Nintendo Insider has the third part of its State of the Handheld Industry 5 feature up, a roundtable of journalists such as Dan "Shoe" Hsu of Electronic Gaming Monthly and Steven L. Kent, author of The Ultimate History of Video Gaming. It's pretty lengthy, but a fun read. An excerpt:
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As a journalist do you think gamers are more interested in this new generation of handhelds than previous, and why? How has your publication / reporting changed to support this growing interest? Do you think gamers will remain this interested in handhelds (if they are more than before)?
Doug Elfman, The Game Dork: I'm not sure gamers are as interested in handhelds as they used to be. When I've shown my PSP around, casual gamers haven't responded well until I forced them to watch how impressive the graphics are, and that you can see the screen in broad daylight. And then they play it, and they don't want to stop. But none of my friends has then gone out and bought one, either. Instead, they go home and play their consoles. I think people have become more in touch with their couches and TVs and their Logitech remote control hand controllers. TVs have gotten bigger and cheaper, and it's harder for people to deal with a handheld's limited screen size, especially gamers who are Gen X and older. I've written about the PSP quite a bit, and even the DS. But I definitely get more shout-outs from readers about Xbox and PS 2 games. What these handhelds are going to have to do, eventually, is project. I don't mean plugging the thing into a TV or a home theater system. I mean they're going to have to project outward onto a wall, like those old projection TVs, or else they'll remain the secret pleasure of hardcore gamers forever.
Pretty valid and to the point comments. This also is why I prefer my DS as a portable, as it has games I just can't play at home on my console...whereas the PSP....
They could easily do something similar with the DS like they did with the GBA and the GB Player. But you would have to use the DS as the controller (touch screen and all that). But it would get a little complicated with games that use one of the screens as additional playing area (like the Mario 64 mini games).
On second thought, maybe it's not such a good idea.
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That's an odd question. Now you're associating my dislike for the PSP as a problem with the entire company, which isn't the case. So to answer you, no, I don't dislike Sony.
Not an odd question, but a direct one. No inferences, no associations. Just a question.
Ah ok, well it's definitely a no. I just have problems with the PSP itself as a unit and it's direction (graphics over gameplay, more console ports, etc). But I do understand some gamers prefer the way it's taking portable gaming, it just doesn't fly with me.
Ah ok, well it's definitely a no. I just have problems with the PSP itself as a unit and it's direction (graphics over gameplay, more console ports, etc). But I do understand some gamers prefer the way it's taking portable gaming, it just doesn't fly with me.
I'm pretty much with you on that one. I've played a bit of PSP and kept my eye out on the games, but absolutely nothing that I've seen has been very fun or impressive gameplay-wise. It's got a lot of other neat multimedia capabilities, but when I buy a handheld, I'm interested in the gaming, and so far PSP just doesn't give it to me.
I just read the article and came away really frustrated. A lot of those 'journalists' don't give real responses to those questions; they give what they WANT the answers to be. They seem really out of touch with the marketplace. They don't seem to think about their responses, but rather project their own desires.
It is very frustrating to think about their own personal agenda being exposed so clearly in a Q/A session such as this and makes me wonder how much of their own reviews are biased by such agenda.
It also makes me really wonder how much the market wants these changes, be they a move to more innovative gameplay (DS) or multimedia (PSP). Maybe only game journalists are the ones craving these new directions.
Honestly, I am entirely fine with the greatness of handheld gaming staying a secret, it's nice to have a place to go where you don't have to hear the question "Do you play HAYLO?" every other person...
I do have a problem with Sony... But honestly, I'd rather have a PSP right now than my DS. But either way, here is the problem with the handheld industry: Very few people have time for it. If given the choice between playing a handheld or playing a console, I'll choose the console. So basically, I'm not going to be playing at home. Now when I'm out on campus I'm more likely to pull out my DS, but now that I have a laptop I usually just use that for entertainment instead. Most people don't even have that chance though, as they likely don't have time at their jobs, or school to use these handhelds.
As for the comment about rather being able to play games on my DS than the PSP because I can't get the games on the DS for a console... Last I checked the only game I play on my DS is Mario 64 DS. I can play that on my N64, anytime. Even if I couldn't, that's pretty irrelevant to me. A good game on a console is an even better game if I can pack it around with me. You better believe I want a portable version of Halo. But when we get crappy games on our handhelds, they are just crappy games that I can pack around with me, it doesn't matter if I can play them on my GC or not.
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I'd be interested to know how many videogame "journalists" actually studied journalism at all. My impression is that the vast majority seem to just be people who are obsessed with games and occasionally have an entertaining writing style, since the vast majority of stories I see tend to contain a lot of editorial content that isn't specifically labelled as such. The same could be said of a lot of "real" journalists, of course.
Last I checked the only game I play on my DS is Mario 64 DS. I can play that on my N64, anytime.
You should really be playing Kirby Canvas Curse. Just a friendly suggestion.
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I'd be interested to know how many videogame "journalists" actually studied journalism at all. My impression is that the vast majority seem to just be people who are obsessed with games and occasionally have an entertaining writing style, since the vast majority of stories I see tend to contain a lot of editorial content that isn't specifically labelled as such. The same could be said of a lot of "real" journalists, of course.
The truth is simply that the videogame industry doesn't need journalism in the strict sense that going to journalism school or getting a degree in it would imply, at least not for the most part. That's why I think most videogame "journalists" are actually people (like myself) who go to college for an English or Creative Writing degree and, like you said, love videogames and sometimes have an entertaining style. I don't really have a problem with that... most of the time.
Then again, assuming I do ever get my desired job writing in the game industry, I doubt I'd ever go so far as to seriously consider myself a "journalist" either. Just semantics though.
There are PSP games I'm interested in (Lumines and Wipeout), but it's not worth the money to me, at this point. The multimedia aspects don't interest me, as I have a laptop and an iPod (Dan Hsu's opinion aside, the PSP is not an iPod killer). For now I'll have to settle for Meteos. Actually, maybe I should just go home and play some more Rez.
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Originally Posted by Kefkataran
The truth is simply that the videogame industry doesn't need journalism in the strict sense that going to journalism school or getting a degree in it would imply, at least not for the most part. That's why I think most videogame "journalists" are actually people (like myself) who go to college for an English or Creative Writing degree and, like you said, love videogames and sometimes have an entertaining style. I don't really have a problem with that... most of the time.
A slight respect for fact checking would be nice. And more copyeditors.
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A slight respect for fact checking would be nice. And more copyeditors.
Well, I agree with that, of course. Those are just basics of good writing, whether it's journalism or anything else. If a writer is just making shit up in his serious, supposedly factual editorials, I'll stop reading him.
I wonder if these things will be happening in games journalism in the future.
