Print

Author Topic: Read Up some Sean Malstrom Topics...  (Read 48214 times)

« on: February 26, 2016, 07:59:37 PM »
Particularly, "Mario was the First Mii."

https://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/mario-was-the-first-mii/
https://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/email-i-hate-magical-mario/
https://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/email-surreal-mario-brothers/

For those who don't know of his existence, he's a businessman who looks upon the financial history of video games. And he loathes what it has become, especially regarding Super Mario Bros.

Here's three topics regarding Red M. What do you think?
« Last Edit: February 27, 2016, 02:54:07 PM by 4 Game Freak »

CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2016, 09:47:09 PM »
I used to follow Sean Malstrom religiously about ten years ago when he was writing about the Nintendo Revolution, but when I look back at him now he just seems grumpy and inconsistent (he wants video games to all be like he remembers them on the NES, and also he doesn't want anything Japanese in his Nintendo games). And apparently he's a Trump supporter now.
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2016, 12:37:54 AM »
I'm pretty sure I read something of his once. It was about how graphics on the NES were all only functional and never looked good and that's why they were the best and we've come nowhere since then, something something pretentious pretentious. I remember feeling like "this guy thinks he knows it all and clearly doesn't" but don't remember every counterargument I would have come up with. Except one: the guy never saw a Mega Man game. They were   l o a d e d   with fancy frills and whistles and bells.
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

The Chef

  • Super
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2016, 02:24:51 AM »
I've read some of this stuff before. He sounds like he never stopped being a ****y, insecure 12-year-old.

« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2016, 03:50:30 PM »
I remember enjoying his Birdman Fallacy article when I was a kid, but looking at some stuff now...what a ******.
Relics.

CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2016, 08:05:39 PM »
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2016, 09:10:07 PM »
*sigh* ...the thing with Malstrom is that he still believes in the values of society from older times, which he respect more than what occurs in modern times.

He also, as well as his followers, prefers gaming to go back to tradition values.

He hates the concept of saving, because it takes away the fear of dying. Lack of Game Overs(as well as lives), takes away the penalties and punishments of failure. There's no real reason to progress and gain anymore!

He likes characters better when they were nothing but vessels for the players(Samus Aran is nothing but whoever makes her to be, not Sakamoto).

He liked the limitations of video game technology because it forces developers to think on their decisions while making games.

There's a lot more on what he misses. Remember, it's all about business.

CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2016, 09:29:34 PM »
I could tell that he was about "traditional values" when he posted a meme calling Caitlyn Jenner a man.

yeah i dont like him
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #8 on: February 28, 2016, 03:09:48 AM »
There are only two really big problems with the game industry today and they don't have a whole lot to do with losing sight of what made coin-operated arcade machines successful. The first problem is that big-budget games are getting samey and boring by playing it safe while they get more and more expensive to make. The second problem is that the independent market of interesting creative games worth playing is too flooded for many of them to be successful.

Now. That being said there are still some good games worth playing and all of those complaints are from someone who doesn't play enough of them, or is stuck in a comfort zone they know is stagnant and boring and yet they refuse to leave. I'm only going to go up against one of them because it's something I've been thinking about lately:

He hates the concept of saving, because it takes away the fear of dying. Lack of Game Overs(as well as lives), takes away the penalties and punishments of failure. There's no real reason to progress and gain anymore!
This is a lazy complaint. Because thinking there's only one best way to deal death in a game is lazy. A lazy game developer will just say "and when you run out of life you load your save" without considering what's best for the game. You need the player to want to avoid failure. But no one really likes doing the same thing over and over. Stop thinking about Super Mario Bros. 1 for a second and imagine dying in the Fire Temple in Ocarina of Time because one of those stupid boulders wouldn't leave you alone. Then the game goes "**** off wimpy baby" and you're in Kokiri Forest again, no sword, no shield, no spiritual stones, no ocarina, no known songs, nothing, again.

If you want some insight on how games are made and real critical thinking about how to make them better, here's Extra Credits. Also, I recommend Dark Souls.
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

Turtlekid1

  • Tortuga
« Reply #9 on: February 28, 2016, 04:48:05 PM »
no one really likes doing the same thing over and over

Also, I recommend Dark Souls.

I dunno man, I haven't straight up shelved many video games for being repetitive and boring, but Dark Souls is on the short list.
"It'll say life is sacred and so is death
but death is life and so we move on"

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #10 on: February 28, 2016, 07:21:32 PM »
Well, any game will have some degree of repetition when you fail because you have to do it again to succeed, it's how much you have to repeat that gets annoying. Dark Souls is punishing, but there are some merciful bits. You don't lose items you picked up. If you opened a shortcut, that will ease a lot of pain. Some enemies stay dead, usually the ones it most feels like they should. And you only lose all your souls if you didn't learn anything from your failure. The repetition feels more like steady progress if you don't just totally lose it or blame the game for killing you.

But what I meant from that recommendation was, perhaps if you play Dark Souls, all your complaints that games lost their magic sparkles sometime in the '80s or '90s will turn into complaints that more games aren't like Dark Souls. Good games that have evolved from what worked in the good games of the past, and not from a dream of making them "cinematic" or whatever, exist.
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

Turtlekid1

  • Tortuga
« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2016, 08:42:08 PM »
Haha, yeah, I definitely can't argue that it and sequels/similar titles wouldn't address those complaints.
"It'll say life is sacred and so is death
but death is life and so we move on"

« Reply #12 on: February 29, 2016, 06:50:33 PM »
Just remember, for the whole "do or die" scenario, Malstrom believes that video games should not be played for long time(you got better things in life to to than that), especially arcadey types. It should all be played in one go(the game themselves are not that long anyway).

Here's another old article I have found.
https://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/email-game-design-restriction-x-creativity-mario-3d/

What do you think?

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #13 on: February 29, 2016, 07:55:17 PM »
It's great to have opinions. Make sure they're yours.
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
« Reply #14 on: March 01, 2016, 04:05:56 PM »
Quote from: Malstrom
Zelda is awaiting to explode. But it is the Zelda arcade action that you saw in games like Link to the Past. This Puzzle-Zelda is nothing at all what Zelda used to be.
...he thinks Link to the Past didn't have puzzles?

Look, the quick simple character-less arcadey games that Malstom wants do exist. But other types of games exist too, and that makes him mad. He's a fundamentalist.

The instructional VHS tape that came with your coffee maker is a very different kind of non-interactive audiovisual media than Star Wars, and that's okay, because there's room for different kinds of things in the same medium. You can get mad at a piece of media for being a bad example of what it's trying to be (dislike the prequels for being bad at being Star Wars, or dislike an instructional video that doesn't actually give any clear directions), but Malstrom's complaints about modern games seem more like "Empire Strikes Back is bad because it didn't tell me how my hair clipper works."
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

Print