Casual Gamers are Better Off Being Casual

I can\'t believe all of the crap that I have seen lately.  I know that that is a poor way to start off any type of article (or argument), but I had to say that before I really stepped into the topic at hand.  In all actuality, it\'s the BS that I have seen lately that has driven me to write this article in the first place.  Please, in advance, forgive me if I shoot my mouth off or be so incredibly blunt as to hurt anyone\'s precious feelings.  We all know how important those are in the net community. :rolleyes:  Anyways, lets get this thing started.

The most tiring thing I see day in and day out is you people whining and sniveling about companies and graphics.  "My game has better graphics then yours and my system has more graphical capabilities then yours and I have a bigger..."  Well, you all know where this is going.  We\'ve seen it a hundred times from a hundred different morons.  Admittedly so, I used to be this way when I was about ten years old enjoying my Super Nintendo Entertainment System at a party in front of a bunch of my Fifth-grader buddies.

"Sonic is better then Mario."

That simple little statement divided the entire crowd into two large groups ready to just jump on each other and start using their respective gaming systems as weapons a\'la the World Wrestling Federation with a folded chair.  The room was just about ready to erupt until someone got a very cool "fatality," purely by accident, in Killer Instinct.  The entire crowd gawked and awed at this person\'s alleged magnificence as we all paused and stared at the television perform this mix of hits.  I miss that sense of amazement I used to have when I was younger.

Surrounded by Nintendo Power magazines and learning all about the next Nintendo system, the N64, I saw myself as a general fountain of information to both my peers and my wallet for making decisions on what to buy.  However, being young also means being very naive and since Nintendo Power makes Nintendo games look like God\'s gift to man, I wanted it all.  Fortunately, I stepped into the realm of the Playstation after I heard about Squaresoft and the delay of the N64 and my whole gaming "enlightenment" began and my weapon of Knowledge was none other then the powerful Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Therein lies the predicament.  Knowledge has destroyed gaming.  People can argue that it has made us more conscious buyers or more adept to what\'s out there for your money or what\'s out there for your enjoyment, but those of us who delve into this situation day in and day out on the net debating the games, reading about the games, and watching movies from Betas of games are nothing but desensitized to just how great these little things are.  Have we really become fountains of knowledge or just experts in a medium that does nothing but ruin the excitement for us?

I remember the last game that I played where the enjoyment factor for me was just leaps and bounds above anything that I have played now.  That game was Final Fantasy VII.  This of course was way before I had ever heard of the magical three letters; DSL, but also before I had even delved into the action of the Internet community as a whole.  I didn\'t know anything about a transistor or a vector unit and I sure as hell didn\'t care about a GeForce or the medium a console was going to arrive on.  All I cared about was playing fun games either at my expense, or a good friend\'s expense.  I still remember the time when renting a game, or trying the game at a friend\'s house, was the deciding factor for buying a game.  Nowadays, there is so much involved in purchasing anything and\\or voicing your opinion freely.

Knowing everything is a definite catalyst to less enjoyment of certain areas.  Is a movie as fun to watch when you know HOW someone performed a certain special effect?  Is a movie enjoyable when you know the plot and the key sequences before you enter the theatre and take your seats for the first showing?  Is a game as fun to play when you know who the final boss is and how to win the final fight?  Is it fun when you know where all 100 stars are before they even appear on the screen?  In my opinion, definitely not.  

Casual gaming newbies are what I admire most nowadays.  The general idiots who buy certain games simply because they look damn fun and for no other reason.  The general morons who walk into the store with a wad of cash and the clerk\'s advice as their guide to gaming salvation are those will have the most fun this generation.  The guy who tears open his PS2 box for the first time and finally discovers what the hell a "Big Boss" is for the first time, the guy who rips open his GCN box and discovers what a true Star Wars game should be like, and the guy who tears open his X-Box bag to discover that Munch is his idle for the next day or two are my idles.  These people have it made and they will have more fun then you or I will this generation then we have had for as long as we have been these information whores.

