[Judas Deceit]

It seems the trend of casual gaming has supplanted challenging quality gaming. We the hardcore few, have to sit on the sidelines and watch the endless amount of shovelware and middle-of-the-road games come out en masse. It seems the constant bitching and nagging of people who have given games a try and found them to be difficult have become the trumpet call of game publishers and executives. We have all seen it in a variety of gaming in every genre; from the classic UO (stat-loss, trammel), to games like battlefield 2 ( weapon nerfing, the inability to jump and duck{a.k.a. dolphin diving}) just to name a few.

We have seen the success that is the Wii and as of this month has the highest installed user-base in the United States surpassing the XBox 360. Most of you have tried the Wii and depending on the title have found at least one title that you have enjoyed using motion controls. Is it a novelty or a staple of an evolution of gaming? While this is up to debate there seems to be no shortcoming of casual gaming to any system and usually seems to be the biggest sellers for any given system or quarter. Need convincing? The top 20 games for pc always consist at the top 10 WoW ( casual no matter how you slice it, as if it had penalty and challenge it would no where near have an installed base of 10,000,000 players ) and pretty much nothing but the sims and its many expansions. On the console side the top 10 has wii fit, wii play, guitar hero 3, rock band, and mario kart.

You probably have seen some of your favorite franchises also take a challenge hit ( ninja gaiden 2 pardoned ) and or became dumbed down. Gaming doesn't want you to struggle, gaming doesn't want you to die, gaming just wants you to smile and say to yourself " Gee, isnt this just swell. " One prime example of this is a game I held in high regard until I completed it, Bioshock. This game, for reasons successful that escape me other than narrative, has no challenge what-so-ever. You are provided respawns that once you respawn every amount of progress you have achieved up till death remains, coupled along with save anywhere function and what do you have? A pretty boring game. Dont get me wrong other than its many flaws ( hacking tubes wtf?, retarded endings, and story cassettes) the actual core gameplay consisting of its many weapons and plasmids is fun. However whats the point of a game if you can just play sloppily and have no punishment ( wow is notorious for this ). Other games, oblivion for example being dumbed down from morrowind, are being made to be more " accessible " to the brain dead gaming public.

So what are we to do? Do we just go on with our gaming lives being aborbed in this crap fest of gaming? Do we hold out for gaming A+ quality titles? Or do we just stop buying mediocre games, pirate the non-A-list, and reserve our choices for games that promise what gaming meant to us in 1997 with games like UO, half-life, and all the others that game out a decade ago. This is why games like Darkfall have to come out and have to be good at what they set out to achieve. Games that once again place skill and challenge at the forefront and catering to the masses a far far far notion astronomically low.

Not all casual gaming is bad, it has managed to make gamers out of anything but the typical gaming demographic. Hell even my grandmother has played Wii Bowling and enjoyed it and her friends at the nursing home even have a wii bowling league night.. ( i know ) Also casual gaming has brought more of the female gamers which is always a good thing until they hear what they have waiting for them in a Grand Theft Auto 4 lobby on xbox live. And all of us have had some moderate to high level of fun jamming out playing Metallica's one on guitar hero. However these are a trend and wont have any staying power once they milk the shit out of this genre for all its worth which is happening now. Guitar hero World Tour, Guitar Hero Aerosmith, Rock band 2, Guitarmania... gag... how many do we need? I mean we all like a casual game everynow and then and they are usually for the same reasons to kill time; solitaire, pinball, tetris, etc. I digress..

I for one am tired of how gaming is progressing and have decided that I will no longer purchase any game that doesnt have some sort of dynamic challenge. I will pirate those games that have something to offer yet fall short of the mark, and reserve my money for something that warrants a purchase. It does, sadly, at the end of the day fall to you the purchaser of what succeeds and what does not however I would advise you to consider what you help make a big seller or we could all end up playing Mamma Mia 2 dance studio and scoffing at darkfall. These are indeed dark times for gaming...


How do you feel? what casual games have you embraced? what is your 2 cents wtfmankateers?