GameCop vs. LameCop is a feature where Anthony and I argue about video game issues, taking on the persona of either the GameCop or the LameCop as we do so. The GameCop has your best interests as gamers at heart, while the LameCop is just what he sounds like: a total loser.
This week, we tackle several issues including pre-order incentives, video game hype and Nintendo re-packaging GameCube games and selling them for the Wii.
Enjoy!
Issue 1
GameStop is offering pre-order bonuses like better weapons for CoD:World at War. This is similar to Battlefield: Bad Company offering DLC content like a special gun for players to use in Multiplayer matches. Fair or foul?
GameCop: Anthony
Big foul! This is a trend that I really hope does not continue. Who came up with this? EA and Gamestop. Do you need to know anymore? If I said that Hitler and Osama bin Laden had a great idea…would you even need to hear it to know its not going to be good for you?
Just because some people want to throw down their money before a game is even in the country does not mean they should get an unfair advantage. What if you get the game for Christmas and the person buying it for you had no idea about the preorder deal? What if Best Buy has a sale and it’s 20 bucks cheaper? What if you have a family or a life and their needs come before your need for a pseudo-BFG to shoot 12 years old with online?
What then, Eddy? WHAT THEN I SAY?
LameCop: Eddy
It’s clear that people are completely overreacting about this issue. It’s not GameStop’s fault that you’re too stupid NOT to order from them in the first place. Why walk into a regular electronics store and get the game at your leisure when you can go to GameStop and get badgered by employees and then put on a waiting list for a game that is readily available everywhere else?
And as to the issue of having better weapons online for a small fee or a pre-order… This stuff has been going in organized competitive sports since the dawn of time. Would you restrict an athlete from buying the best shoes? Or the best baseball bats? Or HGH? You probably would, because in your perfect world everybody is a noob and needs to start with the same exact weapon. Fine, I’ll be a part of your bland world, Anthony, devoid of choice, variety and probably fun.
Issue 2
Every year, the hype train pumps up gaming’s biggest releases, from Halo 3 to Gears of War 2 to LittleBigPlanet. Do massive levels of hype help or hurt gamers and the industry?
GameCop: Eddy
Well if you’re talking about hype that goes to insane levels, you’d have to look no further than the Halo franchise, which took things to the absolute extreme last Fall. From the “Believe” ads (which ultimately had no bearing on the actual game) to the Halo cheet-ohs or whatever else got released, hype absolutely built an insurmountable obstacle for that game. I think games this year are doing much better, and have seemed to tone things down. Epic is managing the GoW2 info pretty well, and Sony seems to be handling LBP content with similar grace, seeing as how most of that hype is content coming from its users.
I think that the real strategy is just to let your game speak for yourself. Gamers aren’t idiots. Well, most of them aren’t. They can see through garbage, and your hype is more likely to kill the excitement for your game than prop it up.
LameCop: Anthony
Eddy, once again, your ignorance is as staggering as seeing the Hammer of Dawn for the first time. Hype is AWESOME. Without hype, would Final Fantasy VII, a game that is basically an Excel Database with polygons, have done nearly as well? No, is the answer. In fact, in the spirit of hype, NO WAY IN HELL EVER.
You complain about Halo’s hype, but without that hype, it would be awfully lonely on Xbox Live at 4 in the morning with no one to play with. Don’t believe me? Ask someone who still plays Ultima Online. Hype makes a crappy game like Facebreaker into the Punch Out of this generation. Hype made the Wii a success, because as anyone who has a Wii can attest, it sure as hell isn’t fun playing the 3 good games out there. Hell, hype made Super Smash Brothers Brawl into a giant success and its a game where whoever hits the A button fastest still isn’t guaranteed a victory because it’s all random! Hype works again!
Eddy, your point about hype is clearly the dumbest thing ever put on any of the Internets. Sure the first Halo made it without hype and so did the first God of War. But if it weren’t for hype, would so many people have bought Fable, which now has paved the way for Fable 2, which might live up to the hype of the original? Once again, the answer is no. But not any no. A big NO, on a billboard in Times Square during rush hour with a concert in the middle of the street and a movie tie-in promo on a passing bus.
Hype is awesome and anyone who disagrees is the biggest moron in the world and the worst thing to happen to the world since The Hills.
Issue 3
Nintendo is re-releasing several GameCube games on the Wii this Fall and over the course of next year. Can’t gamers already play GameCube games on the Wii, anyway, at a cheaper price? Fair or foul by Nintendo?
