Flaight

Sorry to hear that mate... I don't know why suicide happens either. I have actually thought about it, long ago, just to annoy my parents. Never seriously as I was too scared to kill myself. I think, usually, we get scared off committing suicide as the power to live wins. So, maybe these people who kill themselves had an overwhelming desire to die, so much so that they overcame the fear of death. But I don't know really.

Just so that you all know, I am all for smacking... (if that long post was too long to make that clear)

I think Dannyboy makes a good point, from intellectual perspective. What I don't agree, though, is the underlying assumption that a very young child can be taught effectively through a dialogue. By dialogue, I mean a discussion between 2 people in order to "pass on the wisdom". This doesn't require "reasoning" ability. Just a matter of inheriting the wisdom at face value. I believe many young children are unable to do this. I have 2 points here on this: 1, I believe every child is different, as in extreme cases a child prodigy learns to read and reason by the age of 3. Some years later, some go on to develop mathematical or linguistic skills that goes beyond those of adults. So, I can see that some kids do have a greater capacity than others. But, assuming that for every child seems unreasonable. It's a very small proportion of babies who are born that way. 2, We all have the tendency to drift down the easier path. It's human nature to choose an easier path, when there are choices. Learning through "fear" is the fundamental learning tool we instinctively have, as we inherited it from the Animal Kingdom. Before we gain the ability to listen and inherit the wisdom of other people, this elemental fear is what will change our fundamental behaviour. In my view, it's how you use it which decides whether it was good or evil. In other words, I don't see smacking itself as the root of the problem. Rather, the application and context surrounding the act of smacking, that is the problem. In fact, even in adulthood we repeatedly make mistakes. Many of us speed while driving, until one day we go through a life & death experience. Many of us spend money when we shouldn't, till we're debt ridden and everything gets taken away. These painful lessons often penetrate to the depth of our hearts more than when we're just reading about it in a book. In other words, even in adulthood, "reasoning" does not equal to "changing our ways". Naturally some of us have greater discipline than others, but there is no unifying model out there into which all of us can fit. The point is, even in adulthood, often "fear" is the decisive factor which allows us to change our ways. So, in a way, the difference may be that I just interpret "fear" as often a good thing (or call it a necessary evil, if that phrase sits better with you). Until we find another way to tap into this elemental fear in a person (maybe in the future we might have a helmet which sends a weak electric current into our brain to create the same effect), I think smacking should be a part of upbringing.

I love DQ IV DS!! I liked the original and the exp grind. DQ line has always been about players gradually dissolving into its cosy world, like a sugar cube melting into a warm cup of tea, to the point that in the end you wouldn't want to come out of it. I takes somewhat more patience than Final Fantasy line (certainly the newer ones) as DQ lacks all the frills of FF's grand presentation. But that's what I love about it. It's much more true to the spirit of a hard working RPG gamer. Bring on the entire series now!

That's surely the "spokesman" side of Reggie Old habits die hard.

I think that sounds about right. In the end, a business model is what dictates what direction a company goes. This point is sometimes lost on us consumers as we tend to get bogged down with what's exciting or preferred. A good example: Earlier this month, it was reported that Robbie Bach, president of MS's Entertainment & Devices division, have taken a funding cut from MS headquarters. To an average joe, this seems like a weird decision seeing how successful Xbox has been, but from the point of view of Financial Analyst this makes a lot of sense. Last year so many 360s were pumped into retailers in order to meet the shipment target and this year was more about shifting last year's stockpile. That isn't a bad thing, of course, as they will be sold eventually, but in accounting terms this doesn't make a pretty reading at MS's board meetings as this year's shipment (the so called wholesale) have dropped sharply. Shareholders have the stake on the company so naturally decision makers are held to account. Hence the funding cut to that particular department, not to the others. I suspect their recent re-organization of their in-house development studios is a part of this streamlining process. The point is, what us gamers hype about, and whatsnot, is only a secondary factor (if even that). In my view, the timing of next gen is near impossible to predict at this point in time. In business terms, only Nintendo can comfortably sit and smile so far and even that is premature if we were to consider the usual lifespan of consoles. If there were 3 chapters to every console, we're only at the beginning of the 2nd chapter. Personally, my prediction is that, all companies will not create too much diversion in the run up to the next gen, but instead seek to calm the waters and bring equilibrium to the current business model. They will try to milk the existing franchise as much as possible and wait till *somebody* makes the move. The next question is, who will make that move. Given the financial situation in the gaming arm of MS/Sony, it would be too risky to move too quickly. Nintendo is comfortable enough, and Sony has just about saved their backside with a (allegedly accidental) 2-product strategy (PS2 & PS3) and PS3 is at last on the move. In this regard, perhaps MS may be forced to make the next move, while the others just respond. I wonder whether Nintendo will ever change their current business model in the next decade. Their model is too good and they know it even at the worst of times. I can't help but feel that they will stick to it until a business circumstance forces them to change. I know that's a sobering thing to say from our (gamers') point of view, but ultimately they are part of the money market because of their size.

