Topic: "The Wii Is A Piece of Shit"

[nickclone]

GDC 2007: "The Wii is a Piece of S***!"
One of Spore's developers rants about Nintendo's "two GameCubes stuck together with duct tape."
by Daemon Hatfield

March 7, 2007 - During a session at GDC this morning entitled "Burning Mad - Game Publishers Rant," time was taken about half way through to allow developers a chance to spew their own rants. One speaker, Chris Hecker, currently working on Spore at Maxis, took the opportunity to call out Nintendo for not taking games seriously.

"The Wii is a piece of s***!" Hecker began his talk, which was called "Fear of a Wii Planet." He blasted a few bars of Public Enemy to set the tone. Hecker said the Wii is nothing more than two GameCubes stuck together with duct tape, and that the console isn't powerful enough to provide the next-gen experience he has been waiting for.

Although he stated the system is "severely underpowered," Hecker noted that he wasn't simply referring to the Wii's graphical capabilities. He wants to spend a console's CPU making games more intelligent, and he has found the Wii doesn't have the power to process things like complicated AI.

Hecker also took Nintendo to task for not taking games seriously enough. "It's not clear to me that Nintendo gives a s*** about games as an art form," he said. To illustrate his point, he searched for references to games as art on all three console manufacturers web sites. While he found numerous such references on both the official PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sites, Wii.com had none at all. He then shared quotes from executives at Sony and Microsoft talking about games as a serious artistic medium, and then a quote from a Nintendo executive saying the company only wanted to make "fun" games.

Hecker ended his spirited rant with two demands for Nintendo: First, recognize and push games as serious art. And two, "make a console that doesn't suck ass."

http://wii.ign.com/articles/771/771051p1.html

[Quemaqua]

Huh.  That seems... stupid.  I'm not a Wii fanboy by any means, but who the hell has a problem with games being fun?  I mean, isn't that kind of the fucking point?  I'm all for art, and if you can have great games that are fun while being high art (Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, etc.), that's great!  But come on, man!  Not everything has to be art.  Mario has never been "art" in that higher sense, but that's one of the longest running, most innovative, and downright fun franchises on the face of the planet!

I'm still skeptical about certain facets of the Wii, but this guy needs to sit down and stop reading Sony or Microsoft bullshit written by their moronic executives who don't give a flying fuck about gaming in the least bit.  What, you're going to tell me Peter Moore ever cared about pushing games as an artistic medium?  These people want money.  If making a game about picking your ass crack would make them more of it, that game would get made, art be damned.

[gpw11]

I was reading about this on digg, and really who cares?  Someone who happens to develop for Spore doesn't like the Wii.  Great.  Seriously, who cares?  He says his reasons for doing so and slips some inflamitory comments in there.  In short, he's like everyone on the internet.  Great.

The best part was on digg all the comments after.  Aparently people get really pissed off over some stupid shit.  "Moron, if they can do Spore on the DS they can do pretty much anything on the Wii".  Bitches, Spore will make your DS' CPU melt.  The DS version of Spore is going to be a completely different game.....trust me.   

But yeah, who really cares?

[Quemaqua]

I sort of do just because the rant used to be cool and actually have people who had something meaningful to say, even if controversial.  This guy pretty much just seems like a dipshit with nothing worth talking about.  I fail to see why he gets a spot on the rant.

[Jedi]

I sort of do just because the rant used to be cool and actually have people who had something meaningful to say, even if controversial.  This guy pretty much just seems like a dipshit with nothing worth talking about.  I fail to see why he gets a spot on the rant.

Because he's a developer? I think that's why he 'gets a spot' to rant. He's just someone who takes interviews, combine that and his out spoken ranting...
I'm with GPW he's just another guy  with an opinion big deal.

[Cobra951]

If he's sincere and competent (2 serious assumptions) than my guess is that he is just coming off some heavy-duty frustration trying to make something happen on the system which either it can't do, or he hasn't figured out how to do yet.  Any system can process AI.  It's a question of how long you let it take to do it.  When I wrote a maze/chase game for a system with a 1.79-MHz 8-bit CPU (and no other help) I had the AI, simple as it was, spread out over 8 frames of movement.  All decisions were finalized and put to work every 8 frames.  My first star field program (yep, like the Enterprise going at warp speed) used a trig table which was precomputed at program launch.  Eventually I made a modified build just so I could save out the table, and save even that up-front time.  There's always a way to circumvent hardware limitations behind the scenes.

Anyway, I went a bit further off on that than I anticipated.  The short take is that whatever he wants to do is probably doable, even if it takes thinking outside the box.

[idolminds]

So like...he didnt mean it.

I don't know who has read the internet, yesterday. In a [unintelligible] panel I said a bunch of things. I was trying to be thought provoking and entertaining and fun and a lot of the stuff went too far over the top—on the entertaining and fun side, so that it was no longer thought provoking, just inflammatory. And in the process I hurt a bunch of people I care about. And so, I want to apologize now.

When I'm on stage, I'm me. I'm talking talk from me. From me. I'm not representing EA or Maxis.

I want to make two things perfectly clear.

I do not think the Wii is a piece of shit. Nintendo needs to be applauded for trying to interface on the controller front, the user interface front, on making games accessible, on making a console that you don't need to mortgage your house to afford.

