LosOjos

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/03/30/article-1371639-0B68694100000578-590_233x423.jpg "Huh, huh, huh, know what I mean 'arry?"

Because Nintendo, since the Wii, have been relying on gimmicks to make them stand out from the crowd. The Wii brought us the first really usable motion controls (offerings such as EyeToy before it were pretty dire), the 3DS gave us a 3D screen we could use without glasses, the Wii U gave us... well, a tablet essentially. The way I see indie helping to save the Wii U is that indie devs don't have a huge payroll they need to meet, they don't generally have investors to please, they're usually just a group of people who love games and are happy to take a risk. If it fails, they don't care, they made a game! If it succeeds, it's often because they took some gaming stereotype and flipped it on it's head, or they breathed new life in to an old genre. I really do think fresh minds getting a hold of Nintendo hardware could work wonders for them and some imaginative souls out there may well come up with a justification for these gimmicks and create something that uses them so well, you'll want to know why your PS4/XB1/Vita can't do that. Clearly, Nintendo aren't managing on their own!

I think the Wii U could be potentially saved by the indie community. Seriously! The AAA game studios have all pretty much been churning out the same tired crap for years now, whereas the indie scene has rocketed in popularity due in no small part to the fact that they innovate. A huge problem the Wii U is having is finding it's identity. From what I have seen (which admittedly isn't a lot, I only know one person IRL who owns a Wii U) the tablet/pad is totally wasted. Nothing has been done to justify the added expense that thing adds to the console, and the fact that you can only hook one up to the Wii U at a time (last I checked anyway) is beyond a joke - did Nintendo miss the fact that people love to play games together? Hell, the Wii was pretty awful without friends! If Nintendo open up the console to indie devs, just think of the weird and wonderful things they'll try doing with that thing. They won't all be a success and some will lack some polish, but they will almost certainly end up with a few truly innovative titles that aren't possible to create on any other platform - they'll have titles that make you want to own a Wii U.

Bang on. There's no way Nintendo will hire a foreign CEO, they're far too proud for that (it's not just Nintendo, that's Japanese business culture and understandable). The way things are going for Nintendo, I think they have one more console left in them; if that takes off, they'll continue in videogames but if it flops I think there's a good chance they'll refocus elsewhere (the medical industry by the sounds of things) and license their IP to third parties to keep that door ajar. I know they have enough money to probably have 2 or 3 more consoles flop but I don't think they'll risk squandering it all if they have another bad egg. The same thing happened (thank $deity!) in the 70's, up until that point they had been playing card manufacturers but when that started to go south, that's when they ventured in to videogames. Again, totally agree. What Activision has that Nintendo doesn't (for now!) is a captive audience. They hit gold with CoD:MW and have been riding it's coat tails ever since, fortunately for them CoD has become such a huge franchise that teenage lads will rush out in droves to get the latest version. The other advantage Activision has is it's only producing software - when CoD starts to become unprofitable, they just move on to some other franchise. They don't have consoles to sell and they're not reliant on the sales of any particular console to sell software - so long as they develop for the market leaders, there'll always be people to buy their games. Nintendo have boxed themselves in to a tricky situation. On the one hand, they don't want to develop for third party platforms, instead choosing to make their catalog exclusive to their consoles. This made sense for a long time - if you wanted to play Nintendo franchise games, well then you better buy a Nintendo! The problem is, those franchises have become stale. Yeah they try to make changes with each new version but quite often it's not enough, although I would make Super Mario an exception to this; they have done some really great things with those games. Mario Kart is Mario Kart, you know exactly what you're going to get before you put it in the machine. Pokemon, well, as much as I'm enjoying the new one, I doubt I'd have stuck with it if I'd continued playing after Red/Blue, X/Y is almost identical in every way and that's quite sad really. As for NES/GB games, £5+ is an absolute joke and an insult to long time fans; Nintendo have made their fortune on these games, to eek out every last penny they can from the fans who have remained loyal all these years is, frankly, disgusting. To compound this problem even further, they're historically strict with third party software on their consoles. Back in the heady days of the NES/SNES they could get away with this as they were so huge everyone wanted a piece of the action. In this age of abundant indie games, free-to-play models and 90% of titles being developed cross-platform, they've cut themselves out of a lot of hugely profitable deals. TL;DR: IMO, Nintendo need to do three things: 1) swallow their pride a little and encourage third party and indie devs over to their side 2) take on objective look at their key franchises and honestly decide whether they have anywhere new to go with them, otherwise it's time to put them on the back-burner for a while 3) develop a completely new franchise that frees them from the constraints of fan's expectations

