Things that make me want to headbutt everything

WolfAtTheDoor · 08-10-2009, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zero1986

Lol i sell a lot of flat-pack furniture and stuff

most customers seem to have no problem with assembling the furniture themselves but there's always that 10% that kick up a fuss and want the already assembled display models. I always charge them €10 extra for the display model and they have no problem paying up as long as it's assembled. I could put a new display model together in my sleep anyway by this stage.

The main reason for the existance of flat-packed furniture is portability. You can just walk into a shop, pick out the items you want and fit them into your car with no problems and assemble them when you go home, instead of tying a computer desk and a bedside table to the roof of your car and driving home. Most flat-packed furniture are sh!t quality anyway lol

To be perfectly honest I understand the reasoning behind flat-packed furniture for people who buy from the stores, but I ordered all of this new furniture from the catalogue and it was home delivery... there doesn't even seem to be an option anymore of whether or not you'd like your item to be assembled beforehand for an extra fee. It's like furniture manufacturers have become too lazy to even do it for more money.

And it's not that it's the hardest thing in the world to do, even though you can guarantee you'll always have a few problems with the assembly, it's that when you buy a lot of furniture in one go, as I have done with my bedroom, you need to put in a lot of time and effort to get it all set up. Over £2,000 has been spent for new furniture in this bedroom and it feels like a bit of a swizz that I have to make a lot more effort than just handing over my card details.

WolfAtTheDoor · 10-01-2009, 03:58 PM

13: Nintendo.

My earlier memory is of a Christmas morning, sitting on the living room floor, inches away from the tv screen, playing Super Mario Kart with my Dad whilst my Mom made us bacon sandwiches. The Super Nintendo played a large part in my childhood, as I grew up opposite my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. My cousins used to visit frequently and we all used to play the SNES religiously. There was hours of fun to be had there, just sitting around of a Saturday morning taking it in turns to complete Super Mario World.

So I can sort of see what Nintendo was thinking. The Wii appears to be entirely dependant on you continuously having a group of people to share your videogaming experience with, everyone huddled around the tv, shaking the WiiMote furiously like bumbling idiots. The social experience is what made Nintendo so great for kids in the 90's, it was always so fun to play in groups with your friends.

So what's my problem?

Well, here's the thing. It is a known fact that the way in which we entertain ourselves is constantly expanding as technology becomes more sophisticated and user-friendly. Back in the 90's, a 16-bit machine was enough to have everyone ooh-ing and aah-ing but nowadays something needs to be pretty fucking impressive for it to even get a second glance. It was inevitable that videogames, the strongest selling form of media on the market (whoda thunk it?), were going to push the boundaries moreso than anything else. So whilst Microsoft and Sony went ahead and made logical steps, graphical enhancements etc, Nintendo threw away their leftover notes from the Gamecube and started from scratch. What they came up with, was the Wii.

Again, you can't blame Nintendo for thinking outside of the box, altering the way we play the game rather than the game itself. In fact, we should commend them for such originality. But it didn't quite please everyone, did it?

Today I went to HMV to find a new game for my Wii. It has been sitting here gathering dust, occasionally seeing the light of day when I fancy a quick round or 2 of Brawl. I scowered the shelves, and found nothing but limp-looking quiz games and Sea Bass Fishing. Which was made by Sega. My childhood has been shat upon.

THIS is the problem. I have been out and I have bought ALL of Nintendo's first-party games for this system, and the ones that manage to not be remakes of Gamecube games are brilliant, as would be expected. I'm not saying that Nintendo have lost their magic touch when it comes to making superb videogames, anyone who played Super Mario Galaxy would know that they are still the most imaginative and creative developer in the world today. But what I can't stand is the feeling that Nintendo is becoming another Coca-cola. The Wii Fit, the Brain Training, the endless amount of shitty half-hearted third party support vomiting out useless ways in which to use an equally useless peripheral.

