PopCap: The iPad "Will Change Gaming"

[GideonB]

As much as I love PvZ, PopCap never improved gaming in any way. PvZ is just a well-thought and funny tower defense game. And most of their games are remakes or games already done, because they're easy to make.

Name one genre that will benefit from iPad more than from a PC.

Not a genre... but a game. DJ Max Technika. It's a touchscreen arcade game that requires a massive screen to play on because it's kinda like Elite Beat Agents but with a difference... kinda. Check a youtube video for it, but it hasn't been homeported yet and I would love a port to the iPad. It would make me cream. Literally xD
For a genre... probably the touchscreen music genre. Bigger screen = win = Beatmania iPad (hopefully)

 

[likalaruku]

A normal home computer is the only technogadget I give a shit about.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

[blockquote]"We're excited," he said. "The iPad's going to be awesome."[/blockquote]

 

[Premonition]

I'm waiting for Popcap to discretely take a hand from Apple and take a moneybag from under the table.

 

[mikecoulter]

Popcap are pretty terrible. Last I knew they just made crappy browser games.

Also, the iPad? No thanks.

 

[Amnestic]

As much as I love PvZ, PopCap never improved gaming in any way. PvZ is just a well-thought and funny tower defense game. And most of their games are remakes or games already done, because they're easy to make.

So now a game must 'advance' the medium for it to be a game?

Actually RTS is one of the few genres I see enhanced by touch-screen capabilities (well, multi-touch.) You can do all the things you could with a mouse/keyboard but at a faster pace, and look like an absolute powernerd while you're at it.

I actually disagree. What the touch pad gives you is access to a similar interface with the mouse, just replacing clicking with pressing. That's fair enough, still a superior choice to the gamepad. However, it also lacks the all important keyboard. Shortcuts, squad grouping and just general flexibility of the keyboard means that you can give commands at a much faster pace than with a touch screen.

To take a generic example, the Attack Move command. With an iPad, you would have to select your troop(s), click the Attack Move button on the UI and then point them to where they need to go, making that same gesture whenever you wanted to attack move with anyone. On a PC, you can cut the UI out entirely, shortcutting the entire thing to the A button which you can press simultaneously with your clicking. If the iPad were used for an RTS of any great complexity, I fear it would have to have a rather large and intrusive UI that got in the way of the player rather than adding to the experience.

Touchscreens are, however, still a better choice for the genre than either a gamepad or Microsoft's Natal.

 

[Yopaz]

Right.... for companies like pop games.

My thought exactly. Popcap is a company that makes games that are the likes of what we could see in the 90's except the detail level, sounds and colours are from this century. For the more hardcore gamers the iPad wont be that much of a change, mostly because hardcore gamers want to press some buttons.

I really dont see the point of the Ipad, you cant replace a laptop with it because a laptop has more features, it wont replace paper and pencil because its $500+, i wish it made sense!

It's too big to carry in your pocket, too crappy to be a laptop, we now present the newest product from Apple!
You could easily get a mini laptop that would take up about as much space, cost less, have more storage place and with more functions. Sadly I also fail to see why the iPad will be great.

 

[JaymesFogarty]

Did anyone else laugh when reading the title of the article? Change gaming? I don't think so.

 

[Abedeus]

As much as I love PvZ, PopCap never improved gaming in any way. PvZ is just a well-thought and funny tower defense game. And most of their games are remakes or games already done, because they're easy to make.

So now a game must 'advance' the medium for it to be a game?

Did I offend your feelings? You see awfully touchy about me not liking PopCap.

It's just that... they are an incredibly niche company. Making casual games, in dozens, without improving any of the existing genres, and then claiming something will change gaming? If it was Blizzard, Bioware or Valve saying this, I would take them seriously. PopCap is like an... ice-cream man, that claims his ice-cream are better than Italian ice-cream.

 

[Amnestic]

Did I offend your feelings? You see awfully touchy about me not liking PopCap.

No, I just got annoyed at the double standards some people seem to hold on what merits the branding of a 'Game' and what does not and I'm trying to put forward my opinion in it. I don't think I've come across as particularly hostile or 'touchy' but perhaps I have.

