The New World

"I love the sound of shrieking hardcore gamers in the morning,” I told myself as meltdowns rippled through the gamer community after Nintendo’s 2007 E3 Press Conference. With each announcement, another tidal wave came crashing down on the industry. The natives, hardcore gamers, cried in despair as many got swept out to the sea.

This time, last year, one could describe the setting as the calm before the storm. Standing on the industry shores, one could begin seeing the water being sucked into the ocean foretelling the coming Wii tsunami. The hardcore gamers, drunk on PS3 and Xbox 360 hype, danced in the calm sun unaware of the incoming tidal waves.

In “Drowning in the Blue Ocean”, the setting foreshadowed the future at the end of this generation. The Old World would become flooded. The old ways would rot beneath the sea and many in the industry would scream as the water rose above their heads. Despite Classic Gaming, with its graphic intense pillars and sophisticated control schemes embedded on its fantastic walls, falling underwater, an “Undiscovered Continent” (Iwata’s words) awaited. At the end, we would finally see through the misty haze at this fresh New World. What wonders await for us there? This article will describe what the New World is and why, after this generation, nothing will be the same anymore.

But for the present, Wii tidal waves keep slamming into the industry. Drizzling cold rain and a sharp wind have ruined the parties of the hardcore. An uneasy sense has come that they know the future belongs to Nintendo. As soon as the storm pauses, another Wii tidal wave slams taking away more hardcore gamers out to sea. Some are even traditional Nintendo fans who loved the ‘hardcore’ games Nintendo made during the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube eras.

 “Help!” *gurgle* “Help!” struggles a voice from an outstretched hand poking up from the currents. “I used to love Nintendo!” *gurgle* “What is happening!?”

Sighing, I reached over and pulled him up to solid ground. As the gamer spits out the Blue Ocean water, he looks up and says…


Evil Nintendo

“Evil Nintendo! Evil Nintendo!”

“What’s the matter?” said I. “What is the meaning of this sudden dislike to the most extolled gaming company in the world?”

“Evil Nintendo! Evil Nintendo!”

“You alarm me. I hear applause, laughter, and fun cried down, and Polonius went so far even as to say, ‘Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.’”

“Evil Nintendo! Evil Nintendo!”

“Come, come, exercise a little wonder. What has happened to you? Has your Xbox 360 been failing on you? Has Sony been playing you false? Or has your square expectations been slammed by a round reality?”

“It has nothing to do with my Xbox 360, my Playstation 3, by its insignificance, is safe from high expectations, but as for my square thoughts…”

“Ah! Now I have it. How could I be so blind? You, too, are an imaginary pilgrim who looks to gaming as works of art to be immersed, of new fictional worlds to explore. Your games have to strive to be more perfect than that of World War 2, of the Illiad, of Predator, and perhaps even Lord of the Rings. And the thing that troubles you is that Nintendo’s direction is it is retarding your more perfect versions of the above realms you wish to digitally soak yourself. This is the rock on which all analysts split. Why, the very definition of gaming is at stake! As the non-games come not in single spies but in battalions, the market has become soft wax in Nintendo’s fingers.”

“Indeed! I fear Nintendo will remold gaming into a shape of non-art. For decades, gaming has been advancing. The art of gaming has been advancing as well. But with one single console, Nintendo has blown gaming back to the stone age.”

“A Console of Mass Disruption. Like the Sampo, it rests at the bottom of the sea causing such a disruptive tune that the Blue Ocean tidal waves keep slamming into the Old World’s shores.”

“Thank heaven I am still free from Wii’s fashionable mania. Instead of inventing new markets, I am content to play in the old one, and I am delighted to find it admirable in their progressive development of more polygons and processor speeds. This is why we cannot let the market dictate the future of the industry, and why I exclaim, ‘Evil Nintendo! Evil Nintendo!’”

“You are a disciple of Proudhon, then? Well, there is a very simple way for you to satisfy yourself. Throw yourself into the act, and play Xerxes who believed he could stop the waves by force of will.”

“If I cry out against Nintendo, is it likely I should tolerate the substitute of insanity?”

“Then I have only one more guess to make. You are a new Diogenes, and are doggedly going to victimize me with a discourse on the contempt of artistic companies ‘selling out’.”

“Evil Nintendo! They have so much talent but the old Nintendo I grew up with is dead! Instead of pursuing art, literature, and the gaming way, Nintendo is producing non art which translates into non games. I would rather hear my dog bark at a crow than hear another speech on the cursed ‘Blue Ocean’.”

“But what of the inevitable future business books detailing Nintendo’s strategy?”

“Then I should burn my library. Evil Nintendo! Evil Nintendo!”

“You have an error in your brain, which would have no influence over your actions; for you see that there are as many opinions as there are heads, we all act in the same way.”

“Aye, we walk upon the same principle.”

“Precisely. A person who argues himself into the opinion that during the night our heads and feet changed places, might write very fine blogs upon the subject, but still he would walk about like everybody else.”

“So I think Nevertheless, he would soon suffer the penalty of being too much a logician.”

“You finally agree to the reality of the market?”

“I see how the raising popularity will decrease stigma allowing gamers such as myself to play more in public and be unashamed. And, the older we get, the more interested we are in having our time go further for the older we get, the less time we have.”

“Well! Now you seem to be singing the praises of non-games, when, a moment ago, you were loading them with imprecations!”

“Why, don’t you see it was only the whim of an analyst? Decades ago, smart gamers tried to be game designers in their garage. Today, the smart gamers try to be analysts in their garage. Perhaps I ought to combine the two and create a game called ‘Console Tycoon’ where all the Internet addicts can choose a time period, design their own console from that era’s available parts, choose to invest their resources in new technology, more marketing, more development, or whatever else, and turn the world into a gigantic Risk board where the chosen console will do battle against others.”

