I'm back, baby! And I have come bearing... a roundtable.

I remember, during the Touch Generations days, Miyamoto had repeatedly intimated that he wanted to keep the audience coming back every day. Of course this applied to games like Big Brain Academy, Brain Training, Wii Fit, and Nintendogs, but games like Puzzle League and Picross DS had some sort of daily challenge mode. Y'know... OUR games. When the 3DS launched, it was indicated that the onboard software, Streetpass features, and Play Coins were meant to encourage usage and ensure user retention.

It seems to me that Nintendo has been putting elements which encourage the user to 'check in' daily into more and more of their games. Of course, all of the free-to-start games have elements of this. It would be easy to attribute this design to Nintendo chasing the mobile market, but, as I already mentioned, Nintendo's been blowing this horn for quite a while. They might be blowing it harder and implementing more modern concepts like timer-based economies to compete with games like Crossy Road and Pac-Man 256, but even titles like Animal Crossing could be seen as early stabs at the concept.

Now traditional games like Triforce Heroes and... Triforce Heroes also include elements which reward daily play. In the case of, say, Triforce Heroes, it's not even daily 'play', necessarily, but even just daily check-in. Wake the system up, check the market, try your hand at the daily lottery, and put the system back to sleep. That pretty much sums up the vast majority of my Triforce Heroes sessions.

While I was playing Pokemon Rumble World and Shuffle, I similarly made sure to check in and get my daily goodies/gems/whatnot. And I feel an unexplainable sense of loss when I forget to power up Pokemon Picross and complete the daily challenge. I mean, it's not like Picrites grow on trees!

So, yes, to a certain extent, it can be said that Nintendo has successfully tricked my weak-minded self into checking in every day, but I don't really think that it's a good thing. My 3DS sessions now typically consist of logging in to the daily apps, doin' my business, and then logging out. As with the Streetpass titles, these types of experiences are seriously diminishing the playtime for traditional games (the type that caused most of us to fall in love with Nintendo in the first place). I haven't touched my enormous backlog in forever. If I think about it rationally, I KNOW that almost any of those games will provide me with far more utils/hour. But, again, weak-minded.

What do you guys think about this trend? Is it positive or negative? Is it perhaps a necessary evil to keep up with the Joneseses? Has it seriously changed your gaming habits, particularly in the portable realm?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I don't think that I've completed today's Pokemon Picross challenge...

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*Looks up from Nintendo Badge Arcade*

I don't see it as a problem. I don't have a problem. What's the problem?

*goes back to Nintendo Badge Arcade*

Animal Crossing was the first game that I really felt like "oh man, gotta fire it up today" because I didn't want to miss anything. I never adjusted the in-game clock to cheat either, so there was a stretch for like two years where I couldn't be out on a Saturday Night between 8 and midnight because I needed to get the new KK Slider song. I mean, I COULD be out, but I'd have to swing by home for 6 minutes, or be home before 12, or leave after 8. It can probably be construed as "ridiculous," but whatever.

Guitar Hero Live has a daily login thing. I think its broken though, I should report it. You're supposed to get cumulative points when you turn it on on back to back days. I did it a whole bunch, and it always acted like I was on Day 1. Pfft.


I now play WWE SuperCard CONSTANTLY, which is an every day, every minute type of game. Its broken everything.

@Mr_Mustache
What platform is that WWE game on? Your phone? Web browser?

Animal Crossing was definitely a daily addiction for me, back in the Gamecube days. I liked that they let you buy KK Slider songs in the store in the 3DS version. It makes it a little less special, but it gives you access to a lot more songs!

Haha, in the (3?)DS version, I would spend all month getting, like, Halloween or Thanksgiving or Christmas tokens and then COMPLETELY forget to cash them in on the day in question. Every time. Sadness...

@GameDadGrant
Your name is Grant, and... you are a Nintendo Badge Arcade addict.

You have been clean for zero days.

I actually find those things off-putting, as if Nintendo is holding back content and trying to "train" me or dictate to me how I should use their software. So it ends up being counter-productive. If I miss a week of Animal Crossing and that means the place is full of weeds, it's not going to encourage me to come back every day. I'll just stop playing.

I think it's a weird obsession on Nintendo's part. Just focus on great gameplay, which you're good at, Nintendo. That'll keep me coming back. I don't need to be tricked.

I think Animal Crossing: New Leaf handles this concept really well. It has an everyday element, but it isn't reliant on it. I find things to do after the routine stuff. Checking in feels natural because I want to play the game for what it is. It's definitely possible to miss out on things, but I think that's a part of the experience.

The Streetpass games are interesting because they require a different kind of time investment. I like that you need to do external activities to progress through them, but there's no pressure to do them everyday.

I like checking in with Nintendo Badge Arcade since it has an element of surprise to it.

