Mastodawn

Chris Trottier Apr 18, 2024

I was an Ouya owner.

I loved it. To this day – 11 years after release – I will defend the Ouya and sing its praises. To me, the Ouya was not a failure. It did exactly what I wanted and more.

Most people who hate on the Ouya never owned one and simply dogpiled on the hate. They never experienced it for themselves. They’re simply retreading the same old talking points they heard from someone else.

In simple terms, here’s why the Ouya was awesome: it was a $100 Android box that played indie games, emulated old consoles, and played Netflix.

The old meme about Ouya was that there were no good games for it except TowerFall. But that’s poppycock.

The best game for the Ouya wasn’t even Towerfall. It was Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe – which, by the way, is on my Top 5 list of greatest indie games ever. And I’ve played many of them in my life.

Here’s other great Ouya games:

To this day, I play all these games. They have a home on my Steam library. And I recommend them to everyone.

Beyond the indie games, there were the emulators. I wasn’t just able to emulate Atari 2600 and NES games. I was able to do PlayStation and N64 too. Again, not bad for something that cost me $100.

The entertainment options were wonderful. I used it for watching Netflix. I also used my Ouya for subscribing to podcasts, which was wonderful on my home theatre set-up.

Oh yeah, and because the system was Android, if there was an Anrdoid app or game that wasn’t available on the storefront, I could always side load an apk.

The closest modern device that comes close to doing what the Ouya did is the Amazon Fire TV Cube. That costs $190. Though it has games on it and lots of entertainment options, there isn’t a whole lot on the storefront for emulation.

You know what? I miss my Ouya. And I wish other people were able to experience it.

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Chris Trottier

What really bugs me about people who talk down the Ouya is that they speak about it as though it was some sort of scam. They compare it to the Juicero.

No, the Ouya was a legit product. Unlike the Juicero, it was affordable too. And let me tell you, the people who made the Ouya legitimately cared about indie games.

The problem is, at the time, few people cared about indie games. Everyone wanted AAA titles with crazy eye candy. If you showed most people games with 16 bit-style pixel art, they’d run out the door.

The Ouya’s one and only sin was that it came out before games like Shovel Knight, Owlboy, and the Messenger all became beloved. If it came out in 2015 instead of 2011, it would be universally praised.

How do I know this? Look at the Evercade Vs.

The Evercade Vs. doesn’t do half of what the Ouya was capable of doing – and yet people love it even though it’s more expensive than an Ouya was on launch day.

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Chris Trottier Apr 18, 2024

What the whole Ouya situation showed me is that self-identified “gamers” are wholly incapable of forming their own opinions. They really will just rehash talking points they’ve heard from someone else – even without trying it.

Ouya isn’t even the most blatant example of this.

No, no, the worst example was Anita Sarkeesian’s Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series. Most of those gamers have never seen that series at all. And yet, when you talk to them, they act as though Anita Sarkeesian ran over their dog.

I’ve seen the whole thing from beginning to end. Nothing she says should be controversial whatsoever. She’s entirely reasonable, and she does a decent job critiquing how the video game industry depict women.

Not once does she ever imply that video games are evil – it’s clear Anita enjoys them herself. Rather, she actually does what so-called “gamers” say they want – but don’t really – and she gives an honest critique of video games.

Both the Ouya and Anita Sarkeesian is why you should never listen to “gamers”.

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John Harris Apr 18, 2024

@atomicpoet The word "gamer" has become synonymous with "person with bad opinions" in my mind, and this is speaking as someone who, in their teens 35 years ago, once in a while called themselves "The Mad Gamer."

That was long LONG before the word had any currency, so I'm pulling rank. As possible coiner of the term, all of you people who call yourselves "gamers," you don't GET to unless I approve of the opinions you have, and it's best to assume that I do not.