The rumors were true: Nintendo games can now play themselves!

[Jaos]

Noname: I read your posts in this thread and have to say I disagree with you. I think your fallacy is the assumption that everyone plays for the same reasons. Not everyone enjoys the same things about games. You and I enjoy overcoming obstacles in games and developing skills to beat it.


Now I don't know what else you enjoy about gaming, but I also enjoy the exploration, seeing new parts and things in the games. That's the reason why I don't much enjoy games that have a lot of repetition in them, even if they are challenging. I think that exploration is a fundamental reason why people play games. Not all people, but a lot.


I think the third reason is escape. People want to leave their daily routine behind and explore fantastical worlds, participate in activities beyond their capabilities, or just relax and take their mind off of job matters.


Just this weekend I met a friend who had been a hardcore gamer for all his childhood. It's this guy who's guilty of turning me into a Nintendo fanboy. Since he's got into work life, he doesn't have much time for playing anymore. Wii and DS kind of brought him back into gaming, but didn't fully achieve this. He played NSMB DS and really enjoyed it, but gave up have way through. The reason he gave for this was he didn't enjoy repeating tasks because he failed. He even said that he doesn't want to do anything a second time. On Wii it was similar, he played Galaxy, but couldn't even get to 60 stars. Because of this being an issue in most games he sold his Wii. You have to understand that he doesn't play anymore because he wants to overcome challenges, but more of escapism and exploration. NSMB Wii's new feature could achieve what all those already 'dumbed down' games didn't: Get him back into and keep him in the gaming hobby.


I think because of our dedication to gaming and our skills we aren't the best to judge how to get noobs into gaming. At least with this guy, every attempt at making him overcome hard passages will only make him quit playing. Other people who, like him, don't want to play for the challenge but more for the other reasons won't keep playing if they have to repeat things to develop skills, because they don't think that's the fun part. The fun for them lies more in seeing new things and some jumping. You have to give up on thinking that you could ever get them to play the same way as you or I do, because they enjoy different things about gaming.