The Big Picture: Memorium

[Aardvaarkman]

Having a level that scrolled smoothly? Mario Bros. Ability to save progress within a game, without needing level passwords? Legend Of Zelda. Open ended levels that reward exploration, and give you new abilities to play with? Metroid and Super Metroid. Analogue sticks? Mario 64. Z-targeting? Ocarina Of Time.

Except for the fact that you are wrong, and all of that existed before Nintendo's releases.

The analogue thumbstick brought with it 360 degree control, and with it the sort of gameplay in 3D that simply hadn't been possible before.

That's incorrect. Analogue joysticks with 360 degree capability were already in use before Nintendo's version.

 

[TheMich88]

While I liked the episode very much, I really think that "memorium" is not a word that exists. You either use "in memoriam" or "memorial".

 

[Banzaiman]

"Sama" is such a strong word... "Dono" would have been better at that point... it's respectful, yet you don't sound like you are worshiping the guy... in the wrong way...

I haven't read the entirety of the thread, so I don't know if this has been mentioned already, but actually, the -dono suffix is even more deferential than -sama, and is hardly used anymore. Think of it as the Japanese version of 'milord' or 'master' except without the usual implication of nobility/status.

Apologies if someone else already got to this.

OT: Since gaming's been around for so long in my life, it's difficult to comprehend that a driving force behind the resurgence of video games has died. This is a young medium, and its young audience sometimes forgets that or just doesn't think about it. Things will definitely change as more icons of this industry draw closer to their twilight years, both aspects of the games they make and the habits of this industry as a whole. But as Rath's Critical Intel article has stated, it will be, if nothing else, interesting to see what these people create as their lives progress.

Rest in peace, Mr Yamauchi. Thank you.

 

[JimB]

It's the last Moviebob video I watched. You don't put ads to the end of post-mortem video. Never.

How far does this principle extend? Like, when Comedy Central did a tribute video for Greg Giraldo, they played commercials as usual, and some of those commercial benefited Comedy Central, like ads for the Daily Show. Do you boycott Comedy Central for that too?

 

[Buster]

A bit of an unrelated note, but can someone tell me what the 2 games depicted on 5:18-5:22 are?

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

It's the last Moviebob video I watched. You don't put ads to the end of post-mortem video. Never.

How far does this principle extend? Like, when Comedy Central did a tribute video for Greg Giraldo, they played commercials as usual, and some of those commercial benefited Comedy Central, like ads for the Daily Show. Do you boycott Comedy Central for that too?

Not to say I agree with the sentiment of boycotting postmortem videos based on the personal profit one gains from such videos, but I don't think your comparison is exactly accurate. The integrity of an individual is much easier to scrutinize than the integrity of a company of thousands. Maybe one of the many production hands at Comedy Central that were directly working on that program should have taken the time to inform their superiors of the possibility of moral offense to Greg Giraldo that could come from running their personal ads. In Bob's case, he is one man, writing and editing a tribute video with complete power over the content that is featured, thus it is much more understandable to hold him responsible for not having the good sense to exclude the usual bit of publicity for his book.

It's completely reasonable for him to personally boycott Bob's videos because of this offense to his principles. Just because the same principle doesn't hold to a similar situation on a different scale doesn't make it any less morally valid. After all, holding a single moral principle as an absolute to every possible moral situation is neither prudent nor feasible.

 

[JimB]

It's completely reasonable for him to personally boycott Bob's videos because of this offense to his principles.

Sure. Don't get me wrong; I'm not interested in defending Mr. Chipman. He's a big boy who can handle himself, and in any event, I don't think he's going to weep a bitter tear over the loss of one dude from his viewership. I'm just curious to see how far Rastrelly's principle extends.

 

[Darmani]

definitely one of the most important men in gaming and one who changed the course of gaming's history. If it weren't for Yamauchi then console gaming would have been dead.

I really don't think so. If not for Nintendo, another decent console would have come along. There were many companies making attempts at consoles (including Apple and Commodore), and we always had the C64/Amiga/PC to play with in the meantime. Particularly as the C64, Amiga and many other home computers of the time were a lot like consoles - they were inexpensive, compact and portable, they plugged into the TV, didn't have noisy fans, were easy to use, and even supported things like games on cartridges that you could just plug in and play. And there were many fantastic games that offered what consoles didn't.

