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| The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap | | (And Why the Games Industry Doesn’t Understand Its Own Business) | | 01 January 2005 | | The Minish Cap is the latest installment in Nintendo’s long-running action-adventure game series, and while it may be (as some have suggested) the best handheld game ever made, it also proves once again that the games industry does not understand its own business.
Anyone who has played a Zelda game will know the formula by now – a huge, free-play world of dungeons and monsters, played through the eyes of Link – who sets out on his quest to rescue the Princess Zelda, armed only with his sword and shield. It’s beautiful, enthralling, and... far too difficult! FairgroundTown didn’t finish it, and was on the point of giving up several times along the way too.
FairgroundTown has been playing video games for around-about 20 years now, from Motor Mania to Burnout II, and from Jet Set Willy to Wind Waker, with hundreds in-between, but in all that time we’ve hardly ever actually FINISHED one. In fact, as best we recall, we’ve finished precisely two – Beach Head (for the C64) and Donkey Kong Country (for the original Game Boy). It’s getting frustrating, but more importantly we think that says as much about the games industry as it does about us.
Games are written, tested, reviewed and sold by experts. They are sometimes played by experts too, but most of the time they are played by you and me, and not only is our enjoyment lessened, but the games industry looses money as a consequence. Following our failure to complete the previously mentioned Wind Waker (another Zelda title) we were so disheartened we didn’t buy another game for months. And we’re used to this! What about all those potential customers with less experience and less patience? They never buy another game again.
Nintendo were recently roundly booed by the hard-code gaming community for suggesting that shorter, easier games might make more economic sense, and FairgroundTown has some sympathy with those people who possess the skill (and time) to see these things as challenges rather than frustrations, but we still feel that we are closer to the 'typical' potential customer of the games industry, and we are being let down.
And the worst of it? There is an easy solution – difficulty levels! In fact, we recall that one of the games we finished (Beach Head) had three difficulty levels, and was only completed on 'Easy'. Given that the code for these games is highly parameterized, in terms of enemy 'AI' [Artificial Intelligence], it would be trivial to implement. The industry would have happier customers, and might be a little richer too. |
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The point is we are all connected... through love... through loneliness... through one lamentable lapse in judgment!
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