No room for the hardcore gamer

Judas Deceit · #1 (**permalink**) 07-20-2008, 07:46 PM

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?

EnV · #2 (**permalink**) 07-20-2008, 10:33 PM

Tl;dr

Brendan · #3 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 05:36 AM

This is kind of true, although I've never had the money to be a hardcore gamer or w/e.

Beer · #4 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 11:25 AM

I think hardcore gaming is just one of those pasttimes.

Back "in the day" when games, PC games, were exclusive to people who were computer savvy. Because it took something beyond basic computer knowledge to install, run, and operate said games. Your parents (ok, well my parents) didn't use the computer much beyond it being a glorified calculator for bills, taxes, and hooker money allotment per month.

What has happened is games got cool. Really cool.

Great graphics that appeal to anyone. Awesome sound effects that "Woah!" people.

Our little secret is out. Games are cool. Now everyone knows it.

As a result, developers and publishers are going to cater to the larger market. Games is a business now. It's not a hobby. Companies like ID and Apogee aren't run in parents garages anymore. They're in big ass buildings which require money to pay the rent and to keep the appletini fountain in the executive bathroom flowing delicious gay-man drinks.

On occasion, someone will have an innovative idea. We'll be lucky if this someone will be in a position to share, apply and distribute that idea.

The Wii was one of those ideas. It's only a matter of time before you see that applied to present or future consoles across the board.

Back on the PC front... MMORPG's, which I now only classify as MMOG's (EQ killed the RP star) we're flooded with clones of EQ. I've talked about this to death so I'll spare you all my flibber flabber on the matter and say that Darkfall is highly anticipated for a good number of gamers. Hopefully enough to show Adventurine/Razorwax that yes... we are looking forward to this and yes, please don't shut off the servers.

SnallTrippin · #5 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 04:43 PM

No...you see casual gaming will lead to MORE Hardcore gamers and games...in time. All comes to he who waits...including death..but w/e...

Beer · #6 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnallTrippin

No...you see casual gaming will lead to MORE Hardcore gamers and games...in time. All comes to he who waits...including death..but w/e...

I sort of disagree with this comment.

While yes, I can see where you're going... more overall gamers = more hardcore gamer population by the numbers.

However... the face of gaming is changing to the point where gaming is a casual activity like playing a board game or watching TV. It's becoming less of a pursuit and more of a side-hobby.

The reason why people spend so much time on level-based games is because they're forced to. Eventually people are going to get tired of being forced into spending so much time on these games... they'll either give up altogether or move onto something less time intensive where they can actually enjoy the game as they play it, rather than be forced into hunting at a certain location for a certain length of time... or be forced to go on X raid, X amount of times so they can compete in X battleground until X set becomes available and makes their current set of X obsolete.

Anyone who takes a step back and looks at this system and how it suckers you into spending time that would be better spent watching grass grow, would be apalled.

Nighthawk · #7 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beer

Anyone who takes a step back and looks at this system and how it suckers you into spending time that would be better spent watching grass grow, would be apalled.

Bingo... nailed it.

The downside is that with WoW pulling in such unbelievably massive subscription numbers, what do you think future developers are going to be modeling their games after? That's what scares me.

So many sheep....

SnallTrippin · #8 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 11:36 PM

Eh...I still say it will evolve and keep a large percentage of the gay people that play stupid games now...hell, lots of them are like 12..give them a chance to grow...lol

Judas Deceit · #9 (**permalink**) 07-22-2008, 03:36 AM

I started playing UO when I was 17 and some of my guildies ranged from 11-20 fuck that shit.. I blame the parents.. parents of this current generation of idiots who were raised on good gaming should teach them better.

Casual gaming to me is a mixed bag, a double-edged sword if you will. On hand all of us have enjoyed them at some time or another and on another it seems that EVERY FUCKING GAME that we give a shot seems to be idiotically catered to the masses. When did it become cool to take away the lives system of gaming and put in endless continues with recharging health meters? Games now adays might as well tuck me in and sing me to sleep.

I want to be wowed again with a very high dynamic of challenge, skill, depth, graphics, audio, online, and whatever else I am forgetting. And no my standards on gaming arent set too high.. I am a gamer with no allegiance or fanboiship at all. I will play a game thats fun and the last fun game for me other than GTA 4, which is all those things I just mentioned coincidentally, is Mass Effect.

And it goes without saying about MMO's anymore I cant rehash that shit enough. There are no current heavily populated mmo's out worth a shit that isnt either a trip down fag town in some free-to-play, jrpg, emo avatar having, loot grinding, no penalty having, gang bang or some pay-to-play, fantasy, emo avatar having, loot grinding, very minor penalty, gank fest.

Age of Conan unfortunately has everything going right for it yet I have heard nothing but falling short of the mark. Titties, gore, decent pvp... and yet i have heard players since day one bitching about hard to play around bugs, unbalanced class sets, and just all in all somethings missing.. I for one havent played it and I dont think I will either.

Fuck it I am going to go reinstall Deus Ex and Fallout 2 and remind myself it will get better.

/end rant

Beer · #10 (**permalink**) 07-22-2008, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnallTrippin

Eh...I still say it will evolve and keep a large percentage of the gay people that play stupid games now...hell, lots of them are like 12..give them a chance to grow...lol

Major misconception.

Just because a person acts like he's 12, doesn't mean he/she is necessarily 12. They could be 30 for all you know.