DS #4000: Dreamer Series: Babysitter (USA)

[helloion]

Oh man who the hell creates this kind of games anyway they should learn.

They should learn what? That this kind of game sells really well, but a few irate DS owners don't understand that the DS caters for everybody? What's wrong with games like this and the Imagine series when we're still getting our Dragon Quest IX's, our Final Fantasy IV's, our Pokémanz, our Golden Suns, our Phoenix Wrights? The release of these games don't hinder the enjoyment of the games actually targetted at us, do they? So what exactly is the problem with people making a quick cash in? Sure, games like these could do with being deeper and more thought-out but they sell well and the people they're aimed at seem to enjoy them enough to warrant the nag to their parents...

The PSP doesn't get any shit like this.

The PSP isn't marketed to a wide and diverse target group, the DS is. PSP is aimed at 15 - 30 year old males, the DS on the other hand has had a number of advertising campaigns which demonstrates Nintendo's strategy of appealing to both a male and female market starting at early pre-teens all the way up to grey generations. It has been like that for years, and has been very successful for Nintendo as a whole.

The top five best selling DS games world wide have sold between 15 to 23 million unit each, averaging 18.3 million units between them. The PSP top five sold between 6 and 2 million units, averaging just under 3.5 million on average between them. That is the power of a diverse marketing campaign targeting previously ignored groups.

And as for shit games the PSP and DS have both had their fair share, but I'm afraid this isn't one of them. Although this might not be a game to your liking that doesn't actually make it shit. This game was designed for a specific market, a market that has been previously neglected and untapped until now. As a game it is not striving to be in anyway deep or complex in it's mechanics. It has very simple aims and it archives what it sets out to do which is provide basic entertainment, in short bursts, to young girls between 6 and 12. It isn't Dragon Quest by any means, but then it never claimed it was, nor did it ever attempt to be.

The problem really lies with groups of people on websites like this, who foolishly believe that their opinions are those of the majority. That's like the Klu Klux Klan claiming that nobody in the United States wanted a Black President. The truth is that in the game industry, like any other business, the only thing that matters is money, and when it comes to the DS, no one really cares about your opinion because you're just not that important. Money doesn't lie.

If you wanted a games machine that solely catered to your demographic you should have stuck with the PSP, but you can't complain that the DS isn't "hardcore" enough for you when people like Patrick Stewart and Julie Walters fronts one of it's major ad campaigns, I mean for fuck sake why did you buy one in the first place?

Well said man. It's one of the many issues concerning hardcore gamers, hating casual games.
I think we should not hate casual games because it generates money for the developers at a low cost, Not unlike big budget hardcore games. In turn, when they have generated income small developers can now attempt to create a big budget game suited for elitist* hardcore gamers.

*consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favored group.

 

[Kassius]

I'm pretty sure most people realize that shovelware games have a moderate to high degree of success in sales. That being said and understood, it feels as if the position some people are taking in this topic are going a bit overboard in seriousness and objective posturing.

When someone posts something in frustration kind of like "God, what the hell is with this shovelshitware. Who on earth buys this crap?" chances are he/she is speaking rhetorically and from a position of disgust. What they are NOT probably asking is for a serious examination as to how successful the games are and an essay on why companies make them. They are merely venting, and given the fact that a significant majority of the frequenters to gbatemp are in the more serious category of gamer, I don't really understand why someone would take it upon themselves to go to that extreme and state the obvious in a wall of text.

 

[Just Joe]

I'm pretty sure most people realize that shovelware games have a moderate to high degree of success in sales. That being said and understood, it feels as if the position some people are taking in this topic are going a bit overboard in seriousness and objective posturing.

When someone posts something in frustration kind of like "God, what the hell is with this shovelshitware. Who on earth buys this crap?" chances are he/she is speaking rhetorically and from a position of disgust. What they are NOT probably asking is for a serious examination as to how successful the games are and an essay on why companies make them. They are merely venting, and given the fact that a significant majority of the frequenters to gbatemp are in the more serious category of gamer, I don't really understand why someone would take it upon themselves to go to that extreme and state the obvious in a wall of text.