I admire these gamers the most and although us as information gaming whores will shun them for ruining your hobby, I admire them more so then I admire anyone posting a thread in a forum or reading up on a videogame site as part of their daily routine.  We\'re all jaded pieces of trash and I feel sadder every day because of it.  You may consider this a soulless rant against gaming enthusiasts in general simply because of the recent garbage that has flooded the community in general, but I see it as the slow death on my hobby and it is gaining ground on my gaming enthusiasm everyday.

I encourage everyone reading this to stop what you are doing.  Pick up a good magazine, read as little as you can on your games and go into stores as complete idiots looking only at titles and game backs and spines for those few gems you think you have found.  Don\'t pay any attention to us or the opinions of the editors in general.  Make your own opinions, play your own systems, and buy your own games.  You will only benefit from this more so then you will benefit from knowing everything.  Ignorance truly is bliss and you should learn from this senseless rant while you still can.  As for the rest of you too far in to pull out and you know who you are, I\'m afraid it\'s too late and you are just as jaded as I am.  We are but a few smatterings of road pizza on the information superhighway.

So what do you all think?  Agree?  Disagree?  Please, intelligent responses only.

While I agree that "ignorance is bliss". I think we as "gaming enthusiasts" get a different kind of amazement when it comes to gaming. I doubt I will ever have that feeling I had as a child where I would fall in love with a game just because it was the newest game in my collection. It has to be something really extraordinary to amaze me nowadays. The only games that I can say really amaze me nowadays are the "cream of the crop" (i.e. games like Shenmue, MGS2, and RL). I find myself leaning towards games that offer a new experience or give me an old experience in an incredible new way. Thats what will keep the hardcore gamers amazed and as long as the industry keeps growing and innovating we will continue to be amazed; because we can watch every clip, read every review, and look at every screenshot but they will never compare to actually playing the games themselves, which BTW is what we love to do and the reason we are here in the first place.

[Living-In-Clip]

Agree\'d totally. I was actually goin\' to start a thread about this but I thought I was the only one who felt this way. When gaming was just a casual thing for me (early 16 bit days) it was so amazing. I could enjoy something without worrying about things like pop-up or how the port would look on another system.  Now that it is more then casual , it just doesn\'t seem as much fun . I can\'t just sit down and enjoy a game without wondering why there is pop-up or what not.

However, we don\'t have that luxury as \'hardcore\' or whatever label you want to use. We always nit-pick it to death or find the flaws. We expect more then the casual owner. This can be considered a blessing or curse. It is a blessing, because we know what we want and how things can be improved. Therefor allowing us to dream about the future of other games. It is a curse in the sense, when is the last time you opened a game and was thrilled from start to finish, without nit-picking some part of it? Yeah, I don\'t remember either. Well, actually I do remember it. My mother had picked me up from school early to get my Super Nes. I rushed home and put in Super Mario World. I was amazed for a long time. Those days are gone though. I can\'t play a game without finding flaws. I also remember skimming through the magazines like Ryu and every game was just amazing. I couldn\'t wait until it would come out. Now\'a\'days, I read the magazines, I see the screens and I mark it off as hype. Or I look back on what the developers have done and wonder if they will correct previous problems.. Things I never done when I was \'casual\'.


We as the supposed \'hardcore\' for the most part have lost sight on gaming also. We sit on the boards and debate. I\'m guilty of it as is everyone else who reads or responds to this thread. Some are worse then others. Some can\'t even play a certain system due to be biased. Why? When did gaming become a "war" and not just fun?

Then there is the ones who have been playin\' games as long as we can remember and we think gaming is goin\' downhill. Why? Because it just doesn\'t match up to what we remember the old days being like. I use to say this was because no one was doin\' 2D. I don\'t believe that anymore. I believe it is the simple fact, we continue to get more jaded and therefor lose the fun. Sure, games are leaning towards more interactive movies (Say hello Metal Gear Solid.)  then actual games. But even when I see a game that reminds me of the old days (CastleVania:COTM) I still find flaws in it  - like it being to dark. This is something I would of never complained about back in the good ole\' days.