Someone would have eventually gotten the console right without Nintendo - as we can see with the success of the original Playstation overshadowing Nintendo. Your argument is kind of like saying that laptops or portable computing never would have happened if it weren't for one particular company. Technology marches on, and while a different history may have given a different timeframe, or different designs, the trend was inevitable. As others have said, the "video game crash" wasn't nearly as big a deal as it is often portrayed in North America.

I don't believe in Destiny... or Free Will. Actions matter and its true we can't predict what would have happened perfectly. just guess. And also true PC gaming isn't AS directly beneficial of his influences. But getting consoles into stores and households made a major difference and kept and evolved VGs in a major way, even on PC where the influence was more indirect. And to be frank I have no doubt PC was interesting then. . .but for mainstream appeal and interest it took a bit and there is a reason besides business treachery all your beloved companies moved to developing to consoles. It just takes a bit. I may not like the playstation but eliminating it from history and citing some grand technical destiny that it would have happened anyway seems.. well off.

 

[Darmani]

Speaking as a man who has lived in Japan and worked for a Japanese company for nearly ten years, I am dubious just how pivotal Yamauchi was in all of this. The Japanese power structure commands an almost Godlike respect for company presidents and CEOs, regardless of their business acumen or decision-making ability. The company lives and dies by the whims of the president, and those same people are often given to making bad, often seemingly-random decisions. Certainly it was a bold move for Yamauchi to restructure Nintendo as a video game company but it probably didn't take a genius to see that playing cards, even at that time, weren't going to be big money makers for much longer.

I'd venture that, yeah, a lot of good ideas probably saw the light of day because of Yamauchi's go-ahead, but there are probably dozens, maybe hundreds of really great ideas that died in the board room because Yamauchi, for whatever reason, personally disliked it.

It's strange to me that a person who hated video games would be so revered by the gaming community. We're talking about a guy that, by the way, also never graduated college and inherited his company through no effort of his own.

Japanese companies are all the same. The president takes the credit for all the good ideas and decisions, but no doubt about it there is always some peon near the bottom actually coming up with those ideas and struggling to convince the president it's the right move. The idea that Yamauchi was some genius just because somebody else managed to convince him that video games would be big some day is ridiculous.

That's all companies. I think we tend to let out our frustrations on ourselves and free r to do so when japan gets involved and that can leed to weaksauceness.

 

[Disthron]

Not to devalue the guys achievements or anything but if he hadn't of taken Nintendo into video games I don't think things would really be that different. Firstly, he didn't "resurrect" video games because video games never died. The "grate crash of 83" was really constrained to home consoles in the US. Video games were going stronger than ever in arcades, on PC and in other countries.

If Nintendo hadn't of produced the NES I think many of the games would have just been made for PC, or Sega Master System or maybe some new companies console that was looking to fill the hole in the market. Hell, maybe Sony would have gotten into the console market back in the 8bit days, and the old time rivalry would be Sega and Sony. Wouldn't that be a trip!

But regardless, we would still have video games and websites that talk about video games. Hell the escapist may still be called the escapist.

 

[talideon]

definitely one of the most important men in gaming and one who changed the course of gaming's history. If it weren't for Yamauchi then console gaming would have been dead.

Europe never had a gaming crash. Might console gaming have died? Maybe, but doubtful. More likely, the gaming focus would've been more influenced by what was happening with the European gaming and demo scene than it subsequently was. It'd be different, but I doubt it'd be better or worse than it currently is.

 

[Shuu]

Cue Tesla vs Edison internet battle!
I didn't flinch when I heard the news either, but to be fair, I wasn't raised on Nintendo, and since I never had any of their consoles, I was never exposed to any of their games growing up... hint hint Nintendo...

 

[Shuu]

In the same video:
"Don't deify people"
and
"Yamauchi-sama"

mfw the honorific "-sama" is used to address gods and those equated to gods

Uh... No. Maybe once, a looooooong time ago, but now, and for a long time, it just confers great respect. In fact there's one even higher, "-dono" from "tono" meaning "lord/lady" and even that isn't on the level of a deity.

 

[Dragonbums]

What is happening to Bob's accent? Was it always this thick?

I had a hard time making out a lot of the stuff he was saying past 2.00.

Maybe I'm just used to hearing people with accents, but I never had a problem with his native Bostonian accent at all.

It's only a little bit stronger than say Jake the dog on Adventure Time.

I never really got what the big deal is.