Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
more responsive, and the games feel 'more real.' Much of the refi nement in
the mode of play is enabled by the advance of computing power, but exam-
ining how console producing companies represent their play experience
is instructive in understanding how console design can be analyzed with
wordplay. In striking out reasons why one console is better than another,
graphics typically become a key line of argument that enables a company
with a newer console to contend that gamers need to upgrade, establishing
the perception that more accurate representations are better as a key part
of the discourse of video games.
One of the fi rst times this kind of strategy was deployed in a large-scale
advertising campaign was when the Mattel Intellivision took on the Atari
VCS. Released about two years after the VCS, Intellivision sought to estab-
lish itself as the superior game console through a series of advertisements
using sports journalist George Plimpton, who the company branded as Mr.
Intellivision, to of er side-by-side comparisons of games on each console.
With banner taglines like “Two pictures are worth a thousand words”
and comparisons of action, control, and challenge on the consoles, Mattel
attempted to establish that a more realistic representation was something to
be prized. Using Plimpton's fame as a sports writer, the advertisements fre-
quently featured sports games, one of which had Plimpton standing behind
three fi elders that move together, while the Intellivision version featured
the licensed name
Major League Baseball
and had nine fi elders and a much
more realistic playing fi eld that was a far more accurate representation of
the sport on which the video game was based. Plimpton was quoted as
saying “Atari vs. Intellivision? Nothing I could say would be more per-
suasive than what your own two eyes will tell you. But I can't resist telling
you more.” The ad then moved into a text heavy page that extolled the
virtues of the Intellivision and why it was argued to be a superior console
to the VCS. By appealing to the graphics and the overall sophistication of
the experience possible on the Intellivision, Mattel articulated a campaign
about what home game consoles should be. Home consoles should strive to
be more accurate, better representations of what we see in other aspects of
our daily lives. In making this appeal, Mattel set the stage for an ongoing
argument as to why players need to upgrade to a newer, more powerful,
thus, better console.
In the ef ort to introduce the NES to the United States, Nintendo
employed a similar appeal. Instead of relying on a side-by-side comparison
with another console, as the NES did not have a signifi cant competitor in
its early days, Nintendo sought to make it seem that players were brought
into their games, that the verisimilitude of the games on the NES was so
fantastic that players were integrated into the experiences of playing a NES
placed the focus on their software, hyping particular games with the clear
message that, to play them, one would need a NES. Nintendo also took