“A genius idea! But they are playing this game now, just in the primitive text version as a MMO, are they not?”

“Yes, that is the beta version of my Console Tycoon.”

“Does your beta have a name?”

“It is called ‘Gaming Message Forum’.”

“No surprise, no surprise. But drowning gamer, I too, cry out against Nintendo.”

“Malstrom!? You?”

“Yes, I cry out against Nintendo, just because everybody confounds it, as you did just now, with non-games, and that this confusion is the cause of errors and calamities without number. I cry out against disruption because its function in business is still not understood and very difficult to explain. I cry out against it because it jumbles all ideas, causes the means to be taken for the end, the obstacle for the cause, the alpha for the omega; because its presence in the world, though in itself beneficial, has, nevertheless, introduced a fatal notion, a perversion of principles, a contradictory theory, which, in a multitude of forms, has impoverished sanity and deluged the Industry with nonsense. I cry out against it, because I feel that I am incapable of contending against the error to which it has given birth, otherwise than by a long and fastidious dissertation to which no one would listen. Oh! if I could only find a patient and benevolent listener!”

“Well, I knew that to be saved from drowning water that I shall be drowned in words. I am listening; speak, lecture, do not restrain yourself in any way.

“You promise to take an interest?”

“I promise to have patience.”

“That is not much.”

“It is all that I can give. Begin, and explain to me, at first, how a mistake on the subject of Nintendo, if mistake there be, is to be found at the roots of the current gaming tree that overlooks our present classical world. Try to show that Nintendo is not the enemy of ‘next generation’.”

“Your so-called ‘next generation’ obsession is nothing more than a cult of digital beauty and gameplay romance. In the same way, this article is showing, rather than telling, the same act. Gaming has become nothing more than sitting through an eternity at a first act of a fashionable play before the complications began. Endless cinemas! Countless dialogue! And this article is trying to mirror that. Here our author performs us to utter ridiculous metaphors and endless babble to create a continual contemplation of beauty, toying with silken tresses, as we breathe an atmosphere of sweetness like a confectioner’s shopboy.”

An especially large tidal wave came crashing down and flowed over the lost gamer and myself. Dripping with water, I pointed to a building in the city. “We have to get out of here!”
 

The Flood

Inside the building was a huge golden ceiling with statues of all the current video game heroes. The soaked gamer stared in awe at the giant marbled characters from Master Chief to Snake to the Final Fantasy characters. Noticing he was standing in an inch of water, he said, “The water is trickling into this Hall of Heroes!”

“It is only a matter of time that this place will be underwater. Come and see this.”

Malstrom led the gamer up the stairs. They walked past the gemmed pillars and the ivory walls that made up the Classical Gaming World. They came to a balcony that overlooked the entire city.

At first, the gamer laughed and spotted a crowd around a creature. “Look! It is a purple cow!”

“No, it is the Wii. The key to success in a competitive environment is to become a purple cow. Sure, there are better cows but there is only one purple cow.”

The gamer became alarmed. “Parts of the city are already underwater!”

“Yes. As you can see, each city block is a genre. Notice that one over there is completely underwater? Those were the city’s Tennis Courts.”

“Why is it underwater while other genres are not?”

“Nintendo’s disruption was never to come all at once. It hits genre by genre. When Wii Tennis came out, it disrupted the nature of video game tennis. A high definition game of tennis, with all its graphical bells and whistles, can come out, but it has become obsolete.”

“So what you are saying is that once a genre is disrupted by Nintendo, it will not go back to Old Way?”

“And this is why Classical Gaming is damned to the flood. Look over there at the Racing Genre. The water is rising fast in that one. Why? It is because of Nintendo disrupting racing with titles like Excite Truck and Mario Kart Wii. Eventually, no one will want to play racing with the old ways of control anymore. Today’s kids are excitedly playing Excite Truck and love it because it feels like they are driving. Are they going to suddenly go back to the old control scheme?”

“No. So that explains why Motorstorm didn’t make the big splash it was supposed to. People were comparing it to games like Excite Truck. And despite Motorstorm being graphically superior, Excite Truck’s odd controls gave it a higher value among many. As Wii’s controls become more heavily used, the Wii’s racing games will become even better.”

“See that, gamer? It is one of the biggest city blocks. It is the FPS Plaza. Remember Iwata saying how Wii would be so good for FPS games?”

“I remember. He has been saying that for quite sometime.”

“Imagine if the Wii was able to disrupt the FPS genre.”

The gamer’s eyes went wide. “No!”

“Yes. A wave called Metroid Prime 3 is aimed straight at that FPS Plaza. Whether it becomes successful to flood it remains to be seen. But know that Nintendo will keep sending disruptive waves at it and, eventually, it WILL fall.”

“And if FPS is successfully disrupted, then no one will want to play it with the dual sticks anymore. That would be devastating to Sony and Microsoft!”

“Now you see the shape of the storm. And look at that city block there. It is the Star Wars genre. If a successful light saber game was made with the Wii, aside from message board nerds, everyone will want to play that instead of the abstract button pushing on the classical controls.”

The gamer looked mournfully at the city. “It will all sink! No!”

“Are you surprised? Did you ever stand at the shore and peer into the water to see the ruins of the game centric computers? Have you forgotten the Classical Gaming World was built on the ruins of the Atari Era?”

“I got so used to the proceeding generations that I forgot about the ruins. I do remember standing on the shore, peering into the water, and seeing people walking along the bottom with the dead Commodore 64s and Amiga systems. They would stop and look up at me.”

“They are the walking dead who refused the tectonic paradigm shift that flooded their world. A deep network of tunnels and systems connects this land to that underworld. Occasionally, one of them will crawl up to the land of the living and express their shock at how things had changed. For example, you might occasionally encounter an Atari fan who, twenty years later, curses Nintendo for ‘destroying’ the Atari Age (whose fault actually belongs to the computers at the time).”

