• 5Jun 13

  JRPGs,Nintendo And The Gaming Industry

  It is common knowledge that for a game-developing company to survive in the gaming industry, it needs various things going in its favor. It needs everything from financial backing to good titles and a decent fan following for it to work. But the sad thing is that being present in the gaming industry is far from actually being successful in it. So the question is, what apart from great minds does a company in the gaming industry need for success?

  

  The thing that sets a game-developing company on the path to success is without a single doubt, uniqueness.

  Thats the exact same reason why saying the word assassin brings to your mind Ubisoft's two most famous franchises, Assassin's Creed and to some, Prince of Persia. What comes to your mind when I say a good sandbox game? Yes indeed, the Rockstar's and Rockstar North's various creations the most prominent of which is the GTA franchise. When I talk about the simulation and racing genre, youll most probably think about Electronic Art's Sims and the Need For Speed franchise respectively. Why does the word Atari always bring back feelings of nostalgia for some? It was because for some, Atari was their childhood friend. The legacy of Atari will always remain because quite a large portion of our gaming community once believed that nothing could beat the feeling of playing on their Atari console while sipping some good hot cocoa and being all coiled up in a blanket. You know why I'm mentioning all this? It's because each of these companies have done something in the gaming industry that is still unmatchable and worth chatting over at a local diner. I'm mentioning them because they each have done something in their sphere that each and every one of us know about or have themselves witnessed.

  

  Now lets talk about the Asian gaming industry which flourished in the 1980s and 1990s but has been deteriorating in popularity ever since.

  You must be familiar with the term JPRGs which is an abbreviation for Japanese role-playing games. Quite recently, the JRPG Ni No Kuni: Wrath of The White Witch has been grabbing the attention of gamers worldwide. But like all other gaming industries, JPRG also has a history to it.

  Role playing games were very popular in North America and Europe in the 1970s with titles like Dungeons and Dragons, RuneQuest and Champions. The American gaming industry was exposed to the JRPGs in the 1980s and with titles like Wizardry RPG, Blue Forest Story and Sword World RPG, the success of JRPGs in North America was inevitable. The JRPGs not only did well in North America and Europe, but also well in their own Japanese market. JRPGs continued to flourish in the 1990s but the 21st century with itself brought the end of the golden era for the JRPGs.

  

  Hardware changed, consoles changed and so did the preference of most of the gamers. Action and adventure became the new preference. With this, the JRPGs silently got sidelined in the North American gaming industry and that continues to be the state of JRPGs even today.

  The 21st century had for obvious reasons more competition in the gaming market. The centre of gravity for many Asian game developing companies changed to North America and Europe which had a wider audience. Companies that continued to have a stronghold in Asia either went bankrupt very soon like Atari or continue to this day be criticized like Nintendo. If we all think about it, all the companies in the game industry that have a stronghold in Asia have been portrayed really badly through social media. A company like Nintendo which has a legacy of its own has been shoved aside by the critics in the Sony Vs, Microsoft battle only because most of Nintendo's loyal customers continue to this day be in Asia.

  

  Even if Nintendo brings decent hardware to the market it gets badly criticized for things like not bringing good titles to the market like Nintendo Wii U. Sony PS Vita was launched before the Nintendo Wii U and doesnt have good titles too but it hasn't been criticized as much as the Nintendo Wii U.

  Facts are never wrong. We are not only seeing Asian companies go bankrupt and critics continuously criticizing companies in the gaming industry that have a stronghold in Asia but also the negativity that surrounds the Asian gaming industry is unbearable.

  If we aren't to save the Asian market right now, we might as well lose everything that the Asian gaming market has to offer. I can't even think of living without playing one JRPG every month or two. I know damn too well that neither of the hotshots like EA, Ubisoft, 2K Games or Rockstar can ever create a magical world like we have seen in the JRPGs. We must act swiftly my dear friends, if we want to ever see the Asian gaming market show us its full potential.

  

  Im not just saying this because Im an Indian and need to see the Asian gaming industry again flourish like the 1980s but because I still remember the bitter-sweet frustration which came to me from getting stuck in the fifth stage of Gear Antique and almost pulling each and every hair out of my head until I crossed it.

  • Posted Jun 5, 2013 10:05 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 21Apr 13

  Pokemon:My Childhood Buddy

  

  I still remember the day I began my journey into the vast universe of Pokémon. I was 9 and had just got my first handheld console: the Nintendo DS. My main reason for the purchase of the DS was Mario, but a year after being exposed to Pokémon,I realized that my favourite game franchise had changed. After spending a year with Mario,I finally bought my first Pokémon game,the platinum enhanced-version of Pokémon: Diamond And Pearl.I didn't realize at the time that with the purchase,things would never be the same again.

  I had completed the game with great pleasure and there was no looking back.My 2007 and 2008 holiday season went exploring countless other Pokémon games.I didn't just play Pokémon,I lived Pokémon.

  I spread the Pokémon fever throughout my school.I remember atleast five of my classmates buying a Nintendo DS after getting the fever.We used to talk about Pokémon throughout recess.But that was only the beggining.Very soon,one of my classmate showed all of us a trading card game of Pokémon.Next thing we knew,everyone spent their recess and between-class time(some even within-class time.Don't stare at me like that!!!) playing the trading card game.Even though the trading cards were eventually banned in the school,the fever wasn't destined to stop just yet.

  Along the way,my Pokémon game-collection kept growing.Titles found their way from my wishlist to my game-collection quicker than they do nowdays(how good we are at crying our way to a purchase when we are young). Titles like Pokémon Dash,Pokémon Ranger,Pokémon Ranger:Shadows of Almia,Pokémon Emerald and Pokémon Trozei kept my love for Pokémon intact.

