Dialog Tree: Miitomo's Drop - Article
by Spencer Manigat , posted on 03 June 2016 / 6,445 Views
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to a brand new series of articles I am tentatively calling Dialog Tree. The premise is simple - once a week I will publish an opinion piece or article on a given topic. Afterwards, I'll join the comment section below where we can have a stimulating series of branching discussions stemming from what was brought up in the article. In this way, the main article will act functionally as a jumping off point for further discussion down below. The discussions held in the comments will be just as integral to the article as the article itself. Feel free to disagree and let's start a Dialog Tree.
DOES ANYONE ELSE REMEMBER THOSE INVASIVE FACEBOOK GAMES?
You know the ones. Games like Farmville and Bejeweled Blitz. Diamond Dash and Candy Crush Saga. You may have never played one, but you've almost definitely heard the name of at least one of them. Why? Because everyone had that one friend who would send dozens of spam notifications asking you to join so that they could gain bonus points on whatever game they were playing at the time, and everyone hated that friend.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have a confession to make - at one time, maybe five years back, that friend was me. I was that friend with just one specific game: Sims Social. I was obsessed with it for about 6 months, maybe even addicted. These games are intelligently designed to create a satisfying addiction loop of positive reinforcement, and it worked on me in spectacular fashion. I played it for hours a day, every day, and I loved every minute of it. I'd spam all of my friends with game invites, too. I had no shame, and no one was safe.
I now have a deep appreciation for social games like these and, though I'm long past my days of Sims Social, I still enjoy them. I loved my time with Sims Social, regardless of how blatantly exploitative it was, so I was absolutely smitten when Nintendo revealed that their first mobile game would not be based off Mario or Zelda, but instead be based off their Mii IP. The game, or app, would be called Miitomo.
Now, as I'm sure anyone who followed the announcement will remember, the initial reception of Miitomo was, to be gentle, lukewarm. Fans were confused, shareholders were unhappy, and many people were unable to even figure out if Miitomo could be considered a game or not. None of that mattered to me, though. From the moment I saw it, I knew it had tremendous potential.
Miitomo is difficult to categorize. The way I see it, it's a communication game. It's gamified social media, very different from the Sims Social-lite I initially thought it would be, but that felt exciting to me. Social media has become ubiquitous, and there's so much potential in gamifying it, but fast forward a few months and it seems abundantly clear that Nintendo has dropped the ball hard with Miitomo. The idea for Miitomo is simple - it is meant to act as a conversation starter. But somehow Nintendo and DeNA messed up the app's execution, and that's cost it its staying power.
MIITOMO SUFFERED, AT LAUNCH, FROM SEVERE SLUGGISHNESS.
People like their social media to be quick and snappy, but Miitomo was plagued with pace-breaking loading screens for every mundane action. Even parts of the way the game is designed are sluggish. At the start of every new day, Miitomo assaults you with a slew of daily notifications which begins to feel like a repetitive grind when all you want to do is access the bread and butter of the app. Prompting players to take and share a Miifoto picture whenever they change their outfit feels like a chore that discourages people from wanting to change it at all. That might sound silly to you - the notification is only up for a few moments after all - but that's the truth about how people interact with social media. It's best experienced passively, and Nintendo jammed Miitomo with active, intrusive interruptions that ruin the flow of the experience.
The friend-adding system is perhaps Miitomo's most well-documented sin. Many have already criticized this, but few have attempted to pose an adequate solution. The reason doing this is so difficult is because Miitomo is an app designed to be a social lubricant for people you already know in real life. Consequently, this makes the app a terrible one for interacting with people you don't know personally, because you just have no reason to care.
One must assume that Nintendo was aware of this, and placed such harsh restrictions on how players add friends to prevent people from adding strangers and having a bad time. But, as I will explain in a moment, that lack of fun is actually indicative of a problem with the way the app itself was designed. Nintendo should be working on fixing that, rather than limiting the means by which players can add friends.
