Lazy8s said:
I do feel that, with Xbox's unique capabilities among consoles, Microsoft is pushing the scope of gaming's appeal. The game worlds of offerings like Morrowind, Deus Ex: Invisible War, and the forthcoming B.C. are highly engaging and are beginning to feel less gimmicky/"videogamey" than anything that's come before - key to being accepted beyond just action junkies and the hardcore.
I already mentioned the cross-sectional PC-gamer appeal, and that's all such titles are (because that's EXACTLY where they grew out of, or heck, were launched first)--bringing more PC gamers and developers into the mix. Of course while many PC video gamers may
prefer PC gaming, I know damn few who don't already have consoles and keep track of the console end--they are already heavily involved in video gaming in general.
Convergence is, of course, a natural extension and one we've been seeing more and more of for years. (And mostly from PC to console, since consoles are on the whole a lot more lucrative.) Online gaming another natural extension and on a decidedly slow boil since the Dreamcast. We see different takes and different concentrations from the developers, but it is nowhere near the "way of life" it is on PC's (the FPS and RTS being very dominant genres there, and considered fairly crippled without an online multiplayer component) , and no particular console is in a "unique position"--just offering different takes.
And no, solitaire games and computer/web-based card games do NOT translate very well to consoles... yet.
I believe they're still bigger even still, but not looking to make a transition from mouse and monitor to couch and controller. (It costs them nothing extra and is where they've been comfortable playing, and until consoles offer online gambling through their services they won't capture the people hooked on THAT either.) There are plenty of random card/tile games, actually, just mainly not in our markets. (Japan being much smaller on computer gaming, it slots in there better, even in their arcades.) Tapping those people WOULD be good, but I don't see anything able to bring them over just for that.
Themes and content-wise, GTA3 could be said to be "mature", but it's not so much so from the standpoint of design sophistication.
Themes and content being much more visable and "enjoyable" as it were to the general gamer, who is not really looking to invest a lot of time or effort, and doesn't really notice or appreciate in-depth design features. It is indeed not at all stretching the features of gaming, but broadening the appeal to those it wouldn't have before. Upping the mature theme attracts attention (and hopefully media attention which makes for better advertising than they could possibly throw out themselves) and brings in new, curious folk as well as making for a "must have" game that brings a platform more popularity through it. Depending on the "what" and "where," mature themes can fall flat (Kingpin attracted attention on the PC, but in general was just an unexciting FPS--with swears) and that's where design importance comes into play--but on consoles, where the audience is bigger and less sophisticated anyway, simple designs come more as an attraction than a detriment. Gamers used to more can still just "kick back and have fun," while a game is made easy to pick up and play by the younger audience, those new to video gaming, frat boys sitting around getting drunk all the while, and most others you can think of.
