Jimquisition: Revivify The Cold Vitae

[inkheart_artist]

Okay, I've been watching the Jimquisition every week for longer then I care to admit and I've gotta ask: What's with the shrimp? It's in every episode at least once.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebVideo/Jimquisition

It's mentioned here but I'm not satisfied. Does Jim like shrimp? Does he think they're funny? Did he just once use a picture of a shrimp in an episode and, on reflection, felt it was off topic and decided it could be in every episode as just some weird occurrence? Why a shrimp and not, say, a cow or a marmoset? If it was important to be a crustacean, why not a lobster or mantis shrimp?

It'd be fun to see it pay off somehow. I mean, I doubt a video game will come out with shrimp front and center that creates talking points like Beyond: Two Souls did with the Willem Defoe but it'd be nice to see something develop around it.

 

[Colt47]

So, anyone else keep getting the 45 second video promoting the escapist instead of the Jimquisition? Thought something went wrong on my end and tried three different browsers, but it's showing up everywhere.

Edit: as in I can't see the main video because the promotion ends and then the play again button appears... which starts the promo again.

 

[Stealth]

I love PS Vita but I find the 3DS more enjoyable for me personally

 

[Deacon Cole]

I wasn't as interested in the Playstation Vita as I was the Xperia Play.

It's a smartphone from Sony Ericsson, just before Sony dissolved it's partnership with Ericsson, that was designed to be a portable gaming platform as well. It was a decent mid-range smartphone at the time of release (2011), had a bit less bloatware than most smartphones tended to have-- at least on Verizon-- and used normal SD cards instead of those stupid memory sticks. I was considering getting one but I just wasn't in a position to take it and I regret it now. But it was launched around the same time as the Vita and Sony just shifted its focus and let a nifty gaming smartphone die. Too bad, too. If they'd just dropped the Vita in favor of the Play, they would have probably done better.

There are rumors of a second Play with Sony filing a patent on a smart phone with two sliders, one a gamepad and the other a QWERTY keyboard. But nothing has come of this and it'll likely be a long time before Sony or anyone else tries to make a gaming smartphone again.

 

[vallorn]

I think that the reason Sony is largely ignoring the vita, is because they think that the rise of mobile gaming is going to kill handhelds.

But I understand that even less. Sony makes damn nice cellphones. The Xperia range lags behind the Samsung's only slightly in spec, but is ahead in design quality. If they took the Xperia and made it so you could play PS1 games on it, it would have a horde of content that no one could touch, in addition to everything already on Android. They are in a unique position to do that - none of the other mobile players have access to anything resembling the PS1 library.

That's my dream for what I would like to see Sony do - Xperia phone that can link wirelessly to a TV and/or a Sony controller; and with PS1 and PS2 library access.

They somewhat tried that. What came out of it was the Xperia Play which seems to have gone the way of the Ngage, hell the Play even came bundled free with Crash Bandicoot 1 for the PS1 as well as some reasonably well made other games and some trash which I wish I could delete from the system. (No Sony I won't play fifa 10, The Sims 3 or Bruce Lee: Dragon Warrior please let me take it off because your phone has a ridiculously small memory for storing things...)

I wasn't as interested in the Playstation Vita as I was the Xperia Play.

It's a smartphone from Sony Ericsson, just before Sony dissolved it's partnership with Ericsson, that was designed to be a portable gaming platform as well. It was a decent mid-range smartphone at the time of release (2011), had a bit less bloatware than most smartphones tended to have-- at least on Verizon-- and used normal SD cards instead of those stupid memory sticks. I was considering getting one but I just wasn't in a position to take it and I regret it now. But it was launched around the same time as the Vita and Sony just shifted its focus and let a nifty gaming smartphone die. Too bad, too. If they'd just dropped the Vita in favor of the Play, they would have probably done better.

There are rumors of a second Play with Sony filing a patent on a smart phone with two sliders, one a gamepad and the other a QWERTY keyboard. But nothing has come of this and it'll likely be a long time before Sony or anyone else tries to make a gaming smartphone again.

