Various computer games magazines are reporting news of\u00a0a Nintendo patent<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0providing user assistance to players during a game.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The patent describes “Demo Play”, which is intended\u00a0to keep\u00a0casual players\u00a0interested in complex games in a way that doesn’t conflict with hardcore gamers’ requirements.<\/p>\n

Advanced players can play normally,\u00a0while less experienced players can get the\u00a0occasional helping hand.\u00a0Hints will appear in a screen that pops up in the top right corner of the screen at different points of the game. These\u00a0video hints would appear only\u00a0when the player gets stuck on a particular puzzle for a set amount of time.<\/p>\n

Potentially, the computer could take over the game playing at points too tricky for a less experienced user. In a second mode, an\u00a0introduction or overview form\u00a0named “digest mode”,\u00a0the computer\u00a0displays\u00a0the game’s key scenes, and allows\u00a0players the opportunity to stop the digest at any time and play the scene themselves.<\/p>\n

According to the Kotaku<\/a> Web site:<\/p>\n

This patent, if implemented correctly, could successfully help gaming make the leap from narrative fun, to something more open-ended and free range, the first real sandbox video game.<\/p>\n

Imagine being able to play a game with all of the benefits of characters, story and goals, but without having to spend 10 to 20 hours of your life to enjoy doing so.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s likely to be first seen\u00a0in the Wii version of “The Prisoner of Zelda”, due out later this year.<\/p>\n

User assistance developed for computer games could move across to desktop software and Web\u00a0(SaaS) applications. It’s also possible that computer games developers will draw upon the lesson learnt from developing traditional user assistance, as their user base becomes more diverse.<\/p>\n

Whether the patent restricts the opportunity to build on these ideas is something technical communicators and Help Authoring Tool developers will need\u00a0to consider, should they wish to create a similar system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Various computer games magazines are reporting news of\u00a0a Nintendo patent\u00a0for\u00a0providing user assistance to players during a game. The patent describes “Demo Play”, which is intended\u00a0to keep\u00a0casual players\u00a0interested in complex games in a way that doesn’t conflict with hardcore gamers’ requirements. Advanced players can play normally,\u00a0while less experienced players can get the\u00a0occasional helping hand.\u00a0Hints will appear… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[182,211,194,255,222,229],"tags":[305,283,262,303,264],"class_list":["post-787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-help","category-online-help","category-technical-communication","category-technology","category-trends","category-user-assistance","tag-games","tag-help","tag-technical-communication","tag-trends","tag-user-assistance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n