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The Hardcore Gamer is Dead! Long Live the Casual Gamer!

Started by Inkidu, July 31, 2010, 06:27:09 PM

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Inkidu

Despite, the title I think I have something at least interesting to say. I consider my self and avid, (if I have to use the word) hardcore gamer. :D

I don't particularly care one way or the other on the whole debate and people and the market can play and produce whatever they want, I just won't buy or play it. My only real point of irk comes from us on the hardcore side of gaming. When I was a kid video games were magical, they were like books, (and a lot of this can be applied to the paper medium as well) they took you away with story and heroism and whatnot. You were Mario or Link saving the princess fighting evil. You were Fighter, or Black Mage stopping Chaos. You were Chris stopping zombies one poorly aimed shot at a time.

Now, as I'm older it's much sadder. Now I apply gamer logic to games. I break them down into formula and moves and it irritates me. I just can't go through a game anymore I have to analyze it. I realized I was doing this with Mass Effect 2. Trying anally to keep everyone alive analyzing the factors behind it.

It just strikes me as unbearably depressing that me and a whole lot of other people just don't see the magic in gaming anymore. They get broken down into good and bad games because of a slight lag in mechanic or some anal detail; things you do or don't like make way too much of an impact sometimes. So I say if the casual gamer at least feels that magic he or she's better at video games than any hardcore buff any day of the week.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

RubySlippers

I'm a role-playing gamer and collectible card gamers so a gamer. I agree. When did it all get so serious I wanted to name an elf in a game not world specific Bobette Horner and the GM said I couldn't it was silly. DUH! Its a game why be so serious this was not LOTR or Forgotten Realms so why not?

Another time I wanted to play a fairy in a game and call her Tinkerbelle, come one its a cute fairy if fit again a big no.

In ccg its just as bad either they are kids who hate to lose and bitch, older gamers that take it way to seriously or laud over me, who build her decks on a budget. And heaven help me I follow the game core rules and not tournament rules say in Yugioh and put in three of a common but uber-good card banned or restricted in tournament formats. Recent Scene: You already played one Dark Hole you can't have another in the deck. I replied I said it was a casual play deck and the core rules say a deck must be 40-60 cards with no more than three of any card in the deck, side deck or other deck so its legal to have up to three and three Lightning Vortexes and three of anyother card I want to include - here are the recent rules show me I'm wrong. Then they storm off saying I'm cheating and I'm not.

I always follow the official rules if the game rules said you must use the tournament deck design then fine I'd do a traditional deck for fun but they changed that rule awhile ago.

Anyway we casual gamers just want to have fun and play the games we love if we don't take it seriously that is good the game should go old school when gaming had fun in it as the goal not being all so serious.

pendarious

me i'm a casual gamer it irks me how people get pissed when i go by basic rules and not tournament rules.......i got so pissed about this once that i gave up card games....that was 4 years ago when a bunch banned me from the card table cuz i played by core rules and not tourney i was "ok whatever guys" and walked away casually however i've not touched a deck since then. and videogames.........people are far too competetive in those it's sickening........i just like to play and have fun however.......i do find myself picking them apart and analyzing them as i play it's so sad.
Psycho Mantis: You must spend every day pretending to act like you're falsely letting on that you aren't not unbetraying someone you don't not purport to allegedly not work for but really do! How do you keep all this shit straight without having an aneurysm?
Revolver Ocelot: *shrug* Practice.
—The Last Days Of FOXHOUND


Inkidu

Honestly both of you have lost me on this whole tournament rules, core rules thing. I used to play Magic I know what you're talking about. However, I learned to pick a different table. I find it has nothing to do with hardcore or casual it has to do with the rules of the house or table. Find someone else but I don't think you're quite getting the spirit of my position with this. I don't think tourney rules are harder-core, they're just different. That's like saying you're not a hardcore black jack player unless you have a dealer that stands on seventeen... just my view.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Jude

I know exactly what you mean.

For hardcore gamers who've been playing for a long time, things stop surprising you.  The games become predictable, you know how to beat the system so the system is constantly on your mind.  When there's someone to save you don't think, "I just saved someone, I feel like such a hero" it's, "yay, I just earned more good points."

Games need to surprise, to make us feel things beyond the numbers and the stats.  I guess where I disagree with you is that they still do that for me despite the fact that I consider myself a hardcore gamer.  It isn't as common as it used to be, but every now and then I'll happen across a gem of a game that makes me feel the way I should because it isn't so predictable, rigorous, or choreographed.