Pokemon Picross on the other hand is where I kinda draw the line. The everyday element feels shoehorned into this game, and I think it gets in the way of the gamplay proper. It's simply a part of an obstacle rather than a meaningful and fun part of the game.

Basically, I'm okay with this type of design if it seems naturally designed into the game like it is in Animal Crossing.

It's sort of weird. To be honest, it's starting to feel more like chores than anything; something you kinda do out of obligation because of the in-game carrot on a stick rather than something truly compelling from a gameplay standpoint. Turn on the system, play game for five minutes, turn off. I think I largely agree with @kriswright on this, even though I haven't yet missed a Badge Center or Pokemon Picross day...

I think it depends on how it's handled, for me. Badge Arcade makes me furious because I have so limited play time for free daily, but also it becomes more exciting in a way. Pokemon Picross JUST makes me furious, because I can't buy the game straight out, which is what I would do. :/ I do enjoy the daily element of Pokemon Rumble, though.

I guess I'm fine with it either way. I just don't like being handcuffed. That's where it gets yucky. Pokemon Picross feels like handcuffs. Pokemon Rumble feels more like "Oh, yeah, I'll play for a few minutes today." I guess in PR, I never finish everything I'd like to do before I'm out of options or whatever. I have so many balloons that I could play for 45 minutes or so and still have more to do. With Pokemon Picross, I LITERALLY can only play for about a minute and a half, then I have nothing I can do because of the stupid pay wall. It feels built into Badge Arcade, but the PP one is just bletch.

No interest. I play games a few times a week at most nowadays. Anything trying to demand my time daily will be pushed aside.

Outside of StreetPass games that I don't regret spending time with, I haven't touched Nintendo's other games of the same sort, even with urging by Nintendo, putting icons on my home screen strongly suggesting that I should try them out. I have waaaaay too many games sitting on my system that stare at me whenever I open my system up to be spending time with that stuff. Especially after the recent eShop sale Even the Badge thing they're doing now, not interested.

@Anand

SuperCard is its own thing on a number of services. Its an app, yes.

@kriswright

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Animal Crossing is the only game that "punishes" you for not playing everyday. Right? And that was always presented as a feature of the game - to simulate the feeling that the village is its own, living, breathing world. Not necessarily to "force" the player to play all the time.

Any other game Nintendo has put out that encourages daily play is, to me, just rewarding players that do play that often. Nothing bad happens if I don't fire up Pokemon Picross everyday. In fact, it's kind of beneficial not to, since next time I play, I'll have lots of in-game time/energy to solve the puzzles.

I don't think it's that bad. No one is trying to force your play habits. Gotta remember Kris, not everyone is out to get you. ....well, I mean, they ARE. Definitely. But...just not everyday.

@GameDadGrant

IN what sense to you mean "punishes?" Weeds, bad hair, roaches? Thats after like..a good while of not playing though.

@Mr_Mustache

Yeah, weeds and such. Sometimes villagers will move out if you haven't talked to them in a while. Stuff like that. And you're right, in order to get just, y'know, an OVERWHELMING amount of weeds, you would have to take a week or two off.

@GameDadGrant

You could also run into Ghost Man, and he'd clean that crap up for you like *that*! I did that once or twice. I never minded the weed pulling. I guess I have that Japanese belief in me that I've done something wrong, and that I deserve it for not playing or whatever. Same way the Japanese enjoy grinding, as I do, too. Ah well.

Back when the Wii was still coming, some IDIOTS on IGN wanted the weed pulling to be connected to a REMOTE WAGGLE (think..weedpulling / fishing motion). ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? I'm not doing that 100 times a day!

Mr_Mustache said:

Back when the Wii was still coming, some IDIOTS on IGN wanted the weed pulling to be connected to a REMOTE WAGGLE (think..weedpulling / fishing motion). ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? I'm not doing that 100 times a day!

There's a joke in that somewhere. But I think I'll leave it be.

@Shadowlink

Yeah, I kinda thought about that while typing it. Oh well.

Animal Crossing is pretty meta. It's a chilling moment when you realize that you're picking weeds and planting flowers... in a video game.

Like, that shit sucks in real life. Why simulate tedium and mundanity?

@Anand

Planting flowers in the game is rad though, and SO COOL when you get hybrids. I think if the turnaround was longer, it wouldn't be very fun. I like planting crops in Rune Factory, too. I wonder if they made a game where you could do your taxes or something, would that be fun?

I run all over the place looking for people to talk to in Xenoblade. ALL. OVER. THE PLACE.

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@Mr_Mustache
Seriously... I mean, talking to people. Who has time for THAT in real life?

@Mr_Mustache

Growing flowers in a game actually is pretty cool. I was hooked on Flower Town in the StreetPass Mii Plaza for a while!