A Spirited Perfect Ten

[Cesar R M]

ArE you kidding me? Just think about super Mario 3d and how a play land can incorporate elements people are used to the game. Hitting blocks, turtles, etc

Mariokart battle mode or Grand Prix? Simple..

A dark rise through any number of the universes? Piece of cake

Laser tag as samus?

Let the list keep going on and on. If you can't think of anything in just minutes knowing the subject matter ... Go home

Speaking of game lands.
Arent there parks in Japan with "lands" for Resident Evil, Silent Hill and even a bust full sized replica of a EVA from Evangelion?

A "niche market" that makes billions of dollars a year.

Agree.

Call of Duty... for example, as outsold all the biggest Movie blockbusters by a wide margin.

its a huge $$$$ market.


boooom!
nice bomb there @danlb_2000 !!!

 

[Prog]

Cant speak to girls but the boys in our crowd - 8-13 call WDW 'A park for little kids' and they want to go to UNI instead.

I'm seventeen and most guys I've known over the past ten years would kill to go to Disney. Those who went between 8-11 enjoyed it a lot, it would seem. Perhaps it's because most of my friends in elementary school were of a significantly lower income but when I went to Disney at (just under) 9 & 10 they were envious.

 

[Skippy]

Nintendo fanbase and the subgroups within are one of the more rabid communities within gaming fandom. Have you even seen what's been happening when Amiibo preorders start? All those hype train/money printing memes? Nintendo's fanbase is vocal to the point where it starts getting annoying, especially to those who are into other systems or PC.

I did see the craziness that came with the Amiibos at the launch of the latest Smash Bros.
I guess I remember seeing that type of Nintendo fandom in my youth, but I've never seen it past the age of financial independence unlike the other IPs I mentioned. (alas, that wouldn't make a difference for families traveling to orlando)

I could be wrong though. Is there a great swath of 30+ year olds who are extremely vocal about Nintendo being above all else in gaming?

 

[Mr. Peabody]

The public ride capacity of Maelstrom has been quoted at a range from 900-2000.

The figure I've seen is a THRC (theoretical hourly ride capacity) of 1000 per hour and the 900 per hour OHRC I quoted earlier for Maelstrom. 2000 per hour seems a bit too high. That would make it similar in capacity to Little Mermaid and Nemo, and I never thought Maelstrom could compete with either of those Omnimovers on that metric.

 

[Cesar R M]

A game costs exponentially more than a movie ticket, so that skews things. But agreed video games are mainstream pop culture, particularly Nintendo. Something like comic books is far more of a "niche" market.

Theres a lot of price points for Games.
Hell, theres even games starting at 5.

Anyone forgot candy crush's huge earnings? It wasn't a 70+ USD game.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Nintendo's issues with the Wii U are many, the name being only one of the many issues. Another huge issue is that since the Wii era, the market (casuals) that helped drive sales so high have since moved on to mobile devices instead. And since Nintendo ignored their loyal gamer audience in that era, many gave up on Nintendo as well (and to be fair the first problems with their core audience began all the way back in the mid 90's). But they came across a largely untapped market with Wii and decided to put all their chips on that audience, who abandoned them as soon as something else arrived to catch their eyes (the casual market is fickle and short attention spanned like that). And during the casual chasing era, Nintendo lost even more of their prior audience due to further ignoring them. So they're in a shaky situation right now (the 3DS somewhat helped them to stabilize). It doesn't help that the Wii U is a lot less powerful than the PS4 and Xbox One (opting for technology more similar to PS3 and Xbox 360 instead), quite different and more difficult to program for as well. Nintendo has driven away a lot of developers from working on the Wii U. It's also reported in the industry that Nintendo is a kind of troublesome company to work with for outside developers.

It's actually interesting, because there are comparisons to how Disney is treating their core audience in favor of chasing a newer and less quality conscious audience. In Nintendo's case, the consequences have come back to bite them. As stated by many intelligent people here, it may just be a matter of time before the same thing ends up happening to Disney.

Spirit's going to be mad about how offtopic this is getting. Sorry about that. I will say in regards to the topic that I do not think Nintendo's problems in the gaming industry is going to negatively affect this theme park deal. Unless the land is of poor quality (which is unlikely apparently). It's probably a good move in fact as it will stir up some interest in Nintendo's games again. We'll see, but my interest is up as both a theme park AND Nintendo fan. Heck my mom is even interested in the land, and she has never been into video games. Even today i'd still say Mario and other Nintendo properties are some of the most recognizable game IP's in the world. Even with massively popular games like Call of Duty. Nintendo is still massively ingrained in our culture.

It is a bit more than Nintendo ignoring their core audience in the mid 90's for what happened in that era due to the fact they didn't have the amount of 3rd party support for the N64 compare to the SNES or the Nes.

Nintendo not going to the CD format for the Nintendo 64 due to them not wanting piracy was one the things Nintendo did that caused developers not to Develop games or not many games for the N64. That format is why Final Fantasy 7 wasn't on the N64, but the Playstation instead. Publishers and Developers wanted CD over rom cartridges due to memory,sound and cost. Final Fantasy 7 became one of highest selling games for the Playstation.

