Super Mario Maker: Not all tools available from the start, unlock over 9 days

I work M-F and I'll have this game in my hands Friday after work

Am I wrong for being a little upset that I can't dive right in and make something crazy? I'm stuck in E3 2014 mode for half my weekend. Instead of throwing down Thwomps or Boo or anything I get Koopas and question blocks for a whole day.

It's just mind bogglingly dumb. There is seriously no reason. 9 days isn't going to make people suddenly better at making levels.
 
If it's such a problem, hold off buying it for 9 days.

They probably want people to get used to the tools released each day, and I think it's way better idea then overloading players with lots of info like LBP.
 
After thinking about it for a bit, it's interesting what the results are of doing this. For the first nine days, players will learn together, sharing increasingly complex levels step-by-step and talking about every new element as it arrives. It's a short, one-time cultural event that represents the evolution of the series and lets people explore the possibilities together. The player-designed levels will showcase the progression from simple to complex.

So if you want to engage with other players in the "early days" of Super Mario Maker then that's motivation to be active for the first nine days of release, and if you don't care about that then just pick at it when you want, or wait nine days to get the game.

Also, the reason I see it this way is because it can't have anything to do with directly babying players or "forcing" them to learn something. If it really was an attempt to teach players directly, the nine-day limit would be for every individual, not until September 20th, or whatever the end date is.

edit: I see I got it wrong. It's actually nine days for every individual purchase. I just didn't believe they would do that even after reading the OP!
 
If it's such a problem, hold off buying it for 9 days.

They probably want people to get used to the tools released each day, and I think it's way better idea then overloading players with lots of info like LBP.

It's nine days after YOU start playing it.
 
One of the reason i bought a Wii U for my kids. And frankly I havent had time playing the firat lwvels ywt of mario 3d on it yet. So i will not probably even think of it .
 
After thinking about it for a bit, it's interesting what the results are of doing this. For the first nine days, players will learn together, sharing increasingly complex levels step-by-step and talking about every new element as it arrives. It's a short, one-time cultural event that represents the evolution of the series and lets people explore the possibilities together. The player-designed levels will showcase the progression from simple to complex.

People can make Mario levels legally now. We're not landing on the moon here.
 
This is brilliant. It'll help throttle the onslaught of "Put every block in it!" levels and instead lead to a gradual escalation of level design.

A smooth and natural way of encouraging players to start with something simple and then complicate their levels over time, sort of like each new set of unlocks is an additional "World" in the game.
 
After thinking about it for a bit, it's interesting what the results are of doing this. For the first nine days, players will learn together, sharing increasingly complex levels step-by-step and talking about every new element as it arrives. It's a short, one-time cultural event that represents the evolution of the series and lets people explore the possibilities together. The player-designed levels will showcase the progression from simple to complex.

So if you want to engage with other players in the "early days" of Super Mario Maker then that's motivation to be active for the first nine days of release, and if you don't care about that then just pick at it when you want, or wait nine days to get the game.

This isn't how it works, and you're stretching your brain too much trying to defend another stupid decision coming from Nintendo.
 
Metering out content over slightly longer than a week is fine in my eyes. If your attention span is so small you can't spend 5 minutes a day with a new game for 9 days then you may as well go back to your cel phone games and stop pretending you really look for much else.

When all else fails, just insult the people you don't agree with. You instantly win the argument!
 
This is okay with me. I get overwhelmed pretty easily in creator games. At least by time folks reach 9 days, they'll have a complete grasp of the tools.
 
As a Splatoon player, I just want to say that had I been able to start the game with all content unlocked I wouldn't have had all these new and exciting things every other week to look forward to. Knowing there are continuing rewards of new content for sticking around has made me enjoy the game far more than I would have thought possible. A new stage comes out and its a massive party online with friends. New weapons and it becomes absolutely incredible like when we all had the same weapon in a room and inkgrenades were everywhere.

Metering out content over slightly longer than a week is fine in my eyes. If your attention span is so small you can't spend 5 minutes a day with a new game for 9 days then you may as well go back to your cel phone games and stop pretending you really look for much else.

Splatoon was a new IP.

Mario Marker content has been around for decades
 
How annoying, more so than the lbp tutorials at least I could rush through those. So after I buy it and install it, nine days later I will have full access?
 
I think the idea is that it makes people come back to it every day and use the new stuff in unique ways. Kinda annoying for people that know what they're doing, but for kids it's a good idea. Think about it; that's 9 days of entertainment for the kid instead of 1.
 
If your attention span is so small you can't spend 5 minutes a day with a new game for 9 days then you may as well go back to your cel phone games and stop pretending you really look for much else.

