other 2. Enjoy and feel free to N-gage in healthy debate.
Another great podcast.
If you guys ever get into makin’ a “Band of Mario Bros” movie for real, I SO want in!
http://benheck.com/06-20-2007/the-22nd-benheckcom-podcast#comments
2 Comment »
Dire Straits is awesome!
Good stuff Benjamin and im glad you got rid of those options to digg things, they really made your site look like some amateur blog
wait i retract what I said theyre still there
Oh no you di’nt!
Whole-heartedly disagree dudex. Digg is really hot right now and so is WordPress. He has a great layout and easy to move around. How does it look amateur in any sense of the word? Maybe if he added something like a visible page counter…
I removed the DIGG things from the main page (still available when you click the story title) because I didn’t want people DIGGING every little thing posted, only the really cool or longer topics.
Awesome Podcast yet again. I’m all for Band of Mario Bros.
Ben’s podcasts are a bit too biased for me.
I understand what they mean when gaming becomes “mainstream”, when lots of previous non-gamers go out and get a console or buy a game. For example, the Sims could be one of times when PC gaming became “mainstream” from the media coverage. The Pokemon CCG made CCGs “mainstream”. Obviously the early years (Atari, NES) were very important for creating gamers but the population keeps going up and the possible market grows.
Hardcore gamers don’t matter directly in terms of sales (there just aren’t enough) but they do matter in trying new stuff and informing others of what’s good. They are the pioneers and beta testers for everyone else. I wouldn’t use gameplay hours as a sign of hardcore, because it’s unhealthy to sit for that long, or to stare at a screen for that long. Unless that’s really what it means, so hardcore that you’ll sacrifice health for games