Strangely enough, a few days ago there was a report coming out of Nikkei (Tokyo stock exchange) that in Japan Nintendo's fundamentals have taken a hit as a response to the credit crunch, but also pointed out that abroad it's strong performance will likely continue, or fall only a little. The likes of DS will probably not be affected that much because of its low price point, but it wouldn't be surprising if demand for luxury products fell for the rest of the year... somehow I feel that the momentum will carry through though, for Nintendo. Good to hear that Nintendo is paying attention to prevent a shortage.

I know exactly what you mean mate. I used to have a lot of rants here about how Wii and DS excited me and stopped me from drifting away, and I've had my share of that "phase" you speak of. When I was little, many people talked about how you grow out of gaming. I remember thinking that that isn't possible for me, but then, some decade later I almost came close to it at one point. I was just bored of mainstream. Then came DS, then Wii. Push comes to shove I still love gaming though. Just not as obsessed as I used to be. Reading your post it sounds like there are more than a few frustrations merging together there. You should probably just play other games, more complex games, like a lot of games on the PC. Or not play at all. I've done that a lot over the past decade. It comes in and out of phase for me, although with my mates I play Wii VERY regularly which then inspires me to practice on my own as well. Otherwise there's very little incentive, other than just to buy a new Nintendo title and play it for a bit just to make sure I get my share of Nintendo (especially Miyamoto-san's) experience, which I've idealized for years. That man is a genius. One way or another I always enjoy his work, regardless of how long it lasts. In the end, gaming for me is like food. Something I need here and there, yet I never look at it with particular obsessiveness. But a necessity nonetheless, and I get bored if I have the same stuff every day. In fact I do exactly that with food. Sometimes I get into a "pizza mood" and I eat pizza every day till I exhaust that interest. I might then get into "pasta mood" and live on pasta till I get bored. Then "BigMac mood". Then "Fish&Chips mood". And so on.

Oh hehe. Ok, ONM it is I must have missed the old set of cards. And you're right, it is mario and co only despite being 'Nintendo'. But, still I like. I like.

A bit of a daft post, but anyone else thought the playing cards that came with this month's Nintendo's Magazine was good?? I opened it this week and to my surprise found the cards to be pretty decent. In fact I think it's possibly the best gift ever, well one of the better ones anyway and I've had all since the 1st issue. Lately the gifts have been mundane so I wasn't expecting much. Anyway. If it's just me, then... oh well

Haven't we gotten a bit too used to hyper acceleration Nintendo put out in recent years? They did that to turn the competition on its head (and they did, well done) and now they're steadily driving up the way. This year it was more up to MS and Sony to turn up the heat so they can close the gap. Nintendo probably could have got away with not even turning up at all. All this "worry" some of you are expressing seems to come from unrealistic expectation. No company has unlimited resources so managing what they've got and spacing it out accordingly to their competition is what wins you the war of attrition. How is that unreasonable?

I think this E3 for Nintendo was a good product strategy. Most of us only judge the situation based on how much we were pleased, that's why some of you come to the conclusion that they lost it. Sadly pleasing the consumers is only one part of a big product strategy.

Well, I'll be brave and stick up for WiiMusic for now as I (if I seem to be the only one) understand the fun of uncomplicated performance of a group. Oh, and also, so that when it sells well, I can stick the entire Nintendo collection in the history of this civilization into the backside of (most of) you guys (and GoNintendo), flap both my hands above my head and go: BAAAAH!!! In all honesty, I don't know how much that type of fun is shared among the general public. But hey, with a bit of luck I will be able to go BAAAAH at the entire forum I almost managed that with my Brain Training prediction.

I think like that too mate but not sure if the large bulk of pre-Wii mainstream think like that. It's one thing to talk about ideal definition, something else about general perception.

Uh. Didn't know about this. Oh well :/ Is the login the same as before?

Add sport and RPG to that mate But yeah I think that's more like it too FL. That's why I felt uneasy with darkjak's line "a core gamer understands and likes a wealth of genres". I don't think a core understands and likes "a wealth" of genres. If they did, a lot of debate we've been having here wouldn't exist. I AM a part of core gamer too, or I have been, and I think I still am, but I don't think I'm a typical 'core' gamer in that I lost steam due to over a decade of 'core' gaming. Same thing over and over... I think there's a thin line between those. A certain genre fanboys certainly fit into FL's description. Like FPS fanboy or Gr4F1x fanboy.

Likely not, but I think the general view is that theoretically there will be a difference from raw spec. This has been much debated all over the net (mostly cluttered with fanboys' trash posts) so nothing conclusive here, but that's precisely why I'm interested in this game so much. The difficulty in coding for PS3 has been a well known point of debate as mentioned by various devs. What's interesting in this case is that FFXIII has been being developed on PS3 for so long now that SE has likely built up a good codebase. "DirectX" approach, like Xbox, has a massive knowledge base all over the world now, so the efficiency in porting the code to Xbox360 shouldn't be a prob. So the rest is down to the 'raw' numbers i.e. disc capacity and processors. And I think Xbox360 will have some sort of downer somewhere along the line, either in (1) many disc swapping or compulsory high capacity HD, and/or (2) degradation of animation and multimedia. Some of the degradation can be circumvented by having even more disc swaps. The fact that there will be some difference is no surprise, even purely based on the capacity difference between BD and DVD, but just how different is the big question that none of us can answer yet. It's no good having a dozen disc swaps or too much degradation in quality. So SE has to strike the balance here.

