We are a Disney Infinity household.
I have a 7 year old son and a 9 year
old daughter who absolutely adore Disney Infinity. We have the 1.0 &
2.0 editions, all the character figures and all the Power Discs.
That's not to say 'Oh hey look we're so special!' but instead to say
'Oh hey I have a LOT of money and time involved in this game.'
Also this is not an introduction to
Disney Infinity- if you need that look elsewhere. There are plenty of
great resources around for that. What I present here are some random
thoughts that have been festering in my brain over the last two years
of interacting with the game. I hope the development team and the
community might take a minute to read over them; the thoughts may
mirror some of their own or spark their imagination in new
directions.
Disney Infinity 3.0 has recently been
announced and as with with 2.0 it sounds like the development team
has been listening to the community and making tweaks and additions.
Some have been great (Toy Box games, some character crossover in Play
Sets, Toy Box builders) and some have fallen short (the mind-numbing
survival game mode) but all the credit to them for trying new things.
Here are some things I'd like to see
as Disney Infinity continues to grow:
Complete Power Disc SETS available for purchase
Power Discs add a lot of fun items,
decorations and abilities to Disney Infinity. That said, buying them
has been a royal pain in the rear. Thankfully the 'blind packs' are
going away with 3.0 but details have not yet come out about the new
method in which Power Discs will be sold. Let's make it easy- sell
complete sets. Sure sell packs for people who don't want them all
but I'm willing to wager that MOST Infinity collectors just want
complete sets of the Discs. In fact Series 2 of 1.0's Power Discs
WERE available in a complete set- only from Target and if you blinked
you missed it.
I'm not proud of the fact that I ended
up paying eBay sellers too much money to complete our family's Power
Disc sets. But frankly I felt I was pissing away money with the poor
distribution of Discs in the blind packs. If sets aren't available to
buy from Disney I fear even non-blind packs will have some discs in
short supply and resellers and store employees will snatch them up
for eBay. WE WANT TO GIVE YOU OUR MONEY DISNEY, NOT EBAYERS.
Online co-op in Play Sets
Many people have asked for this since
the confusion about it in 1.0 and it's already been announced that
3.0 still will NOT feature online co-op play in the Play Sets. I have
faith the team can make this happen.
Larger Toy Box options
Realizing of course the limitations of
older generation game platforms and online storage for Toy Box saves
I would still like to have an option for creating larger, more
intricate Toy Boxes. Or, if not larger themselves, the ability to
more seamlessly chain together multiple Toy Boxes and Interiors.
Raised level cap/ability to max out skill trees
Disney Infinity 2.0 introduced skills
trees for player characters and this was a fun, welcome addition. But
even though players are allowed to re-spec their characters if they
choose to there's still a level cap and the skill trees cannot be
maxed out.
Please remember the target demographic
for Disney Infinity is young children and for many this is their
introduction to the video game systems we adult gamers take for
granted. Kids like to collect stuff and skill unlocks are no
different. So having to explain to kids that the toys in their game
can't possibly collect ALL their abilities and special moves doesn't
make for fun gameplay- just frustration.
Ability to more easily unlock all Toy Box toys and items.
In Disney Infinity 1.0 items in the
Toy Box were unlocked through a combination of gameplay and
'purchase' using a lottery-like spin system. It took some work and
some time but everything for the Toy Box could be unlocked through
normal game interaction.
DI 2.0 introduced a storefront method
of unlocking Toy Box items with accumulation of 'sparks' (an in-game
currency). This is great and allows for more specific choice of the
items you want. The problem is unlike 1.0 some of the items are
RIDICULOUSLY 'expensive' and, even after multiple playthroughs of the
Play Sets AND hours and hours of Toy Box play, there STILL isn't a
chance to earn enough 'sparks' to buy everything. This explains why
many Toy Box creators have made levels that are nothing more than
spark generators- ways of fudging the system to farm for sparks to
buy Toy Box unlocks. Want to know what ISN'T fun for young kids?
GRINDING TO EARN IN-GAME CURRENCY.