With the Super Nintendo, you didn't need to point four controllers at the screen at once to have a good time with your friends. You didn't even need four controllers. All you needed was one, plugged in, playing A Link To The Past or any one of the dozens of fantastic titles in your arsenal and the family would gather round. That's the sort of stuff that makes memories and captures imaginations. Not Cheggers Party Quiz.

VEGANGELICA · 10-02-2009, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WolfAtTheDoor

The Wii appears to be entirely dependant on you continuously having a group of people to share your videogaming experience with, everyone huddled around the tv, shaking the WiiMote furiously like bumbling idiots.
But it didn't quite please everyone, did it?

Today I went to HMV to find a new game for my Wii. I scowered the shelves, and found nothing but limp-looking quiz games and Sea Bass Fishing. Which was made by Sega. My childhood has been shat upon.

What?! You don't like the excitement and thrills of Sea Bass fishing?!

I chortled at your description of people playing Wii huddled around the TV shaking the WiiMote furiously like bumbling idiots, because that's exactly what it looks like to me when I see people playing Wii. I call the gaming system "Wii-Wii"...as in "I have to go Wee-Wee," because I think it is piss-awful, especially when it is advertised as a way to keep kids healthy because Wii "makes them move." To me it looks like Wii is just trying to teach a whole new generation the grand skill of making tiny tots suffer from Shaken Baby Syndrome.

Of course, my disdain for Wii may come from the fact that I appear to lack the "gaming" chip from my brain. I was satisfied enough with Pong when I played it centuries ago, when it first came out, but since then I have never felt the urge to play any video game.

*My* big gaming gripe is with these "Rock Band" games where you are supposed to buy all these fake instruments and fake-play other people's music...and the whole game costs about as much as a real electric guitar!!! GAA! A solid wall of some gaming store in my area is filled with boxes of "Rock Band" games. Meanwhile, a real music store not far away scrabbles for existence.

P.S. I agree with you about the dangers of doors. I once got my thumb broken by a big heavy door.

Mojo · 10-02-2009, 11:57 AM

^^ Thats actually my main problem with criticism of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Rhythm based games have been around for a long time and it seems to me like as soon as the concept is applied to a game with controllers like the Guitar Hero/Rock Band guitars people start to make comparisons to a REAL guitar. I can't count the amount of times i've heard someone say "Guitar HERO?! Why dont you just get a real guitar?"

The answers simple really, i didnt want one, i wanted a game. If there actually are people out there that see those games as some form of a substitute for a real guitar then fair enough, thats kinda sad.

Also, i never bought a Wii for kind of similar reasons as mentioned above. If i could have used the classic controllers on more games, i may have been tempted. The Wii remotes and the Wii in general can be fun for a get together but i have a feeling i would never play on it if i was by myself.

VEGANGELICA · 10-02-2009, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojopinuk

^^ Thats actually my main problem with criticism of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The answers simple really, i didnt want one, i wanted a game."

I suppose my view is based on my feeling that playing instruments *is* a game, and I feel Rock Band is not as fun of a game (and it is a pretty expensive big jumble of plastic stuff). Maybe I just don't like traditional games that are intended to be games. I don't like card games, board games, sports, etc. I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps the overt competition doesn't appeal to me? I just know I don't find them interesting and if there were suddenly no "games" on earth I would not miss them. My idea of evening torture is sitting down to play a board game, although I can force myself to do it for a child. Although bop-it is fun. I"ll keep bop-it.

BTown · 10-02-2009, 01:37 PM

I feel like the Wii is a novelty, and Nintendo knows it.. I've pretty much completely stopped playing wii due to the fact that I'm blind in one eye and have half vision in the other thus I can't be close to the screen because of this new technology.
I wish i could just sit down with a traditional controler in front of m t.v. and just chill out.
Oh wait, I have an xbox.

boo boo · 10-02-2009, 01:37 PM

I played Guitar Hero III yesterday, fun stuff, and I think the criticism of it is stupid. I hate all these metalhead douchebags who constantly whine "Why don't you just get a real guitar?".