One last thing, I think as "information whores" we also expect to much. We read all the articles, we keep up with games as soon as they are announced and we listen to the hype. We can say we don\'t believe it but we do. It gets to us at least alittle. This is something the casual gamer doesn\'t have to bother with. They go in a store and pick the game that catches their interest. They don\'t load the game up lookin\' to see if the AI is vengeful or whatever hype the developer promised. We do though. Then we find ourselves dissapointed in the game. Screaming that the developer lied to us.

hmmm, i remember when i got my 1st gaming system, the sega master system. i loved it, i could literally play it for hours.
games are games, and to me, i don\'t care about graphics or any of that. i just care about the game, how much i enjoy it and how long i can play it before it goes into the cupboard, never to be played again.
i\'m a more casual gamer though, i don\'t give a stuff about anything else..
________
Honda VT250F specifications

You know the last game I played where I had just pure enjoyment was FF VII as well....and what year was that like 5 years ago when ff vII came out. I think ppl who are new to gaming enjoy it so much because it is all new to them and they have yet to see what a good game is....It is just like when you first start driving you just wanna drive car no matter how crappy it is...but after you get experience driving you want a better car..and I think that how it is with gaming...you expectation just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Ugh -- I always get to these threads rather late. With the combination of Ryu, Gohan, and LiC\'s postings, what I feel has pretty much been covered.

Let\'s face it. We are skeptical, over-critical, jaded gamers. I too feel @ times that my love for the gaming hobby is slowly dying. I remember when plopping in a SNES game and seeing anything Mode 7 made me happy. Nowadays with the route technology is going, and as higher the realism of games are getting, more flaws just happen to stick out. Anyhow, I too admire how the casual gamer can just pick up any game and enjoy it as if it were perfect. How they won\'t notice the ocassional frame drops, or the extra blurred textures, or even that shimmering or aliasing in the background. But, there is a flipside to that coin. We being the anal, and picky gamers that we are, we can appreciate great gaming goodness when it smacks us in the face. We can admire the extra effort and time the developers spent on a game to make it that much worth while. We can marvel @ a beautiful game whose framerate never hitches. -- Now, is it worth knowing all the extra hard-core, technical, enthusiast junk, to be able to appreciate the game?

Like Gohan, the games that strike me, are the ones that are extraordinary in some way, and perhaps link to something of the past. A game that can grab be emotionally in some way. Rather, the game has to create an \'experience\' for me. The last game that managed to do that for me was Shenmue. Tons of other games I\'ve played recently are all fun and dandy when I\'m playing them, but once they\'re over, they\'re over. I suppose being older doesn\'t help us analytical gamers. We don\'t carry the ignorance of the past.

Heck, I remember when I would have to call the Nintendo hotline to find out when a game was coming out. And afterwards pestering ToysRus/PlayWorld/EB for release dates. Now we know when a game is in the stores. Oh well, I fear I\'ve rambled for too long. -- end transmission.

- dm
- the trick is to keep breathing.

Gameplay ! forget all other stuff graphics and so on .
Even if there\'s a little frame drop, some blunt collision
detection : if the core, the heart of the gameplay is
great it doesn\'t matter if you consider yourself a so-called
hardcore gamer or casual gamer.
Even if other ppl say the game you play sucks, but you enjoy
it bigtime, then it should be good in a way.

I remember my Sega Megadrive when I first played Sonic, and
lose all track of time. Others at school had their SNES and said
it was superior over all. Well, I just enjoyed playing games on
my Sega.

Knotter8

Casual gamers are better off being casual so they don\'t rip their hair out when they figure out that they have been playing the SAME Crash game 4 different times!

Yikes!

They couldn\'t handle the truth, they couldn\'t handle the lifestyle.


It ain\'t easy being hardcore.


Eric Jacob

Originally posted by AlteredBeast
Casual gamers are better off being casual so they don\'t rip their hair out when they figure out that they have been playing the SAME Crash game 4 different times!

Indeed, they\'ll probably rip their hair out too when they realize that GT3 is really just GT2 with improved handling, less tracks, less cars, the same dumbass cheating AI, the same crap racing model, and still has no car damage.