Yeah I read that article and went to have a look to see what's coming up: a new Mario Kart for Wii U and remakes/remixes of two old Pokemon games for 3DS. Apparently, they're banking on Mario Kart boosting Wii U sales. I'm sorry Nintendo, but I think the days when people would go out and buy a console for a Mario Kart game have long gone. I've always loved Mario Kart games but let's face it, they've barely changed in terms of gameplay since the original on SNES and even graphically they haven't come that far since the N64. No, I don't think there will be many people rushing out to buy a Wii U for this, certainly not enough to turn around the Wii U's fortunes. As for the Pokemon remakes, well, it's just another Pokemon game... only it's even less "new" as it's based on an older title and having recently started playing the latest (X/Y), there's very little new since the very first Pokemon games anyway. Nintendo has been an absolute powerhouse for decades now but it feels like at some point around the Wii era they said "that's it, we have the winning formula, let's stick to it!" Unfortunately, the world has grown tired of Nintendo's formula and it doesn't feel like they've caught on yet.

Member since 2006, a mod and only 308 posts?! You, sir, obviously work too hard

Oh no @PhilNeal - please don't start down the Apple "it's a feature" route Also, have you actually asked your users whether they'd complain at the change or are you making that assumption? I personally don't know anybody who has a problem with scrolling, but I know a lot of people who it irritates the hell out of when they try to click on a button and it moves! It's a very bad example of HCI in my opinion, though presumably you've done studies...

Nice little summary of the box, however I have to ask: are Intel paying you to promote their SSDs in every post?

That doesn't seem to matter to a toddler in the "why" stage, they'll happily answer a question with another why!

Walking Dead Season 1 for £5.24 - bought! Been wanting to play this for ages

I agree with you on the point of giving a reason rather than resorting to "because I said so" as I was always frustrated by that answer from my Mom too. I found the way to deal with the "why" stage was answer the first few "whys" while it's still reasonable, then simply change the subject before I got to the "because I told you!" point. Now, whether that will work out well in the long run remains to be seen but I felt at the time that it'd be a bad idea to discourage her questioning.

Fill in the missing letters and it says "F**K YOU VeryPC" Personally I think @StevieM should be disqualified for his hidden filth

Either you're looking at the wrong photo or you've been mis-using mugs all your life

I think you've already had too much

This is a very good point well worth bearing in mind, and it ties in well with some of the points made over in this thread about how the "good" kids are the ones who are most receptive to discipline. It's too easy to look at a "problem" child and write them off as a waste of space, it's much more difficult to try to work out why they're acting out and to empathise with them. That's not to say that some kids aren't just a PITA, but quite often the really bad ones have problems at home. People can be far too quick to write these kids off when a little help could potentially prevent future tragedies. At the other end of the scale, I've been in to schools who reward their PA kids with iPods and gift vouchers if they manage to get their attendance up to national average, but the kids who are there on time every day get nothing. There has to be a balance!

Has anyone played this? It looks like it could be really good, think Minecraft with RPG elements. Looks promising even in Alpha, my daughter brought it to my attention (it's a proud moment when your 10 year old is showing you alpha games ) Planet Explorers | Planet Explorers There's a demo on their website so I'm going to give it a go later.

Does that make your MD "Aaargh I've Dropped it!" Andy? Or maybe Hopeless Hopton?

Fixed that for you

It's one of those things you totally forget about when you're in a rush, which is exactly when you least want it to happen

Oh that old chestnut, "of course I get it but why should I explain it to you?" A debate only works if both sides are willing to make their point, otherwise there really is no point. True, although I would like to believe that as humanity progresses our aptitude for violence and hatred would decrease... then again, we are just a collection of cells clinging to a rock being hurtled through space at thousands of miles per hour!

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130713133001/simpsons/images/d/d2/Gilofficial.png "Come on I just need to get rid of all these mugs then I can go home for the day!" [i'll never figure out how to post an image without it turning in to a tiny thumbnail!]

You've also avoided making a counter argument, haven't attempted to display any reasoning behind your objections nor even pointed out who or what exactly you're objecting to... you may as well be shouting in to an empty room!

@PhilNeal - did anyone ever look in to this? Issue still exists in 7.156.

"Come on I just need to get rid of all these mugs then I can go home for the day!"

OK, just a difference of opinion then, when I'm called ignorant I take it as an insult as it's often banded about as one, but fair enough you meant it in the literal sense. It's always going to be a difficult argument to make this one, as those old enough to make a comparison often have their opinion tainted by nostalgia, so those too young to remember can't really find a reliable source of information to draw comparison from. It's interesting that @casey has pointed out that the Telegraph have been publishing 100 year old articles and that the news is pretty much the same - that may be as close to "proof" as we can get that things are no worse now than they've ever been. If that is the case though, then again I have to agree with @casey - rather than worrying that things are getting worse, we should be worried that they haven't gotten any better...