Facts, fanboys, and the dangers of writing about games
Nov 1st, 2007 by handolio
What got me thinking about Mac vs PC deathmatches was a weekend spent researching and writing a How it Works article on games consoles.
Though I worked in games, I’ve never had the opportunity to write about them (other than an annual pilgrimage to cycling management nirvana). Do enough research, though, and things begin to get just a little odd.
The first thing you notice is that the Wikipedia entries on the various current consoles are protected. That’s because, as it turns out, every now and then somebody replaces them with something like this.
The last How it Works I wrote was on DirectX 10 – the set of software libraries that helps to make games and multimedia work on a PC. Outside of close-knit developer communities it seems that it’s hard to find anyone writing about it with any authority.
It’s just as hard to find anyone writing about games and games hardware with any authority, but there’s no shortage of idiots doing it.
Fanboy three million
A little background for the well-adjusted majority who don’t follow these things. There are three major home consoles. In order of UK release: Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3). Nintendo has openly said that it’s not trying to compete with the other two when it comes to graphical power, concentrating instead on gameplay – the strategy seems to be working; the 360 went on sale a year before the Wii, and they’ve both sold around 13 million units worldwide.
Sony has sold around six million PS3s since March; it’s now selling the least quickly. There’s little doubt that it’s a powerful console, with a processor that’s potentially significantly faster than the 360′s, but many in the industry consider that it’s a bugger to get the best out of. With the 360 outselling it, many developers are seeing Microsoft’s console as their primary platform, and don’t have the resources to tweak the PS3 versions of their games.
Nintendo is proving that you don’t need the most powerful console to get sales, and that there is a place for gameplay and controller innovation. It’s a popular brand among gamers, so few people begrudge it the success.
Meanwhile, diehard 360 and PS3 fanboys are slugging it out over which of the two is the best, in an unwinnable argument about something that matters not in the least. In a few years’ time the arguments, along with the consoles, will be forgotten by all but a few. In the meantime, reasonable and informed opinion such as this developer’s blog post will continue to attract 450 comments in a week.
you’re and ass and r&c rules, god bless Insomniac and real game developers who know what they are doing…you suck