I haven't yet seen this brought up at all, but there is an easy way to fix the friend problem - make having a My Nintendo and Nintendo Account mandatory to use Miitomo. The reason people can't search for their friends using their usernames is because there is no standard username for Miitomo. There is no “Miitomo handle” to search for. Nintendo Accounts easily fix that, but it only works if every Miitomo account has one. It's mind-blowing that this wasn't the case from the beginning when amassing a large number of My Nintendo users quickly was one of Nintendo's primary goals with regards to going mobile to begin with.
I understand why Nintendo did what they did when it comes to friends, but it's a cheap way to fix a poorly thought out app concept. The truth is, the app should have never been designed to only facilitate familiar interactions. That's completely out of touch with the way people typically interact with social media now, and core to Miitomo's lack of staying power. That doesn't mean that the ultimate goal of getting people to know each other better isn't a compelling or worthwhile one to pursue, but the execution has been completely off here.
Nintendo should have made Miitomo work in a way that allowed for both personal and unfamiliar experiences to be satisfying separately. Allowing people to create and host clubs where they could communicate with groups of people, rather than only with individuals, could have accomplished this, for example. This would have been especially perfect for celebrities and people with significant followings, as it would allow them to communicate with their fan bases in meaningful ways without needing to invite strangers into their in-game houses to interact with one by one. Encouraging celebrities to use your app is essentially free publicity, yadda yadda. This would also allow for people with a common interest to interact with each other in ways that wouldn't require familiarity to be engaging.
MIITOMO SHOULDN'T LIVE OR DIE BY WHETHER OR NOT YOU KNOW SOMEONE.
Even apart from groups, I feel like having Miitomo set only inside of "houses," at least as the default setting, is a missed opportunity. Once again, it's fine if you know the person, but having random people you don't know walk into your house to ask you intimate questions isn't fun or engaging. What Nintendo should have done is allow players to add a separate "insiders circle" for people they know. Only those people would be able to come to your house and have those personal interactions. Even more simply, perhaps Miitomo could have a standard "follow" system, where people can't enter each other's houses or answer these kinds of questions unless they are mutually following each other. I'll get to where the others would go in a bit.
Back to houses though, Miitomo could have allowed for far more personalization here. Miitomo allows players to change how their Mii looks, sounds, and dresses. Why stop there? The house should have been customizable and gamified like the rest of the app, allowing for different walls, furniture, etc. This gives the currency more value, encourages constant checking back to the app, and gives players more incentive to visit each other's houses in general outside of just answering mundane questions. In Sims Social, your Sim could interact with items in the environment, like guitars or refrigerators, and gain rewards or skills from those interactions. Something similar could have been implemented in Miitomo. Even the music that plays in your house could have been customizable to better represent the individual.
For everyone else, move the hub to a more public place - maybe a town square or something. Here, players would be able to interact with people on their friend's list in a noncommittal way. No personal questions here. In fact, Nintendo's focus on asking and answering questions as the main driving force for the app is really missing the mark. Instead, Nintendo should have hunkered down, in conjunction with the question answering, on two things: Miifoto and social mini games.
Miitomo Drop, the in-app pachinko-style mini game, is boring and feels unabashedly exploitative. Miitomo could have, instead, hosted social mini games similar to the likes of Words with Friends or Draw Something. Those games were great because they were a passive and fun way to get people to talk to each other. This mantra fits in perfectly with Miitomo, and would have turned the app into more of a platform for other games, not unlike the 3DS's StreetPass Mii Plaza, which hosts its own assortment of mini games. Nintendo could have made a "Miifoto Something" game, similar to Draw Something, using their own Miifoto feature to have players create pictures for others to guess. They could have even made a game where the mechanics forced you to learn things about the other player, encouraging those interactions. There's so much potential here.
These games would have been a perfect vehicle for an instant messaging system, and it's backwards that Nintendo opted to force players to contact each other using outside apps instead of hosting those conversations themselves. Miitomo absolutely should have had a direct messaging system. The Miis are charming, and just hearing them read your messages with their cute, reactionary animations makes a Miitomo messenger compelling enough, even before the added goldmine of amusement that comes from Miifoto.