Because I suck at guitar and always will, video games is about escapism, assh*les. Obviously Guitar Hero is not meant to be a substitute for the real thing, it's just a game and anyone who thinks they can play a real guitar because they beat Guitar Hero is clearly an idiot. It's just a simple (but hella addictive) rhythm game that anyone can pick up and have fun playing. Stop looking at it like it's some serious threat to real guitar players.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WolfAtTheDoor

13: Nintendo.

So what's my problem?

Well, here's the thing. It is a known fact that the way in which we entertain ourselves is constantly expanding as technology becomes more sophisticated and user-friendly. Back in the 90's, a 16-bit machine was enough to have everyone ooh-ing and aah-ing but nowadays something needs to be pretty fucking impressive for it to even get a second glance. It was inevitable that videogames, the strongest selling form of media on the market (whoda thunk it?), were going to push the boundaries moreso than anything else. So whilst Microsoft and Sony went ahead and made logical steps, graphical enhancements etc, Nintendo threw away their leftover notes from the Gamecube and started from scratch. What they came up with, was the Wii.

I don't think better graphics and DVD add ons is what the industry needs, it needs to take a step back and remember the age old philosophy of KISS. Keep it simple stupid.

And guess which console best lives up to that? I'll give you time to think about it.

Quote:

Again, you can't blame Nintendo for thinking outside of the box, altering the way we play the game rather than the game itself. In fact, we should commend them for such originality. But it didn't quite please everyone, did it?

I think they knew damn well that they were gonna piss off the "hardcore" gamers by going for the casual market, and I can at least understand why people are mad about that. But when people say Nintendo are selling out their fans, well that's stupid. They're not alienating anyone, they're just expanding their horizons a bit.

However Nintendo has always been the "family" game company, their targets has always been the kiddies and their attempts to appeal to casual gamers goes way back to the days of Tetris and Duck Hunt.

Nintendo are the easy target because now the gaming community consists of 20 somethings and so Sony and Microsoft like to pick on Nintendo and call them the "little kid's choice". Well, Sega did the exact same thing, so have a lot of companies who failed at the console market. Nintendo didn't need a "mature" image back then and they don't need one now.

The "casual" gaming community is not to be underestimated, they're here to stay and people need to get used to it.

Quote:

Today I went to HMV to find a new game for my Wii. It has been sitting here gathering dust, occasionally seeing the light of day when I fancy a quick round or 2 of Brawl. I scowered the shelves, and found nothing but limp-looking quiz games and Sea Bass Fishing.

While I agree that the Wii is suffering from quality control issues (which is ultimately what undid the Atari 2600) I do think there are are some very excellent games and not just the obvious ones, you just have to look harder. Yes aside from Sega and Capcom the third party support is very nonexistant.

But Nintendo has had this problem since the N64, a console that is now considered a classic even though I can't think of any good non-Nintendo published games for it off the top of my head, except for Turok, Rayman 2, Harvest Moon 64, Resident Evil 2 and a fantastic library of sports and racing games.

So since then Nintendo has relied solely on their first party games to wow gamers, and their current success is built on those games alone, with help from only a few third party games. That's pretty damn impressive that they have managed to do that for over a decade now and comes to show that not everybody cares how big a console's library is. I'd rather have a few masterpieces than thousands of games that are just rentals at best.

Casual gamers can't afford to buy games every goddamn week like the spoiled rich brats who make up the modern community of gamers, so they don't have very large libraries of games anyway. I'm like that as well. I favor quality over quantity, and I don't really care if I could fit all of the Wii's great games into a dresser drawer, I consider that enough.

Quote:

Which was made by Sega. My childhood has been shat upon.

Well then, that's Segas fault (and your fault for still buying their games), not Nintendos fault.

"Hey Sega still makes shite games, curse you Nintendo". Seriously you think it's Nintendo's job to get Sega to stop making bad games? Nintendo is just a video game company dude, they're not miracle workers.