I disagree with your ice cream analogy. I haven't seen them saying that their games are better than others - hell, they've got a few of their games inside World of Warcraft which should tell you something about how they feel about such things. They are - in my opinion - more like an Ice Cream man who claims his ice cream is still ice cream, even if the Italian Ice-cream is tastier.

Tesco brand vanilla ice-cream is no less ice-cream than...Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie is. PopCap games, similarly, are no less games than the latest hit from Konami, Valve or Criterion Games.

 

[Abedeus]

No, I just got annoyed at the double standards some people seem to hold on what merits the branding of a 'Game' and what does not and I'm trying to put forward my opinion in it. I don't think I've come across as particularly hostile or 'touchy' but perhaps I have.

Never said anything about not considering PopCap games as "games". Oh, I just said they are games.

I disagree with your ice cream analogy. I haven't seen them saying that their games are better than others - hell, they've got a few of their games inside World of Warcraft which should tell you something about how they feel about such things. They are - in my opinion - more like an Ice Cream man who claims his ice cream is still ice cream, even if the Italian Ice-cream is tastier.

Okay, wrong analogy, had hard time thinking a good one... Okay, here's one.

An independent high-school movie-maker claiming that 3D won't be a big thing. Then, Pixar says 3D will be a big thing.

Who will you believe more? Someone who actually contributed to the world of cinema, or a guy that might be good, maybe even very good, but hasn't done anything that would strike as "WOW, THIS WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING FOREVER!" thing.

Tesco brand vanilla ice-cream is no less ice-cream than...Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie is. PopCap games, similarly, are no less games than the latest hit from Konami, Valve or Criterion Games.

Actually, that's a poor example. Mass-produced ice-cream for... 5 PLN (no idea how much you pay for ice-cream, sorry) will be worse than Carte d'Or and their tiramisu ice-cream. Also, it wasn't really about better/worse. It was about being influential. Again, Tesco's ice-cream are plain and boring, like in every other convenience store. Carte d'Or are constantly changing, improving their products, adding new and surprising flavors and ingredients.

 

[Macgyvercas]

No. Just no.

You want to know what will change gaming? When Nintendo stop with the assinine motion controls, Sony relaease the PlayStation 5 and Microsoft release the Xbox900, and all of them have hyper-HD, 3-Dimensional graphics.

THAT will change gaming.

 

[Abedeus]

No. Just no.

You want to know what will change gaming? When Nintendo stop with the assinine motion controls, Sony relaease the PlayStation 5 and Microsoft release the Xbox900, and all of them have hyper-HD, 3-Dimensional graphics.

THAT will change gaming.

Nope, sorry. Graphics will never change gaming.

Only something like the Matrix or other VR program.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

So RTS' huh?

Is Starcraft 2 coming out on it? Maybe that's why Blizzard was taking so long! They were waiting for the iPad to release! It all makes so much sense now!

 

[The DSM]

Popcap will make money by putting bejewled and other games on.

No one else will even care.

Its just all the games that where on the Iphone as thats all it is, a huge Iphone.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

*snip*

It is fairly easy to streamline the UI to do such a thing. Remember, Starcraft's AI took up 1/3 of their original screen size. It's quite possible to do that in less. As for the specified commands, they can be worked in easily to movement mechanics.

Damn. I wish I had an ipad now. I know how to make it work, but can't develop on a platform I don't posses.

 

[Cryo84R]

I don't fancy playing Command and Conquer or Supreme Commander on an iPad, even if it were capable of such a task.

Command and Conquer for the iPhone is actually really good.

Was actually thinking more along the lines of C&C 3 and 4. Is the iPhone one a port of the classic with all the fmv included?

It's defiantly not a port of that one. It uses the units from C&C RA 2.

 

[LlamaDeathMobile]

Actually... I think he makes a good point that I didn't realise there.

Yes, it would have been better for falks like us if it had more computer-like specs (for example, OS X Leopard would have been nice), but that would also make it complicated and confusing to use...

The iPad, though rather bland, should be easy to use for younger/elderly people as an entry-level computer. If used in that way... I think the iPad might actually have a market.

Two words: Nintendo Wii.