I have this phone sitting right next to me and currently downloading Crash Bandicoot again. It's a good system but it's mostly lacking in onboard memory to store things, so it fills up really really fast especially if you use a separate browser like Android Firefox and Skype and such on it.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Ah, that Crash Bandicoot music brings me back to when gaming was more simple. Really, what's wrong over there, Sony? Do you not like the smell and feel of money? Or to hear your praises sung by the players?

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

I'm too busy trying to get final trophy in Hatsune Miku Project Diva f 2nd to care. Vita has a huge number of great games. But you must read Japanese and be prepared to import them. Because the games are not on sale in EU/US or are very late.

Granted, I'm surprised for example that Akiba's Trip 2 is coming west, big surprise. Loved the game. Believe it or not in one quest you fight 47 maids from a cafe, obvious reference to 47 ronins. Crazy hard on Otaku difficulty.
Then again, it's coming out on PS4 in Japan only, and I'd rather import that and fight those maids in glorious HD.

What I'm getting at is that it's like 1990-x. Most of the good stuff is Japan only.

 

[Teh_Moose]

Jim. since you got that new backdrop, can we see it in all it's glory so we can chant "Thank God for Jim"?

 

[Sticky]

Good video this week, Jim

My opinion on why Sony, and most companies really, tend to shun their massive library of perfectly good games plays to my cynicism to marketing in the industry. It's also a point that you have covered before regarding why companies in general shun their older titles: Companies don't want other companies or customers taking screenshots of their old games and adding "This is all this system has to offer".

This isn't a matter of ability or will or even customer influence on the system, it's a matter of good ol' fashion industry greed and folly regarding how they want to view their system vs how their customers want to view their system. Anyone who owned an original PSP can tell you about the vast number of old games that they played on it thanks to the numerous amounts of jailbreaks available for the system. Sony wants to view the system as a 1 to 1 contender with the 3DS that constantly has new games coming out for it. So many new games that they see no reason that customers would ever want to play those old games that don't cost 60 dollars and don't have top of the line graphics. At the same time they don't wish to actually help develop or reach out to companies to make new games for the system because they want to have their cake and eat it too.

It again harkens back to companies who rather make no money at all than make some money. To them marketing the Vita as a handheld source of all those great games from the 90's would be too shameful. As well as require them to do some actual fucking work trying to convince those companies that they could still make money on their old titles by re-releasing them on the vita. The end result is stagnation and further losing the handheld war as more and more developers move to the 3DS and smartphones.

Sony, once again, has found new and innovative ways to shoot themselves in the foot.

 

[balladbird]

I probably spend more gaming hours on the Vita than any other system, and adore it to pieces, though its manifold flaws aren't deniable.

Here recently, with the surge of Jrpgs suddenly flooding the handheld at once after years of stagnation, my vita has been seeing even more play than usual for actual physical games, so maybe the burden of the virtual network is lost on me currently. I understand that older games can be a licencing quagmire, and that tragedies happen, but it does seem like flagship titles such as spyro or crash would be given a priority.

...and I'm not even gonna try to justify the memory card racket. XD

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

i have a 3DS but i admit i like more the vita from a hardware standpoint, however sony keeps doing absolutely nothing with the system, if all PS1 and PSP games were avaliable for the system id have a much stronger reason to own one

 

[Thanatos2k]

Ha Ha HA ... come on now guys ... do you really think Sony are idiots? Do you really think they will be retarded enough to put the library of the old PS and PS2 and PSP games on the fucking Vita? Grow up boys and girls: Backwards compatibility=less business for new games=less profit for the new console. That is how the minds of Sony and Microsoft work right now. So kiss the chance of seeing all those old and good games goodbye, they can't have old gold selling at discounted price steal the sales from the new shit coming out. (I'm not saying that evey new game released is shit, I'm just saying old one are proven good by time while the new ones are just sequels and rip-offs of the old with only the ocasional original ideea)

