Casual VS Hardcore: the future of gaming

[pepharytheworm]

That's the way of the world the fad of the day. the world turns things change. there use to be too many platformers during the 16bit era then too many fighters. fps and party games. nothing last. just play the cames you want to play. whatever is next somebody will not like and wonder, will games only be like this or that. times change people change they get bored and want something else.

[SpaceBooger]

I don't think this new generation can be labeled as "casual gamer." Since consoles were created there have been games similar to the many "casual games."
I think Tetris and the GameBoy is a perfect example.
To me platforming games like Super Mario and Sonic are not "hardcore" and those were played by many ages on their respected consoles.
I think the "hardcore" games used to be the minority... back on the NES only a few played Final Fantasy and the harder games in a market full of all-age platforming games.
I think this "new" trend is just the game industry completing a full circle and in 10 years FPS will dominate again...

[miked]

You also have to think about how many new gamers we have gotten in the past 2 years. My friends girlfriends/wives have wii's, and they never showed any interest in video games before it came out. Good chance your parents or maybe even grand parents have one too.

I think "hardcore gamers" are still around and just as strong as they have been. Now how the industry deals with the millions of casual gamers that have come into the picture could cause problems. I think good companys like Valve, Capcom, Konami and many many others will keep the goods coming with going into the casual market only slightly.

And what gaming dad wants to play kiddie waggle games when the kids are asleep? They more than likely have a 360 or at least a PS2 sitting right next to the Wii. Casual games to enjoy with the family(and some are just damn fun games) and hardcore for dad.

[MrPopo]

Really what I think we'll start seeing is developers realizing they don't need to blow their budget on the graphics. Sure, we'll always have the Final Fantasies with their insane cinematic-quality graphics, but we'll see more games like Valkyria Chronicles and MadWorld where you take a hit in photorealism without making things look like the early PS1. We're starting to see a resurgance in the realm of 2D as well, now that people are realizing that it doesn't always have to be 3D, or even 2.5D.

What we're really seeing is society deciding that playing a video game for 30 mins or an hour is just as acceptable as watching TV or a movie to pass the time. Some people really want to see Lord of the Rings, while others will stick with Mystery Men.

[Xonticus]

I think that yes it is true that the market for casual gamers has been blown wide open by the wii, but I think the industry will always grow more and more popularity by having more and more accessible games. The audience for games is growing like the popularity and maturity of what Cinema did in the 20th Century and continues to do today. Developers are still trying to figure out how to do things all the time, and like movies can be categorized into genres like games, there still are differences between different movies in the same genre.

Ex: Wedding Crashers and Shaun of the Dead.... both movies are romantic comedies but they both approach the comedy differently by having slapstick humor versus subtle pokes combined with some serious undertones. In gaming, There are many First Person Shooters, but to compare a series like Doom with Half Life you will know that indeed they are both shooters at the core, but both have differences to make them timeless and unique.

I digress.... maybe I strayed too far but my point is that games are evolving and growing in variety by appealing to people who want to play different games and those who make the games. I think the lines between hardcore and casual may only be blurred in the near future with increases in interactivity and target audience groups. 10 years ago companies wouldnt have thought to target Senior Citizens as a key demographic.

In the end, I have hope for us hardcore gamers and the companies that strive to keep us happy. But then again.... the retro scene in gaming has spiked a lot in the past couple years, so does that mean people are getting bored with the newer, possibly more "casual" games? You decide!

[otaku]

best way I can see to encourage hardcore games being made is to preorder and or buy them at full price not wait for them to be discounted or trade or buy used. I feel really guilty about holding off on yakuza 2...

anyway its not all bad alot of those "casual" games are a ton of fun just because the gameplay is simple doesn't mean its not fun and can't become hardcore (technique, replay and competition etc) I'm not a big fan of these super long involving games that require tons of dedication and learning I don't have the time or patience. I want arcade style games I can pickup and play for an hour and move on

[HellHammer]

I think the next generation will see a significant reduction in 'casual' participants.