I hope so...! I really do. I fear that too many people out there don't think like that.

I agree with Caris in a "conventional" sense, as we tend to refer to the pre-Wii/DS gaming to be the "core" part of mainstream. And I used to get chest deep, no, head deep in all that too. The funny thing is, I do that now with all these Nintendo games ever more so than before. So that begs the question, has "core" for me changed? I think it has. Even with me alone, it has something of a different meaning from 5 years ago. That goes to show how volatile this whole "core" thing is. And yeah, Eguchi got it spot on as Tellyn said, seeing it as a broad subject I think Eguchi put it wonderfully.

Hear hear. We were all expecting a Santa Clause. We can make a habit of it every year, I mean, it's been a real bomb for Nintendo fans for the last 2-3 years. But the truth is, sometimes things just continue without a loud bang because we're already on a good lane. This year's E3 Nintendo had "To Be Continued..." written all over it, and I can't see why that's a problem, I want it to continue as it has done.

... heh, I was almost drawn into that clip as it got cut off. It looks wicked.

Yeah I think you're right. Actually, this reminds me of an age old comic strips (can't remember where it came from, probably from early 90s) where there are bunch of gamers arguing about who's more hardcore, which went something like: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "I'm the most hardcore here." "No you're not, I am." "No, I am HARDCORE!" "No, I am MORE hardcore!" "I am FAR MORE hardcore than that!" "No, it's me!" "No, I'm more sad!" "No, you are not, *I* am more sad!" "No, I am FAR MORE sad than you will ever be!!" "NO! I AM WORSE!" "NO! I AM!!" "NO!! I AM THE SADDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD OK??????" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ... and so he earned himself the privilege of being the saddest person. Extraordinarily silly from the outside, but a serious battle of honour for us gamers... or so it was said back then.

I said this in the temporary forum, but this E3's Nintendo presentation feels so much like a stopgap for Nintendo in that they held back deliberately. I think they could've shown a lot more if they wanted to, whatever their plan is. E3 has had trouble since the chairman changed and several big names broke away from the registration. Not that it has any bearing on it, but I'm just saying, E3 is but one medium and it seems these days that many devs consider their own workflow more than timing everything for E3. Reggie's remark seems stopgap-ish too, in that all he was doing was say something just to get away with as little as possible. Obviously I have no proof for that any more than a proof to say he was serious, but if it really was a stopgap, then I think there's no need to read so much into that statement. (as in, how Nintendo views and tackles the so called core mainstream.) If anything, I think we run the danger of reading far too much into that statement for our own good. EDIT: oh just to put my own answer to the title, to me core gamer refers to the old fashioned bunch of gamers as it were in the old mainstream. How that's evolving now, I don't know.

Depends on how "similar" the 2 versions are, I suppose. I think they did say explicitly that the 2 will be the same in content, but they would say that now and I won't take their word for it at this point in time. They'll likely look into a crazy compression to get it all on DVDs. Either they'll cut down the quality to have it on few discs or go all out and have many discs. Either way we'll get closer to knowing the difference between the 2 systems when this comes out, which has been rather debatable till now.

Your right RedShell, I am assuming a lot here, but even if the game was what we think it is (very basic), I still think it's ingenious way to tap into that particular fun which is hard to extract on its own without going through the classical training which is arduous. You turn your head at your bassist and you see him gradually inhaling to give you a sign. You know the sign is coming so you sense the rhythm. As he exhales and gives you a sharp nod with his chin, you've anticipated it enough to strike the next note on your fiddle. The oboe and cello next to you have seen the same so they all ride the same wave. Other times you have the theme so you take everyone else for a ride, other times somehow things just... work out. Or not. There's an immense joy in this process. This might be niche, I don't know, but very common in the world of classical music. This is a far cry from the beat driven music game like Guitar Hero, which is more about riding the pre defined hook, same every single time you play. Needless to say, I'm not saying that isn't fun - it IS fun. But that is a different kind of fun. To me it seems like WiiMusic is attempting a very brave turn in this by extracting the 'fun' that's hard to extract - the chemistry and improvised articulation of a group of players, without the need to go through the formal training in various instruments. As soon as you bring in the element of controlling the pitch with different key press, you bring in the element of technical ability which threatens to take away your attention from the group chemistry. Obviously, this may turn out to be COMPLETELY different in the end... so fingers crossed. It might end up to be just like Guitar Hero, in which case I'd be disappointed as I have it already. But others will enjoy it so it's ok. Nintendo should cater to all audiences. I'm still interested in finding more about this baton waving thing on recorded performances...