Topic: Consumerism as experience eg: GCN2 anticipation

[lastexit]

Many of you appear more excited at the prospect of buying the new console than you are at the prospect of EXPERIENCING A NEW VIDEO GAME.

Think about that.

[Rhoq]

Good observation.

I am more intersted in quality games. I couldn't care less what system it's on. It seems that today's games focus more on visuals than game play. It's hard to find a truly stunning game in this generation that also has substance.

Not to say that everyone's anticipation of the GameCube's successor is not warranted - If you think about, the next generation of games will bring new ideas and things that weren't possible to acheive with today's (or yesterday's) machines.  

[Cooolcorey]

Well, the reason is that people want the games to be that much better, which is understandable, but when it goes to the next platform the same thing will happen and people will want it on the next platform.

Too Human as one example, I want it released on the GameCube. Not the GameCube 2. Especially if the GC2 is backward compatible. So, in other words I agree with lastexit and Rhoq.

[Ian Sane]

I think a big reason that people have been talking about the GC2 lately is mostly because there's not really much else to talk about right now.  News has been slow and for any games that are coming out we either know virtually nothing or virtually everything.  I'm excited about Soul Calibur 2 for example but I'm not really talking about it because it's already out in Japan and I already know about most of it.  Without many other topics naturally the GC2 is something that's going to be discussed.

A big part of the fun of discussing videogames is speculating about the unknown.  In my opinion the peak of this forum was the period after Spaceworld 2000 when the Cube had been revealed up to E3 2001 when the first games were shown.  During that time we knew enough to have some concrete facts about what we were talking about but we still don't everything so we could speculate.  We would speculate about rumoured games, what the next Mario and Zelda games would be like, and whether or not Nintendo would be able to catch back up to Sony.  Now that the Gamecube has been a reality for almost two years things aren't quite as interesting.  We know that Nintendo won't catch up to Sony with the Cube (or even come close), Mario and Zelda have been released and aren't quite as interesting as the fanboyish brainstorms we came up with, and we have a pretty good idea of what games are coming out and when.  The Gamecube is still interesting as a console but not so much as a topic of conversation.

The GC2 on the other hand is interesting conversation.  All of us have our opinion of what we would do if we were to design Nintendo's next console.  What sort of features would it have, what would it's promotion be like, what games would it have, etc.  We can't discuss that sort of thing with the Cube because we KNOW what Nintendo has or hasn't done and what they'll continue to do for this generation.

One thing that really made the Gamecube interesting before it came out was that it was Nintendo's chance to regain ground they lost with the N64.  The potential was what was really fun to discuss.  Well Nintendo hasn't exactly done a AAA job with the Gamecube so we look to their next console with hope that maybe THIS time they'll get it right.  I imagine most people wouldn't care so much about the GC2 if Nintendo hadn't fumbled with the Gamecube.

[Moonwatcher]

Ian Sane pretty much stole my words.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Yea the anty builds up hype and hype goes to far on some stuff when sometimes it isnt necessary. BTW i played 8 games of Soul Calibur 2 in the arcade and its great the char that caught my eye is Ivy since her sword/whip thing is cool.

[Michael8983]

A lot of people just seem to care more about Nintendo doing better than Sony and MS than they do about the actual games. I don't think it's even because they want Nintendo to do well as a company either. Nintendo is already doing well - in fact, it's doing great. It's making hundereds of millions in profits. A lot of people just want bragging rights. Video gamers can be the most immature, over-dramatic people at times as they constantly bicker about which console is doing better. The way they talk about it, it's like the console war is the third world war or something.
I think a lot of Nintendo fans, sadly, are more excited about the possibility of taunting MS and Sony fans a few years from now when Nintendo's next console might be out-selling the PS3 and XBox2 than they are about any of the MANY upcoming great Gamecube games.

[Grey Ninja]

Personally, I have been trying to make all the people yapping about Nintendo's next console to just be quiet.  

The GameCube is a perfectly fine console, and I see no reason whatsoever to change the system, other than as a marketting thing.  The GameCube can do just about anything you want with a game, and I see no reason to move to a new console just to improve the graphics.  Nevertheless, I support Nintendo's decision, as it's the smart thing to do, regardless of whether it's right or wrong.

Anyways, regarding my own ideas about what I am hyping, Nintendo's next console doesn't even have a #10 spot on that list.  It's quite near the bottom on the list of things I am looking forward to, right next to the thought of going to a doctor to get a prescription for more powerful sleeping pills.  (which I have been putting off for about 2 years, if you want to know how much I am looking forward to that)

[Termin8Anakin]

I don't really care, as long as i can play Nintendo games on Nintendo systems.
The Gamecube, to me, is Nintendo's transitional console. The shorter lifespan made sure of that, but also the fact that the 'law' has always been that a console can't rule for more than two generations. Sony has proved  that rule wrong. So even though NIntendo had a very powerful system and the name brands to back it up, they still couldn't really get the hang of the market. So all that's  left a very awesome ad campaign ALL AROUND THE WORLD, not just America. I hope Sony doesn't rule three times.

This is all related to consumerism......in that the want for the most powerful, cool thing to be part of the crowd is the thinking that dominates the mind of consumers. That is why Pokemon was milked like hell, and why Harry Potter currently rules supreme. And it is why PS2 is the most popular, and maybe to a lesser extent Xbox.

The need to be 'cool' isn't why I buy things. I wanna look decent and up-to-date, but hell.....the last piece of clothing I bought was a white shirt from Paddy's Markets early this year, and the last pair of shoes I bought was in 2001. Go figure.

I want to experience new games......and if keeping the Gamecube for another 4 years does it, then fine. It's just the pressure of the other companies. But I don't mind. A new controller designed by Miyamoto will always rule.