“Are the 8-bit and 16-bit players underwater now?”

“Many thought so. People confused a market change as a paradigm shift. Sony’s Playstation did not disrupt or shift. Sega’s close takeover of the market in the 16-bit generation was also not a shift.”

“I see boats!”

“Yes. The Old School, those who never adapted to the current decay of things, are first to set sail to the New World. For years they have been hunkered down playing old NES and 16-bit games waiting for this time. They understand how rapidly things can change and see the shift for what it is.”

“They cannot leave! I shall stop them!”

“And what could you possibly say to convince them to stay? They have felt ignored for a decade or more. The hate and anger is strong at them. They view the hardcore gamers as destroying gaming.”

“Destroying gaming? How?”

“They destroyed it through degeneration of intensity, desire for cinema, and decay for the innocence of games.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Before this generation started, an investor would have been wise to catch the cries and rage of these former gamers. Writings and videos kept appearing that showed that gaming had ‘fallen’ and was not as good ‘as it used to be’. One young director wrote the animation “Old School Revolution” condemning the industry for embracing blood lust and perversion.”

“Just another angry Nintendo fan.”

“Or was it? Could it have been a sign of the angry Old School gamers? From Japan, another wrote Sega Fantasy 6 that, while mourning the loss of Sega, replaced the characters of Final Fantasy 6 with consoles. The world was powered by the magic of the three Great Gaming Gods of the NES-SNES, Megadrive, and PC-Engine. The emperor is the PS2. The mutated Kefka is the PSP. All the systems unite to destroy him and, by doing so, collapse the world. Ironically, the new world is symbolized by the birth of the DS.“

The gamer jumped and spun around. “What is that?”

Malstrom turned around and a giant screen on the wall came to life. Statements from the head of the console companies could be seen on the screen as responses to E3 2007.

As they listened, a Sony official appeared. “Who is that?” asked the gamer.

“David Reeves I think. Listen.”

Reeves spoke. “PlayStation 3, you will see, will be far and away the winner when you look at it by March '08. They really, really will. It's something that is going to be a slow burner, and suddenly it's like a tsunami; it will just overtake you."

I laughed. “This guy is an idiot. They are not the console this generation causing the waves.”

“But why did he say that? He used the exact same tsunami metaphor that you and Nintendo are using!”

“It is because it is a common metaphor used in the business world. This is the Generation of Disruption. Both Microsoft and Sony’s consoles are aiming to disrupt. But they are disrupting Comcast Cable boxes and competing even with Apple TV with their video downloads, high definition movie formats, and IPTV. Nintendo, however, is focused on disrupting gaming itself. Sony is confusing technology trends with entertainment trends.”

The two looked up and saw Iwata on the screen.

Iwata spoke. “Going back in time, we wanted to expand the gaming market, but how? We were struggling with that challenge. That was in the past. What would seem to be impossible in this industry. It’s not impossible if you can do it right. That is what we have done now. We have been successful to some extent with the Wii. In combination with our endeavors, the market itself is expanding. There is no question about that. Everyone else is finding business opportunity now. That is where we stand right now. In other words, some peers in the video game industry have found an untouched continent for the very first time.”

“Going back in time? What a novel idea, Iwata. Let us do it, gamer. Follow!”

The gamer followed as we went into the basement. There, sat a car from the 80s.

“A DeLorean!” cried the gamer.

 “And look at the back.” He did and saw the Playstation symbol. “It uses the PS3’s 4d technology. Get in. This world won’t last for much longer.”

“If the waves are crashing in, how are we going to move through the water in a car?”

I shook my head “Oh these New School Gamers…” and accelerated towards the end of the large room. The gamer sobbed in fright the wall came at us in a flash.


Dawn of Classical Gaming

On a dark street a flash popped. The DeLorean skidded to a stop. The doors flung open and the gamer jumped out.

“Ack! It’s still raining! We have gone no where!”

As I got out, one could feel that the rain is horizontal. The sharp wind smothered my words. “G-t o—r he-e!” Gamer looked perplexed so I shoved him underneath the nearby canopy.

“The flood has come! We are dead!” cried the gamer.

“Hush, fool! When we are, there is no flood only this storm that…”

The TV inside the shop was on. Through the windows, one could see shelves full of Transformers, Voltron, and Robotech toys and posters for Thundercats and He-Man. The TV inside abruptly came aloud with a commercial blaring: “Will it be you? Will you be the first to experience the birth of the incredible Nintendo Entertainment System!?” The screen’s darkness hatched and, lo and behold, appeared R.O.B. and the NES launch games.

“We went back in time?”

“Yes. Well, technically, space and time. The Earth is constantly in motion and is not in the same position so time travel involves a sort of space travel as well. Or else we’d be stuck in space.”

“But… where are we?”

“New York. It is 1985, and NOA was putting out a test trial of the NES in New York.”

“But what is with the storm?”

“Don’t you know? The NES launched during a hurricane. Writers have applied it as a metaphor so it doesn’t hurt if we do as well.”

“But why bring me back to this… time? Are you trying to show me that gaming was dead?”

“Oh, of course not! Gaming was very much alive. There were cheap computers that replaced the old consoles. The arcades were alive and well. See? There is one down the street. I brought you back in time to show you something. People believe the Wii is fresh, that the Wii is new.”

“Isn’t it?”

“No. It is very old. It is older than any of the three Playstations or Xboxes.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I brought you back here to play a game with one exception. The exception is that technology is far better twenty two years from now than it is in 1985.”

“That cannot be denied. What is the game?”

“I challenge you to name something the Wii is doing differently than the NES. Go on. Try it.”

The gamer pondered it. “Better graphics and faster speeds don’t count due to the technology difference, right?”

