What if games played themselves?

[JCvgluvr]

So, there I was, sitting in the john, reading my latest copy of GameInformer. I started reading an article written by Andrew Reiner, GI's executive editor. In it, he discussed the idea of games that could play themselves. Here's a quote from his article:

At this year's E3, Shigeru Miyamoto detailed another option, one at which I immediately scoffed. In Miyamoto's upcoming Wii title, New Super Mario Bros., players can activate a function curently dubbed "demo play." When activated, this mode playes the game for you. It is intended to help stuck players get to the next section of the game.

I can't believe it. I'm almost horrified. It's all about instant gratification, isn't it? Why would game developers ever do something like this? I think it's simply pandering to the casual games market.

I mean really, what's next? Is there going to be a guitar that plays itself for you? Is there going to be a kind of food that jumps into your mouth and makes you chew it? Will there be cars that drives themselves for you? Are there going to be beautiful women(or men) automatically lining up to fall in love with you for life the moment they lay eyes on you? Maybe pianos are gonna start playing themsel...oh wait, forget that last one.

But just watch. If games start doing this, we're gonna get lazy 7 year old kids who see a wall in a game and go "Ehhh...jumping is too hard. I'm just gonna let the game do it." Kids won't try to beat games anymore. Player skill will get thrown out of the window!

If "demo play" succeeds, this will be a major setback.

 

[Gaiacarra]

When you get stuck in a game, what do you do? You hit up gamefaqs dot com. This is basically that, but more convenient.

I generally try not to use a walkthrough though, and it's easier to not give in to temptation if I have to turn all the way around to face my computer. So I can see that making it convenient could be a problem.

But in the end, if a player wants to do it, let them. You don't have do, I don't have to, and we can all tell people how worthless their 1000% save file is after we've beaten the game legitimately. But some people are only in gaming to have fun, they don't want their games to be crucibles.

 

[Odbarc]

...

"Will there be cars that drives themselves for you?"
This is bad? No more drunk drivers on the road, no more speeding? AI controlled cars obeying the rules could also reduce road rage and stuff too.

With a game that can be triggered into playing itself, I'd attempt half crazy suicidal attempts only to switch to AI to see them desperately try and save their own lives. Or interupt a well meaning AI run at a level by purposely losing a good power or gaining a bad one.

Fun.

 

[Rakon]

I can't see self-playing games becoming a trend. However, it would be a great way to get unstuck in a game.

And that does kind of sound like fun Odbarc.

 

[KoalaRainbowPoop]

which ff game pretty much played itself. wasn't it ff 13? or was it 12? i can't keep up anymore.

 

[Trippysmurf]

For years now you could have games play themselves, especially RTS. Turn on StarCraft, set it to 2 computers, free for all, watch them kill themselves. Its not fun, but you can get an idea on how the computer plays.

But this really does show where we have devolved as a society. I have friends that scream when commercials come on because they are so used to Tivo being able to skip them. Louis CK also points out how dependent on instant gratification we have become. I say first platform games play themselves, the next we turn into this:

 

[MattAY]

This is rubbish. I get annoyed with being stuck at the time, but when working on being stuck for about an hour and then finally finding the solution - there's nothing more satisfying.
that's why I loved Braid so much. I almost went insane on that haha.

This is a dumb idea. Plus it's Mario! How stuck can you actually get in that?

 

[LinksOcarina]

Whats the point of playing games if you don't play them? Seriously?

 

[Bretimus_v2]

I already watch movies, thanks.

 

[JCvgluvr]

Re: ...

"Will there be cars that drives themselves for you?"
This is bad? No more drunk drivers on the road, no more speeding? AI controlled cars obeying the rules could also reduce road rage and stuff too.

Hmm, you've got a good point there.

 

[De-Ting]

This simply takes the "game" out of "video game."

Here's a crazy idea for Nintendo. Difficulty settings. They should tweak each level in such a way to make it different on each level of difficulty.

 

[KoalaRainbowPoop]

it's nintendo. they can't make a game to hard or it'll scare off their install base. ya know, the casual gamer.

 

[MattAY]

You know, if nintendo added achievements I'd play my wii a whole lot more.

 

[LinksOcarina]

Achievements are for fags.

Listen to the pseudo-fag saying this.

 

[UrbanMasque]

I already watch movies, thanks.

hahahha i thought the EXACT same thing.

 

[KoalaRainbowPoop]

they should just make it into one big qhick time event. push one button every so often and watch. doesn't get any easier than that.

 

[letusprey]

I read this same article at work yesterday. They brought up games like the the Prince of Persia, and Bioshock, neither of which was your character penalized for death. In the long run though the one thing that stood out to me in this article was when they spoke of "sequel appeal". Developers talk about how the games are not getting finished and it will be easy for more casual gamers to get to experience the story and blah blah blah. Obviously though, this is just another way for them to make MORE money. By having a game that can be finished and viewed gamers will be more prone to buy the sequel because they were able to beat the first game. It is a bullshit theory that is just another lame attempt to cash in on the "casual gamer". I have a feeling this "demo play" will die with Mario, but I highly doubt other ways of "helping" the gamer finish their games will go away anytime soon.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

Wait, can't these people just go to gamefaqs.com and cheat their way to success?

Or instead of "demo play" bring back the time-honored INVINCIBILITY CODE!!!!!!1

 

[miak757]

I already watch movies, thanks.

hahahha i thought the EXACT same thing.

 

[Tykk]

they should just make it into one big quick time event. push one button every so often and watch. doesn't get any easier than that.

They already did that, it's called Metal Gear Solid 4 (yeah, i went there).