Do you ever get stuck in games? Do you find yourself frustrated at the prospect of having to play the same level over and over again until you get it right? Do you wish there was some kind of option where the game would simply play itself, while you relieved your tension in a nice hot bath? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. Who the hell would want a game that played itself? Well, according to Shigeru Miyamoto, the father of Mario, Nintendo fans would.
In an interview with USA Today, the legendary game designer revealed that upcoming Wii title, New Super Mario Bros. 2, will be the first to feature an option called "demo mode", in which the player can put down the controller and let the game auto-play itself. This is designed to help people get past tough spots, after which they can take over again. But hang on there, Shiggy, I have a question: Are you trying to destroy video games completely, or are you just stupid?
I mean, think about it for a minute: If you can't beat level 5, what the hell makes you think you'll be able to beat level 6? A well designed game teaches you skills and techniques throughout, so that by the time you reach the harder spots, you're better than you were before. If we could just skip over all these spots, we'd never learn the techniques necessary to get past the later levels. But that's okay, we can just skip those too!
Oh, but I suppose you don't have to use demo mode, do you? No, but having the option right there, available with the press of one button, is going to be mighty tempting when things get tough. I don't know about you, but I even find Gamefaqs to be a little too convenient sometimes, and have to stop myself from going there when I can't figure something out right away. But at least Gamefaqs doesn't play the game for you; it simply tells you what to do. Demo mode, on the other hand, completely takes over, and doesn't even require you to be in the same room!
And what about those valuable life lessons we can learn from our favorite form of entertainment? Skills like perseverance and problem solving? Nope, gone. The only lesson kids will learn from video games in the future will be, "If you can't figure something out right away, just cheat." Real nice, Nintendo, I'm sure the next generation are going to grow up with fantastic work ethics! That is, if they're even playing video games in the future. With all the challenge taken out, people may soon get bored of this particular pastime and move onto something else.
So in the end, only one group who truly benefits from this demo mode option, and that's Nintendo themselves. Think about it: The more games we can beat, the more games we can buy, and the bigger a pile of money Miyamoto can sleep on each night. But this is only in the short-term. The long-term effects of dumbing-down gaming probably won't be seen for another few years, but it could result in the end of Nintendo's "casual" user base, who one day realize they're spending a bunch of money of games they're hardly even playing!
Of course, we mustn't forget that Sony and Microsoft have been attempting to emulate Nintendo's success for a while now, copying things such as motion control and avatars. We may find that this feature is the next thing the giant companies "borrow", in which case, God help us. God help us all.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
If you can't beat 'em......
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4 comments:
Over-react much? ;)
Seriously though, that's kind of an extreme viewpoint. New Super Mario Bros Wii is clearly designed around the idea of families playing together, and this mode allows for young children or older adults with little knowledge of gaming to 'skip' bits that are too hard without becoming frustrated and giving up. Also, it'd be helpful if a member of the family has to stop playing and do something without their character leaving the game entirely.
It's not designed for gamers, no-one is being forced to use it if they don't want to and it certainly isn't part of some evil Shigsy-spawned plot to have games play themselves while we all dance and sing outside in the sun.
But I wonder where this will lead? What if this kind of sick mentality spread to other more serious systems? Like the Xbox 360? Would there be a mode like this to get really hard achievements? Then people would just leave their game on, go to work come home and be like " all right 1000 gamer points!" I don't like the idea and I feel as if it is a white gloved slap to the face of gamers.
Heyheyhey, who's to say the 360 is a more serious system? -.o
Nitpicking aside, this function is a travesty, really. I agree with Oscar in this situation. Gaming should teach you perseverance and character, not that in life you'll always have something there to do the hard work for you.
And then there is the whole "Trophy" and "Gamer Points" situation to take into consideration...
Okay, maybe it is an extreme viewpoint, but I don't think something like this should be taken lightly. The thing is, I'm not even a hardcore Nintendo fan, so I'm not sure why it upsets me so much. If anything, Ed, you should be the one frustrated at the direction your beloved company is going.
No, on second thought, I do know why it upsets me: This is Super Mario Bros we're talking about! Everyone in our age bracket grew up on the original, so I feel that we should be the ones catered to, not some just-got-into-video-games family who need help with something as simple as a 2D platformer. We didn't need auto-play back in the day, so they shouldn't need it now, either.
However, one thing you said did make sense to me, and that's the possibility that someone may want to take a break in the middle of a multiplayer session without stopping the whole game. This was a feature that I really enjoyed in Left 4 Dead, so I suppose, in this case, it's not such a bad idea. Once you allow people to skip single-player sections, though, we start falling down what could be a rather slippery slope.
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