“That is correct. Online doesn’t work either since there weren’t that many homes online in 1985.”

“One major difference is that the Wii is following the success from a successful handheld, the DS, whose new control scheme became a hit.”

“Really?” I held up a DS in one hand and held up a Game and Watch in the other. “Game and Watch also played with a new control scheme. It was also extremely successful. Heck, the two look identical!”

“Yeah, but the Wii doesn’t have the simple button scheme of that the NES controller does.”

“Doesn’t it?” In one hand, I held a Wii controller sideways and in the other held a NES controller. “So identical that you can play NES games by turning the Wii-mote sideways!”

“But the NES can’t shoot the screen like the Wii can!”

“Oh?” In one hand, I held the NES Zapper. In the other, I held the Wii Zapper. “The technology is different. But you are still shooting.”

“Motion controls! Hello!”

“Power Glove! Hello!”

Frustrated, the gamer said, “The Wii differs from the NES because the Wii has a Balance Board. And a game of Wii Fit! Can you imagine the outrage?”

I rolled out the Power Pad. “People used this to get fit as well on the NES. Of course, everyone just kneeled and slapped the buttons with their hands.”

“Wii has non-games to attract a new audience and to become a family console!”

“Duck Hunt, World Class Track Meet, and Gyromite were non-games. Tetris could qualify as a non-game. Nintendo even made a Donkey Kong Math! So brain games are nothing new.”

“The NES did not have Wii Sports.”

“Yes it did. The early sports games were very important for establishing the system. When the Genesis came out and had a powerful line-up of sports titles, it hurt Nintendo more than Sonic ever did.”

“Wii keeps coming out with all these crazy controllers.”

I displayed the endless line-up of NES accessories. “No difference.”

“But Wii focuses on a new controller while using a processor a generation old. Wii is competing against computerized game systems a generation ahead in hardware.”

“Ditto for the NES with its computer competitors being in the 16-bit generation.”

“Wii has Virtual Console where you can play previous console games.”

“And a major selling point of the NES was that it had a ‘virtual arcade’ where you could play many of the classic arcade games from Donkey Kong to Galaga.”

“The Wii was designed as a sleek console.”

“So was the NES. Look, we can go through this again and again. But I want to show you something. Look over there!”

Howard Philips appears, seizes a walking woman, and puts her in front of the NES playing.

I said, “In order to sell the NES, Arakawa believed you had to put the controller in people’s hands. Then the rest would follow. Remember before the Wii launched how Nintendo would travel everywhere to put the controller in people’s hands.”

“Yes.”

“And look at that! The NES commercials show kids using the zapper and jumping on the power pad. They don’t show much of the game, do they?”

“Hmm. It is fun to watch people play with the Wii. Are you saying in order to sell the NES, instead of showing kids sitting with the controller like dorks, they focused on the zapper, R.O.B. and the power pad?”

“Correct. There is nothing new under the sun. One generation passes and another comes, but the market dynamics forever stay. Classics rise and the classics go down; then they impress on the generation where it rose. All gaming is labored; there is nothing gamers can say. Their eye is not satisfied with graphics nor their heart with the gameplay. What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Even the thing which observers say, 'See, this is new!' has already existed in the generations that preceded it.”

”How do you mean?”

“Can you not see classic games like Combat and Pong reincarnated into Wii Tanks and Wii Tennis? All that is old is new again and all that was new is now old.”

“But there is a difference!”

“Name it.”

“The hardcore feel alienated with the Wii. They feel the Wii is destroying gaming especially by not focusing on their RPG epics and graphically rich adventure games.”

“Hah! Twenty years ago, the hardcore were gaming on those cheap computers. They had RPG epics and graphically rich adventure games. They too felt alienated by the NES. At least, at first.”

“But the Wii was going after non-gamers and former gamers…”

“…and the NES wasn’t?”

The gamer sighed. “I have nothing else to say.”

“Then listen. We have forgotten the reasons why the NES was successful. The NES did not succeed because of its graphics or processor speeds. It created gamers for life. Many people began the NES by using the zapper or power pad and slowly graduated to the NES controller to Super Mario Brothers and later to other games. The reason why Atari 2600 and NES have such a high echelon, why it is so fondly remembered, is because they introduced people to video games. This is why they are so loved and why, twenty years later, there is a practical reverence around them.”

“You go too far.”

“Perhaps. But this I know to be true. If gamers have forgotten their roots, if they forgot the origins of their Classical Gaming World, if today’s gamers grown up on the NES are hostile to introductory games for a new generation, maybe it is time for the Classical Gaming World to die. Maybe it is time for a new starting line.”

“You brought me back here to show me why the NES was successful.”

“No. I brought you back to show you why the Wii is successful. And why it will rise to as high as echelon as the NES and Atari 2600. You may not see it today. You may not see it at the end of this generation. But, in time, it will become so. Just as people today find it interesting to explore old NES games, people will do the same with old Wii games.”

We got back into the DeLorean and drove in a flash out of 1985. But as we drove through the windy street, we passed a young boy holding his mother’s hand. She had just bought a NES, and he was full of giggles. He could not know that in twenty years, he would grow up to become a game journalist. He could not know that, then, he would write scathing things about Nintendo because they released introductory titles.

He merely laughed not knowing the wonders that wait when he got his NES home that would define his childhood. He would forget this moment of how he became a gamer.

“Gamers forgot where they came from. They forgot what built the Classical Gaming World and are too intoxicated with its current fragrances and beautiful displays. But the old school smell only decay. The ignorance of gaming’s origins and the lashing at the recreation of it is the tragedy of this generation.”

The Untouched Continent

A flash of lightning and the Delorean appeared on a grassy bank. “Get out!” I yelled pushing the button that flung open both doors. Both the gamer and I threw ourselves out and we rolled a little on the soft grass until we got to our feet. We saw the out of control Delorean drive off the cliff and plunge into the waters below.

