Sean Malstrom Discussion

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/

Yes, I'm fully aware of the risks involved due to his views. With that said...

Sean Malstrom is a video game blogger who at the beginning of the Wii's lifespan, predicted as to why the Wii because successful from a business perspective, but around 2009, he started talking about specific concepts of gaming, mainly with Rose Colored Glasses for old games and Jade-Colored Glasses for the current generation.

I personally find Malstrom to be a Broken Pedestal nowadays, as I barely read his blog. I have no clue as to what happened to him over the years but he's been off of his rocker since he suggested Miyamoto retire in late 2009...

Here's his latest:

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/email-i-just-beat-super-metroid/

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/email-dont-like-tingle-more-tingle-for-you/

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/miyamoto-needs-to-make-more-disappointing-games/

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/email-miyamoto-and-zelda-2/

This especially made me facepalm...

Right then...

edited 21st Jun '13 4:00:15 PM by Psychopulse

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

Who is Sean Malstrom?

"Please crush me with your heels Esdeath-sama!

Considering the topic subject and the controversial statements they've made, I'm just here to remind you all that complaint threads are not allowed here. Keep it civil and classy, please?

Experience has taught me to investigate anything that glows.

I will. I'm not sure about everyone else, though...

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

One thing I notice about commentators who have unusually piercing insights is that they always come across as being condescending about it in some way or another and Mr. Malstrom is no exception.

Those who know what's really going on should seriously consider being polite about it so that audiences aren't turned off before getting to the hard truths.

I meant to post this yesterday. I found a post on This discussion on him from a couple of years ago has a couple of posts that I'll quote which gave me some insight into this guy...

"Malstrom seems more like a long term troll than anything else. He also directly contradicts himself when it's convenient for narrative.

Here is examples. In his original disruption articles, he went on about how the purpose of Nintendo's new strategy was to BRIDGE the market between people who were intimidated by new, complex, 3D games, and those upscale games. He did have a point there, but he was not presenting a bold new insight. He was just rephrasing what Iwata had been saying for months.

Games like Mario Kart for Wii have sold incredible numbers because they do what Malstrom cited. The thing is, Nintendo noticed that a lot of people still couldn't play 3D Mario well. They tried making New SMB, which was very popular. That suggested lots of people still liked Mario. So what did Nintendo do? They did what Malstrom originally said they were supposed to do. They tried making BRIDGE 3D games. They tried giving Mario Galaxy 2, elements of 2D games. They tried making Mario 3D Land a fusion 2D, 3D game.

At the same time, Nintendo DID service the audience who expressed they wanted 2D games. They published no less than 3 2D Platformers, each with couch co-op multiplayer like NSMB Wii: Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby's Epic Yarn, and Kirby's Return to Dreamland. They're hardly trying to force everything to be 3D games.

But Malstrom has flipped a bit, and disregards everything he previously asserted. Now, Nintendo is "pushing 3D Mario down our throats" and he goes on delusional, crazy rants about how Nintendo developers are insane, selfish, or whatever. His new narrative is about how most people don't want to play 3D games and only want games styled after the NES generation. The "upmarket transition" strategy has magically disappeared.

The irony is that Nintendo's original strategy has shown signs of working. Mario 3D Land, the best fusion of 2 and 3-D play styles, has been extremely popular and it's very common right now to see people say "this is the kind of 3D Mario game I was waiting for". Malstrom (and his gaggle of crazy followers, hyper bitter Nintendo fanboys) are ignoring this because it goes against their new purpose of trolling Nintendo.

What their motivation is, who knows. Maybe Malstrom has simply become a career troll blogger who enjoys posting for his audience. I find it hard to believe all the emails he gets are authentic anyway."

edited 22nd Jun '13 4:45:45 PM by Psychopulse

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

Even when i still agreed with much of what he had to say about games, i very much disagreed with his views on culture and especially on politics. His reactionary sentiments work in gaming rather than other fields because gaming is a big field in which its widely held that the values of the past are superior to the values of the present.

I managed to find the topic on the now-revised forum. apparently his political views and sexism came off as offensive so they cut ties with him now.

edited 25th Jun '13 12:09:21 PM by Psychopulse

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

Here's the latest from him...

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/pikmin-3-still-missing-from-iwata-asks/

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/game-designer-says-it-is-important-to-go-out-and-observe-the-real-world-game-industry-shocked/

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/lets-bundle-the-wii-u-with-a-gamecube-game/

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/email-sakurai-has-added-an-other-m-stage-to-brawl/

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/the-struggles-of-marketing-the-gamecube/

edited 22nd Aug '13 11:09:11 AM by Psychopulse

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/email-why-were-the-ps1-and-ps2-so-successful/

Excerpt:

"Why did the PS 1 and PS 2 sell so much? For one, they beat their competitors. Sony could use its big company strengths to put out a console at a cheaper cost than their competitors. Sony could outmuscle anyone in marketing. Remember that Final Fantasy 7 marketing? That came from Sony. Most importantly, Sony did a ‘mass library’ strategy with their consoles. Since the Atari 2600′s collapse, console companies did not want to allow crap on their systems (or rather, did not want to allow crappy companies to put games on their system). Sony opened up the floodgates. You never know where the next hit will come from. GTA 1 and 2 were OK but dinky PC games. But with GTA 3, it rocketed the PS 2 upward. Meanwhile, Nintendo was struggling to make first party games on their N64 and Gamecube systems without droughts.