To be fair to Sega though, Madworld looks awesome, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games looks like a fun multiplayer game.

Quote:

THIS is the problem. I have been out and I have bought ALL of Nintendo's first-party games for this system, and the ones that manage to not be remakes of Gamecube games are brilliant, as would be expected. I'm not saying that Nintendo have lost their magic touch when it comes to making superb videogames, anyone who played Super Mario Galaxy would know that they are still the most imaginative and creative developer in the world today. But what I can't stand is the feeling that Nintendo is becoming another Coca-cola. The Wii Fit, the Brain Training, the endless amount of shitty half-hearted third party support vomiting out useless ways in which to use an equally useless peripheral.

Again this is nothing new. Weird and whacky peripherals have been part of the industry since day one. NES had a LOT of them, so did the Genesis. And this is not a trend that just the Wii continues to adopt, the PS3 and 360 are just as guilty. In fact 360 is now going into the motion capture biz as well, so to say Nintendo are no longer relevant to their competitors is obviously wrong.

Quote:

With the Super Nintendo, you didn't need to point four controllers at the screen at once to have a good time with your friends.

You don't need to do that with the Wii either, there's still a handful of quality games that are compatable with the GC conroller if the wiimote is not your style. Mario Kart and Brawl for example. Some people actually do like that white piece of plastic (like me) however so it's nice that Nintendo gives options.

Quote:

You didn't even need four controllers. All you needed was one, plugged in, playing A Link To The Past or any one of the dozens of fantastic titles in your arsenal and the family would gather round. That's the sort of stuff that makes memories and captures imaginations. Not Cheggers Party Quiz.[/CENTER]

Well I do agree that single player games don't seem to be as important anymore and that is very sad, not everybody has friends to play with all the time.

But one thing I love about the Wii is how many of it's multiplayer games encourage REAL social gameplay. As opposed to the other consoles which is just...

ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE!

But I guess that's something for people who don't have any real friends.

VEGANGELICA · 10-02-2009, 03:40 PM

Oh, boo boo, boo boo...I hate to whine, but...

why don't you just get a real guitar?!

I do understand the desire for escapism, though. Hey, that's why I'm on MB! Sometimes you can find yourself by escaping. <--My deep thought for the day.

Seriously, though, I wonder how many kids (or 20-somethings) might play more instruments (or play instruments more often) if they weren't hooked up to a Wii or Guitar Hero III. Guitar Hero may just be a serious threat to real guitar players and the future of music!!! When you wake up in 2030 and find all music is dead, you'll know what happened. And then you'll headbutt everything because you'll realize I was right. Say, who made you think you suck at guitar and always will?

boo boo · 10-02-2009, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA

Oh, boo boo, boo boo...I hate to whine, but...

why don't you just get a real guitar?!

I do understand the desire for escapism, though. Hey, that's why I'm on MB! Sometimes you can find yourself by escaping. <--My deep thought for the day.

Seriously, though, I wonder how many kids (or 20-somethings) might play more instruments (or play instruments more often) if they weren't hooked up to a Wii or Guitar Hero III. Guitar Hero may just be a serious threat to real guitar players and the future of music!!! When you wake up in 2030 and find all music is dead, you'll know what happened. And then you'll headbutt everything because you'll realize I was right.

I have a real guitar.

But if I want to play Sunshine of Your Love without sounding like someone trying to start up a lawnmower. I have to play Guitar Hero.

VEGANGELICA · 10-02-2009, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boo boo

I have a real guitar.

But if I want to play Sunshine of Your Love without sounding like someone trying to start up a lawnmower. I have to play Guitar Hero.

I thought a lot of guitar playing these days *sounds* rather like a lawnmower starting up. I should think your "Sunshine" song would sound just dandy, boo boo.