“We are stranded!” cried the gamer. “We can no longer go anywhere.”

We stood beneath gentle sunlight, a crisp breeze, on bright green fields near the shore. While before, the waves were cold tidal waves overcoming everything, they were now gently lapping the industry’s shores. The sound of sea gulls and rolling waves filled the air.

The gamer spun around and pointed to the empty fields filled with purple cows. “Oh no! We have gone back too far! This time must be the Stone Age before the Gaming Civilization began!”

“It appears that way, doesn’t it? But we are actually in the future. The purple cow, singular, has now multiplied and become standard. Come to the water and look.”

The gamer did. “It’s a city!”

“It is the old city completely underwater. Remember how buried and distant the Atari Era felt in your time? So too will the Classical Era be to this time. Just as the joystick stopped being standard, so too will the classic controller. But the classic controller won’t go away. No. It will be used as a peripheral just as joysticks were in your time.”

“So not all of Classical Gaming is destroyed?”

“Not all. But it is no longer the standard.”

The gamer turned toward the bright green fields and noticed an oar sticking up from the ground. “This must be Iwata’s ‘New World’. Hurry! I want to see what the future holds!”

“Stop!”

The gamer whirled around. “Why? The future is over that hill! What wonders await? Who are you to deny me the pleasures of future’s gaming?”

“Were you not drowning at the beginning of this article? Don’t you understand that you should be at the bottom of the ocean with the ruins and walking dead?”

“Are you saying I am not allowed in the New World?”

“I am saying you would become so shocked as you would instantly turn to stone, fall over, and shatter into a thousand pieces. If you do not understand it, your destiny is to be nothing but the walking dead in underwater ruins.”

“Then teach me. What am I missing?”

“The gamer community went into convulsions, gagged on their own sentences, and choked as paragraphs came spewing from their throats when Miyamoto revealed the true purpose of the Wii. A business magazine asked, ‘Moms were the key target for this console?’ Miyamoto responded:

“Our goal was to come up with a machine that moms would want- easy to use, quick to start up, not a huge energy drain, and quiet while it was running. Rather than just picking new technology, we thought seriously about what a game console should be.”

The gamer scratched his head. “A console for mothers? I do not understand.”

“There is another Miyamoto quote to consider. This was Miyamoto’s reply when he was asked to characterize the Wii. Let us listen.”

"I don’t know how to characterize it [the Revolution]. Just an example: in Japan, whenever electronic makers are trying to advertise their refrigerator product line, they hardly talk about how many things the fridge can contain or how powerful the cooling function is. They are talking about how less electric consuming the average is. And another example from racing, Honda for one is inventing more efficient engines. Yet there most profitable machine is not a racing machines or their engines after all, it’s a compact car called Fit."

The gamer shook his head. “Now I am really confused.”

“I can see why. After all, what does a refrigerator have to do with the Wii? Much, actually. If the console companies pointed out a consumer electric product their console was mimicking, the PS3 would point to the HD TV, the Xbox 360 would point to the PC, and the Wii would point to the refrigerator.”

“But the refrigerator!? Why?”

“It is tradition in high-street electrical shops to divide products into ‘dark goods’ and ‘light goods’. Dark goods are targeted towards men. Dark goods include televisions, video-recorders, camcorders, and sound-systems as advertising and the staff focus on technical specifications. Light goods are targeted at women with the staff focusing on appearance. Light goods include refrigerators, washing-machines, and cookers. Now you know why the Nintendo products all turned white!”

“My God,” said the stunned gamer. “No wonder we couldn’t see it. For all this time, game consoles have been a ‘dark good’ with a focus on technical specifications and names that match a computer.”

“Exactly. The ‘expanded’ audience is not Nintendo spreading its tentacles to filter in more casual players, it is turning the game console into a ‘light good’.”

“This fits the Blue Ocean! Nintendo is zigging when the others zagged! The more Microsoft and Sony focused on technical superiority and edginess, the more confined they became as ‘dark goods’.”

“Microsoft and Sony are in a red ocean competing in a ‘dark good’ context. Nintendo has a complete and utter monopoly with the ‘light good’ context’.”

“And that means even if Microsoft and Sony embrace casual gaming, their problems still exist. It is because casual gaming isn’t the New World. It is the Light Market as opposed from the Dark Market.”

“Now you can see why the mainstream media is in such opposition to the PS3 and Xbox 360, and now you know why the Wii is selling like no other console had ever done before.”

“I understand why all the high electronic equipment is mostly black and rely on specifications. They are ‘Dark Goods’ aimed at men. And those same men, enshrined in their dark goods from projectors to HD TVs to large home theater sets have to despise the Wii since it is not a ‘dark good’. Families and women will love it because it is a ‘light good’ and fits in well with their other light goods.”

“It is well known that women control the majority of consumer spending. The biggest obstacle to a console in the living room was the mother. Software such as the ‘Everybody Votes Channel’ to ‘Wii Fit’ is to entice her.”

“The ‘untouched continent’ is the Light Market? But all the analysts, when Iwata took helm and sailed, said that Nintendo would fall off the market.”

"But Iwata returned with ships full of gold and a new realm to explore. The Industry was shocked and refused to believe a new land was out there. Cautiously, they sent out little explorative craft to sail where Nintendo went.”

“Did The Industry see the continent’s shape?”

“Not even Iwata knows the full shape of this new market Nintendo is only beginning to map. How large is it? What new treasures does it hold? This is why this generation is so exciting. It will be more transformative than even the NES generation. Too bad the consumers of ‘dark goods’, lost in the Old World, will be unable to see it.”

“What I want to know is how did Nintendo know? Where they sailed, The Industry saw it only as the abyss. A console costs billions of dollars in research, manufacturing, and launch. As a notoriously conservative company, Nintendo does not gamble. They were sure of this.”