Nintendo being a troublesome company to work with for outside developers is an understatement. Nintendo's 1st game console became so successful due to illegal monopoly. Nintendo bullied Publishers and retailers during the Nes. Once those illegal contracts expired with the publishers, a lot of them decided not to develop games for the N64.

Nintendo's illegal contracts didn't allow companies to develop games for multiple systems. Nintendo bullied retailers by not wanting them to sell game systems and games their competitors were making. Nintendo back in the late 1980's or early 90's actually got sued by a competitor for the illegal behavior Nintendo was doing.

Nintendo's Illegal practice forced Sega to release the Genesis 2 years before the SNES was and made the Sega Master System a huge flop in North America and Japan. While Sega made screw up on their own, Nintendo's illegal monopoly didn't help matters.

What to the Gamecube was partly due to Nintendo only did min discs instead of using the DVD format. Nintendo was on the wrong end of the Media Format for two game console generations.

 

[Cesar R M]

This is true, but I think there is a market change happening to a point although I don't consider video games as niche.

I am saying that because there has been problems with Capcom, Konami and Sega. Those 3 are long time well known Japanese video game companies. If the problems with Komani aren't legit, why would they delist themselves from the New York Stock exchange?

Proof about Konami: http://www.polygon.com/2015/4/27/8503893/konami-delists-itself-from-new-york-stock-exchange

There is problems with Sega due to the fact they cut jobs earlier this year and now they are not showing up at E3 along with the fact they are focusing more on mobile and pc games now.

Capcom's revenue went down by 37 percent for the whole year. Proof: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-05-07-capcoms-full-year-revenue-drops-37-per-cent

What you're seeing is.. companies that refuse to innovate and they keep milking old game franchises to death with barely any change.

Konami as been in a lot of trouble, not only economical.. but also of their own staff.
Both Konami and Capcom are either fired or forced important franchise creators OUT.

Now, Konami and Capcom are only one of the many Studios.
Please tell me when Electronic Arts, Activision or Valve talks about gigantic drop in revenues.

I'll grant you that Sega lost it a while long time ago, but they also did acquire Atlus last year. Atlus is well know for the RPGS. I am sure the people that I know from another site is capable of using Sega's ip's better than Sega can.

What to those 3 is a bigger problem from a Japanese video company standpoint. I am bringing this up because while Square Enix isn't losing money, they actually are not the same company as they once where. They depend too much on Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and brave default.

Segas issues was mediocre planning between their consoles and their games.
They pretty much got assaulted hardcore by both Sony's playstation and Nintendo's Xbox.
They failed to innovate and died in the end.

Those are business management issues. Not the state of the whole Game industry.

 

[Tony Perkis]

Quite a lot of sour grapes have come out on the forums today.

Funny.

It adds up. I've had a lot of grape tonight.

 

[Prog]

GameCube was also the start of the kiddie image that alienated developers. The PS2 had the brand and the DVD player while the Xbox had power and Live. GameCube... had family friendly fun games and an amazing controller.

It is a bit more than Nintendo ignoring their core audience in the mid 90's for what happened in that era due to the fact they didn't have the amount of 3rd party support for the N64 compare to the SNES or the Nes.

Nintendo not going to the CD format for the Nintendo 64 due to them not wanting piracy was one the things Nintendo did that caused developers not to Develop games or not many games for the N64. That format is why Final Fantasy 7 wasn't on the N64, but the Playstation instead. Publishers and Developers wanted CD over rom cartridges due to memory,sound and cost. Final Fantasy 7 became one of highest selling games for the Playstation.

Nintendo being a troublesome company to work with for outside developers is an understatement. Nintendo's 1st game console became so successful due to illegal monopoly. Nintendo bullied Publishers and retailers during the Nes. Once those illegal contracts expired with the publishers, a lot of them decided not to develop games for the N64.

Nintendo's illegal contracts didn't allow companies to develop games for multiple systems. Nintendo bullied retailers by not wanting them to sell game systems and games their competitors were making. Nintendo back in the late 1980's or early 90's actually got sued by a competitor for the illegal behavior Nintendo was doing.

Nintendo's Illegal practice forced Sega to release the Genesis 2 years before the SNES was and made the Sega Master System a huge flop in North America and Japan. While Sega made screw up on their own, Nintendo's illegal monopoly didn't help matters.

What to the Gamecube was partly due to Nintendo only did min discs instead of using the DVD format. Nintendo was on the wrong end of the Media Format for two game console generations.

 

[Mike S]

Yeah, you don't get in-depth gaming experiences on smartphones. Mobile gaming is the home of Angry Birds and associated knockoffs, puzzle games, horrid bootleg games of popular properties, and various "Let's trick children into spending thousands of dollars of their parents money on building a virtual town" freemium titles.

I remember South Park had an amazing explanation of the freemium model.

Makes me sad that so few people give Kirby a thought...