Look at the NES and the ridiculous phenomenon it was. Now consider that about 10 million people who purchased the NES didn't take the plunge into the Super Nintendo, which many Nintendo fans consider to be the 'golden era' of Nintendo's games.
I think it's a bit of an interesting situation. Nintendo knows how to sell products to people who wouldn't normally buy them. They create a desirable object (originally the NES, and in this case it's the Wii), hold it in the right light (obviously this is where things like the NES Running Pad, The Zapper, WiiSports, and the WiiFit Balance Board enter) and create a massive demand for it (Commercials, give-a-way contests, tournaments,...the film The Wizard). However, when the generation is over and people are faced with the reality of having to upgrade to the next Nintendo system, I don't believe Nintendo will see the same amount of success.

Each generation after the NES was spent attempting to appease the core Nintendo fanbase. The SNES, N64, and GameCube all saw an absolutely amazing amount of top quality first party titles from Nintendo, so much so that I think people didn't have time to appreciate it. I think Nintendo became a bit frightened about the lack of support during the GC era and decided it might be time to think outside the "people will always buy Mario and Zelda" box and attempt to wrangle up (or create) some new (and financially supportive) Nintendo fans, just like they did with the NES.

I'm hopeful that when the 'I want one too!' factor has faded and the next generation of consoles comes around, Nintendo will again revert it's entire focus to doing what it does best; making Nintendo games.

[the7k]

The gaming industry is changing, and I have no doubt that it is changing for the worse. As cheap-to-make games continue to sell more, they'll continue to get more investors. And honestly, who can blame them?

No casual gamer is going to buy Mirror's Edge new because it doesn't invite them in, and few hardcore gamers are going to buy it new because they've read the reviews. A sub-par hardcore game will loose a lot more money than a sub-par casual game - thus, casual gaming is a much more sound investment.

Like I've said before, would you put stock in crap that sells, or art that doesn't?

[Erik_Twice]

It's like music. Most people around don't even care about quality but they pay. The problem is that you, as a company , can't control the sales.

Given that costumers just buy from the cover your game may sell or not. Ubisoft is getting a lot of money but I'm sure others are not getting so much. When there are 10 different dog videogames it's a gamble and quality or price isn't going to matter because the stupid costumer will pick one at random. It's a bit like teen's fantasy books.

However the hardcore crowd tends to pay off if you work hard. I don't think Atlus publishes a lot of casual games but they have a lot of money. And consider that making bad games damages your company's reputation and makes the good employees flee to better companies getting you stuck with your crappy games.

What we are going to see is a lot of crap and we will need to look "harder" for the good games simply because thera re going to be three times the amount of games while the hardcore crowd is going to be the same size or a bit larger.

[equalsign]

best way I can see to encourage hardcore games being made is to preorder and or buy them at full price not wait for them to be discounted or trade or buy used. I feel really guilty about holding off on yakuza 2...

I know what you mean. I think we retro gamers are a big part of the problem we always seem to whine about. We're so used to getting games for low prices that we don't often pick up games new. Many of our "rare" or harder to find games can be 50 USD (give or take). It's hard to justify picking up a new game at that same price point when we can find it available at 20 different places in town at any time we want. When a game does come out that is targeted at us (i.e. Madworld, Little King's Story) we hold off picking it up until it's at a lower price. So many of us cry about a lack of innovation and then only pay full price for the bi-yearly rehashes and re-imaginings of the games we used to play (like Punchout Wii and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess).

If you want to wait on picking up House of the Dead: Overkill, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Klonoa, and Deadly Creatures, feel free! Just stop whining about there being so few "hardcore" games anymore. It's not like we're helping many of the great games that do come out. It may be cliched, but we need to put our money where our mouths are.

Twenty years from now we'll all be talking about how good and ahead of its time Mirror's Edge was, crying that the PS3 deserved better sales, and lurking around forum sites with others like us, masturbating our bitter little egos with lines like "the kids nowadays just don't get Zack and Wiki." Everything looks better from the beer goggles of nostalgia. Games have always been and probably always will be more hardcore, more imaginative, and more innovative at some obscure and unclear time in the past.

As far as the Wii is concerned, I've come to realize that no matter how many niche, cool, original, or interesting games come out for the console people aren't going to shut up until Nintendo announces "OMGz new wii zeldas."

If you want to see more good games, less whining and more playing seems like the best solution to me. Who knows though? Maybe TWENTY MORE THREADS ABOUT THE SUBJECT WILL FIX EVERYTHING.