GameCop: Anthony
Nintendo once again extends a giant middle finger to its consumers. Want new Wii games? Denied! You get Gamecube retreads instead! That’s right, some of the 3rd-best-selling-system-of-last-generation’s greatest hits will be coming to the Wii with Wii controls added! Awesome- games that were made for a traditional control scheme will get a new one pasted on. I’m sure that won’t create any problems at all! And since its some of the more popular games that are getting this treatment, that means that most people have already played them!
What this appears to be is a marketing test by Nintendo to see exactly how brain dead their consumers really are. Soon, they will start releasing Nintendo 64 games with Wii controls, instead of focusing on making new and exciting games we have never played before! You know how some people just clamor for Final Fantasy remakes and how old that gets? You ain’t seen nothing yet!
Edd-Wii?
LameCop: Eddy
What do you have against retro games, Anthony? Bring ’em all on, I say! Re-release some Virtual Boy with waggle controls and charge me $40, I’m good for it. Just because you don’t have the money to replay all of the classics the REAL way (waggle ftw!) doesn’t mean that you have to punish the rest of us with plenty of money to blow on the most inane luxuries.
Give me Superman 64 and Mario Sunshine, I’m dying to play something, anything on my $250 coffee table decoration. Haven’t you heard, Anthony? Nintendo only made the best two consoles ever in the NES and SNES, so who are we to question any of their decisions from here on out? Sure, their track record has been bad since I dunno, 1996, but this is Nintendo. Nintendo! It’s the same as that senile great uncle that shows up every Christmas in his pajamas, taking money out of your change jar. How can you not love the old rascal?
Now that you’ve seen the GameCop vs LameCop stance, what are your thoughts on these issues?
Im gunna put out n opinion on one part of this that kinda spawns its own argument/analysis.
“It’s clear that people are completely overreacting about this issue. It’s not GameStop’s fault that you’re too stupid NOT to order from them in the first place. Why walk into a regular electronics store and get the game at your leisure when you can go to GameStop and get badgered by employees and then put on a waiting list for a game that is readily available everywhere else?”
Saying this, IMHO, isn’t always correct. I was thinking about WHY people, including myself at times, go and pre-order games at GameStop. Then I realized it, thats just why GameStop is at the top for game sales. Saying you can just walk in and buy a game at Best Buy doenst always work that way. R6V2 release date, no one had it here in College Station. I had to wait till GameStop got its second order. When games get hyped up they sell out quick. If you want to get the game the day it comes out, you usually have to have it pre-ordered, or go wait in line or be there at the right time. For students, thats hard. No one really does pre-orders like GameStop either, especially when it comes to consoles.
I just wouldnt say we are ‘Stupid’ for going, just how things are makes us want to go to instantly satisfy our want for the game.
Well the sentence actually reads “too stupid NOT to order from GameStop”, because it was a wildly sarcastic point of view.
But yes, you do raise a good point. My experience has always been that I find a game the day of, almost no matter what, when I go somewhere like Best Buy or Circuit City. I got Gears of War, Smash Bros and a few other big name games that way.
I go to Target or Best Buy and they have tons of the game and Gamestop only has enough for their preorders. So screw them.
I’m going to share my opinions in order.
1. Personally, I don’t mind pre-ordering and the hype that follows it like a gloomy rain cloud. Yeah, offering the FG42 – which, according to other WWII shooters, is a kickass gun – as well as the 72 hours of Double XP seems cheap, but remember: that’s for the Limited Edition, not the Pre-Order. So I’ll probably get the Limited Edition. Uh, yeah.
2. Hype is an interesting topic. The more hype a game has, the more you sit back and realize – it’s probably not going to live up to the hype. Halo 3 is a good example. From Day 1 since they released the 07 Announcement, people were going crazy, myself included. And while Halo 3 was great, I still felt that Halo 1 and Halo 2 delivered more awesomeness in relation to their hype.
3. I’ve lost respect for Nintendo. I think everyone has.
[quote comment=”1117″]Well the sentence actually reads “too stupid NOT to order from GameStop”, because it was a wildly sarcastic point of view.[/quote]
Woops, you are correct sir. I think my situation may be different due to the small size of the town and the fact it is half college age kids. You guys make it sound like things have changed recently. I cant remember the last time, other than TFU, I went and picked up a game the day it came out at a retail store.
yeah,in Tampa, you can find them everywhere. Wal Mart, FYE, Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, K Mart. Think outside the Gamestop box.
[quote comment=”1120″]
Cossack 69:
3. I’ve lost respect for Nintendo. I think everyone has.[/quote]
Is there anything in particular that they’ve done that has done this, you think?
I really think they’ve just lost sight of what the core gamers want, or they just don’t care.
I mean, the fact that the Wii has little to no online focus says to me that they completely have misread the trend of online gameplay that’s been growing for YEARS. They’re out of touch, it seems, and it’s quite sad, because I love some of what they do.