My issue is more so that the amount of content available early on doesn't warrant me playing more than 5 minutes a day. Trust me, I want to play this game.
 
I would much rather do tutorials. At least it's something. 9 day wait? So kids that get the game on Christmas have to wait until January to make real levels?
 
Games like these you pay with skill/repetition or you pay with time or money. No one really wants to make their level editors feel overwhelming to new players so all assets are made as rewards to those who continue or play through some story mode, or purchase in a shop.

Disney Infinity, you pay with in-game currency, this you wait a day, in others you have to unlock them through your own skill. I'm not seeing any the problems at all to be honest. What's so boneheaded about this decision that's really no different from many others?
 
Like the fire flower and 1-up?

Its 9 days with only a 5 minute investment required per day. I think you can manage. Hell I could manage with just crazy block setup for platforming and a few enemies. Besides the first few days will have all the preloaded stages to enjoy on top of the maker main feature so don't act like you are being shafted. All this does is make people spend a little bit of dedicated time on handfuls of tools in the beginning so they show more creativity with them later on. Otherwise it'd likely just be a clusterfuck of folks dumping nothing but enemies on everything early on. Its a good way to make people think and learn about design by limiting them to a different set of concepts per day starting out.
 
Hey Mario World wasn't built in a day. It took 9 days. That's better than Rome. This is not a big deal though there should have been a way to unlock everything just to satisfy everyone. Something as simple as would you like to unlock everything.

At any rate, I think this is a good idea. It forces you to use the given tools really understanding how they work. I like the idea of getting an new toy everyday because each added element can completely change how you design levels. I'm sure this came out of play testing. People must have been building crap because they didn't understand the fundamentals of the pieces.
 
How annoying, more so than the lbp tutorials at least I could rush through those. So after I buy it and install it, nine days later I will have full access?

Load the game up. Create a level using the tools for five minutes. In-game prompt tells you that you've unlocked the next tier and they will be delivered tomorrow. Either continue playing or turn off game. Wait for the next day. Rinse and repeat.

Why not just buy it 10 days later if this is an issue for you?

Because it's 9 days total based on when you start playing. So if you get the game Day One, the 20th. If you get it 9 days later... it's the 29th.
 
How annoying, more so than the lbp tutorials at least I could rush through those. So after I buy it install it play a bit, nine days later I will have full access?

You got to play with the editor 5 minutes a day to get all the content.
5 exciting minutes of putting blocks and goombas and more blocks.
 
Games like these you pay with skill/repetition or you pay with time or money. No one really wants to make their level editors feel overwhelming to new players so all assets are made as rewards to those who continue or play through some story mode, or purchase in a shop.

Disney Infinity, you pay with in-game currency, this you wait a day, in others you have to unlock them through your own skill. I'm not seeing any the problems at all to be honest. What's so boneheaded about this decision that's really no different many others?

I don't play Disney Infinity so

Why not just buy it 10 days later if this is an issue for you?

What?

1. It unlocks after nine days of play

2. People who have it pre-ordered - some already paid in full - are probably thinking "nah, I don't really want to have to wait 10 days" even if that was an option.
 
Its 9 days with only a 5 minute investment required per day. I think you can manage.

Yes. I can and will. I'm multitasking by also be critical of something I don't like about the game.

Besides the first few days will have all the preloaded stages to enjoy on top of the maker main feature so don't act like you are being shafted.

I don't feel shafted. I want to use all the tools.

Where are these interpretations of criticism coming from?

Which is why there is a rating system to help people find good levels.

I was joking.
 
I guess Id have preferred a shorter unlock drip (the days where you're just getting like 3 things is ridiculous) but as far as gating things in level editors go, this is way less annoying than the bullshit in the Disney Infinity games where you're either beholden to a roulette wheel or spending stupid amounts of time in the single player gathering money to be able buy your way through level part tech trees.
 
Games like these you pay with skill/repetition or you pay with time or money. No one really wants to make their level editors feel overwhelming to new players so all assets are made as rewards to those who continue or play through some story mode, or purchase in a shop.

Disney Infinity, you pay with in-game currency, this you wait a day, in others you have to unlock them through your own skill. I'm not seeing any the problems at all to be honest. What's so boneheaded about this decision that's really no different many others?

As I explained in a previous post, the problem isn't a progression of unlocked content to ease people into increasingly complex game design (because that's everywhere in games these days), it's in the rigidity of it. This system isn't even a "reward" system because things unlock whether you use them or not. The game doesn't actually make you use those new assets in any kind of skillful manner. All you gotta do is log in for 5 minutes.
 
