An Xbox Prediction

When I was resurrecting this blog again, I scanned through older posts and I ran across this one from December, 2011 only a week or so before we unwrapped our Xbox 360 for Christmas. In this post, I noted that my father-in-law made the prediction that if we got an Xbox, I would all but stop playing the Wii. Here is the actual outcome of that statement.

As of today, two years later, I actually have all but stopped playing the Wii, but not for the reason that he suggested, which was that once I experienced games on a superior system, I would leave the silly Nintendo behind. In the end, it was less about the games and more about the infrastructure. The Xbox has a massive online infrastructure that allows social gaming along with its massive achievement system. I play multiplayer games with people not in my living room, which was a requirement on the Wii. That is cool. Completed the Gears of War 3 campaign on hardcore recently with a friend of mine (we're presently working on 50 waves of Horde mode), and playing through the Gears franchise with him has allowed us to chat pointlessly more than we ever did face to face.

I've mentioned the introvert bit before, right? On a scale of 1 to 10, I rank an 11.

Beyond that social aspect, it's the achievements that draw me in. When playing on the Wii and every system before that, you play games and as soon as that final boss falls, you're done. There are other games that allow some measure of item collection, and the Lego games actually had a completion percentage, but unless you were just obsessive (which I wasn't really), you normally just called it done when you watched the credits. Just getting through the game was usually enough. There was no incentive to do it again because why? I have a hundred other games right behind you waiting to suck up my valuable time. (That's not an exaggeration.)

But the Xbox is different. Beyond playing just the game, it gives specific achievements that you gather while playing and specific tasks to complete as part of the game. The achievements drew me in to the point that I have even replayed some games I finished on the Wii just to get the Gamerscore (again, Legos). Yes, the graphics are exceptional, but I play games for the games, not for the graphics, and that extra layer of challenge is really something. Once I get that 100%, I find playing the games with others very enjoyable (such as Uno Rush), and achieving that 100% makes you actually quite skilled at the game (I'm a rather formidable opponent on Uno Rush).

So did his prediction come true? Sort of. If there were a FPS on the Wii and Xbox, which would I go with? Hard to say, to be honest, since I'm not a huge fan of that game genre. My stats show an overabundance of Action-Adventure games, actually, which are the type of games best played with a regular old controller anyway. The shooter games I have for the Xbox aren't available on the Wii. At this point in history, however, I would probably get the Xbox version, both for the achievements, and (I do have to admit) the superior graphics, since 3x the resolution really adds a lot to the games. (I tried to play the new Tomb Raider game via RCA cables instead of the HD I'm used to, and the menus were nearly unreadable at the lower resolution.)

I will also note that for the first year after getting the Xbox, I regularly switched between it and the Wii, playing both systems. I had a lot of games to complete. The real switch to just the Xbox happened when I requested the next Lego game (I think it was Lego Batman 2) for the Xbox instead of the Wii. I don't know that I've played a Wii game this year at all.

So a lot changes in two years. That was to be expected. The Wii is actually on its way out completely, having been supplanted with the Wii U, and I don't see myself getting that system unless they really blow me away with a game that I must have. The Kinect on the 360 is serving the interactive purpose at this point, and it does a great job. The next gen of Xbox has an even more improved Kinect right down to detecting your heart rate, so that's a tough act to follow. I suspect Nintendo has its work cut out for them in not only that department, but also in the social aspect. I've not heard of Wii achievements or equivalent yet. The PlayStation Network has a trophy system, which is just like the Xbox achievements, but I believe the Wii is still isolated (correct me if I'm wrong).

But this will change someday as well. After all, I played the 8-bit Nintendo once, and then moved to the SNES. Picked up a Nintendo 64, then a Gamecube, then a Wii, and in each change, the new system supplanted the old after a time. Someday, I'll get a system from the next generation, and the 360 will fade into the shadows (but probably less so due to the achievement system that does carryover over to the next Xbox as your Live Gamertag lives on).

Time is a cruel master, but as the new replaces the old, we must always try to keep up with the changes.