And I'm simply venting my frustration at the fact the the same constant shit is posted time and again when these type of games are released. Every time an Imagine game is posted the "HaHA! What next Imagine Gynaecologist? I'd play that one" posts are dug up again to amuse us once more. I mean no matter how many times I see those hilarious jokes I just laugh my self into a coma. Seriously they are that funny. I'm actually pissing myself now just thinking about them. Really...

The point is that we get that 14+ year old boy don't like games intended for 10 year old girls, but do we have to have page after page of useless posts saying the same fucking thing?

 

[shakirmoledina]

again, it seems the E is better than the U and maybe cuz america has better reception for such a boxart rather than the cartoony one... no offense just an opinion
this should be more about the fact tht DS games really are getting more and more dumped and famous, nothing strange though weird tht there is a great majority of shovelware compared to the gba

 

[cubin']

The point is that we get that 14+ year old boy don't like games intended for 10 year old girls, but do we have to have page after page of useless posts saying the same fucking thing?

Normally we have less than a page of jokes with these kind of games. I guess the lack of quality releases is getting to some people. Scribblenauts however is not far off

No offence Joe but I just read a couple of pages of you touting the merits of these kind of games, in this thread alone. Normally it'd be a few lines of text that'd make a joke that I'd probably get a smile out of. I think somebody is doing economics and/or marketing in school at the moment or perhaps you've fallen in love with the nintendo marketing machine. (who can blame you, she's all the more attractive after those painful years when Sony was making more money)

This game is shit.

 

[Just Joe]

Normally we have less than a page of jokes with these kind of games. I guess the lack of quality releases is getting to some people. Scribblenauts however is not far off

Thank god. One of the few games at the moment that I'm really looking forward to.

No offence Joe but I just read a couple of pages of you touting the merits of these kind of games, in this thread alone. Normally it'd be a few lines of text that'd make a joke that I'd probably get a smile out of. I think somebody is doing economics and/or marketing in school at the moment or perhaps you've fallen in love with the nintendo marketing machine. (who can blame you, she's all the more attractive after those painful years when Sony was making more money)

No. No school for me. If I where to go to school now, I'd be given strange looks and escorted off the premises by the cops. As for Nintendos Marketing Machine, I'm afraid I'm torn. Truth is I used to love that fact that when buying a Nintendo game when I was a kid, the chances were that if you picked up a title at random it would probably be playable and enjoyable. The quality meant more than quantity back then. Sure there were a lot of average titles and some that were absolute steaming piles of shit, but most games were above average and fun.

Now if I were to pick a DS title at random, chances are I wouldn't want to play it at all. Yes there are a few more games that are well below average or just utter crap, but there are also a lot of games which are never going to interest me because they weren't made for the type of gamer that I am. But I have to admire what Nintendo has done which is make a lot of people that would never have played a video game unless coerced, actually want to pick them up and play them. That's basic common sense but fucking brilliant at the same time.

Point is I want great game that I like, but I have to accept that the DS isn't the type of games machine I grew up with and that there are far more people that have to be catered for. I'm not going to like what they like but that doesn't mean what they play is shit, just not something I'm interested in.

QUOTE(cubin' @ Jul 25 2009, 05:42 PM)

This game is shit.

No it's not. Burnout Legends DS was shit. Deal or No deal was shit. Golden Balls was so far beyond the concept of shit that touched the outer reaches of hell. This is just an average game. I could give this to my 8 year old niece and she'd love it. It's nothing special, but there's nothing especially shit about it either. Just another soulless game designed to procure money from a new market. Not sure whether that makes me happy or sad.

 

[helloion]

To each his own guys.

 

[Dratini The Clar]

I was hoping some adventure RPG or something like that.

Bleh. Babysitting crap? Wouldn't dare try.