Why are people bringing up LBP as a game that gave you everything at the start. I remember having play campaign mode to unlock shit to use in your level creator.. Sony wasn't demonized for it.. I wonder why.
 
Why not just buy it 10 days later if this is an issue for you?

--

Ahh, I see why! Nevermind!

Well actually for people who don't intend to makes stages at all it's a good option
This will only bother people who intend on doing stages

Why are people bringing up LBP as a game that gave you everything at the start. I remember having play campaign mode to unlock shit to use in your level creator.. Sony wasn't demonized for it.. I wonder why.
gee I really wonder lol
 
Why are people bringing up LBP as a game that gave you everything at the start. I remember having play campaign mode to unlock shit to use in your level creator.. Sony wasn't demonized for it.. I wonder why.
You could unlock allthe content in one evening without waiting nine days?

LBP was also only, mostly, cosmetics. None of the core tools were locked, outside of a short tutorial.
 
Meh. I see anything that forces folks to get creative with a few tools at a time as a good way of forcing folks to learn level design. From what I've seen with stuff in game making classes back in college, if you give people a lot of options right out the gate they only focus on the loudest ones and miss a shitload of core design strategy. Forcing them to take it slow and to really learn how to utilize only a few tools at a time is something that was really needed for this "maker" game concept to shine. Doing it with such a low investment of time over so few days will help push folks into this sort of creativity with all the tools and not just a select few. In the long run it'll serve to make the experiences they have in the game of higher quality because its training them to be more creative with every tool than they may have initially been.
 
Stupid.

I wouldn't put it past them to have some kind of check to make sure you aren't advancing the clock manually. Thankfully a quick search showed it's easy to take the clock battery out.

So I'll boot the console, set the clock, boot the game, screw around 5 minutes, save, exit and power down. Then repeat 8 more times.
 
Why are people bringing up LBP as a game that gave you everything at the start. I remember having play campaign mode to unlock shit to use in your level creator.. Sony wasn't demonized for it.. I wonder why.

Because it didn't take 216 hours to unlock a few dozen tools?
 
They could've just done a 9-part "campaign" that teaches you to create a world with different types of stages, unlocking tools as you go along. At the end, you get to keep all the tools.
 
I don't play Disney Infinity so

Really the point is, there is no best way to handle content rollout of assets for level editor games and each have their own major flaws that will always upset a lot of people. Few want it all at once, a majority may feel overwhelmed by having it all at once. That's why you see so many make them unlocks, purchasable, wait times, etc., etc., in a variety of games.

As I explained in a previous post, the problem isn't a progression of unlocked content to ease people into increasingly complex game design (because that's everywhere in games these days), it's in the rigidity of it. This system isn't even a "reward" system because things unlock whether you use them or not. The game doesn't actually make you use those new assets in any kind of skillful manner. All you gotta do is log in for 5 minutes.

Good points, and it comes down to each type of method having its own major flaw and why there is no best way to handle it.
 
Why are people bringing up LBP as a game that gave you everything at the start. I remember having play campaign mode to unlock shit to use in your level creator.. Sony wasn't demonized for it.. I wonder why.

Because

1. It had a robust single-player adventure mode that supported four players

2. You had a LOT more freedom to create things at all points in the game (like, I would say that a person can do some pretty damned complicated things with just the starting tools)

3. You unlocked things through play and skill, not waiting
 
Why are people bringing up LBP as a game that gave you everything at the start. I remember having play campaign mode to unlock shit to use in your level creator.. Sony wasn't demonized for it.. I wonder why.

Because it doesn't take 9 days to complete LBP's campaign?

It's a really obvious distinction.
 
Why are people bringing up LBP as a game that gave you everything at the start. I remember having play campaign mode to unlock shit to use in your level creator.. Sony wasn't demonized for it.. I wonder why.
LBP's locked content was almost entirely aesthetic, and could be unlocked in an afternoon. These are full gameplay mechanics locked behind multiple 24 hour waiting periods.
 
People can make Mario levels legally now. We're not landing on the moon here.
lol no, I was thinking of a shared experience people can have for only a limited amount of time, like how the early days of MMOs or other online games had a certain non-repeatable culture built around it. This is a smaller version of that.

This isn't how it works, and you're stretching your brain too much trying to defend another stupid decision coming from Nintendo.
Sorry if I got it wrong. I thought every day a new set of options would be available for people to use and after a certain calendar date everyone had access to everything. But yeah I am stretching my thinking because from my perspective I don't really see the point, and I'm trying to think from Nintendo's perspective, not justify it.
 
Top Bottom