“This is why Yamauchi said, with the DS, Nintendo would rise to heaven or sink to hell. As Nintendo sailed into what was considered the abyss, they came out on top of the world. You may have heard Iwata or Miyamoto refer to this as a paradigm shift. Obviously, we cannot use prior generations’ tools to analyze the paradigm shift. But we can use what is called…


Paradigmatic Analysis

“Aristotle wrote in his Metaphysics of primary oppositions: form/matter, natural/unnatural, active/passive, whole/part, unity/variety, before/after and being/not-being. When we think of generations, we think of syntagmatic transformations that focus on addition and deletion. What Nintendo is after is a paradigmatic transformation. This relies on transposition.”

“Transposition?”

“Consider photography of when a positive image turns into a negative image or vice versa.”

“So the paradigmatic transformation, the untouched continent, is to create games in a primary opposite way? Using Aristotle’s Metaphysics, this means that someone on one side of a primary opposition cannot clearly see the other side and simply refers to it as an opposite. The common example is the hardcore gamer seeing “gaming” and then sees the flip side, the negative (or is it positive), and can only refer to it as a non-game. Is this correct?”

“Toward games or non-games, this is the question. Whether it’s greater for gaming to slide into obscurity to pursue greater immersion or to cast that aside to grow, stretch, and become mainstream? You are correct. The non-game is the ‘opposite’ of a game. But those who like these expanded audience games see them as ‘real’ games and perceive hardcore games to be ‘non-games’. Much depends on one’s perspective.”

“I do not understand this paradigmatic analysis. Please give me an example before I consider Nintendo’s.”

“Then take a look at this. It is Jean-Marie Floch’s breakdown of the binary opposition between the IBM and Apple logos.”

The gamer studied the chart. “Are you saying Apple deliberately made their logo to be paradigmatically different than IBM’s?”

“Yes.”

I pushed a button on my Author’s Remote Control Button (whose buttons trigger the special effects in an article). This button caused a flash of light where the hologram of a past chairman of the Apple Products division appeared. He opened his mouth and said, “Our logo is a great mystery: it is a symbol of pleasure and knowledge, partially eaten away and displaying the colors of the rainbow, but not in the proper order. We couldn’t wish for a more fitting logo: pleasure, knowledge, hope and anarchy.” I pressed the button again and the hologram vanished.

The gamer stared at the logos. “Apple created the logo in such a way to differentiate itself with IBM?”

“The Apple logo represents a rejection to the IBM way of thinking. Now, consider the Wii and PlayStation 3. The PS3 logo, for the example below, is using the similar style of the PS2 since that has been the standard.”

“This is madness! Surely, you over-analyze.”

“Do you not remember when the Wii name was announced? Remember how everyone complained that Nintendo ‘over-thought’ it? Aside from the pee-pee jokes, that was the biggest criticism of the Wii name.”

“Are you saying Nintendo chose the Wii name as a binary opposite to the PlayStation?”

“I am saying the logo was designed to contrast to the typical game console’s logo. Listen, it is common that binary oppositions be seen as ‘natural’ to a people. Pairings of concepts (such as male/female or up/down) are familiar to everyone. A poem by Kipling satirized the universal tendency to divide people we know directly or indirectly into ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ or ‘We’ and ‘They’.”

All nice people, like us, are We
And everyone else is They:
But if you cross over the sea,
Instead of over the way,
You may end by (think of it!)
Looking on We
As only a sort of They!

The gamer shook his head. “And why are you reciting this?”

“Before you can see the flip side of gaming, of the new continent that is emerging from the Blue Ocean, you must know the binary. Listen to Nintendo’s explanation when they announced the name of Wii.”

"Introducing... Wii.

As in "we."

While the code-name Revolution expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that separates videogame players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games... and each other. But you're probably asking: What does the name mean?

Wii sounds like "we," which emphasizes the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.

Wii has a distinctive "ii" spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people playing it. And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of videogames that sets it apart from the crowd.

So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because it's really not about you or me. It's about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything."

The gamer scratched his head. “It still sounds tacky.”

“The binary is you/we. As you can see, Nintendo has designed the Wii logo and name to illustrate the paradigm shift to differentiate the product from the competition.”

“Are you telling me this was all part of Nintendo’s master plan? I thought their marketing people ran amuck.”

“Whatever it is, it comes from the core people behind the Wii philosophy. Even the advertising reflects the paradigm shift. Advertisements aimed at girls have significantly longer shots, more dissolves (fade out/ fade in), less long shots, and more close-ups, less low shots, more level shots and less overhead shots. Such production features reflects a series of binary oppositions: fast vs. slow, abrupt vs. gradual, excited vs. calm, active vs. passive, detached vs. involved.”

“So while the PS3 ads showed crying dolls, spinning rooms, and focus on technical measurements with black backgrounds, the Wii ads showed a slower, gentler, display on white showing people laughing as they use the product.”

“Exactly. It is not hard to understand the difference of the Light Market and the Dark Market. This is the Paradigm Shift.”

A yellow bricked road appeared before the gamer. “Where does this lead?”

“To the New World. You are ready.”

As the gamer prepared to take a step, he stopped, turned toward me and asked, “Are you saying the New World of gaming is a binary opposite of current gaming?”

“It leads to a different market place. Before, the game console was trapped in a room where people played on it, in the dark, with soda. Now, the game console is prized center of the living room and the neighborhood flocks to play the thing. Before, there was heavy stigma. Now, the stigma is gone. The image of gaming as a school kid’s face plastered to a screen is forever gone.”

“But new stigmas will emerge.”

“As a pendulum swings to and fro.”