But boy would I LOVE a Donkey Kong Country Mine Cart coaster, I can wish (it's practically begging to be turned into a ride). Especially if they take inspiration from the Wii and Wii U DKC games with their crazy layouts and weaving in and out of different environments (mines, caves, jungles, tropical beaches and even sawmills). One level even had a hybrid of both a mine cart coaster, as well as a log flume section. Would make an amazing ride if done right.

Tell me you wouldn't think these would be amazing rides (these aren't even including the original ones from the SNES DKC trilogy, or the even more blatantly coaster like minecart minigames from Donkey Kong 64)-



Bet Spirit is good and annoyed with all the video game talk. Lol, at least it's now somewhat relevant though!

When it comes to Donkey Kong Country's Mine Carts there is one common element: jumping. Picture if you will, a state of the art, never done before, roller coaster ride vehicle mixed with EMV technonogy and on board sound effects that make you believe you're jumping off the track. I'm not exactly sure if this kind of thing is even possible, but that's what I would push for if I was making a DK Mine Cart ride.

 

[Cesar R M]

Gotta love that Disney, the company where gambling disagrees with their values unless it involves Iron Man and his buddies, has pushed Free To Play very, very hard over the past couple of years.

these free to play games (like Marvel Heroes MMO) depend a lot on "boosters" and "skins" to pay their bills.
So...not exactly 100% free.
Plus you the freemiun model always has limitations (the free characters, the skins, the weapon numbers, level limit) that push you to pay and expand.
In short.. the new freemiun model is pretty much the "demo" or "shareware" of the past being transferred to the modern world.

 

[Tony Perkis]

I feel no sour grapes and haven't seen that out of more than a couple of the usual suspects, but I am perplexed by the reaction of some to the Nintendo thing. That's probably because I'm not a gamer now and wasn't as a child. After the Atari 2600 feel to the wayside I didn't use another game console until I had children. I've found the conversation fascinating because I had no idea that Nintendo (or any other game system) as a brand had an apparently passionate fan following. After reading it I've kind of decided that what I saw as a nice little get by UNI might be something much bigger. Even amongst all the sniping that goes on here, you can learn something new if you bother to read and not ignore the voices that sometimes grate.

In summary: Nintendo is a giant. It doesn't have the devoted following that Harry Potter does, in that people will travel countries to visit, but Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros., Mario Kart, Metroid, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Star Fox, Wario, Pokemon, Donkey Kong, and Kirby (in no particular order) are legends in this industry. People from 7 to 50 will easily identify with one or many of these characters. This is the easiest licensing deal Universal has had in years.

 

[Cesar R M]

Doesn't UNI already have Dr. Seuss? If they couldn't leverage that market penetration, breadth of well known characters, and generational appeal into something like what you describe across all their parks then Nintendo won't help in the family demo. I think Nintendo is a nice get, but they already have the Grinch, Sam I Am, Cat in the Hat and all the rest which are a better family IP than anything outside of Disney.

I dont think Dr. Seuss is that big outside the US.

 

[Tony Perkis]

I remember South Park had an amazing explanation of the freemium model.

Canadian Satan sucks.

 

[Bairstow]

When it comes to Donkey Kong Country's Mind Carts there is one common element: jumping. Picture if you will, a state of the art, never done before, roller coaster ride vehicle mixed with EMV technonogy and on board sound effects that make you believe you're jumping off the track. I'm not exactly sure if this kind of thing is even possible, but that's what I would push for if I was making a DK Mine Cart ride.

The "jumping" sensation wouldn't be hard at all to accomplish with an EMV. All you would really need to do is have the vehicle normally pipe a strong, vibrating wheel noise through the bottom of the vehicles and then briefly turn the noise off and have the vehicle pitch backwards as it travels up a slight hill when it's "jumping".

 

[Skippy]

I remember South Park had an amazing explanation of the freemium model.

First thing I thought of when I heard the word "freemium" uttered.

 

[Mike S]

The "jumping" sensation wouldn't be hard at all to accomplish with an EMV. All you would really need to do is have the vehicle normally pipe a strong, vibrating wheel noise through the bottom of the vehicles and then briefly turn the noise off and have the vehicle pitch backwards as it travels up a slight hill when it's "jumping".

I guess I just thought that kind of thing wouldn't mix well with a fast moving roller coaster, but then again I'm no engineer.

 

[Cesar R M]

My 11 yo boy is ****ed we are "wasting" two days at Uni. Although my 16 yo girl is excited we are going to Uni, it's only for the potter stuff. If given the choice, one over the other, Disney would win hands down.

Has he ever been to Uni?
Sometimes kids and even adult people, are too blind with name brands that they think anything else is "awful" (compared to their beloved main brand).

Experiencing it is a good way to open the eyes.. and if he doesnt like.. he just can stop going in the future.

 

[Tony Perkis]

Unrelated, about to finish Super Mario 64 once again. Currently at 108 stars. 120 will happen.

 

[bhg469]

hang on.. since when Resident evil....

I meant that eternal darkness combines survival horror woth an rpg but none of that turn based, giant sword, ridiculous haircut type rpg.