I've played much better games this year than Deadly Premonition.  Seen better graphics, control schemes, longer experiences, more immersiveness, but nothing struck me quite the same as it has this year.  It has that creative magic that brings you into the story and experience in a way that few games still do (2008 Fallout 3 was the title that did it for me, 2009 I can't recall anything that had that effect).

Inkidu

Quote from: Jude on August 12, 2010, 07:01:29 PM
I know exactly what you mean.

For hardcore gamers who've been playing for a long time, things stop surprising you.  The games become predictable, you know how to beat the system so the system is constantly on your mind.  When there's someone to save you don't think, "I just saved someone, I feel like such a hero" it's, "yay, I just earned more good points."

Games need to surprise, to make us feel things beyond the numbers and the stats.  I guess where I disagree with you is that they still do that for me despite the fact that I consider myself a hardcore gamer.  It isn't as common as it used to be, but every now and then I'll happen across a gem of a game that makes me feel the way I should because it isn't so predictable, rigorous, or choreographed.

I've played much better games this year than Deadly Premonition.  Seen better graphics, control schemes, longer experiences, more immersiveness, but nothing struck me quite the same as it has this year.  It has that creative magic that brings you into the story and experience in a way that few games still do (2008 Fallout 3 was the title that did it for me, 2009 I can't recall anything that had that effect).
Well I didn't mean all the time of course, I still feel the magic too it's just it's not as pure as it used to be. It feels tainted. Maybe that's why I like the Fable series. Petey might not always make his promises but the man is eager to learn from his mistakes and he truly is trying to create a deep world where you're in-game power isn't some number. Some mathematical formula to figure out. It's all about how you react and at times Fable has tapped into my real moral compass and I can't go off evil because it does feel wrong.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Jude

Ever play through Fallout 3:  The Pitt?  The ending to that always gets me.  What's even worse is I can't make what I want to happen happen. :(

Inkidu

Quote from: Jude on August 12, 2010, 07:11:34 PM
Ever play through Fallout 3:  The Pitt?  The ending to that always gets me.  What's even worse is I can't make what I want to happen happen. :(
Make it where everyone is happy and alive? I know what you mean. Both sides are right and you've got to be the bad guy no matter what. 
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

pendarious

well maybe i didn't get it before but i certainly do now. yeah i'm just a casual gamer i still enjoy the magic of things in games......though admittedly learning the systems of the games has become far too simple. since i play to have fun i don't really focus on the systems much so......yeah it's like that for me.
Psycho Mantis: You must spend every day pretending to act like you're falsely letting on that you aren't not unbetraying someone you don't not purport to allegedly not work for but really do! How do you keep all this shit straight without having an aneurysm?
Revolver Ocelot: *shrug* Practice.
—The Last Days Of FOXHOUND


Lilias

I don't do videogames or card games, but I got into roleplaying through the WoD and the general consensus there, that rules are more like guidelines and each troupe is free to use, abuse, modify or discard at will, has marked my attitude ever since.

So yeah... casual all the way.
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
~Wendell Berry

Double Os <> Double As (updated Feb 20) <> The Hoard <> 50 Tales 2024 <> The Lab <> ELLUIKI

Serephino

I don't like stuff that's hard.  I play games to have fun and relax.  If I wanted to think I'd go balance my checkbook.  So I hate it when you have to solve a puzzle or a something, or find stuff.  My boyfriend on the other hand, loves a challenge. 

Dunnuck

I will say this: games have not lost it. Regardless of what has been said.

Some games, not most, still have a magic to them. Off the top of my head since ps2 Final Fantasy X, Mass Effect 1 and 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, 3, and 4, Heavy Rain, and Alan Wake

Upcoming games that look like it has that spark: Homefront (Story), Halo Reach (multiplayer/creating in forge)...

Inkidu

Quote from: Dunnuck on August 26, 2010, 06:06:14 AM
I will say this: games have not lost it. Regardless of what has been said.

Some games, not most, still have a magic to them. Off the top of my head since ps2 Final Fantasy X, Mass Effect 1 and 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, 3, and 4, Heavy Rain, and Alan Wake

Upcoming games that look like it has that spark: Homefront (Story), Halo Reach (multiplayer/creating in forge)...
I wouldn't define multiplayer anything (besides an individual co-op story or a story made for coop) to be an engrossing "Magical" experience. The more people you have the harder it is to get engrossed. Look at MMORPGs. I've never found one that I could say, "Wow, this is deep on a sensory level." I believe games never lost their magic. The gamer lost his or her sensitivity to it. I suppose it's inevitable in a sense.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.