While the gamer and I walked the yellow bricked road and vanished into the New World, he asked one last question:

“I took one last look at Nintendo’s explanation of the Wii name. They explain the two I’s as representing players and controllers coming together. Yet, there is no explanation of the W. Sure, it can be flipped over to make the word out of “Mii” but why is there a W? Malstrom, if the I’s are the ‘we’ of the people, what does the ‘W’ represent?”

“Why, it is the tidal wave of the Blue Ocean.”

The New World

Now, in the New World, the gamer could hardly contain his amazement. Software began falling into two types: traditional games or ‘new’ market games. And these ‘new’ market games began appearing everywhere (along with Wii systems) from libraries to grocery stores. The future television remotes mimicked the Wii-remote and the Wii Channels section for channel selection. Girls played with the system as did mothers and grandmothers.

“Let us go into a Game Store!” I said and the two of us entered. It resembled a book store. Traditional gaming was the ‘fiction’ setting and the titles the hardcore loved could be found in what would be the sci-fi/fantasy section in a bookstore. But whatever one could imagine in a bookstore there was a video game equivalent including business games, cooking games, children’s games, biography games, and even technical games.

We left the Game Store and walked until we saw a televised wall (televisions were obsolete in this time. What were screens could now take up entire walls). A gray haired Reggie walked on the stage and said, “Twenty years ago, today, Wii changed the world. People didn’t think gaming could reach females or older audiences in a massive way, but it did. Just recently, we have expanded gaming to education where now schools use our game products regularly in their school plans. We created yet another market by making games for babies and small kids to help with their development. Some might say we should be satisfied by our success. But I say: we have only begun. While we have successfully competed and beaten all other known forms of entertainment including our competitors…” The crowd laughed as Reggie pointed to the date Microsoft left the gaming market and Sony’s small niche. “We are no longer satisfied with competing for the consumers’ entertainment time. They work most of the day. Just as we made inroads into education, we want to make inroads into the office. When the Wii launched, somehow, Wii Sports became a game people played at the office. We are set to make an entire new style of games that caters to the office. We want to expand to make games for the work environment!”

The gamer shook his head. “What a world this is! How far in the future are we?”

“Several decades I think.”

“But how did gaming become so popular? It appears to have replaced television for most people.”

“Most of it can be traced back to the Wii. But global economic trends are also a reason. During the Great Depression, no one could spend much money on entertainment. People mistake a downward economic circumstance to mean a downward turn in entertainment. Rather, the money was spent in other places and during the Depression, new forms of entertainment, which were somewhat more niche earlier, exploded in popularity such as the radio and movies. Pinball was a cheap form of entertainment and became widespread. Video games, pinball’s successor, have remained niche to the overall population. Wii changed the game industry to aim at growing once again (since the industry has been focused on console wars since the late 80s). While gaming may seem growing into new areas now, when an economic downturn comes, it will avalanche even more.”

“I thought an economic downturn would lower the water for everyone making everyone suffer.”

“Hah! The richest people like the Rockefellers among others built their wealth during the Depression. While everyone was scared, they went out and invested. And just because one area enters a downturn, other areas go up. Smart investors began leaving real estate when they noticed taxi drivers and shoe shine boys getting into the market (a sure sign of coming market downturn). While people get stung by the housing bubble, those investors are into something no one is thinking about now like raw minerals. The point is that the video game, one of the cheapest forms of entertainment, is poised to explode should such an economic downturn come.”

The gamer looked around at the New World. “This massive change in how people value entertainment… Are you saying that, in my time, we are the cusp of another recession? Sure the market hiccups, but overall it keeps going up.”

“Cycles are always certain and never truly vanish. One cycle that is not being paid attention to, but the major investors certainly are, is the seventy to eighty year cycle. Going back centuries, they always called them ‘panics’. Do you remember the Tupip-Bulb Bubble of 1634?”

“No. What is it?”

“A non-lethal strain of virus caused tulips to develop stripes. Enthralled with these new flowers, tulips were in high demand. Everyone began buying tulip bulbs for everyone saw an opportunity to get rich quick. Some people began selling their homes to buy these flowers. Soon, supply exceeded demand and prices fell dramatically. Everyone ended up being hurt the most. Perhaps you heard of the South Sea Bubble of 1711?”

“No, but…”

“In 1711, the South Sea Company was formed in England. Similar companies arose and, due to these companies’ potential, money poured into their stocks. But the company’s earnings had no relationship to the stock rise. Soon, the stock plunged and small investors ended up being hurt the most. The no relationship to earnings and to stock rise should be familiar to you as that was exactly what occurred with the dot com boom and bust of the late 90s.”

“But no smart man would be caught up in such nonsense.”

“Isaac Newton made a fortune by his investments in South Sea Company and lost it all and more when the bubble burst. This made him say: ‘I can calculate the movement of the stars but not the madness of men.’ We should take Alexander Pope’s line to heart when he says: ‘The proper study for mankind is man.’”

“Surely that past cannot mean that my future will have…”

“Did you hear about the Florida Real Estate Craze of the 1920s? Why, one third of Miami became real estate agents at this time and, soon, the bubble popped. Nine years later, the stock market would collapse.”

The gamer looked worried. “During my time, the housing bubble has just popped!”

“You cannot escape financial cycles for our lives and histories are ruled by that clock of time. Tick. People who have no business investing throw themselves into real estate thinking they will get rich. Tock. The boom continues through the twenties, and people think little of it. Tick. The Stock Market drops and keeps dropping. Tock. Government tries to solve the problem only as politicians know how to: by throwing money at it. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.”

The gamer grabbed me by the arms and shook me. “No! You cannot make such a connection!”

“How amazing is it that in almost every Western country, the older generation outnumbers the younger ones. Demography is destiny. The Baby Boomers will, due to the tyranny of time, have to retire. Since most of these investments are in the stock market, well, they have to come out.”