The large sales numbers of the PS 1 and PS 2 owe themselves more to the macro-economic conditions. We were after the Cold War and the period of globalization. More markets were opening up. A console like the NES barely got to Europe. Compare that to PS 1 and PS 2 which were able to be distributed far more globally. Population growth was also a factor. More importantly, gamers who grew up with earlier systems were getting older and had more disposable income which they spent on gaming.

Despite all that, the PS 1 and PS 2 did not expand gaming socially. Gaming was becoming less cool with increasing stigma."

edited 2nd Nov '13 7:36:28 AM by Psychopulse

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

And anyway, so what if he does not like my little pony? His disdain for hardcore fans of anything is not exactly new. His views on gender kind of were new to me but I honestly had a hard time being interested enough in that article to read the whole thing.

That does not seem controversial at all. Though grand theft auto and madden were hits in the mainstream away from Hardcore gamers. (They, along with Halo, are what started the "war" on casual games, so he is not completely correct here).

That should put things where they should be.

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack

The latest from him:

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/the-hardcore-have-failed-nintendo/

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/super-mario-3d-world-flops-in-japan/

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/wii-u-is-a-burning-platform/

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/email-a-link-between-worlds/

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/11/16/malstroms-tripod/

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

I have to disagree, the biggest turn offs to the Wii u were the price and controller. If the first party games are bad I would not know because I have not played them but I do not recall any looking especially bad (besides Smash Bros, and that's only because it brought back Sonic and made Samus look more like M).

Have Wii U's first party titles really been that bad? How do they stack up compared to their immediate predecessor? I do think it was dumb of Nintendo to launch without a deeper lineup but how bad have they been?

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/email-nintendo-going-third-party-why/ - The E-mail his gets brings up a good point as to why Nintendo going third party is a bad idea.

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/game-industrys-tactical-rhetoric-aimed-at-nintendo-and-nintendo-fans/ - I disagree that the game industry wants Sakamoto to make another "Other M", given how much of a disaster that game was.

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/12/05/rogue-legacy-is-the-most-addictive-game-ive-played-in-a-long-while/ - Malstrom seems to enjoy Rogue Legacy. Is this game any good, by any chance?

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/12/05/how-rogue-like-games-are-getting-back-to-classic-gaming/

edited 10th Dec '13 10:48:05 AM by Psychopulse

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

I read his last two posts. What is this inane bullcrap and who is this assclown?! Some no-talent making shit up, missing the point on purpose, I would normally assume he's trolling, but trolling takes some effort so my opinion is, he's just stupid. Why do we even bother about him? There's tens of thousands of "video game bloggers" who will peddle their subjective and usually completely wrong opinion, for example on STALKER being the best game ever (it's not), today's games being more primitive than those from the 90s (they're not) or indie games being the next best thing (they're not). All in some misunderstood belief that those fucking amateurs somehow "stick it to the man", for example promoting some half-baked Ukrainian turd over games that got "open world shooter" right before, to say nothing of after, or one-man hack jobs following the now-redlinked idea that True Art Is Offensive, allowing the players to be drones of the totalitarian government tasked with either lying to or harassing people. WHO CARES?! Go cry a river somewhere else!

That said, I can hardly see a difference between getting funneled through a wide corridor with a few dead ends with "secrets", medkits or extra ammo to the side in the 90s and now. Except now, a cutscene or a scripted event plays every now and then, or there's some puzzle or a minigame while the 90s had nothing of the sort. And some arrogant schlubs should be reminded of that.

edited 10th Dec '13 1:48:00 PM by NotSoBadassLongcoat

"what the complete, unabridged, 4k ultra HD fuck with bonus features" - Mark Von Lewis

I'm not gonna lie, he's gone off the deep end in the last few years. His business perspective made sense early on as to why the Wii was winning this generation as far as sales go, but now there's this Nostalgia Filter with regards to games from the NES. I barely ever read the blog as a result, and he tends to overexaggerate things.

The funny thing is, IMO, The original Zelda And especially Zelda II didn't age well. And neither did the original Metroid. There's a reason why people look down on mechanics like these. I even found an article which says why a "back to basics" wouldn't work in this day and age.

And here's a couple of posts from someone on the Game FA Qs forum on this guy from back in March of this year...

"I enjoyed his disruption article and actually have it bookmarked.

