Today I came across an interesting interview with G4′s Morgan Webb on CNN.com. It wasn’t interesting because Morgan says something informative. She pretty much said the opposite of informative. Is the interview really that bad? Well let me go over this with everyone…
Let’s start with the title of the article: “What is a ‘Gamer’ in 2011?” (It should be “Who is a Gamer”, not “What”). The title sounds like what should a deep analysis about who is and who isn’t a gamer, which would require input from multiple people to help come up with the traits of a gamer. But this article only asked Morgan Webb… Moving on.
The article starts out by recalling that Video Game Awards host Zachary Levi said that everyone is pretty much gamers. Ms. Webb, who CNN calls a “hardcore gamer” legitimacy’s sake, gave her take on who is a gamer.
“The word encompasses so many different groups, so it doesn’t really mean as much as it used to. I call myself a gamer, but someone’s mom who plays ‘Farmville’ all the time, maybe she calls herself a gamer too, and she should, because she is. I think we need words to start differentiating the subgroups.”
So she pretty much says that anyone who plays any type of game. Since she answered the question the title asks the article should be over. But sadly there is still more.
And the part about putting gamers in subgroups? Don’t we do that already?! There are novice and expert gamers, casual and hardcore gamer, arcade, console, portable, and PC gamers. I see no reason why she said this must be done since it’s being done already.
The article then turns to a Q & A with Webb giving cookie-cutter answers to cookie cutter questions. CNN then asks Morgan whether motion control will take premise over traditional controllers. Her response:
I think there is room for both. Core gamers – the hardcore gamers who play games like “Gears of War,” “Call of Duty,” “Assassin’s Creed” and Skyrim” – that gamer is definitely more interested in using a controller for a lot of their experiences. The problem is that [with] the [PlayStation] Move, these motion experiences aren’t nuanced enough to actually give the player as much control as they would have with a [regular] controller. For example, if you are swinging a sword on a Wii game, you slash to the right and it does a right slash or slash to the left and it does a left slash, but it doesn’t really track or there is no skill involved. Now you are just standing up there making slashing motions for three hours.
… Wow. Just wow.
Let’s break this down piece.
Core gamers – the hardcore gamers who play games like “Gears of War,” “Call of Duty,” “Assassin’s Creed” and Skyrim…
Your know, the group of people who play one title from a certain group of M-Rated game who opinions somehow weighs more than everyone’s.
…that gamer is definitely more interested in using a controller for a lot of their experiences.
Except for the COD players who bought it for the Wii. Just saying.
The problem is that [with] the [PlayStation] Move, these motion experiences aren’t nuanced enough to actually give the player as much control as they would have with a [regular] controller. For example, if you are swinging a sword on a Wii game
Wait a minute. Did Morgan Webb used the Wii as an example to describe the PlayStation Move?
For example, if you are swinging a sword on a Wii game, you slash to the right and it does a right slash or slash to the left and it does a left slash, but it doesn’t really track or there is no skill involved. Now you are just standing up there making slashing motions for three hours.
Girl, did you even play “The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword”? I’d figure you’d play since Wikipedia listed “Zelda” as one of your favorite games. Because if so, you would have known that, thanks to the Wii Motion Plus, your success in Skyward Sword DEPENDS on how accurate you swing your sword. And bout this “skill” you are talking. I’ll bet $100 that you can’t beat me in ANY game let alone a Wii game.
Then the article ends with Webb giving some recommendations, again critically and gamer acclaimed Skyward Sword is not mentioned despite Zelda being Morgan’s favorite game.
Meh. This interview has “train wreck” written all over it. If Olivia Munn said the crap said here she would have had a day worse that that Ocean Marketing guy. People need to call stuff like this out.
We’ll that’s it for this rant.