By my, aren\'t the GRAPHICS pretty. I wonder whether the game would be such a \'must buy\'/AAA title/best \'racer\' ever etc./  if the graphics weren\'t so bloody beautiful.

Sorry, I could not resist.

I still think I have moments of wonder and amazement that parallel the same feelings I experienced in my youth with the slew of excellent games on the SNES, the Atari ST and the Spectrum. The first time I played ISS Pro Evolution 2 I was as giddy as a schoolgirl, same for Jarret And Labonte Stock Car Racing, and most recently for Twisted Metal Black. Sure we\'re all a lot more jaded, but hey we can still find the kid inside all of us that goes all bubbly when we experience a game that is truly special.

One valid point that i\'d like to raise is that anyone who is "hardcore" generally used to be casual until they invested more time in the hobby.

Surely one of the reasons you don\'t get jaded over games so much anymore is innovation. For starters to be playing the length of time we have we must all be fairly mature, 16 - 30. Which means that it takes a lot more to get that excited feeling over a game than it did when we were 11 playing on the nes and everything was amazing. Kids do tend to be amazed with more things. The second thing is that everything actually was amazing back then. Lets face it, its rare to get innovation and original games nowadays, where back in the day lots of games were original and if they wasn\'t they at least hadn\'t been repeated for generations.

Now all our less excited mature selfs get are rehashes of games we were playing in our youth. Look at Mario 2 on the GBA.

So I do agree with Ryu that being hardcore allows us to nit pick and ruin the expirence of gaming but I also think that not having the same excitement like we used to is due to our ages and the fact that now for most of us this is our 4th generation of gaming, we have seen it and done it!

Thats why I want to see some original or at least semi-original games. Games like Project Zero is survivial horror, its been done a lot even on the ps2 alone. Games like Baulders Gate are RPG, and although its been done, not many PC type RPGs exist on the PS2. Roll on innovation or at least something which hasn\'t been done a lot.

[Living-In-Clip]

I agree to extent that alot of it depends on age. Yet at the same time, movies never get old, no matter how old you get. They are not that original either. However, if you take a movie with big special effects and then find out how they done it, the movie will no longer amaze you probably.

It is like magic, once you know how David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disseappear (Mirrors? Say it ain\'t so! ) it wasn\'t that cool. You could then watch it the next time and proceed to nit-pick it to death, finding flaws.

We as the supposed \'hardcore\' know what developers do for the most part. We know these hype words such as  "anti-aliasing" and so on. We know what they do. So, when we see a game that may have \'jaggies\', we go taking it apart and whining about it. Have you ever heard the \'casual\' gamer complain about jaggies in the background? No. Why? Because it doesn\'t occur to them that the \'jaggies\' are present. Once again, I ask, why? The reason is simple. They don\'t look for them like we do.

In the old days, when we was the \'casual\' it was simple. A game was either fun or not fun . You either played it 10 hours straight or you put it in a pile never to be seen again (Barts Nightmare- SuperNes!) . You didn\'t complain that the graphics could be better. You didn\'t whine about how the sound just wasn\'t amazing. You just played the game. If it was fun, all was good. If not, you didn\'t play it. We don\'t have that luxury now\'a\'days though. Even on the fun games,  we find flaws so that we can say there is no "perfect game".

We\'re not jaded gamers, just not blessed with the purity of youth.  The 16-bit era was 10 YEARS AGO  for those of us who clearly remember that age, we are old now. We know the value of a dollar.  We know that $50 spent on a bad game is $50 we coulda spent on something else.  We want to make educated purchases, why? Because we can\'t depend on mommy and/or daddy anymore.  We have jobs, and our own money and how much we spend on games determines how much we spend on anything else.

 We\'ve made mistakes with bad games before, and well I\'m sorry if you\'re thirsting for the ability to be wooed and swayed by advertisments w/ FMV and store clerks like when we were younger (I miss those days too)  But we can\'t go back, we\'ve come too far.  Video Games have come too far.  We know video games are not "toys" or "for kids only". We know that games can be enjoyed by the Old as well as the young.  Our loyalty to console video games our thirst for knowledge and information has made the " Interactive Electronic Entertainment" Industry completely legitimate.

