What Nintendo's DSi has to teach us about play

We in the toy industry can learn a great deal from the video gaming industry. One way to find out what is and is not working for them is to read newspaper reviews of their new releases.

Unfortunately toys don’t get reviewed. Some may argue that the best review is the one that comes in the form of register rings in retail stores. The consumer tells us what they like and don’t like by how they spend their money.

Well, that is certainly one form of feedback but it lacks the substantive input one can receive from a critic (hopefully non-biased) who takes play seriously. I was therefore impressed by Seth Schiesel’s video game review of the new DSi. Appearing in the April 4, 2009 New York Times and entitled, “With More Than Games, DSi Widens Playing Field,” Schiesel offers some great insight on what people are looking for in play.

Here is Schiesel’s opening sentence, and note the passion he displays for the game and for fun: 

Nintendo’s newest toy, the DSi, fits in your pocket and demonstrates in a simultaneously profound and giggle-inducing way that its makers may have a deeper understanding of how entertainment is evolving in the 21st century than any other company. Like Nintendo’s fabulously popular Wii console, this new version of Nintendo’s hand-held DS, which is being released on Sunday, succeeds because it re-imagines what fun can mean. And it does so in an immediately accessible way.

The author takes delight in describing how DSi allows the user to bend and twist what has until now been static. Take example its picture taking ability. It like many other products (cell phones for example) allows you to take picture. Here, however, is the big difference”… the joy of the DSi’s camera function is in distorting pictures, comparing your face with that of a friend, adding funny sunglasses or noses or mustaches to a picture. It is in creating carnival-style photo cutouts so you can easily superimpose the face of one friend on the body of another.”

But here is the point that struck me: “Nintendo’s genius lies in understanding that people increasingly crave interaction in their entertainment, not only with products but with other people.” We are in a society that craves connection. We are finding it on line through social networking and around board games through human interaction. 

We are also a society that wants to be more than a passive recipient of entertainment. We want to twist it, bend it, morph and even break it. We want to make it ours. 

Great toys will provide end users the opportunity to accomplish these things by providing means of interaction and personalized design. Until we get our own toy reviews, it will be increasingly important to pay attention to what is being said about other forms of play. The clues are there. We just need to find them.