Your Opinion: Mistake to have so much of the Toybox Locked?

I bought Disney Infinity literally because it was Disney's next game, so, not really. I do wish all the Creativitoys were available, but... I'm working toward them. If I have to say something that bothers me, I want Rex playable, but that's a future thing to hope for.

I was disappointed when I first got the game. Why? Because there was hardly anything available. All I wanted were the basics, different terrain blocks, waterfall packs, castle packs etc.. Miscellaneous things that didn't necessarily belong to any play set so i could at least make my own jice little world. That said I've already played through 2 play sets and have unlocked a lot of the things I wanted from vault spins, so I'm good now.

I think Disney went just over the line. I'm willing to accept a certain amount of grinding and buying of additional figures and playsets to get what I want; but I believe the Infinity went just beyond the point where it's acceptable and becomes frustrating and a turn-off.

A few minor tweeks and the experience would be all positive:
- Most creativitoys and a basic curve for the rail set should have been unlocked. I believe most players wouldn't mind working towards getting that special set of blocks, terrain pieces, breakables, etc. My 8-year old loves spinning the wheel and seeing what she'll retrieve. It's fun to try your luck. It becomes not fun when there's just a few key items needed for basic building and you never get them without spending 16 spins on a single shuffle.
- Speaking of that one item you want, each character should get an item THEY CHOOSE when they reach level 15. This is incentive to buy more characters and guarantees that after at least 15 tries - the player can get that one item they really really want.
- Three characters to unlock a Vault with a Toy Set theme is reasonable. Four is way too much, and five is ridiculous. I understand they want to sell figures, but the figures will sell themselves. $33 for the Playset = $13 figure + $13 figure = $59. Almost 60 bucks for a single theme!!! Whole games with 30-100 hours of playtime and 200 million in development with top of the line production quality go for that much! That's crazy. This is only 3 hours of gameplay and a theme. Honestly, you should get the theme when you buy the playset. But I could actually be persuaded to buy ONE more figure to get that theme. But two, no way. And I'm an avid gamer who likes to collect stuff; but I feel like only the really dedicated are participate. The result is that I'm going to buy NO additional figures, and to be honest, I may not even buy a playset. The playset gameplay is going to have to justify the $30. And so far, the playsets I've seen don't do that. If I could get the theme, or even get it with one figure; I would be tempted ... but I just can't do $60 for these little mini-campaigns. Not when there are so many good titles out there that offer so much more value.

While kids might suffer it, most gamers and the potential Minecraft audience will likely get turned off by Infinity. It just goes too far. The price just isn't right.... not in time or money.

And it's a shame, because it is a truly amazing product. I love it. My kids love it. The toy box really makes it, and the gameplay is fun enough that you get enough value for $80. But the Marketing team has just pushed the expansion of the base set outside of its value target, and I'm afraid it will hurt them in the long run.

I was frustrated until I saw the video with the fan and just leveled my toys up to 15 while cleaning, and then unlocked everything.

That said I am a die hard Infinity fan, and am worried that casual players may be turned off by their inability to just go and start making stuff cool.

Yeah, I agree with everything you just said.

I also think the devs are rethinking some of this as well. Maybe too late for this iteration, but I definitely did sense a surprise on their part there was so much hostility to the toy vault and the way it seemed like most stuff would be inaccessible. So lessons learned and I hope as well that folks don't get turned off (because there is SO much potential here).

[Nabren]

This is their first try at something like this and I know it will get better.

[MechaSanta]

My two cents:

To see where I'm coming from, I'm nearly 40, grew up with the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. And yet, even back then, I spent a lot of time making games for my friends. Or, uh, making the ZX Spectrum draw circles on the screen. (hey, this was the early 80s, and I was 8.) :p I've always loved creating stuff, which made me become a writer when I grew up. So when BioWare announced a game called Neverwinter Nights, I was in love. Skip ahead to release day, and you have a problem. The game was boring. Very, very boring. So boring that I barely played it a week. But for those of you who don't know the game, it was mostly an editor, with a game slapped on well into development. And it was the editor I wanted in the first place. So while the game barely lasted a week, the editor lasted four years. I had a lot of fun with it, and even learned how to use the programming language in the editor to make my own cutscenes, scripted events and so on.

And now look at Disney Infinity. I think the playsets are more fun that I expected, but they are not why I bought the game. I bought it because of the toybox mode, and because we could... should, sorry... be able to share our work with the rest of the world. And yet... we can't. I sort of hate this, and sort of don't mind. The sharing has to be included soon. That's not even a request anymore, but closer to a demand. You can't have a game that focuses so much on creating stuff, and then not let us share it. That's like someone making the best digital camera to date, yet restricting the pictures to the camera only. It doesn't make any sense.

But nevermind that, this is about the toybox. I do love the toybox, and I think we can create a lot of fun stuff simply by playing the playsets a few hours. Plus, you can get 16 spins (easy if you have multiple characters), shuffle the vault to find something you want, an then be guaranteed to get it. So give it a few hours, and you'll have some fun pieces to play with. But is that enough? No. Not by a longshot. What I think they should have done is split the pieces in three: there's the themed stuff found in playsets, random stuff that doen't fit in any particular theme, and essential stuff like creativity toys.

Themed toys: Should be unlockable by getting the playsets only. If you want Lone Ranger stuff, get the Lone Ranger playset.

Random stuff: Should be unlocked by the vault only, as none of this is 'required'. Besides, after a few hours, you'll have a lot of this anyway.

Essential stuff: All of this should be unlocked from the start. Triggers, buttons, race starts, counters, you name it. If it's a mechanism required to create a better playset, it should be unlocked from the start. No one wants to spend six hours creating the best race track possible, then spend another twelve hours in playsets trying to unlock a way to actually play the racetrack they created. Making a 2D platformer is fun, but spending a few hours trying to unlock the 2D camera is not. And it's pointless anyway.

So for Disney Infinity 2, it's really easy: Keep the essentials unlocked from the start, then add more and better optional stuff for the vault. Oh, and let us share it right from the start, too. Thanks.

Well said MechSanta!

Let's look at another popular UGC game...Little Big Planet.

They gave you ALL the tools you needed to start creating to your hearts content. Then by playing through the levels you would unlock new objects, stickers, backgrounds, etc. Basically earning all the fluff stuff by playing, but giving us the main tools through their tutorials.

I'm still so frustrated that I have yet to win the darn enemy generator so I can make a proper toy box. I agree 100% with ^MechaSanta. These things should have been separated.

[MechaSanta]

That was my point. I haven't played LBP much, but they did two vital things correct that Infinity missed: They give you get the necessary stuff right away, and they let you share your work. If Infinity did that, we'd be looking at an instant classic. As it is right now, it's just pretty good. Close, but no cigar.

Still, both the sharing and unlocked necessary stuff can be done in a patch. It depends if they have the guts to do it.