The thing is, even as someone who has owned every console and handheld Nintendo device (including some Game & Watch), the Wii U just doesn't have anything. Thankfully I actually enjoy paying the $3-20 on the 3DS or Wii U eShop to digitally download games to hold me over.

The one thing that both Sony and Microsoft are really going to push is this idea of a social hub, to be able to communicate and talk about all sorts of things, similar yet better to Mii Verse. Mii Verse was great, for the first week. Fact is I just want to play games, and going into Wii Mode is a damn chore, I am better off leaving the Wii hooked up.

What is on tap for March? Six games for retail and several rumored eShop games. The issue that Nintendo should realize is that most people have played and are done with the games they received for the Holidays at this point. It is time to either cut prices to increase sales or release more software. If not, consumers will find other places to spend their disposable income.

Further, the disruption article he wrote several years ago is when the Wii was destroying their competition. One of the premises was that the Wii brought in the casual gamer with its simplistic controls, and that their competition with Kinect and Move were too late to the party. However, one of the biggest problems was that Nintendo did not continue to create games at a quick enough pace, which led to consumers purchasing their competitor's consoles. Throw in this was before everyone had a smart phone and tablet computer, and Nintendo was heading for success.

The later part of the disruption article focuses on going upstream, as in after the core or hardcore gamer. Now Reggie and Iwata said they were focused on the core gamer leading to the Wii U launch. However, the problem was the Wii U was too late to the party and it is underpowered. The premise of the disruption article was that if Nintendo were to create a console on par with their competition, consumers would move toward Nintendo, their competition would see a loss in sales, and Nintendo would come out on top.

But again, this article was written in a time before we had micro-transactions in games, DLC was just beginning, monitization of free to play and freemium games were in their infancy. The business model of video games has fundamentally changed, and it remains to be see how the industry will move forward and find ways to create new content and generate revenue (profit)."

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

Heh. Sorry for the previous post being so harsh, it was a sockpuppet test. Anyway, what the video game business pulls lately is surprising: for example, I bought Far Cry 3 recently and sure enough, it uses the dreaded uPlay (that was actually rendered less harsh last year), but they decided to pull something crazy to justify it. The mobile app, to be more precise. It's similar to the one Rockstar made for GTA V, but Ubi didn't stop on that one - the new Assassin's Creed has one too, and I believe that one has more substance (I can't confirm as I don't have AC4 yet).

So, things are changing, I can't really tell how, though.

"what the complete, unabridged, 4k ultra HD fuck with bonus features" - Mark Von Lewis

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2014/03/29/focus-on-the-core-and-not-the-rules/

I'm starting to think Malstrom's an Entitled Bastard at this point...

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

he's right in a sense on this one. Getting trapped too much in inside-the-box thinking is what causes franchises to lose their appeal over time. Too much too fast with too little differentiation certainly hurt the selling power of the NSMB series. Wii U is definitely a console that sounds good on paper, but in execution is a system basically nobody wants because it tries to hit all those checkboxes.

What is it about that particular blogpost that makes you draw that conclusion?

edited 1st Apr '14 1:41:11 PM by Druplesnubb

Because I'm not even sure what Malstrom even wants at this point anymore. It's like he's not consistent.

For the last few years, he's been saying that the 2D Marios should be more like the 3D Marios as far as game mechanics go (And I've seen that Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World have done this), yet now he says 2D Mario as a formula is getting stale. I thought that's all he wanted was 2D Mario. It makes this post Hilarious in Hindsight, now that I think about it...

And then there's a post from this discussion:

I think there's a pronounced difference between "the games aren't very good" and "they aren't making the kinds of games I like". This can usually be elaborated by breaking down said games in reviews and analysis. This is hard to do when you, I don't know, haven't played a game outside of your two-dimensional-platforming comfort zone since 1992.

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/oculus-rift-kindle-fire-tv-and-mario-kart-8/

Excerpt:

Knowing Miyamoto, I am sure he has designed the 9th Generation of Nintendo handhelds and home consoles to all be V.R. with goggles. “But Malstrom,” you say. “What about the Virtual Boy disaster. Nintendo wouldn’t do that again.” We didn’t think Nintendo would do the N64 disaster again but they made the 3DS because ‘now is the time for 3d’. We didn’t think Nintendo would do the Gamecube disaster again but they made the Wii U in order to popularize Gamecube-esque games. Why wouldn’t they make V.R. at this point? Nintendo is so stubborn that they would probably make their medical devices handle profit while they can unprofitably forever make V.R. and 3d game consoles. Hell is Aonuma Zelda and 3d Mario stomping on your face forever.

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

Were Gamecube and N64 really disasters?

4227-1763-3232. My 3DS Friend code.

Compared to what came before and after, yes. He thinks in terms of business, remember.

Dear god is he a wet blanket when it comes to his taste in games. 1 item box per lap? Wtf?

edited 7th Apr '14 3:08:02 PM by Ogodei

Who is this guy and why are you religiously following him?