Nintendo and the Decline of Hardcore Gaming 438
angry tapir writes "Chris Jager from GoodGearGuide argues that the rise of casual gaming means near-certain death for hardcore gaming. The sales of casual 'party-friendly' games are massively outstripping the sales of classic hardcore games, and the makers of other consoles are taking note of Nintendo's success in attracting non-traditional gamers to the Wii and DS. There is evidence that Sony and Microsoft are both trying to tap into the casual market, and it's only a matter of time before hardcore gaming goes the way of the Nintendo PowerGlove."
Of course, the trend toward casual doesn't just involve Nintendo — World of Warcraft's success (and the huge effect it's had on the MMO genre) is often credited to its focus on casual gamers. While it's not unreasonable for game studios to want all players to see all of the game's content, perhaps there's a better way of catering to the more hardcore players than tacking on difficulty modes and "do it the hard way" achievements.
Re:And what exactly IS hardcore? (Score:3, Informative)
The item distribution is really heavily weighted. If you're in 1st place, all you will get is banana skins and green shells. If you're in last place, you're pretty much guaranteed a run of blue shells, bullet bills, and invincibility stars.
There's really no point in trying to drive well. It's enough to make you chew all the enamel off of your teeth.
Re:Where there's a will... (Score:4, Informative)
Wait... since when does WoW focus on "casual" gamers? I'm sorry, but a game that I have to play often just too feel that I have made my 15$/month worthwhile isn't what I call "casual".
Pumping in hour after hour just to get your character to the level cap and then even more hours coordinating a large scale assault on a creature just to get the left boot of butt-kicking just to restart the next day and hope that you'll get the right boot that time and not a 2nd left one is FAR from casual gaming... that sounds pretty hardcore to me...
As for the casual game numbers being higher... perhaps that's because those games were actually more fun? Besides GTA IV, was there anything else "harcore" of note last year? People don't buy hardcore games, they buy GOOD hardcore games.
Re:Where there's a will... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wait, what?! (Score:3, Informative)
World of Warcraft is nothing but a mind-dulling, reflex-destroying, life-consuming habit. It's kind of like a MySpace for kids that are 'too cool' for MySpace.
Uh, how do you explain the hordes (pun intended) of us 30-40 year old working professionals who play WoW then? I suppose what sets us apart from MySpace kids is that we've learned to balance family, career, responsibility and two WoW accounts (hey, our kids are always logged in, so we have to get them accounts too so we can play).
Re:WOW certainly isn't just casual game play (Score:5, Informative)
Or they just started making more of them, perhaps? The Wii still tops the sales charts in the UK, at least, and according to this site, sold more in the US in Feb 2009 than the 360 and PS3 COMBINED.
http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=11067 [pcvsconsole.com]
Looks like you're gonna need a new theory!
Re:WOW certainly isn't just casual game play (Score:2, Informative)
Except you're forgetting one thing - that gimmick lasted for about 2 years. Nintendo's stock fell in April [timesonline.co.uk] because the sales of the Wii dropped for the first time in 14 months, and it's currently the 4th best selling console all time [wikipedia.org] behind PS2, PS, and NES.
I agree that the graphics aren't as nice as the other platforms, but I think that Wii's target audience and purpose is different - they are after the casual/family gamer and part of the appeal to that crowd is the game interface a la the Wii Remote.
Re:Wait, what?! (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, this is a stupid definition of Hardcore VS Casual. By this definition Counter-strike is casual, because you can play a match in 5 minutes and then log off.
A better definition would distinguish the two based on depth. Or in the deragatory sense that "hardcore" is frequently used, on learning curve.
A game that you can pick up and fully understand (and likely excel at) in one sitting is casual.
A game that can take weeks or months of playtime and research to fully understand and excel at is hardcore.
This does not remove the possibility of a good learning curve that let's casual players enjoy a hardcore game too, while not doing as well as their hardcore counterparts. WOW is an excellent example of this.
A game that can take weeks or months of tedious time-sinks to achieve minor goals...well, we need a name for that. And for the people who take pride in how much time they waste, and demand that their games waste even more of their time.