I can only hope that DI 3.0 will
strike a finer balance between gameplay earnings and the ability to
spend those earnings for Toy Box enhancements.
Fulfilling the 'platform' dream.
When introduced to the world it was
stressed by the Disney Infinity team that Infinity was to be a
platform- a starting point from which many things could grow. That
dream gets incrementally fulfilled with each release but I hope this
will be pushed further and further. That said I understand there are
technical limitations with the game being on different generations of
video game consoles, mobile devices and computers as well as
different users' access to the internet.
I'd like there to be a more seamless
and less limited expansion plan for future characters and Play Sets-
the main limit seemingly being that content for a given version of
the game is locked at the time of initial release. I'd like to have
the ability to purchase a Play Set pack at a retail store and, via a
code, download the data for that set even if it wasn't previously
coded on the retail disc. Same with characters. I understand this
occurs to some degree with the PC version of the game but I don't
find the PC a very family-friendly way to play this family game.
I'm sure this is all part of the DI
team's dream but our minds and wallets are ready.
Individual Disney accounts for all family members and less 'exclusionary' Toy Box challenges.
Currently when playing console
versions of Disney Infinity (and probably the PC/iOS versions but I
haven't spent any significant time with those) the console owner's
'gamertag' is tied to an external Disney account. The Disney account
allows Toy Boxes to be shared with the community.
Yet a problem has emerged in this.
This could be specific to MY household but I don't imagine that to be
the case- the problem being that when my two children, separately or
as a team, create a Toy Box that Toy Box is attributed TO ME. My
Disney account, my gamertag. This might not seem like a big deal to
an adult but for a 7 year old and a 9 year old who are intensely
proud of the work they create it leads to frustration because no one
knows THEY created it.
If there were a simple way to create
individual in-game accounts for users in the same household this
wouldn't be a problem. I imagine this could be worked around by
creating individual gamertags for each child AND creating (if
possible) a separate Disney account for each child and linking the
two. But there are many things wrong with that, not the least is that
on our platform of choice (PS4) there are many features of online
connectivity blocked from sub accounts.
Individual in-game accounts would also
help Disney get an even more clear idea of the demographics of
players, time spent playing, modes played and characters used-
invaluable information for future releases.
In the second part of this is
section's title I used the word exclusionary and though that might
seem harsh it best conveys the feelings my kids have been
experiencing over the last two years. During this time I've witnessed
a disturbing shift in my children's view of the Disney Infinity
community. Every week our family watches and enjoys the official
Disney Infinity YouTube show- Toy Box TV. Almost every episode
features a Toy Box challenge in which a theme is given and the
community is encouraged to create a Toy Box within a two week period
using this theme. There's no prizes involved other than exposure.
Some of the winners are frankly AMAZING and from the beginning my
kids would excitedly wait to see what the challenge was and want to
create and enter their own Toy Boxes.
But then week after week the same
names would appear in the Toy Box Challenge 'winners' list. Over and
over. This is not to take away from the abilities of these people-
like I said their work is often amazing. As an adult I can appreciate
all the hours that must have gone in to the creation of some of these
Toy Boxes.
As a parent I watched my kids go from
wanting to enter the challenge every week, to saying sadly (despite
my encouragement) that “we never win” to their current stance of
“why bother entering because the same people- grown-ups- always
win.” And you know what? They're kind of right. If my generally
optimistic kids are feeling like that I have to imagine there are
other kids out there who feel excluded in the same way.
Let's see some community spotlight on
Infinity's target demographic. Having those separate in-game accounts
would give a chance for challenges for different age groups or even
allow special showcases of kid-created content; kids who go to school
and may not be allowed to play Disney Infinity more than a few hours
a week. Isn't there room on the Infinity refrigerator to pin up the
stuff kids create too?
That's all for now, at least until my kids' new daily question of “WHEN IS DISNEY INFINITY 3.0 COMING OUT?!?” is answered.
Feel free to comment to me directly on
Twitter: @Greencapt
No comments:
Post a Comment