Be honest with me: IF you had 60 dolars and had to chose between buying ... let's say FF15 on the new console, or shell out 40 dolars for FF7 on the handheld: which one would you buy? Because I would buy the one I know is good and i enjoyed and let the whateverthefuck experiments of Squeenix gather dust until reviews and a discount. From a bussiness standpoint backwards compatibility is bad business. I mean if they released the PS4 and said you could put in and play all your PS, PS2 and PS3 disks, the number of people actualy buying the new games that come out would be pitifull compares to people buying discounted old games from the old generations that maybe they didn't get the first time. And don't say it would boost sales. You don't understand basic math. People would rush and buy old games that they must sell at lower prices like 40 dolars instead of buying the new ones that cost 60. It's just common sense to buy the proven good cheaper one versus the more expensive new one, at least if you are not the kind of guy with 0 financial smartness or the kind of guy with so much money he can buy an army of slaves to tend to his every need. And for every potential sale they loose 20 dolars and that adds up.

"Oh but they would make it back with selling console units" ... perhaps. My view is anyone who wanted a PS4 got a PS4 anyway, backwards compatible be damned. Maybe they could have swayed a few more MS fanboys to the new console, but even then those guys would mainly buy old PS games to make up for the library they are abandoning. So in the end they would still be making less cash than they would in a world without backwards compatibility. And Jim allready taught us what these blind greedy idiots want: ALL THE MONEY NOW!

I will grant one thing: backwards compatibility would force new games to go on sale sooner to avoid the situation described above and that would be good, and in the long run backwards compatibility and releasing old libraries on new systems would make the industry a better place and bring more cash in the long run. But these fuckers don't care about the long run. They care about how many digits the number meaning profit has at the end of each day and how they can make that number have eveb more digits by any means.

TL;DR: Let it go, it ain't hapening.

This post was painful to read, especially because Steam and GoG have already destroyed every argument you attempted to make.

 

[Thanatos2k]

Okay, I've been watching the Jimquisition every week for longer then I care to admit and I've gotta ask: What's with the shrimp? It's in every episode at least once.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebVideo/Jimquisition

It's mentioned here but I'm not satisfied. Does Jim like shrimp? Does he think they're funny? Did he just once use a picture of a shrimp in an episode and, on reflection, felt it was off topic and decided it could be in every episode as just some weird occurrence? Why a shrimp and not, say, a cow or a marmoset? If it was important to be a crustacean, why not a lobster or mantis shrimp?

It'd be fun to see it pay off somehow. I mean, I doubt a video game will come out with shrimp front and center that creates talking points like Beyond: Two Souls did with the Willem Defoe but it'd be nice to see something develop around it.

This really bothers me too. I also wish to know the meaning of the shrimp. It always seems to show up when he is changing his argument, often around a "however" moment. What does it meannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I just wish some of the classics on PS3 in the US would make it to the NZ store, like Legend of Dragoon. I have never played it and have always wanted to.

 

[Atmos Duality]

From a bussiness standpoint backwards compatibility is bad business.

Right. It's such bad business that the most successful consoles of all time (PS2, and the Gameboy series, GBA/DS and soon 3DS) were backward compatible.

And don't say it would boost sales. You don't understand basic math.

Forget basic math, it's you who doesn't understand basic economics and business.

Proprietary platforms, like game consoles, have value directly related to the number of Related Goods available to them.
In this, the Related Goods are video games. I can say this because game consoles are obviously worthless without games.

It doesn't matter what the game(s) cost(s); if it sells, it creates appeal and generates interest in the system.

You assert that consumers are willing to pay less per unit for old games vs new games, fine.
But there are two factors you're neglecting:

1) Old games are finished products and require little to no added cost for production, while most new console games will cost millions on average.

2) Modern digital distribution methods have slashed the cost of distribution down to pittance. Less than a penny per game sold. I can assert this for the Vita because Sony has already staked any chance of the Vita being profitable on this fact by making everything digital. New games benefit from this too, yet the fact remains that the only reason to NOT capitalize on old games is if the cost of distribution/rights/etc would exceed the revenue.

And because these are all Related Goods relative to the platform (console/online store, etc), all of those old games will generate exposure for new games by drawing people to the store. Why? Because it gives them another reason to use it.

