In an effort to turn interactive entertainment into non-interactive entertainment, Nintendo is introducing “demo play”, a feature that will let you pass over difficult parts of a game by letting the game play itself. Starting with the upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii, “players” will be allowed to have the game take over and then resume control at any point.
Sure, this will probably bridge the gap for all ages like Nintendo wants, but if people can’t play video games, then shouldn’t they just watch… video? Which is what they’re just doing anyway with this feature? Or how about a demo that would show people how to do it as opposed to doing it for them?
It’s hard to keep my distaste for this feature throttled, as it assaults all my “teach a man to fish” sensibilities. I can’t help but think that in an effort to make their games more meaningful to a larger audience, Nintendo has made their games meaningless in general. Part of the benefit of gaming is setting yourself against a challenge. They teach perseverance as well as problem solving, and “demo play” removes both these lessons.
Source: USA Today
Don Tam is a game enthusiast who currently resides in Toronto. He currently owns a two-year old PC, a Xbox 360 Pro and a DS Lite (black). His favourite games include Gears of War, Rock Band, Civilization IV, and pretty much anything Blizzard caresses with their gentle, godly hands.
I have no words.
Then don’t use it! Doesn’t your other “biggest fan” of this site often stop playing games because she gets stuck? Won’t she be able to get more enjoyment out of a game she can actually finish rather than quitting out of frustration?
Do you think difficulty levels are a problem? Or not playing games called battletoads or megaman 2?
I think showing people how to do it (they can find videos on youtube anyway) is a better idea, and solves the same problem, and I hope there’s an option to turn it off completely (there won’t be) and a penalty for using the option (there won’t be). But I can live it.
I won’t use it, but many will. And while I agree that it would it will be a beneficial feature for more casual gamers, it also prevents them from ever getting better. Casual gamers that rely on Demo Play as a crutch will never ‘graduate’ into the realm of ‘hardcore gaming’. Granted, not all casual gamers want to graduate, but I assure that the rest industry wants them to.
If the casual game market continues to financially dominate the video game industry, other hardware and software developers will have little choice but follow Nintendo’s lead. It’s already happening with motion control, and if features like Demo Play become a standard as well, games as a whole will become weaker.
Over the past decade the American and Canadian governments have reduced the requirements for obtaining a high school diploma in order to improve their graduation statistics. In fact, the education system as a whole has become more lenient. No homework, automatic passing of some courses, second chances on all exams, etc. While these changes have improved the graduation rates in North America, it has also produced weaker students. And by placing less focus on the need to learn in their videogames, Nintendo is creating weaker gamers.
The “don’t use it” argument doesn’t work for kids. That’s like telling them “hey, I’ll do your homework for you any time you want” and then telling them not to use it. And kids are the ones losing the lessons, not me.
In addition, it’s of arguable value. For some games or sequences, like you say, it may reduce the impossible and the frustration to actual completion. But at other times, the player uses Demo Play sooner than they have to, and it robs them of the full sense of reward of having tried their hardest and completing the challenge (think about doing a 1080 in 1080 Snowboarding, for example).
I certainly worry that we’re training a new generation of taking the easy way out and/or reducing patience for a reward.
Weaker gamers? Homework? Some people play games just to have fun!
Skippable content has been a feature of games for ages. Take the Final Fantasy series, with its skippable challenge bosses and monster farming, items that skip or reduce random encounters, and its doing away with random encounters entirely in FFXII. Many games provide users with ways of deciding what challenges they want to face.
Does giving full conrol to the user have downsides? Of course! In Castlevania: SoTN, I found a weapon which made me nigh invicible, removing any challenge from the rest of the game. I tried not to use the weapon at all, so that I could still get that rewarding feeling you get when you best challenges. But sometimes I did use the weapon, and I wish I hadn’t. If people only made correct decisions about what they want, there would be no downside to adding this option. However, people, myself included, make wrong decisions.
I agree that it would be a shame if the hardcore gaming industry died, and was replaced by casual gaming only. However, does this particular feature make that more likely to happen? Couldn’t it lead to designers making harder content, knowing that those who don’t want it won’t get stuck on it?
Does Final Fantasy give you the reward of skippable boss without making you face it? It’s not comparable to any optional content in any game before. The only fair comparison is handing someone the controller and letting them do the encounter for you, and even then that method at least would force you to have human interaction. And certainly nothing in the main path would be skippable. I would much prefer they actually designed around the hard content in such a manner than relying on demo play.
And again, whether you play the game for “just to have fun” or not, the design of the game has an effect on the fun. As I have illustrated, it is questionable as to whether demo play adds fun at all.
When I play games, whether now or when I was a child, I played them “just for fun”. Nonetheless, games still served a didactic purpose without my acknowledgement. The reinforcement model of try -> do -> receive being squeezed to just receive makes it no better than just watching TV.
What is the one thing that is essential to playing a game (hint, it’s in the question)?
No, you don’t get the bonuses of beating skippable bosses if you skip them. However, in a mario platformer, the only real bonus you get from getting past content is… getting new content. So I’m not sure the argument works in this context, though it certainly would if, say, FFX had autoplay for the monster ranching bit.
I agree that it would be nice if they designed the hard content to not be in the main path, and rather something that you can seek out and do at your leasure, but “hard” is a relative term. Things that you or I would find easy might really frustrate someone else.
It is indeed questionable as to whether demo play adds fun at all. For those who abuse the function, it will certainly reduce the fun they have. However, for some, it will actually let them play the game, paradoxical as that seems. The thing that is essential to a game is enjoying it’s challenges and rewards (which may be watching a movie, mind), and for some this feature will be the difference between putting the game down and never coming back, and continuing to play the game.