There’s a video gaming Youtube channel that I used to watch a lot called “Happy Console Gamer,” which features a Canadian guy talking about video games. He talked mostly about RPGs [which I don’t play too much] and retro games [which I do play a lot]. On one of the videos, he brought his friend on to talk about video games. They grew up friends and were still friends, and they talked about their memories and experiences playing various games in The Legend of Zelda franchise.
It’s a great fantasy and action/adventure franchise with some of the most beloved games of all time. In Zelda, you play as Link and you use a sword and a bow and arrow and other items to defeat enemies, solve puzzles, save people, explore dungeons, and defeat evil. One installment, called Skyward Sword, featured the Nintendo Wii’s motion control. Instead of pressing a button to make Link swing his sword, the player had to wave the Wii controller around to simulate a slashing motion. Happy Console Gamer’s friend called this, “A solution in search of a problem.” I just love that phrase. I love it enough to write this blog post about it.
There was no problem with using a button to slash the sword, yet Nintendo thought they were solving a problem which didn’t really exist. A solution in search of a problem. In fact, future installments in the franchise [such as Breath of the Wild] don’t utilize motion controls for almost the entirety of the game [not all of it, though]. And that game is vastly more beloved and more acclaimed than Skyward Sword.
But here’s the thing: Skyward Sword is just one example. So I have a Nintendo Wii, and I use it to play GameCube games 90% of the time. And if you have a modern video game console, you know that when you turn it on, there’s a menu, and you can either pick a game or go to the game shop or whatever. The Wii forces you to use the Wii remote to navigate the menu. Why?! There’s no fuckin reason I shouldn’t be able to also use the GameCube controller for the menu. It’s such a solution in search of a problem. There was no problem with using a regular controller to move around the menu. I can use the controller for other stuff! Like, you know, the games!! Just let me use the controller, man. I’ve literally had to go out and buy batteries specifically to use the Wii menu. What the fuck?
But I don’t only wanna talk about the Nintendo Wii, though there are other examples. This is a phenomenon [IDK if I’m using that word correctly] that happens with technology all the time.
Take Instagram, for example. Initially, it was just photos. It was a great, fun app. Then they allowed short videos. That was great. That was a legitimate improvement, as it allowed more variety of posts. After that, they added some bullshit called “Reels,” which were just.. short videos again. And they acted like it was this amazing fucking innovation. I’m sure there’s some minor technical difference, but essentially they are short videos, the same thing we had. A “solution” in search of a problem.
Here’s another thing: my phone has a physical volume button on the side. Click the top and volume goes up, click the bottom and volume goes down. There are two types of volume: one is basically the “ringtone” volume, which is also the volume for text notifications and stuff. The other type is media volume, for YouTube, Netflix, whatever. When I’m on the Instagram explore page, I see a video of a guy playing a guitar, so I click on it. Naturally, I click on the up volume button so I can hear the video. What does it do? It changes not the media volume, but the ringtone volume! Tell me, why the fuck would I want to adjust my ringtone volume when a fucking video is playing?? Let’s fix that problem next.
But yeah, technology in general seems to create solutions in search of problems all the time. Like an app will update and change where the comment section is. Wow, you really solved that problem of the comment section being somewhere else. So incredible! Or they’ll change the way the search icon looks, or the exit button or whatever. Wow, such innovation!
Apple would do this shit all the time in the mid-2000s. They would release a sick looking commercial introducing a stupid feature, and everyone would go crazy about it, but it didn’t even make anything better. You can skip songs by shaking your iPod!! A feature no one fucking needed!!
Anyway, I could go on and on, and I know I’m coming across as an angry, anti-technology guy and I kind of am. I wanna live in a small house in some far-off place with no computerized stuff whatsoever someday. BUT I understand that technology does have many positive purposes, like me sharing my thoughts with the whole world here. I just think that a lot of the “progress” of computers can be summed up as solutions in search of problems.
Lefty Forrester 