Tag Archives: Easy Mode

Nintendo’s Switch Reveal: A Different Marketing Pitch

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Nearly everything in Nintendo’s three-and-a-half minute Switch reveal we already knew from rumor. The only thing that we really didn’t know – as it turned out – was how Nintendo would talk about the new machine and who they were going to aim it at.

The nature of the Switch, it’s duality as a portable home console must have proved an interesting challenge for Nintendo’s marketing team. And what they came up with is fascinating. Here’s a couple of quick points.

No Kids Allowed: Back to the Red Ocean?

The first time we ever see the Switch, this is the setup: a 20- to 30-something man is playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, by himself, on a big flat-screen, with an industry standard pro controller. The portability is showcased soon after, but consider that first glimpse: no waggling of Wii-motes, no tablet controller, no kiddie colors. Coupled with the brief glimpses of Skyrim and NBA2K we see later in the trailer, this is a bald attempt at siren call to the hard core. The message is clear: go with Switch, and you can play your AAA multi-platform games wherever you like… along with Nintendo’s outstanding first-party games. This could be a boost in Nintendo’s war to win back the core. Consider: if the third party list they showed comes through at all and can remain even modestly consistent though the life of the platform, Nintendo could be swimming with the sharks again, and holding their own.

2DS/3DS is Nintendo’s Machine for Kids… for Now.

Nintendo created mobile gaming with the GameBoy and its successor systems, and have dominated the space… until smartphones. Even still, though not hitting the lofty heights of the 150-million selling DS family, the 2DS and 3DS has sold more than 60 million units worldwide. They aren’t going to want to abandon or alienate that base for awhile. (And everything we have heard says that they won’t.)

In light of the way Switch is configured and the internal corporate restructuring that Satoru Iwata oversaw at the Big N before his untimely death, Nintendo wants to turn two pillars – console and handheld – into one pillar. Eventually, the 2DS/3DS family will have to be mothballed. What happens then? How will they do it?

The 2DS price point is amazing right now. Access to the deep 3DS game library for $80. The Switch won’t be able to compete with that, with a price that’s likely going to come in between $299-$399 depending on bundle configuration. But once 12-18 months have passed, the economies of scale and chip commoditization will get that price dropping. Once that happens, Nintendo can start adding ‘lower-end’ models in more kid-friendly colors. Then .

 

Easy Mode: A Gaming Way of Life

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[All Easy Mode blogs are cross-posted over at ign.com. Link.]

Every gamer knows what Easy Mode is, and most wouldn’t admit to using it. This blog celebrates Easy Mode and all that it entails.

Why? Let me explain.

How did I – by most indications an experienced gamer – come to be this way?

It starts with the following personality trait: I will walk a hundred miles through the flaming desert, over broken glass, with no water, and wild animals attacking me from every side in order to figure out a way to make something easier. Not only in the immediate time frame, but also in the long term – even if it’s less time consuming to simply attack the problem in front of me with brute force.

This desert is no impediment to me.

I’m a writer/editor by trade and also do some layout work. I recently had to process about 300 JPEGs for size and contrast. I could have done it by hand or hired out, but screw that! Instead I spent an hour and a half and $15 devising a way – my own way – to automate the process. Such is my commitment to clever problem solving to increase efficiency. (I’m just saying: I’m not this kind of gamer because I’m lazy.)

How does this trait apply this to games? I recently analyzed my gamer tendencies (long, dark night of the gaming soul) and found these to be at the heart of what brings out the gaming curmudgeon in me:

  • Difficulty for the sake of difficulty. I’ve never been a gaming masochist. Not going to start now. (I’ve heard of Dark Souls, and I’m not playing it.)
  • Boss Battles and Mini Bosses. I begrudgingly admit that these pains in my butt are necessary and worthwhile for both achievement and story purposes, but I still hate every last awesomely rendered, ridiculously oversized one of them. At least a little.
  • A game that suddenly jumps in difficulty for no good reason. Bad game design. Happens a lot with puzzlers for some reason (like Crashmo).
  • A game that adjusts game balance by throwing more enemies at you for no good reason. Cheap way out, game designers. Cheap. And annoying.
  • Grinding. Dear lord, don’t get me started on this mother of all time sinkholes. If you can’t fold grinding into something worthwhile, hand in your designer’s badge.

Look… I’m old. I work. I don’t have time for any of this crap. I want to experience meaningful gameplay consistently from beginning to the end so I can progress through whatever level system or story you’ve offered up without getting bogged down. That’s a game that will pass the Easy Mode threshold of awesome.

Should everything in life be easy? No. Of course not. I’ve been working on my golf swing for years, and it’s just now rounding into form. Getting an education should be hard, so you’re prepared. Fights against serious illness are hard. So many things in life challenge us. For me, gaming shouldn’t be one of them.

Like this, mmm’kay??

