The Mewtwo Ideal

There is a factor in the Next-Generation console wars that will figure in immensely. You may have heard that the Playstation 2 console is hard to develop for, but that those who do try will be able to do great things. The GameCube, on the other hand, will be extremely easy to develop for. The Playstation 2 camp contends that the machine will produce games of greater quality as soon as developers become familiar with it. This is disproved by what I call, "The Mewtwo Ideal."

The Mewtwo Ideal states that a device functions best when it acts as an extension of the body and mind, as if it were controlled by some psychic power. For example, suppose you were driving a car. The more natural the car is to use, the better you will drive and the less likely you will be to get into an accident.

The situation is very similar with the game consoles. The less time a programmer spends thinking about how to do what he or she wants to do, the more time he can spend thinking about what he or she wants to do. Therefore, one should expect better quality for games made on the Gamecube.

You may say that the whole idea behind PS2 is that one would learn the system, and therefore make it an extension of the programmer, and you would be right-to a point. You see, it is considerably easier to adjust a computer to a human than to adjust a human to a computer. As a computer programmer, if have noticed that the more complicated a process, the more difficult it is to make it work, regardless of experience. This is why people in the creative areas of games are kept as far away from the technical area, and as close to the Mewtwo Ideal as possible.

To state this effect in concrete terms, think of the PS2 as a game with very bad control issues. You might be able to improve your control to a degree, but probably not to the degree you'd have with a good game. Even if you could improve beyond that level, it would probably never make up for the time lost.

At this juncture, it becomes clear that the Mewtwo Ideal determines the upper limit of productivity, particularly in areas with time and money constraints. That's not to say that devices that are harder to use will never produce superior results, particularly when they produce mechanical benefits. Unfortunately for the PS2, these benefits do not apply, as the technological shortcomings of programming rarely become fully ingrained in the mind.