Struggling To Bridge the Casual-Hardcore Game Gap 185
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Soulskill
from the need-more-retro-mega-man-titles dept.
from the need-more-retro-mega-man-titles dept.
With the advent of the Wii and the upcoming motion control systems from Sony and Microsoft, console makers are expanding the gaming population to include vast numbers of casual players. Their problem now, according to this editorial at Eurogamer, is that there doesn't exist a broad selection of games between the simple, introductory titles and the complex, hardcore ones, which tends to limit how deep new players will venture into the gaming ecosystem. Quoting:
"... it needs software that spans the gap between the two camps of offerings which are emerging on Xbox 360 — games that encourage players of Dance Central or Your Shape to move upstream and explore. It's unlikely, perhaps, that they'll ever end up curb-stomping crinkle-faced nasties in Cliff Bleszinski's latest, but we're a long way past the point of the Xbox being all about shooting and driving, even if the public perception hasn't quite moved with the software line-up. The long-term challenge for the games market must, ultimately, be to emulate the success which other mediums have had in creating markets where consumers routinely and happily move between genres, and where franchises which would be pigeonholed as 'hardcore' in the games world nestle comfortably in people's DVD collections alongside those which would be dismissed as 'casual.'"
baloney! (Score:5, Interesting)
From most casual to hardcore:
Farmville, Mafia Wars
Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled, Tetris
Wii Sports, Cooking Mama
Mario games, racing and sports games
Serious Sam, Diablo
Assassins Creed, Halo
GTA, Rainbow Six
Dragon Age, Total War series
Where's the gap?
Re:Has anyone considered... (Score:5, Interesting)
As someone who used to be hardcore into ID Software FPS titles, now that I am an adult with more responsibilities, it is harder to dedicate that much time towards finding a another freaking Intel Item, hidden obscurely in some level somewhere.
If I cannot play for 15-20 minutes and abort where I am at, without suffering huge penalties, I am not going to ever finish that game.
I am much more interested in quick games on my iPad, but wouldn't mind if they had a little more depth. Save the super hardcore games for the high school kids, but give us more than Poppit.
Re:Has anyone considered... (Score:5, Interesting)
Truly? Let me know when they make a version can detect hand motions.
Hell, let me know when they stop faking Kinect demos.
Re:Has anyone considered... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The gap is permanent (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm with you on that. I enjoy games, but at 30 I have a very busy life and only have so much time to play games. I work 50 hours a week, have a girlfriend (who will play rock band and guitar hero, but thats about it), and friends that want to go out. I just don't have the same amount of time to play games that I did 10 years ago (or at least I don't prioritize the same amount of time to gaming anymore).
I find myself playing games that I can pick up for 30 minutes at a time and put down. If it has a save system that I can save anywhere I'm more likely to play it. I really enjoyed the bioshock games, though it took me ages to beat them because I played them in short spurts. If a game has a checkpoint system where I have to get to a certain place before saving, I can guarantee that I won't keep playing it.
Re:The gap is permanent (Score:2, Interesting)
The gap isn't permanent, it simply exists right now. What you want is 'arcade mode' - plop your butt down for a few moments and have some candy-coated fun.
It doesn't have to be 'one title fits all'. That's mostly a recipe for disaster, like trying to make one kind of music that _everyone_ likes. Genres will continue. But a lot of existing hardcore games can broaden their market simply by respecting arcade mode.
GT4 is the easy villain to point at here. Lots of shiny cars? Check. Lots of cool tracks? Check. Arcade mode? Check. And then you found the damn thing had most of the cars and tracks permanently locked off to anyone but the hardcore. That was an expensive burn for a lot of people -- taught us that we're 'old' and not 'hardcore' and should fuck off and go play Mario Kart; we're not "gamers" anymore.
Result was we stopped buying the big consoles after the PS2, and the top-dollar games. Not because we didn't like to play, or didn't have money.
Game makers can easily expand their sales by just making sure there's a broad way people can explore and mess with the sparkling detailed universes they're pimping. Sure it can't work with everything -- Portal is /about/ being hard and hats off to that great game -- but enough others can and should be expanded for the many, many, wallet-toting people who just have thirty minutes or so in the evening to have a little fun.
I an NOT a casual gamer! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Life Life Life (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think it's purely time, but something closer to perception of time or difficulty. When Jesper Juul surveyed a bunch of self-described "casual" and "hardcore" gamers for his book [amazon.com], he didn't really find a strong different in hours spent between the two--- there were plenty of casual gamers who put in 40-hour weeks playing their casual games, just like there are full-time FPS players. There seems to somehow be a feeling of less time investment, though, or perhaps more granularity of time investment (you'll never be stuck in a 30-minute sequence you can't save-and-exit from). Perhaps also less attention/effort required to some extent: casual games are more of an unwind-and-relax activity.
Re:What "hardcore" games? (Score:2, Interesting)
Agreed. The definition of "hardcore" games has morphed from "difficult, with steep learning curve" into "manly, and ego stroking". The reason why "casual" gaming has taken off like a rocket is because it isn't explicitly targeting young males who need an M-rating on a game because they wouldn't be caught dead playing a "kiddy game" (except for football games. Dudes groping eachother is manly as hell). The vast majority of modern "hardcore gamers" are casual gamers who are afraid to buy anything other than "manly" titles. In the same way that they secure their ego by refusing to play "kiddy" titles, they use the title "hardcore" to make themselves feel superior to the unwashed masses.
The most telling moment for me personally was when my Bro friends lambasted me for playing Dwarf Fortress and ArmA because they were "kiddy casual" games. They then proceeded to go play some Madden, Modern Warfare and Guitar Hero. They are the modern "hardcore gamer".
The point is that Hardcore and Casual don't exist in modern mainstream gaming. The sooner we stop obsessing over them, the better.
Re:Has anyone considered... (Score:2, Interesting)
My thought on the matter is that "hardcore" pretty much means "hardcore buyer" now, nobody seems to care what those "hardcore" do with the games after buying them just as long as they keep buying anything that's hyped up or critically acclaimed. Casual gamers can't be arsed to put that much research and effort into buying games (note that that doesn't mean anything about what they do after buying the game, someone who only buys 3 games a year will likely play them much longer than someone who buys 3 a week), makes brand reputation much more important.
Re:Has anyone considered... (Score:3, Interesting)
Such as 3D TVs. 3D is here to stay and you will eventually be using it.
Except the 10% of people with impaired or no vision in one eye. There would be absolutely no point for them.
Re:Life Life Life (Score:2, Interesting)
Torn between modding this up and commenting on it.
My Fiancé does not play games at all, not even worth considering casual. But we do play some co-op games, including Borderlands.
I selected for her a sniper class so she wouldn’t have to rush into the middle of combat, while I picked the soldier (shotgun assault rifle) so I could ‘agro’ the masses.
She finds it great fun sniping, and has even graduated to a bit of close combat fighting with a SMG, where before she would just panic when anything got in close. The important thing is that I’m always close by to shotgun her (as I got skill for friendly fire = heal) or the mobs around her if there are too many.
The point is that a complicated game with missions, skill/talent points, and complicated-ish equipment ratings can be played by a casual gamer as long as they have help in choosing these things, don’t have to worry, and just enjoy the bits they like, with a possibility of graduating to managing these things on their own down the line.
What annoys ME, is the lack of such games, where a casual gamer can play with a hardcore and not get owned all the time in head to head (FPS/Racing/Tekken etc).
I wish there were more good co-op games (for the PS3) especially RPGs (I hear Sacred 2 blows).
If you want to bridge the gap, then make more co-op games where you can get by if one player is able to handle all the complicated parts.