Nintendo has a tendency to have tunnel vision, for better or worse. When Miyamoto talks about more games having user-generated content, he can't be alluding to Little Big Planet and other non-Nintendo games.

Sure, Miis, Band Bros, SSBB, and to some extent Animal Crossing have user-generated content. However, I have to wonder if Miyamoto saying this means we'll see user-generated content as a big feature in the next Mario, Zelda, or Pikmin game.

I'm not sure he was talking about changing core games to include that but about designing future expanded market games to have UGC. I know Sony has been touting that as "gaming 3.0" like "web 2.0" (the "go make your own content, we're too lazy" approach) but I think that just sounds stupid. I think for fully shared UGC to work you need some sort of selection system where the casual user just goes online, clicks the "recommended content" button and gets a list of stuff that's worth trying instead of having to look through a list of every piece of garbage that has been submitted.

Honestly I had forgotten about the new Wario Ware title when I posted earlier.

Anyway, any time I hear user-generated content is the "future of video games", and I know that has been said about LBP, I can't help but point at Lode Runner, from 1983, which had a custom map editor. (Heck, Lode Runner's even in the same GENRE as LBP--puzzle/platformer! ) T'aint anything new, folks! It's just being peddled more rigorously than ever, that's all!

Racing Destruction Set, anyone?  The only difference with today's games is that with the internet, people can share UGC almost effortlessly.  It's like with the proliferation of blogs.  Yeah, anybody can have a blog to get their opinions out there, but do I want to read them all?  Hell no.  UGC is the same way.  The cream will rise to the top, garbage will be ignored, and there will ALWAYS be a market for the content created by professionals.

I really think the future will be a mixture and balance between user created content in a game and a fleshed out single player (Or co-op) mode. I'd hate to see things go heavily one way or another. While LBP is a great game I wish they would have fleshed out the single player mode a bit more, creating a must play through adventure in addition to the tremendously deep creation tools.

I like user created content in games.  Level editors, create-a-wrestler, custom tracks.  It's good stuff.  Anyone ever play the PC game Stunts?  I spent years designing tracks in that game.

Though I fear this will become too much of a game design fad and will get corrupted by greed.  DLC is a pretty cool concept, eh?  You can make new content for an older game so it keeps it fresh!  But then you can also withhold content that is ready on release day and charge extra for it.  You can charge for things gamers USED to get for free like difficulty levels.  Or you can charge to merely unlock stuff already in the game.  It's a good concept in theory but it's been corrupted by corporate greed.

User created content might suffer the same fate.  Instead of going to all the trouble to make a full game why not just allow the users to create it for themselves?  Hey, we just saved tons of money in game development but we get to charge you the same 60 bucks!

I'm sure as TYP pointed out Miyamoto isn't talking about anything outside of Nintendo's limited view.  When we talk about user created content we're talking about stuff like Little Big Planet or Lode Runner.  "User generated content" from Nintendo's perspective is likely not at all what we're thinking of.  They live in their own world and if Wii Music is their idea of "user generated content" then I'm not only not on the same page as them but reading a different book.  When I think of a "user generated content" in a music game I'm expecting the ability to create your own songs like (ironically) Mario Paint did way back when.

This is becoming somewhat of an industry fad and buzzword and Nintendo NEVER is on the ball with that sort of stuff.  They may talk about something using a similar term but they never know what's going on unless they came up with the concept in the first place.  They're either on the cutting edge or completely out-of-touch.

Yeah, Nintendo is almost always using a different dictionary than the rest of the industry, for better or for worse. For example, Nintendo defines a "gamer" as anyone from 5 to 95, which has worked to their advantage, and "core game" as Animal Crossing, which... is umm... curious, much as I love the game.

Nintendo has already done user-generated content the way the rest of the industry does it, the Brawl stage creator and the stage of the day download, so don't assume that they won't do it again.

The new Wario Ware game and Band Bros for DS (and its sequel) are also good modern examples of user-generated content frameworks from Nintendo.

Yeah, this UGC push of LBP is funny since games with extensive UGC have been released before (e.g. Blastworks...). What's even more, people seem to only count games with very simple WYSIWYG editing tools built in for the UGC label but Doom and Quake had extensive UGC already and many modern PC games still do, it's just MORE user generated than the usual UGC that's pretty much pieced together from prefabs provided by the game developer. When I make UGC for Blastworks I have to use their layman-friendly editor with all its limitations, I have to obey the rules of the game, etc. When I make UGC for Spring I use software like Blender that is so much more advanced than the primitive editors you find in games it's not funny. When I don't like the rules of the game I write code and change them instead of trying to bend the rules by using some WYSIWYG elements connected together in a way that hackily circumvents the rules. Yeah, I know, most people can't handle the advanced tools but you only have to learn that once but you'll suffer from inadequate tools forever.

Creating your content with pro-level tools takes more training but once you're there it's faster and much, MUCH better for doing what you have in mind.

They did not make that term up, it's defined in the disruption strategy, the core market is the old market that the competitors are in and that the disruptor is trying to pretty much destroy (as it is the territory of the incumbent) by slowly going upmarket and shrinking the core market while absorbing former core customers into the expanded market. It's people on the internet who made some arbitrary "hardcore" terminology up and then wonder why it doesn't match Nintendo's usage.

Well, whether or not the term has basis, though I'm totoally inclined to think it does, it DOES show that Nintendo is clearly willing to define terms and approach technologies, mindsets, and challenges in a different way from that expected by the customary industry observer. This is part of the company DNA, from successes like the Family Computer's (FamiCom, or NES) re-emphasis on videogames for kids, to Nintendo's difficulties in approaching networked technologies from Pac-Man Vs., friend codes, and more.

I'm not arguing that any one definition is right. I'm just trying to point out that when you're dealing with Nintendo, you have to check your assumptions about such terminology at the door. You can't afford to be lazy... which, really, is a good thing.

Interestingly enough, I wouldn't call the level of UGC that you're talking about very disruptive. It's awesome, no doubt about it, but vastly opaque to those beyond a technically proficient niche group of hobbyists. Heck, even the WarCraft III World Editor, which is wonderfully GUI, likely would make 95% of the population's heads explode.

In contrast, my cousin just sent me videos of her Little Big Planet Sackgirl. Leave the technical complexity to the professionals, it's powerful, yet accessible creators like Spore and LBP (and the Sims Carnival online website? Haven't checked that out yet...)that are bringing creative opportunities to the masses.

Actually, if anyone's seen today's Nintendo Financial Briefing, Iwata talks quite a bit about user generated content, especially as regards upcoming DS software.

Heh, first you blame Nintendo for not using the arbitrary terminology of the gaming market, then you call something disruptive yourself :P. Seriously, it's a defined business strategy and it comes with its defined terminology. Should Nintendo make up words to describe things that already have names?

And add to the confusion? lol.

Careful, guys. This is starting to turn into the old "core" terminology argument. That's not what this thread is about.

Yeah yeah so start making a mod then.