Complete Flamebait: Hecker says the Wii is a piece of... schmidt
This isn't related to the PlayStation 3 at all... wait, barely. We've already warned you this is flame-bait, so if you're easily offended, uh, rant away. This isn't coming from PS3Fanboy's mouth. First off, let's say this: Chris Hecker, founder of the developer Definition 6, spoke at GDC the other day... not so much spoke as ranted and raved about how crappy things are. Especially the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo's inability to recognize games as a form of art. We mostly disagree, but for the sake of making this guy look even more like an ass, let's go on.
Last year, Hecker said the PS3 and 360 had focused their lenses too much on graphics instead of gameplay. This year, he's attacking Nintendo. "At the end I asked the audience, will Nintendo save us? Will they deliver a balanced machine that's fast enough? The answer to that question is the topic of today's rant." He flashes a slide that said 'Fear of the Wii Planet' and ranted on, "Everybody loves the Wii. 'Oh, God, the Wii, we love the Wii so much'... The Wii is a piece of shit. I have uncovered the secret to Wii manufacturing. The way you manufacture a Wii is you take two GameCubes and some duct tape." Heh. Funny, maybe. Crude, sure. True, mostly.
He also said: "This thing is totally underpowered... This is not about graphics, more polygons, all that kind of crap. What I want to be able to do is spend CPU to make the machine smarter, more interesting and more automatically intelligent." Which, granted, it is. But... motion-sensing!
Hecker used some quotes from Phil Harrison and Bill Gates referring to video games as works of art. He then juxtaposed a quote from Zelda creator Eiji Aonuma: "I don't feel that games can necessarily be considered art. There's nothing wrong with that; our goal is just to make games that are fun." Hecker feels that people shouldn't think like that anymore, that gaming has transcended the frame of making "a fun toy".
He said he'd rush Miyamoto at the keynote today, asking two things: "Number one: recognise and push games as a serious art form. Number two: make a console that doesn't suck ass." Ouch. Looks like they'll never be asked to work on a Nintendo platform.
What do you guys think? Are games still just toys, or should they be cared for and developed as something higher and more important? I feel, personally, that "fun games" are perfectly fine, so long as there's a proper mix of "artsy-fartsy" games in there too. What I mean is, variety is a spice of life. I don't want to play 100 Shadow of the Colossus style games, nor do I want 100 WarioWare titles. Different games suit different moods. Hecker, you're a jerk. And yes, that is the best response I can come up with. I wouldn't waste my brainpower on thinking up something better.