This makes me sound like I don’t like a gaming challenge. That’s not necessarily true. I don’t mind a challenge, I just prefer that the challenge isn’t a result of bad or malicious game design. In fact, I consider a game to be a success from a design standpoint if it manages to up the difficulty without irritating me – and trust me: I’m a good barometer for that. Usually this happens because the game is so well designed that the increase in difficulty is one for which the game has prepared you. A game that incorporates superb design and extremely well-balanced gameplay hits the Easy Mode mark. And don’t underestimate how much a compelling story/mystery can help as well.

So welcome to Easy Mode! I’ll be doing game analysis and reviews (Easy Mode style of course), editorials, and other forms of complaining (sorry, Brian Altano!).

I know that there are gamers like me out there, gamers that proudly grumble when the going gets tough. Join me.

Easy Mode: Throwing Money at the Problem

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Welcome to my new blog feature, Easy Mode! It’s all about games and gaming and complaining artfully when things get too damned hard. Because truly, life is too short to have a difficult time winning video games. Enjoy!

So it looks like we’re all stuck with in-app purchases as a gaming business model. I was hoping that it was just a phase and we could all go back to purchasing feature-complete games, but devs know that there’s a sucker born every minute. We won’t see the end of the practice any time soon!

A primary genesis for this model is Apple’s refusal to implement any kind up traditional ‘demo’ system in the iOS App store. The in-app purchases somewhat enabled demoing, but developers realized that they could just offer the game for free and nickel and dime us all until we were bored and broke and they were rich and – hopefully – ridden with guilt. Not holding my breath.

I hate the business model.

Still, with proper implementation and sufficiently awesome game quality, in-app purchases can be non-offensive and even make the game more fun. It’s interesting to see how various game developers go about setting up their in-app stores and upon which game mechanics they try to force the player to choose grinding or paying.

In my experience, the best handling of in-app purchases starts with a feature-complete game that you pay something for rather than a free game with purchased add-ons. I’m actually more likely to try a game that I have to pay for up front, the logic being that since I’m paying for something, I’m going to actually get the playable game that I’m looking for at a high baseline of quality – one that can be played from beginning to a satisfying end without paying for anything else. One game like this is (or was; it’s now free in the App store) the exemplary tower defense game Kingdom Rush by Ironhide Studios. (I think I paid full price for this game twice, once for my iPad and once for my iPhone, more because I wanted to support the developer’s fine effort than for any kind of convenience.)

Kingdom Rush is an interesting case vis a vis in-app purchases due to the fact that they were introduced quite a long time after the game had been around. Ironhide Studios added a number of extra levels for free but then introduced some hero characters, some of which were free (earned in-game) and some of which were premium (anywhere from $.99-$4.99 depending on sales). They also eventually implemented a shop where you could buy power-ups and other items with collectable in-game money. You can, of course, buy the in-game money with real money, but relative to some other games out there, it’s cheap. The heroes and power-ups feel more like fun game extensions rather than nickel-and-dime-ing. Because of the implementation. The game had Easy and Normal difficulty settings to begin with, so they didn’t break difficulty to add things on. They eventually added a Hard mode, which is still doable for the experienced Kingdom Rush-er, but does benefit from the use purchased power-ups and heroes. All-in-all, well done on the implementation front. I hope the next game in the series, Kingdom Rush: Frontiers, follows this model.

On the other hand…

NimbleBit’s latest offering Nimble Quest is a different matter entirely. The game was free when I got it (I think anyway), now $.99. The game mechanics are simple and full of action and enemies, and the game is great to play in little chunks when you have the chance. Progressing through the game is addictive and satisfying. But the way that they use in-app purchases is just kind of crass. In order to unlock the 10-spot (in addition to the 1- and 5-spots) of in-game money – with which you need to purchase boosted power-ups and levels of experience for the characters – it was a $4.99 in-app purchase.

Oof.

You need that 10-spot to get any kind of chance at leveling up characters and progressing through the game at a reasonable rate. Therefore the game really costs $4.99. I actually would have been fine with that, but no, they chose the most execrable technique of nickel-and-dime-ing.

NimbleBit and other devs that set up their games this way basically break their games by manipulating the difficulty balance, forcing the player to decided if they want to grind – like, a lot – or throw real and, therefore, in-game money at the problem. So they make the game too difficult and then force the player pay more to progress. For someone like me that’s been gaming since the Atari 2600, this is anathema. I’m used to paying up to $50-$60 dollars for a complete and immersive experience, so it’s not the money that bothers me. It’s what the particular application of in-app purchases does to game play. Even if I like a game – and I like Nimble Quest – at some point in the experience, I’ll feel cheated. Sure, we’re talking a lot less than $60 for a game, and the depth of experience reflects that, but it’s a value proposition that leaves me scratching my head, wondering why I bother. Spoiler alert: I like games.

But is it even a game anymore if you have to pay to progress in a reasonable manner?

If nothing else, it’s going to be interesting to see how this practice evolves.