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+--- Thread: My thoughts on "Amiibo" (and other similar digi-toys) (/showthread.php?tid=6785)
My thoughts on "Amiibo" (and other similar digi-toys) - Dark Jaguar - 6th November 2014
Nintendo has decided to get into the "sell toys with those games" market first started by Skylanders (and continued with Disney Infinity). On paper, it's a good way to revitalize the toy industry, steadily loosing relevance. It's also a good way for Nintendo themselves to return to their roots, as they used to make toys.
Having seen a few videos rolling that beautiful amiibo footage, I can say the figurines are pretty well put together, and nicely detailed. I can't fault their quality.
What I can fault, however, is their functionality. In that, consider this a criticism of ALL of these sorts of toys, as they all function in exactly the same way. These things are, ultimately, unmoving figurines permanently mounted to a base. Kids can't actually play with these things. Kids can't articulate Mario's arms or push the action button in his back to fire that fireball, nor can they dress up the Snow Queen in the various outfits she had in the movie, or even flap Spyro's wings. No, their sole functionality is "unlocking". You put these $15 figurines on a NFC sensor and it "reads in" data contained in a NFC chip inside the figurine. In some cases (Amiibo) data can be stored back on the toy and brought to another place to upload into a friend's system, but it all remains the same. This is DLC, very expensive DLC, plain and simple. There's simply no real novelty or joy in actually playing with these toys. The entirety of their function, from start to finish, is to put it on a sensor and have them "magically show up in your game". The characters could just have been unlocked in the game already, or in the case of data transfer, my 3DS could have stored that data just fine going from one place to another. In other words, I'm calling these toys, in their current form and function, nothing more than a gimmick, although a surprisingly profitable one.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
I think there's real potential here. It's been a long time since I've actually owned any toys. I used to have a rather large collection all stored in a chest that looked like a treasure chest, until they all were given away to good will. I don't really get upset at that mind you, it's just the sort of thing that happens to toys when one grows up and I've seen Toy Story 3. Still, I get a little nostalgic now and again, and the notion of collecting toys of my favorite video game characters is a pretty charming one. However, the toys I remember were 80's toys, and that was when the craft was at the top of it's game, before video games stole the spotlight and forced toy makers to simplify and lower the quality of toys from then on just to turn a profit. The toys I grew up with DID things. You had dolls that changed color, costume changes, ones with little strips of plastic that made the toy "talk" when you ran it through the back or something. You had toys with tape recorders and moving faces, all the tiny remote control cars you could eat, and toy playsets. Oh the playsets! No matter the franchise, there were massive constructs to play with your toys ON. Barbie had all manner of dream house, the Ghostbusters had their firehouse, Thundercats had their lair, G.I. Joe had unending military bases. Ninja Turtles had a giant technodrome and sewer, and Little Ponies had cloud heavens and cursed wastelands (My Little Pony had some dark stuff in it, such as a gargoyle from hell). All of these things could be opened up in cross section, interacted with, and took 4 D-cell batteries (not included). The board games even got in on this, with such ridiculously huge layouts and electronic components you just knew that this was it, the 80's had finally reached THE FUTURE. Heck, even Nintendo's ROB was more interesting than an Amiibo. ROB doesn't need an Amiibo, because ROB is it's own Amiibo, one that can read the TV screen and move around, stacking and spinning gyros and so on. Don't misunderstand, ROB sucked and all in implementation, but ROB had the right philosophy behind it, which this current crop of digital interactive toys is missing.
Let me get to the point, the games should serve the toys, not the other way around. You want to make toys and games interact? Make the game completely subservient to the end goal of making toys more fun. Make those toys do things. Create big play spaces, all connected and controlled by the game itself. The game will do all the talking and controlling, with score counters and such built in, but primarily you'll do most of your interaction via moving and using the toys, which the game will keep track of and create rules of play for. Do this, and this whole concept will finally unlock it's true potential. As it stands, I'm convinced they've got how these things should work entirely backwards.
My thoughts on "Amiibo" (and other similar digi-toys) - A Black Falcon - 24th January 2015
Well, Amiibos seem to be a huge hit. The things are selling really well, Nintendo can't keep them in stock... I don't have any, I'm not into collecting these kinds of things, but I'm sure I'll get at least one or two eventually.
My thoughts on "Amiibo" (and other similar digi-toys) - Sacred Jellybean - 25th January 2015
As far as I'm concerned, Nintendo can jack people with all the shitty dimestore toys they want as long as they keep releasing Zelda games. Skyward Sword was a triumph in innovation, real shame they spread it so thin. Ugh, I have to go through the same 3 areas again?
My thoughts on "Amiibo" (and other similar digi-toys) - A Black Falcon - 25th January 2015
Quote:Let me get to the point, the games should serve the toys, not the other way around. You want to make toys and games interact? Make the game completely subservient to the end goal of making toys more fun. Make those toys do things. Create big play spaces, all connected and controlled by the game itself. The game will do all the talking and controlling, with score counters and such built in, but primarily you'll do most of your interaction via moving and using the toys, which the game will keep track of and create rules of play for. Do this, and this whole concept will finally unlock it's true potential. As it stands, I'm convinced they've got how these things should work entirely backwards.
So basically, some crossover of Microsoft's new AR headset (yeah, yeah, "hologram" headset, but it's not holograms, it's AR stuff displaying a view over reality) and Skylanders-like toys? That could work.