I've been extremely hard on Miitomo here, and there's much more to criticize, but the truth is that I'm just disappointed in how it's turned out because I was expecting so much better than this. It had such disruptive potential. I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt after it launched with a host of issues, because it was still early in its life, but it's been over two months now and Miitomo just hasn't been improving at the pace I expected it to. I truly believe that a social app like this, made by Nintendo, has the potential to be the next big social media app, mentioned in the same breath as Instagram and Snapchat. But, for now at least, it doesn't seem like that social app is going to be Miitomo, and that makes me sad.
TO BE FAIR TO MIITOMO, IT HAS BEEN IMPROVING.
I hadn't played Miitomo for most of May, and in getting back into it to do research for this article, I was actually surprised by just how much the loading issues had been fixed. It's to the point now of being practically unnoticeable. That's the awesome thing about mobile apps. They are perpetually being updated, and anything can bounce back at any time. The initial launch isn't, at all, the end of the matter. It only takes one good update with one must-use new feature to bring people back to Miitomo and keep them there, and Nintendo has millions of dormant accounts they can rely on to be there when it does. My hope is that Miitomo lays low for a while until it's ready, and then comes back with a bang once all of its many kinks are ironed out.
I guess it all depends on whether or not you believe that Nintendo truly has what it takes to fix this sinking Miitomo ship. Or maybe it depends on if you believe that an app like this is even viable or competitive in today's market. Have I missed any Miitomo issues that Nintendo can improve upon? Am I crazy to say that Miitomo has the potential to face off with the likes of Facebook and Twitter? Maybe you just feel that my categorization of Miitomo as a "communication game" is off. Whatever it is, mouth off in the comments, and let's start a dialog.
Playing video games since the age of 5, Spencer Manigat has been fascinated with the possibilities of this interactive medium for nearly as long as he could speak. Recently, his growing obsession with learning about tactile mechanics, interactive narratives, and all things on the academic side of gaming has lit a new passion in him to discuss, debate, and critique various topics in this brilliant medium of video games that we all find ourselves participating in. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Pokémon: Platinum Version, and Super Metroid are a few of his favorite games. You can contact Spencer at spencer.manigat@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @spencewashere.
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The fact tha the Miitomo fails in being both a videogame and/or a social app is really the core problem. I suppose it will serve as a hub for all future Nintendo apps, but as of now, its only use is the MyNintendo points. Plus, the fact that you can't add friends through Miiverse, their own social network and the place where you'd logically talk with other Nintendo fans, is really dumb.
That's true. It's bad at being engaging in both fronts. Even as a hub for other Nintendo apps, I feel as though it isn't currently equipped to execute that well. Shame. It still has so much potential.
I'll start using Miitomo again once the rewards change. I got both important Platinum rewards quickly, and now it's even easier to get points. It was incredibly fun while I used it though - Miitomo is a meme machine first and foremost in my eyes. The fact that Nintendo still hasn't to my knowledge censored it sort of solidifies that. That's also, in my eyes, why so many non Nintendo fans picked it up.
It was ironically the most Nintendo app possible at launch, with how poorly optimized it was simply because Nintendo didn't quite "get" mobile yet. It's good to hear it changed for the better though! Otherwise I don't really have much to say in regards to your article, at least directly. I like this concept! Although perhaps it'd be better done as just a thread (unless you have a quota for articles and this was a way of crossing over INTO forum style discussions while writing articles). Either way I have no problem with the format thus far.
Funnily enough, I never thought of how similar this concept was to a typical forum OP until you brought it up! It is similar, though, isn't it? I don't have a quota to fill that isn't self imposed, but I do like the idea of this sort of concept emulating forum discussions. As for Miitomo, I really agree that Miifoto was a crowning jewel for the game. There's so much they could do with that concept of they just gave it more attention.