The DS is a shining example of great games mixed with unique gameplay. If only the Wii could channel whatever it is the DS has got…
Eddy, my dear old friend (no, I don’t stalk you), Nintendo used to be awesome. During the 8- and 16-Bit Wars, it was the King of the Blocky Hill. It had great, new, sometimes groundbreaking titles. It was always reliable and satisfying, with a large library of solid games and few technical problems. Even the Gamecube held its own with Resident Evil 4, SSB Melee, and Metroid Prime.
But around the time when the Gamecube was starting to die and the Wii was about to be revealed. It began to just thrust out more Mario Parties and other spin-offs, other lame games, and overall just ruin its reputation with junk.
Now you have billions of gratuitous nothing filling the Wii’s library, with only a handful of solid games that could barely compete with the gems of 360 – Halo 3, GoW, BioShock (that was 360 only, right?) – and PS3 – uh…MGS4?
That’s why Nintendo < what it used to be.
STOP ARGUING!!!!!!!! YOUR TEARING US ALL APART!!!
Totally agree with most of what you’ve said there Cossack, but I think you might hold the Gamecube in slightly higher esteem than myself. Personally, I think Nintendo’s been on a downward spiral since after the first year or so of the Nintendo 64. I keep hoping they’ll prove me wrong, but only time will tell.
Nintendo’s been on a rollercoaster ride in my opinion. They were at the top in 8-bit and 16-bit era’s. The Nintendo 64 was great in my opinion but Sony beat them out with the Ps1, the GBA was also great. Then they dropped pretty far down during the game cube era. Don’t get me wrong, the Cube had some great games but I definitly lost a lot of respect for Nintendo. The DS seemed really gimicky to me when it first came out and I didn’t play it much, but after a while the developers started making real games for it and it seemed like things would be looking good for Nintendo. Then the wii released and at first I loved it, and while most of the games were gimicky at first I thought things would get better over time like they did with the DS. Now it’s two years later and the quality of the games still hasn’t really changed and I’m starting to lose respect for Nintendo again. It’s been a while since anyone’s had any good ideas for it. I mean they’re making loads of money with they’re non-gamer approach but they’ve pretty much given they’re hardcore base who basically made Nintendo what it is a big middle finger. That’s not right.
1)Any bonus that gives an advantage with money in gaming is FOUL. Look at free to play games. FOUL. And thats all I have to say about that.
2)Hype is never bad. I just hate it when a game is hyped up, sucks, and then is still advertised as an epic game. If your game sucks, stop trying to hype it up.
3)Yeah this is pretty much pointless. This is the kind of stuff you do when you’ve got like 20 great games on your system and you wanna put in a special bonus for the fanboys. This is NOT what you do when you’re system is called Wii and it halfway sucks. Plus, we can already play gamecube games. Answered. Pointless. Bring back the Nintendo from gameboy color/advance!! And even gamecube Nintendo took more chances. Now Nintendo seems to have gone the family (meaning mom and dad turn on the game and bring all the neighborhoods two year olds over to play to teach their kids to socialize) route.
[quote comment=”1142″]Nintendo’s been on a rollercoaster ride in my opinion. They were at the top in 8-bit and 16-bit era’s. The Nintendo 64 was great in my opinion but Sony beat them out with the Ps1, the GBA was also great. Then they dropped pretty far down during the game cube era. Don’t get me wrong, the Cube had some great games but I definitly lost a lot of respect for Nintendo. The DS seemed really gimicky to me when it first came out and I didn’t play it much, but after a while the developers started making real games for it and it seemed like things would be looking good for Nintendo. Then the wii released and at first I loved it, and while most of the games were gimicky at first I thought things would get better over time like they did with the DS. Now it’s two years later and the quality of the games still hasn’t really changed and I’m starting to lose respect for Nintendo again. It’s been a while since anyone’s had any good ideas for it. I mean they’re making loads of money with they’re non-gamer approach but they’ve pretty much given they’re hardcore base who basically made Nintendo what it is a big middle finger. That’s not right.[/quote]
I also agree with you on the subject of nintendo. I mean wtf? The DS as a social network and global navigation device? Mom and dad will be checking the weather on the DS? You’ve gotta be kidding me. I think all of nintendo’s creative people should go to ps3. Not even XBox cuz I think the ps3 has way more potential. But yeah, I don’t think Nintendo even has plans to stay in the gaming business. I think they’re just stalling for time and trying to find a way out, since its obvious the XBox smashed both Nintendo and Sony, and Sony is just turning around and Smashing Nintendo again, just because Nintendo sucks so bad right about now.