Several years ago, I purchased a new Nintendo Switch. The prospect excited me within a couple of categories:
- Device functionality (portable & stationary).
- Device modularity.
- Titles (Zelda: Breath of the Wild / Historical Nintendo Classics).
- The console’s ability to replace the Nintendo64, Wii, and Game Cube.
When the device arrives, I am entranced; I set it up and start playing Zelda. I played it on and off for a couple of weeks and got to 8 hearts. Over the next year, I played a couple of other games like Mario Kart, Super Mario, and Ultra Street Fighter. However, I got stuck on Zelda and didn’t touch the console for some time.
I have picked it up every once and a while to try to continue, and each time I made micro progressions in the storyline but was not able to immerse myself in it. I thought to myself, “what is wrong with me… this is a great game,” and it dawned on me that I have to overwrite my progress and start from the beginning. So I did. And I was right; it is a great game. The storyline takes place in Hyrule and follows a similar storyline to the likes of Avatar Animated Series and She-Ra, the Princess of Power. It is a little different from the Zelda I watch my brother play when I was growing up, but I could not help but be awed by the graphics the developers took advantage of in building this world. I began down the quests, unlocking a couple of Shrines while trying to get the paraglider from the traveling mumbler. I went to the Church in the Great Plateau and Examined a Treasure Chest to find a Travels Bow. I went back into the Church’s main room and tried to fire an arrow, having no arrows; I was unsuccessful. However, I noticed that the developers had added realistic audio to that of a drawn empty bow being fired. I began to draw and fire the bow repeatedly, trying to produce different noises; I changed my character position to what would be different acoustic environments in reality. But to no avail, the FX remained the same. My commentary is not a criticism of Zelda’s developers; it is an accidental study of how far developers are willing to go to create an immersive experience.
The premise of the article is an effect of my experience with the drawn bow in Zelda.
How much does micro-optimization matter to the consumer?
For an average retail console game, the cost of the consumer is around $60. The consumer expects that the game will give them the same amount of value in return for this cost. The value is composed of numerous categories.
Experience
My experience was with a minor audio FX component in a vast open-world game that could potentially take any given consumer hundreds of hours to complete. The market would say that people care about minor audio differences. Companies like Astro Gaming and Turtle Beach Gaming sell headphones specifically to enhance audio experiences for gamers. Visually, consumers arrive in hoards for increased pixel counts, lower latency, and higher refresh rates. Functionally, people have arguments over the value of games like Star Wars Jedi: Fall Order because of its somewhat jolty melee mechanisms. People marvel at the expansiveness of Skyrim. I personally am always fascinated by the in-game hemispheres: lens flares, clouds, weather, and the likes.
On top of this, people are increasingly curious about making the experience more lifelike with things like VR, AR, Motion Activated Controls, and products like Sound Body Straps by Woojer.
Every listed item being susceptible to micro-optimizations and iterative advancement.
Story / Theme
Storys matter. Games like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order have not been burdened by their functionality issues because of their ability to transport the consumer. The Call of Duty Franchise has been successful because of its ability to create realistic combat scenarios. Games like Fortnite, Rocket League, and Apex have been successful because of their ability to allow consumers to individualize.
Not to sidetrack, but Disney’s success is and was predicated on building an escape for consumers; especially for a family looking for realistic group experiences that allow every member to step away from the day to day toils of everyday life. Video games are not too different in their nature. While some Video Games find success primarily on Functionality, the games that immerse their players often find greater success in the market.
Availability (Finite, Infinite)
In general games are an Inifintely supplied resource these days. With the most game being available for download, understanding how to optimize the supply chain is not as valuable as understanding how to saturate the market. Now the acoustics of one combat artifact in a single game does not matter to the consumer, as with any number of other insignificantly small optimizations. However, the principle of pursuing to achieve experiences that are just that much better is of matter to the consumer.
Hardware is a different story than video games’ availability, as is licensing and storefronts, but the customers dictate the market at the end of the day.
The conclusion and consensus of my thoughts are that the market has defined that it values experiential products. Specifically, the gaming industry is continuing to evolve its offerings and improve its ability to satisfy the consumers it serves. The stark contrast of quality from Zelda Wind Waker to Breath of the Wild in the brief 16 year period is astounding. And it is not just the developers at Nintendo that have contributed to this progress. All of the developers in the market, all of the publishers, all of the hardware conduits, and all other complementary market solutions make the industry possible. The unending quest for improvement within the industry has bought new levels of experiences for millions of people. Not just one developer creates a suite of tools to develop these products, but the collective contributes to the positive growth over time.