10-02-2009, 11:57 AM	#44 (permalink)
Mojo Melancholia Eternally Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: England Posts: 5,018	^^ Thats actually my main problem with criticism of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Rhythm based games have been around for a long time and it seems to me like as soon as the concept is applied to a game with controllers like the Guitar Hero/Rock Band guitars people start to make comparisons to a REAL guitar. I can't count the amount of times i've heard someone say "Guitar HERO?! Why dont you just get a real guitar?" The answers simple really, i didnt want one, i wanted a game. If there actually are people out there that see those games as some form of a substitute for a real guitar then fair enough, thats kinda sad. Also, i never bought a Wii for kind of similar reasons as mentioned above. If i could have used the classic controllers on more games, i may have been tempted. The Wii remotes and the Wii in general can be fun for a get together but i have a feeling i would never play on it if i was by myself. __________________ Last.FM \| Echoes and Dust

10-02-2009, 01:37 PM	#46 (permalink)
BTown super cool Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Pittsburgh Posts: 806	I feel like the Wii is a novelty, and Nintendo knows it.. I've pretty much completely stopped playing wii due to the fact that I'm blind in one eye and have half vision in the other thus I can't be close to the screen because of this new technology. I wish i could just sit down with a traditional controler in front of m t.v. and just chill out. Oh wait, I have an xbox. __________________

10-01-2009, 03:58 PM	#42 (permalink)
WolfAtTheDoor ironing your socks Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: I'm in a rocknroll band. huh. Posts: 396	13: Nintendo. My earlier memory is of a Christmas morning, sitting on the living room floor, inches away from the tv screen, playing Super Mario Kart with my Dad whilst my Mom made us bacon sandwiches. The Super Nintendo played a large part in my childhood, as I grew up opposite my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. My cousins used to visit frequently and we all used to play the SNES religiously. There was hours of fun to be had there, just sitting around of a Saturday morning taking it in turns to complete Super Mario World. So I can sort of see what Nintendo was thinking. The Wii appears to be entirely dependant on you continuously having a group of people to share your videogaming experience with, everyone huddled around the tv, shaking the WiiMote furiously like bumbling idiots. The social experience is what made Nintendo so great for kids in the 90's, it was always so fun to play in groups with your friends. So what's my problem? Well, here's the thing. It is a known fact that the way in which we entertain ourselves is constantly expanding as technology becomes more sophisticated and user-friendly. Back in the 90's, a 16-bit machine was enough to have everyone ooh-ing and aah-ing but nowadays something needs to be pretty fucking impressive for it to even get a second glance. It was inevitable that videogames, the strongest selling form of media on the market (whoda thunk it?), were going to push the boundaries moreso than anything else. So whilst Microsoft and Sony went ahead and made logical steps, graphical enhancements etc, Nintendo threw away their leftover notes from the Gamecube and started from scratch. What they came up with, was the Wii. Again, you can't blame Nintendo for thinking outside of the box, altering the way we play the game rather than the game itself. In fact, we should commend them for such originality. But it didn't quite please everyone, did it? Today I went to HMV to find a new game for my Wii. It has been sitting here gathering dust, occasionally seeing the light of day when I fancy a quick round or 2 of Brawl. I scowered the shelves, and found nothing but limp-looking quiz games and Sea Bass Fishing. Which was made by Sega. My childhood has been shat upon. THIS is the problem. I have been out and I have bought ALL of Nintendo's first-party games for this system, and the ones that manage to not be remakes of Gamecube games are brilliant, as would be expected. I'm not saying that Nintendo have lost their magic touch when it comes to making superb videogames, anyone who played Super Mario Galaxy would know that they are still the most imaginative and creative developer in the world today. But what I can't stand is the feeling that Nintendo is becoming another Coca-cola. The Wii Fit, the Brain Training, the endless amount of shitty half-hearted third party support vomiting out useless ways in which to use an equally useless peripheral. With the Super Nintendo, you didn't need to point four controllers at the screen at once to have a good time with your friends. You didn't even need four controllers. All you needed was one, plugged in, playing A Link To The Past or any one of the dozens of fantastic titles in your arsenal and the family would gather round. That's the sort of stuff that makes memories and captures imaginations. Not Cheggers Party Quiz.