Tinkers

The gaming industry was revolutionized by the advent of the massively multiplayer online game; a format which allowed hundreds and thousands of users to interact with each other in the same environment.  Despite the obvious technological advancement of this genre of game, single player games found their own niche with simulated social interaction.  Video games like Animal Crossing, The Sims, and the dot.hack series simulate social interaction between the user and the NPCs (non-playable characters), and are intended for people who own gaming consoles.  In Animal Crossing you might make friends with an NPC who will later visit your house and give you a new piece of furniture for your birthday.  In the dot Hack series, you receive e-mails from your NPC friends that tell you about new dungeons and areas within the game you wouldn’t otherwise be able to find.

Single player social games are the wave of the future, and it’s possible that their popularity might even overtake the online games that are so popular today.

One of the sacrifices a player makes when purchasing a new video game console is no longer being able to play their old games. However with the Playstation 3, almost all of your old Playstation and Playstation 2 games work on the new system, and in some cases with improved graphics. This backwards compatibility was pioneered by the Playstation 2, now returned for the Playstation 3, and has become an industry standard with other video game console producers. However, none of these other game console producers sport the sheer volume of titles available on the Playstation 3.

With several ports of Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and even Arcade titles, the breadth of games playable on the Playstation 3 is unmatched. You can pop in a game originally released in 1998, then a few seconds later, be playing a game released in 2008. Players can purchase older games for a fraction of the cost of a newer title, and still receive the same enjoyment.

When Nintendo made their newest system, the Wii, many gamers were skeptical about the Wii’s success due to their previous system, the GameCube, failing to appeal to most mature and adult gamers. But the Nintendo Wii system proved to have the innovation needed to propel it forward to the best selling system currently on the market. The Wii’s innovation is in the motion sensitive control pad, which can act as a sword for slashing, a fishing reel, or a bowling ball depending on the game. The player gains a heightened feel of immersion as their actions with the controller are reflected on the screen.

The sense of touch and control the Wii allows the player is unprecedented, and has proved to be a new industry standard for future gaming. The Wii also has several game titles geared towards mature and adult players, the aspect which the GameCube lacked.

Remember those great Nintendo and Super Nintendo video games from your youth?  Now you can play them together with the FC Twin.  A combination of the original 8-bit NES and the 16-bit SNES, the FC Twin is a dual system that will allow you to play both the original “Super Mario Brothers” and “Super Mario World.”  The original systems go for serious money on eBay, but now you can own both systems for less than the price of one.  Now all you have to do is hunt down those old games.