Nintendo Files Patent For Game That Plays Itself

Kotaku points out a recent patent filed by Nintendo which automates gameplay unless the user specifically chooses to play a particular part of the game. Quoting: "The new system, described in a patent filed by Nintendo Creative Director Shigeru Miyamoto on June 30, 2008, but made public today, looks to solve the issue of casual gamers losing interest in a game before they complete it, while still maintaining the interest of hardcore gamers. The solution would turn a game into a full-length cut scene of sorts, allowing players to jump into and out of the action whenever they wanted. But when played this way, gamers would not be able to save their progress, maintaining the challenge of completing a game without skipping or cheating."

Comments

Prior art - Rogue-o-matic

[rlp]

First there was Rogue - a character graphic adventure game. Then there was Rogue-o-matic. I think there was also a variant called AutoRogue.

Re:Nintendo does it, yes

[Moraelin]

Well, fascinating it is. I don't think many other companies outright insulted their customers (see such Yamauchi quotes as the one I quoted) _and_ business partners (see their attitude to the devs when some threatened to jump ship in the N64 days... which caused most to actually do jump ship) _and_ have a chairman who's publicly _proud_ to not be among the customers (Yamauchi actually took pride in never having played a single video game in his life), and, yes, get such adoring fans.

I mean, comparing to that, even the patents are nothing. Joe Average doesn't care about our ideological crusades about patents or IP. But call someone names, take pride in not being like him, and have him come back to you wagging his tail, now _that_ is something. I don't know how they do that, but hats off.

I don't think even comparing them to Apple does either of them justice. Apple and Steve Jobs actually flatter their customers, not insult them. They try to maintain the image that the Apple users are the smart, savvy, hip, cool, etc guys. Steve Jobs certainly takes pride in using his own products and in fact micro-managing the design until it exactly fits his personal taste. I remember keynotes where he stressed that some program was done for him, or beta-tested by him, or whatnot.

(And I'm not even an Apple fan, and hate the cult of personality around Steve Jobs. But credit where credit is due. He sure knows how to do a keynote and flatter his customers.)

Mind you, as I was saying, Nintendo does have some good and innovative designers, such as Shigeru Miyamoto, so maybe that's the explanation.

Maybe a more apt comparison is with the Penny Arade Will Wright's Pee comic strip.