Also, if one were to retort with "Everyone who wants a given system (like a Vita) already has one." is already courting insanity, because if you're treating your potential console market as a zero sum market (no new customers entering/leaving) then why the Hell would you exclude content that would appeal to old customers?

I understand the fear of market saturation and loss of growth, but it's insane to not capitalize on what you have when you suspect that.

That boosts sales, and the cost for exploiting this is smaller than it has ever been; literally for the same reasons that indie developers are booming right now. If indies can exploit it, then why not one of the largest game companies in the world?

These aren't my idle theories; this is in practice elsewhere.
Steam is proving that right now. Why the hell else is there a sudden resurgence in classics?

Final Fantasy 7 & 8, Ensemble's old games (Age of Empires 2, and soon, Age of Mythology), or the numerous big publisher backlog bundles like Epic, THQ (now 2K Games)...I can go on.

The very EXISTENCE of GoG disproves the entire notion of backwards compatibility being bad business.

If Sony execs honestly think that restricting sales to new games where possible is the best business solution, they're insane. Sony's prior successes should tell them that.

 

[Blaster395]

I am not sure if the Vita is going to be able to compete just by having a ton of PS1 and PSP ports. If they did it fully in 2012, it would have worked, but now is too late.

Mid-end androids can emulate PS1 flawlessly and High-end androids can emulate PSP at a playable state for many games. There is just no room for a portable PS1/PSP hybrid of a console in a world that almost already has phones which can do the same thing. The PSVita needs to have it's own games.

 

[MidnightRaith]

Out of curiosity, what online games were you planning to play on PS4? Like, when I look at exciting games coming out for next-gen (which I will continue to call next gen at least until price cuts and libraries make them decent purchases) I just see single player on console, the new Infamous the new Final Fantasy the new Kingdom hearts, if you don't have a gaming PC than watch dogs and the yearly AC.

Not trying to sound insulting, I honestly just don't get what multiplayer games would be a deciding factor in a PS4 pre-order

I would actually get all Ubisoft games on my PS4 rather than my PC. Their idea of DRM is annoyingly irritating, but I think it's a little more streamlined on the consoles. I already have Steam's DRM, why do I need yours?

Ha Ha HA ... come on now guys ... do you really think Sony are idiots? Do you really think they will be retarded enough to put the library of the old PS and PS2 and PSP games on the fucking Vita? Grow up boys and girls: Backwards compatibility=less business for new games=less profit for the new console. That is how the minds of Sony and Microsoft work right now. So kiss the chance of seeing all those old and good games goodbye, they can't have old gold selling at discounted price steal the sales from the new shit coming out. (I'm not saying that evey new game released is shit, I'm just saying old one are proven good by time while the new ones are just sequels and rip-offs of the old with only the ocasional original ideea)

Be honest with me: IF you had 60 dolars and had to chose between buying ... let's say FF15 on the new console, or shell out 40 dolars for FF7 on the handheld: which one would you buy? Because I would buy the one I know is good and i enjoyed and let the whateverthefuck experiments of Squeenix gather dust until reviews and a discount. From a bussiness standpoint backwards compatibility is bad business. I mean if they released the PS4 and said you could put in and play all your PS, PS2 and PS3 disks, the number of people actualy buying the new games that come out would be pitifull compares to people buying discounted old games from the old generations that maybe they didn't get the first time. And don't say it would boost sales. You don't understand basic math. People would rush and buy old games that they must sell at lower prices like 40 dolars instead of buying the new ones that cost 60. It's just common sense to buy the proven good cheaper one versus the more expensive new one, at least if you are not the kind of guy with 0 financial smartness or the kind of guy with so much money he can buy an army of slaves to tend to his every need. And for every potential sale they loose 20 dolars and that adds up.

"Oh but they would make it back with selling console units" ... perhaps. My view is anyone who wanted a PS4 got a PS4 anyway, backwards compatible be damned. Maybe they could have swayed a few more MS fanboys to the new console, but even then those guys would mainly buy old PS games to make up for the library they are abandoning. So in the end they would still be making less cash than they would in a world without backwards compatibility. And Jim allready taught us what these blind greedy idiots want: ALL THE MONEY NOW!