Secondly, it's totally obvious—and I'm sorry that I implied otherwise—that everyone at Nintendo is passionate at making great games. Some of the games give me hope that we will be seen as an art form on par with movies and books.

Though it does sound like his bosses reamed him.

[Cobra951]

Yes, which gives some weight, I think, to my theory about recent frustration.  He lost his cool, got officially reamed, time for contrite mea culpas.

[Jedi]

When I'm on stage, I'm me. I'm talking talk from me. From me. I'm not representing EA or Maxis.

Wel that about sums it all up.

[MysterD]

If he don't like the Wii's (lack thereof) horsepower, then go develop for some other freakin' system then. Sheesh.

And of course, he apologized. For what? His bosses? Sure sounds like it.

I'm sure he meant what he said -- that he wishes the Wii wasn't so damn weak, horsepower-wise. That makes sense to me. That really sounds like what he was getting at, in his "rant."

Though, I doubt the Wii is a "piece of shit" as a gaming system, myself. It's probably good, despite its lack of horsepower -- it's the games that make up that system, really. Library-wise, Wii looks like it got a lot more going on than the freakin' PS3 does. The PS3 looks like a powerful system, currently w/ a lack of games. Meanwhile, the Wii looks like a system w/ a good library, despite lack of horsepower -- that makes it sound a lot like the PS2, if you ask me.

The Wii-mote sounds pretty cool to me, as a game feature -- if designed properly around the games by designers. And, I bet Zelda: Twilight Princess rules -- just b/c it's freakin' Zelda.

[Cobra951]

It rules just fine on the GC, without any need to become real-world athletic.

[gpw11]

it's the games that make up that system, really. Library-wise, Wii looks like it got a lot more going on than the freakin' PS3 does. The PS3 looks like a powerful system, currently w/ a lack of games. Meanwhile, the Wii looks like a system w/ a good library, despite lack of horsepower -- that makes it sound a lot like the PS2, if you ask me.

The Wii-mote sounds pretty cool to me, as a game feature -- if designed properly around the games by designers. And, I bet Zelda: Twilight Princess rules -- just b/c it's freakin' Zelda.

I don't want to be a Wii hater, but I'd argue that it doesn't really have a good library.  There's really only two games that are really getting any attention: Wii Sports and Zelda.  Zelda isn't even really a Wii game in my mind.  It's a Gamecube game through and
through.  Sure it has the new control scheme, but I don't think it would really add that much and the game wasn't built around it.  Wii Sports is a mixed bag depending on who you talk to.  I personally would love it, but I'm not sure it wouldn't get boring after a while. 

The PS3 library isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be.  It's not up there with the 360 by any means, but it's not like it's barren, and I'd guess that it actually has a more diverse library. 

Either way it's all speculative.  We have no idea where this is going.  I do to a certain point agree with this guy though...just not how he says it.  Wii hype is so high right now that you can't really criticize it, but when you think about it the machine itself is innovative, but that says nothing about the games.  You're playing the same games, but controlling them in a new way.  Personally, I'd rather play new types of games. And one major way of making that possible is putting better hardware in the hands of people with the vision to make that happen.

Look, more powerful CPUs and GPUs aren't just about graphics (Strawman argument that is really prevalent on the internet) it's about enabiling shit like procedual synthesis and advanced real world physics which in turn enable games like Spore and LittleBigWorld.  Sure it's possible to do advanced AI, Physics, and possibly even procedual synthesis on the Wii, but it's probably not very practicle.  As such I've got a feeling we're going to be getting a whole lot more "control this same game in a new way!!" mixed in with the occasional Elebits or something like that on the Wii while the games that are actually innovate and use advanced technology to do so will stick to the PC, 360, and PS3.  I think that's really all this guy is saying.  Or maybe it's just me.

[Pugnate]

I don't know why the Wii gets such a massive pass from everyone. While the Wii isn't as horrible an investment as the PS3, it doesn't have any games yet either.

[Quemaqua]

I think what this guy was saying is summed up well in his apology.  He was being a dick and had no real point.  Again, I'm not a Wii fanboy, I just thought he didn't say anything that was actually worth listening to, which was part of my disappointment.  I really enjoy the rant most of the time because it's usually about hard-hitting issues and stuff.  This just wasn't.

I think the Wii definitely has some more to do to prove itself, and time will tell how well it does in that regard.  Still, I enjoy the system quite a lot for what I've used it for thus far at Sy's place.  I continue to believe it has a lot of potential if used properly, and some of what's there already is pretty cool.

[gpw11]

I think his apology can be summed up with "My bosses at Maxis and EA are threatening me and this is what I have to say in order to keep my job."

But you're right, most of it was pointless except for:

"Although he stated the system is "severely underpowered," Hecker noted that he wasn't simply referring to the Wii's graphical capabilities. He wants to spend a console's CPU making games more intelligent, and he has found the Wii doesn't have the power to process things like complicated AI."

I don't think that's a bad point at all.  Like I said, given the choice between new types of games made possible through more powerful systems or new ways of controlling the same games, I personally will take the former.  Both would be great, but we don't really have that right now.

[ender]

Wow, I guess I'll be having a blast on my Wii while this guy sucks on his own cock of self-importance.

[gpw11]

That's the other side of it.  The Wii most obviously isn't a piece of shit, it's really fucking fun...which is how a console should be.