Got no work? Try achieving Perfect Balance

I realize that I haven’t posted a fun Flash game in a while, so here’s one that will keep you occupied for quite some time. Perfect Balance has you trying to achieve just that by stacking various shapes in various configurations. It’s not as easy as you’d imagine, and there appear to be multiple solutions to some puzzles. Still, it’ll keep you thinking, and on a Friday, it might just be a nice way to while a boring day away. If you DO have work to do, stay away from this game for now! It’s well addictive!

[Link: Perfect Balance via Kotaku]

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Today’s totally fun game: GemCraft

Ok, I actually had to pause this game to get around to writing this–the game is that much fun. It’s similar to a lot of other Tower Defense type games, but with a twist (naturally). The towers aren’t initially active; to make them do anything, you need to drop a gem into it, whereupon it starts decimating the almost undending stream of monsters that crawl along the path. You can cast a small number of spells that affect the gems and the gameplay, and you’ll find yourself coming back to the game if only to see if you can open the hidden stages. Ok, that seems to fulfill the demands of a post–I’m going back to the game now.

[Link: GemCraft]

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Nintendo in 90′s and why the Wii will fail

Hi

Yes, I know, I’m not into blogging much, but I did find a really interesting article. I’m doing a course called Competitive Strategy and we’re analysing Nintendo’s early dominance of the Video Game industry. Specifically we’re at how they were able to completely take over the market at the beginning by investing more in the games cartridges than in the actual console. By licensing game development, they were able to demand royalties on every title produced. Also by controlling the quality of the games, they came up Zelda and Super Mario Brothers and even licensed games like Street Fighter. They got their developers to create really great games, which feuled the consoles, which feuled more game development, and so on. Genius!!!

Then when the 16-bit revolution (lol!!) came around, they were very slow in moving over because they belive they could ‘extract’ more from the industry by selling more 8-bit titles. They wanted to re-market the original console to younger market. Instead Sega released their MegaDrive with superior technology (better graphics) and began to release games at record speeds. Unlike Nintendo they offered many more development licenses and a few years later game development on the Sega was outstripping Nintendo. Was was done to the point where Sega claimed that Sonic was more identifyable to kids than either Mario or Mickey mouse. Needless to say it’s been a very intresting case to study.

Anyway, so my reason for posting was an interesting article I found while doing reseach for my assignment by a guy who in 2006 declared that the ‘Nintendo Wii won’t sell’. It’s a really long article, but very funny. Pay particular attention to the paragraphs about why “women won’t play the wii” (classic explainations like: “I can see a girl sitting on her bed playing the DS, but I can’t imagine a girl sitting on her bed playing the Wii”) and why we “don’t need a gaming revolution” (about why graphics are more important; and that the wii has a limited life and appeal).

http://www.productwiki.com/nintendo-wii/article/why-the-wii-won-t-sell.html

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