  

  The Pokémon fever just kept growing.I also spent a lot of money satisfying my merchandise needs.I had countless Pokémon t-shirts and wristbands.

  In 2010, I bought my PS3.With it,I dedicated less time on Pokémon games and more on other gaming titles like Call of Duty.By this time,I had also started dedicating a lot of time on playing tournaments with my Counter Strike 1.6 clan.

  I left Counter Strike 1.6 only a year later and bought myself the Nintendo 3DS with hope of switching my major attention to the various exclusive-franchises that Nintendo had to offer including my forgotten friend Pokémon.

  

  But it was not to be due to two reasons.First of all,I continued to devote most of my time with my PS3.Secondly,any attempts by me to continue on the Pokémon venture didn't give good results.I bought the Pokémon Rumble Blast and the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon:Gates To Infinity but I was unable to relate with my past Pokémon purchases.There were hundreds of new characters,there were changes in gameplay and playing a Pokémon game didn't feel the same.So I continued to devote time to my PS3 and I rarely bought and played a Pokémon game.

  I tried to watch the TV series of Pokémon but I left that too after a month or two.I switched to other games and almost completely forgot about my childhood buddy.

  So that's the tale of my childhood buddy.We occasionally meet nowdays since he's changed a lot since the school days.I really do miss the countless hours of gaming that I spent with Pokémon.All I'd want from the developers is to make the entire franchise more simpler.I'll be trying PokéPark 2:Wonders Beyond sometime this year.I do hope that we can be good friends again.Because the fact is,I never quite grew out of Pokémon.

  • Posted Apr 21, 2013 5:51 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 6Mar 13

  Rebooting A Game Franchise

  

  Maintaining a gaming franchise is a tricky thing for publishers.Publishers need to do an awful lot of thinking when establishing or evolving a gaming franchise.There are various aspects to think about when you are actually thinking about establishing a gaming franchise.Everything from a delightful concept to good graphics is necessary to actually hold a gaming franchise firm on the ground after it's release.More than anything,the 21st century brought competition in the game developing world unlike anything witnessed before.The gaming industry has evolved, and so have the games.

  

  Thats the exact same reason why saying the word assassin brings to your mind Ubisoft's two most famous franchises, Assassin's Creed and to some, Prince of Persia. What comes to your mind when I say a good sandbox game? Yes indeed, the Rockstar's and Rockstar North's various creations the most prominent of which is the GTA franchise. When I talk about the simulation and racing genre, you'll most probably think about Electronic Art's Sims and the Need For Speed franchise respectively. Why does the word JRPG always bring back feelings of nostalgia for some? It was because for some, JRPGs were their childhood friends. The legacy of JRPGs will always remain because quite a large portion of our gaming community once believed that nothing could beat the feeling of playing a JRPG while sipping some good hot cocoa and being all coiled up in a blanket. You know why I'm mentioning all this? It's because each of these games have done something in the gaming industry that is still unmatchable and worth chatting over at a local diner. I'm mentioning them because they each have done something in their sphere that each and every one of us know about or have themselves witnessed.But this isn't Alice's Wonderland, many other gaming franchises struggle for years with the sole intention of trying to make a positive impression of themselves on the gaming community's mind.

   That said,I'm not going to bore you with the same old Wikipedia facts about game rebooting.Let's try with a more realistic look at things.

  So why does a game need a reboot at the very first place?The reasons I'm presenting you here are more realistic than almost anything you'll find on the internet on the subject.

  1.)    When a game actually needs to modernize and rise above a previous thought-process related to it.A good example I can give you is of Capcom,the publisher of Devil May Cry.Now lets stop looking at the financial aspect of the Devil May Cry reboot and actually look at a reasonable reason for the reboot.

  

  My theory about the Devil May Cry reboot jazz is this- Capcom,being a Japanese game publishing company,realized that most of it's target audience lived in North America and Europe.The games were getting along just fine but what Capcom seriously needed was a shift in gravity.With a Devil May Cry reboot,Capcom basically changed it's stronghold from Asia to North America and Europe.To put it in a sentence, Capcom fulfilled it's basic purpose of a Devil May Cry reboot which was to westernize the game.Now that Capcom has the base made for a modern franchise,you can expect a lot more from Capcom in the coming days.

  2.)    We often see changes in game developing studios and game publishing companies.Not all of the studios and companies have the same mentality and idealogy.All of them have different strategies towards succeeding in the gaming market.What you'll find more and more in the coming years is change in game developing and publishing studios.Since almost no two studios are like-minded while developing a game,you'll find that the game developing studios would rather like to start a gaming franchise back from scratch rather than keep milking it.We will definitely be seeing a lot more of this in the future and you might as well expect some similar announcements coming about one of the sold THQ properties in the near future.

  

  3.)    When you've basically made a cow out of your gaming franchise by milking it far more than you should have,you know its about time to start back from scratch again.After all,not every game relates its characters with something as stupid in creation as uDraw(Exactly!!!Im talking about the Animus).We've actually seen that rebooting a gaming franchise is the best thing to do after milking a franchise for too long.The Tomb Raider and Medal Of Honor reboots were proof that even the fanboys want to see a reboot if they realize that the gaming franchise has been milked more than enough.At the rate at which we are seeing game sequels,we can expect to see a lot more milking of gaming franchises until they are finally rebooted and spared of their surviving grace.

  

  So that pretty much sums things up out here.The basic purpose of my article was to give you a more realistic inside into why a game is actually rebooted rather than filling your mind with more of the same trash and misconceptions about game rebooting.Being a big-time fan of a game is one thing,but actually realizing what's best for that gaming franchise is yet another thing altogether. 

  

  • Posted Mar 6, 2013 8:34 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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