Also guys, if you have any suggestions on how I can improve these articles in the future, please let me know here! Any constructive criticism is absolutely welcome and appreciated. Just be kind, please. :-)
You know what would have been nice? If they included little mini games like Chess, Checkers, Word Find or something basic to play along with friends on your friends list.
Also, the ability to just port your Miiverse friends should have been there day 1. I don't use Facebook or Twitter so I had 0 friends and quickly deleted the app after a few days. They fucked it up more than I thought they would. It should have at least some capabilities of Tomodachi Life like able to change the room, feed, and interact more with the Mii.
Basically, almost everything that was stated in the article.
While I do think they should have let players transfer their Nintendo Network friends list, that's only under the condition that they made the app fun with people that you don't know. Speaking from experience, the app is absolutely not fun when you're playing with strangers currently, and I quickly resorted to deleting everyone from my friends list that I didn't know personally. Not only was it not fun, but the way Nintendo has the app set up makes it extremely overwhelming to be flooded with list of people you don't know asking you questions and coming to your house. The UI can do with some serious ironing out. It's a bit of a cluster as is.
I wonder how it´s doing in Japan right now. We know that Miitomo has some problems in the west, but we all know that Japanese audiences also look at social media and videogames with a different approach, compared to western audiences.....
I can't imagine it's doing much better, but the West is extremely engrossed with social media and mobile as is. I feel like people exaggerate how much more social media/mobile focused Japan is than we are a little bit.
I'll start using Miitomo again once the rewards change. I got both important Platinum rewards quickly, and now it's even easier to get points. It was incredibly fun while I used it though - Miitomo is a meme machine first and foremost in my eyes. The fact that Nintendo still hasn't to my knowledge censored it sort of solidifies that. That's also, in my eyes, why so many non Nintendo fans picked it up.
It was ironically the most Nintendo app possible at launch, with how poorly optimized it was simply because Nintendo didn't quite "get" mobile yet. It's good to hear it changed for the better though! Otherwise I don't really have much to say in regards to your article, at least directly. I like this concept! Although perhaps it'd be better done as just a thread (unless you have a quota for articles and this was a way of crossing over INTO forum style discussions while writing articles). Either way I have no problem with the format thus far.
I imagine many of the people who signed up so far did so to register the new "My Nintendo" accounts and start earning points for rewards- Once they maxed out on the points and/or learned what they needed to do in order to get the points, they probably don tfeel the need to check in often and def don t feel the need to spend money on it-
A lot of people were excited about the new rewards program but it sounds like it was a let down to many-
DeNA probably knows how to update apps quickly as they are experienced in the mobile market but I imagine they need Nintendo s input and/or approval to make changes - and I can t imagine Nintendo moving quickly enough - at least for now - It will be interesting to keep up with the future of Mitomo-
It seems to me that if you can only interact with your real life friends, that you would just do on Facebook or other existing established social media-
I wouldn't be so sure. This is only anecdotal, but out of all of my Miitomo friends, only two are Nintendo fanatics. All my other friends are just people I know who heard about the app and signed up, likely because of the influx of Miifoto posts that first month. I think Miitomo appeals to a much wider demographic than just Nintendo fans, which means there's a higher expectations for app quality.
It's not a game so I'm not worried. Miitomo arrived late to the party and didn't have much to show. As long as Nintendo doesn't mess up the core mobile game experiences from their 1st party, they'll be a great force in mobile gaming.
I honestly feel that their failure with Miitomo, not just at launch but during the weeks after, is indicative of a severe lack of understanding of this market. Mobile is a different beast from traditional console games, and that rolls over into games. I hope you're right, though. Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem are both interesting franchises to start out with. Can't wait to try them out.
I disagree. I think Miitomo has plenty of room for improvement that would make people come back to the app. There's a lot that can be done. Where I do agree is that I'm not confident that Nintendo will actually make the changes necessary for that to happen. You're right that Nintendo needs to do a better job at keeping users connected to the experience.
