Nintendo planning friendlier approach to game difficulty

[SoulManX]

The days of getting stuck in games could be gone altogether, if a patent filed recently by Nintendo comes to fruition.
Nintendo's idea, made public in a patent application this week, hinges on making demonstration videos available to players while they're playing the game, either as a thumbnail view or a full-screen animation. Players could interrupt the demonstration at any point, taking control back to continue playing without assistance. Think of it as a tutorial guide that lasts throughout the entire game.



It also proposes to let players start playing at any point during a game -- a feature that's in many games already, but typically only unlocked once a player has already completed those levels. Just like skimming a newspaper article for the juicy bits, this would allow players to tackle games, in their entirety, at their own whim.



Although the patent application is chock full of grade-A lawyerspeak, it summarizes the technology as "allowing a player to freely play and enjoy the game to the end...a [system] for preventing a player who desires to clear a game by him/herself from losing his/her interest in the game."
Even experienced players resort to looking up cheats, online guides, or gamer messageboards for help when they're stuck, but Nintendo's system could remove the need to even step away from the console -- and enable less committed console owners to enjoy epics like Nintendo's own Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess without becoming bored or discouraged. Sounds like a winner to us

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/nintendo-planning-friendlier-approach-to-game-difficulty/1278610

 

[November Rain]

I see what they are trying to do, by keeping people interested in the game by allowing them to get help at any point.

However just as in a game you can reach save points, you should probably have cheat points where you get to earn a 'cheat' at a stuck point in the game and use it accordingly.

the level you set the game to initially determins how many cheat point tips you have available to you during play. Normal may have two, hard has none and beginner has infinite.

Half the battle of finishing a game is the challenge of knowing you completed it on your own. to remove that element but allow some folks to finishing unaided removes some of th element of it.

then again you can say that about having cheats on the net.

 

[StrainedEyes]

I see what they are trying to do, by keeping people interested in the game by allowing them to get help at any point.

However just as in a game you can reach save points, you should probably have cheat points where you get to earn a 'cheat' at a stuck point in the game and use it accordingly.

the level you set the game to initially determins how many cheat point tips you have available to you during play. Normal may have two, hard has none and beginner has infinite.

Half the battle of finishing a game is the challenge of knowing you completed it on your own. to remove that element but allow some folks to finishing unaided removes some of th element of it.

then again you can say that about having cheats on the net.

A good amount of people who plays games, never finish them.

 

[November Rain]

but like myself, i enjoy knowing i can go back to it years after

i remember getting stuck on flashback on the mega drive a decade ago

last year i repicked it up and finished it, i was really proud

 

[danoyse]

A good amount of people who plays games, never finish them.

I haven't finished a game since I had Super Nintendo.

I love playing them, but I'm hopeless at finishing them.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

this sounds pretty good to me actually, some gamers can get stuck even, im guessing theres even a larger amount of children who don't finish games either due to them not being able to pass harder levels... I don't have a problem with this at all...

 

[Joker]

You know what I did when I was a kid and got stuck on a game? I kept playing it, trying different things, and eventually passed it, and was proud of myself for doing so. To this day I only ever use cheats in a "I'm just gonna mess around right now" capacity, and never to actually progress in games. And any one who does is sub-human, as is anyone who uses this idea. Go back living in the god damn trees, because sometimes you can get stuck while living here on the ground, you panzys