I will grant one thing: backwards compatibility would force new games to go on sale sooner to avoid the situation described above and that would be good, and in the long run backwards compatibility and releasing old libraries on new systems would make the industry a better place and bring more cash in the long run. But these fuckers don't care about the long run. They care about how many digits the number meaning profit has at the end of each day and how they can make that number have eveb more digits by any means.

TL;DR: Let it go, it ain't hapening.

Clearly you have never played games with a PC. Steam and especially GoG have cut out an entire market for themselves selling older games. I myself have bought plenty of old games for my PC like KotOR 1 & 2 yet the vast majority of the games that I own currently have come out in the past three years. Despite GoG existing and that many of their games, and some Steam games, go for $10 or less. Nostalgia does sell, but this entire industry drives itself on new experiences and innovation (or tries to at any rate). Gamers are going to want their new with their old and this is supported by the Top 10 Sellers tab currently on Steam.

Dark Souls II - Released April 24, 2014
Day Z - Early Access, no known official release date
Metal Slug 3 - Released Feb 14, 2014
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Released Aug 21, 2012
Watch Dogs - Releasing May 27, 2014
Space Engineers - Released Oct 23, 2013
Skyrim Legendary Edition - Released June 4, 2013
Don't Starve + Reign of Giants DLC - Released April 23, 2013/Released April 2, 2014
Don't Starve Reign of Giants DLC only - April 2, 2014
Endless Legend - Early Access started April 24, 2014

Note please that this list is from 4:23 PM central time and has likely moved in rankings.

Just for fun, I counted every game on the Top 100 list that came out 2012 or later. Thirty. A whole thirty games, most of them were 2012 releases by the way, hog sales away from Steam's other new releases. What a disaster. Clearly Sony and MS's sales would utterly collapse under the weight of all of these old games. Steam has its issues but old games are not one of them. You may be right in that MS and Sony will be too stupid to look at Steam and how it sells dated games, in that we will probably not get some backwards compatibility. However, the PC itself, which has no hard generation gaps because each PC will always be different, is a clear example that old games are not and have never significantly harmed its growth and in fact can be taken advantage of.

 

[shrekfan246]

Be honest with me: IF you had 60 dolars and had to chose between buying ... let's say FF15 on the new console, or shell out 40 dolars for FF7 on the handheld: which one would you buy?

TL;DR: Let it go, it ain't hapening.

The funny part is that not only is Final Fantasy VII available on the Vita, it's only priced at $10. EDIT: My point being that for many people, it wouldn't be a question of one or the other.

And the reason people are pissed off about stuff like this is because games like, say, Metal Gear Solid are already available on the PSP, but Sony is arbitrarily gating people from purchasing and/or downloading it directly to the Vita, not because it just doesn't work (in fact, there are reports all over the internet of people getting PSOne games unavailable directly on the Vita to work by downloading it to the PS3 first and just transferring it over, like you had to do for all of them originally).

Anyway, I can't really argue with this one, Jimothy. I think my Vita only currently has less overall use than my Gameboy Advance did, but the way Sony has been handling it is just embarrassing.

 

[Marik2]

Would like to get the Vita for the Atelier games, but the memory sticks are too expensive and Sony keeps dropping the ball on classic PS1 games.

 

[WildFire15]

You have to wonder why Sony even bothered with the PS Vita. It started as a 'portable PS3' and now it's more an add-on for the PS4 but only works well if you can find a decent connection to the console you had to leave on in order to utilise the feature (which I still see as pointless as I'd rather play a PS4 game on a TV with a PS4 controller, rather then a small screen with fewer buttons).

As for your point that you should criticise something you love, I've always felt you can't truly love something unless you've acknowledged all it's faults. City of Heroes (which would be 10 years old now if it hadn't been shut down) is one of my all times favourite games yet I could see it's missions were ultimately repetitive (either being 'find the thing' or 'kill one of or all the things') and while the instanced missions prevented fighting with other players over objectives in the game world, it also made the world feel a bit empty at times. Brilliant writing and easy to put together 8 man teams helped alleviate that (especially seeing all the different costumes and builds), mind.