“Why? When people retire, their spending goes down.”

“Ahh, but their health bills go up. Besides, it is law that much of their stocks have to come out.”

“Law? Why!?”

“For taxes, silly. It was established that these funds would be untaxed when they were put into the market under the agreement that they would be taxed after they are pulled out. Government would obtain more tax revenue, by putting all the risk on its citizens, by waiting to tax after the fund has grown after so many decades. Due to how the populations are stacked, there will be more money going out of the market than coming in leading to the inevitable.”

“They could change the law before that.”

I laughed. “Governments never turn their backs on taxes. As Franklin says, it is as certain as death. Imagine such a scenario that many retirement plans of people suddenly evaporating. Politicians, eager to gain votes, would likely try to ‘help’ by turning private debt into public debt creating more inflation. Investors estimate this will occur around 2016-2020.”

“Noooooo!”

“You wanted to see the future, well here it is. Some believe in Karma, I believe in financial probability. All those people who wanted to appear rich, who have piled up massive debt behind their ‘cool’ cars and ‘big’ houses, will become trapped. People perceive freedom only in political terms but not in financial. When you are in debt of liabilities, you are literally ‘owned’ by someone else. Is it worth appearing rich if one’s life is condemned to that of a wage slave? Unlike another 1930s, all American currency is debt. This means we will have the material wealth but be in debt for it.  Despite this, the poor man is wealthier than the debt man. Debt man may have the material goods, but the poor man at least is free.”

The gamer appeared thoughtful. “So that is why they blew up the skyscrapers at the end of Fight Club. Not for the sake of mayhem, but to reset all debt to zero and free everyone.”

“Anyway, the point of this is to show that the future downturn will speed up the popularity of gaming and will dovetail with what Nintendo is doing in your time. The ‘casual gaming’ perceived boom of the DS and Wii will attract opportunists who will begin making ‘games’ that appeared in the 1983 or multi-media craze. Companies who had no business making games will make them and, of course, lose money. Casual gaming is not a new money printing press, though everyone will perceive it to be. A boom and shake-out occurs and the real players remain.”

The gamer pointed to a shelf. “They are still selling Wii systems in this time!?”

“Yes, the Wii is on the market longer than the PS3. How long was the NES on the market or the Atari 2600? Market expansive consoles have a longer shelf life than the most technological system. Technology value ages faster than entertainment value.”

“Look, there is a business classroom. Let us slip inside and sit down.”

They did so and the two recognized the professor.

“Malstrom! That is you!”

“Alas! An older version of myself! What am I doing here? Quiet, gamer, and let us listen.”

The old Malstrom walked back and forth and slapped his wooden stick in front of a frightened student. “I cannot believe you kids do not care to examine your history! Tell me, what was Sony’s main mistake on the PS3?”

A shy student asked, “Its price?”

“No! Where do profits come from this business?” Silence. “The software people, the software! How many times must I repeat this? The key to understanding the seventh generation is to know that Nintendo was competing against movies and music. Sony wasn’t. In fact, Sony made their system design around to incorporate movies and music into the PS3. Imagine how ridiculous it would sound if Sega made their Genesis play SNES games since then it could ‘control’ the living room. But its Genesis games would decline as people bought SNES games. This is what Sony did. Instead of competing against movies and music, as Nintendo and every other game company did before it, Sony let them into the chicken coop. Like the PSP, its hardware sells but the software doesn’t.”

As the old Malstrom continued, we discreetly exited. Under the bright clear sky, I pulled out my remote control and pressed the button. The deLorean hovered from the watery depths and descended upon us.

“I thought the car was destroyed!”

“No. It just sank. Get in, gamer, it is time for us to go.”

As we flew over the New World, the gamer asked, “How do they think of the seventh generation in this age?”

“They consider the PS3 and Xbox 360 to be the last gasps of the Classical Gaming Era. They are the last of the bloated dinosaurs in a Cretaceous Age, the DS the meteor, and the Wii the beginning of the new mammals.”

“And, let me guess, they consider the Wii with its pointing interface to be like the arrival of the Macintosh?”

“No. The Wii is to gaming what the Apple II was to computing. The Wii-motes used are today considered clunky obsolete gadgets. Today, people use their most natural interface: their own hands without any need for a controller. However, the Xbox 360 is an oddity among collectors due to the challenges of creating an imitation to the Xbox Live service (since Microsoft unplugged it when they exited the market) as well as finding working 360s. Despite this, the Wii is seen in this time as NES was in your time.”

The car sped through the crystal blue sky and flashed into a string of lightning.


Finis

The flying deLorean appeared in the rainy, cloudy sky. Looking below, one could see giant sweeping waves build up, rise, and crash over the industry’s shores with white wash reaching the city.

“It is only a matter of time now,” I said bringing the deLorean down to the soggy ground. The doors swung open and the gamer, getting out, said, “You’re not staying here?” I shook my head. “Where will you go? Into the far future?”

I shook my head. As the DeLorean flew up, gained acceleration, and turned into a ribbon of fire, the gamer recalled their last conversation:

“It took twenty years for Nintendo to finally create a TRUE successor to the NES. Never forget this. That small market the NES created invited competitors such as Sega. Nintendo’s big mistake was competing for that market with the SNES. Sure, Nintendo won the 16-bit war at the cost of losing its soul. Bigger entrants, such as Sony and Microsoft, would enter and Nintendo could never out-compete them. Imagine how different history would be if Nintendo kept its NES philosophy of growing the market (like it is now with the Wii) during the 16-bit generation. The point is that the Console War was an aberration, a sideshow of over a decade and half of nonsense, of the constant growth and popularity of gaming. Nintendo began this market and started the console war. Now, they are ending the console war (by ironically surrendering) and soon will end that market via disruption.

"Nintendo is now the closed circle.”

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