 Until the day comes when Ryu is hired by Enix as a Producer and Living In-Clip is hired by Konami as a Graphics Programmer, and Trog is hired by Maxis for Enemy AI/Menu Programming, this is all we have to voice our concern about the industry we supported for these 10+ years.  

As long as the developers\' make money peddling half-assed sequels with only graphical improvements because those "casual" gamers will gobble it up w/ a spoon, our hands are tied.  The information about Vector Units, and developers complaining about the difficulty of AA and sound is important because if this info spreads then those we deem as "Casual" would then know more than we did at their age and thus the developers will have to put more effort into each game . More information is good, Knowledge may equal power, but it also carries a heavy burden.

[Living-In-Clip]

Originally posted by GenjuroKibagani
[
 Until the day comes when Ryu is hired by Enix as a Producer and Living In-Clip is hired by Konami as a Graphics Programmer, and Trog is hired by Maxis for Enemy AI/Menu Programming, this is all we have to voice our concern about the industry we supported for these 10+ years.  
 

Make note. That was the coolest paragraph I have ever had the pleasure of reading. \'Cept, I think Trog should be hired for the translation process of all games. He is after all, a walking and talking  spell check.

You bring up a valid point also though. Alot of it is, we as matured gamers have to pay for games now. We can\'t depend on someone to buy them for us. That of course, will effect our opinion some, because we don\'t wish to buy total crap.

Yeah perfectly valid. If you got a game when you younger and didn\'t like it, lets face it, you wouldn\'t be too bothered. I mean games were cheaper back then with the likes of Amstrad games selling for a couple of dollars.

Now games are £45 so researching the game is good. Going hardcore though prehaps isn\'t so good.

Well back to Ryu\'s original thread.

My 27 year old brother in law isn\'t a hardcore gamer. He owns a PC and N64 which he uses for games. He never reads games magazines or even uses the net. He purchases games which I cringe reading at the titles. In his time hes purchased some horrid N64 and Sega Saturn titles.

I look at his line up of games and think why! He admits some of his games are really poor. If he had been more informed then that would have been better.

I think in this day and age, due to computer game prices being a load more than in the past its well worth being informed on what game your buying and why your buying it.

As for nit picking afterwoods thats just our problem. Prehaps because we havent seen a game with so much gameplay is so long that we nit pick because our attention isn\'t being drawn into the game and instead were looking at graphics.

I mean if the game was really amazing to play would you honestly nit pick at graphics. Before you answer, have you played a game which has been that good graphics hasn\'t came into it. The game has just been so exciting. Unfortunatly on the PS2 so far I haven\'t.

Everyone, thank you for the replies.  You all make damn fine points and to NOT reply to each and every one of you would be an injustice I am not willing to partake in.  Allow me to begin the replies with the first on the list:

Gohan

I find myself leaning towards games that offer a new experience or give me an old experience in an incredible new way.

When was the last time you had something like that?  Hasn\'t just about every game from the 16-bit/8-bit days been revamped in some new way during the 32/64-bit era?  I can\'t even think of one off the top of my head right now that offers what you speak of.  I know the 32/64-bit gen did offer some all new games for us, but are those going to just be revamped in the 128-bit era?  Are we stuck in this endless cycle?  I mean, playing an all new original game nowadays is about as rare as finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  I wonder if the people waiting for all new original games are just kidding themselves.

Living-In-Clip

I believe it is the simple fact, we continue to get more jaded and therefor lose the fun.

Exactly.  Games have always been the same since they were made way back when on the Atari, it\'s the gamers that have changed.  Casual gamers are not ruining your hobby nor is a company with poor quality control, it\'s the gamers themselves who have been the thing that has changed.  The more knowledge of the hobby that you have, the less fun it is.  Having some sort of mystery within the hobby makes it that much more fun just like as Clip said with movies.

I\'m not saying we should all go back to being casual for it\'s too late.  Once you have gotten a taste of all this information, it\'s pretty much over for you.  However, if you are just starting this whole forum and gaming community thing, then heed my words, you are better off going back to seldom magazine purchases and word of mouth.  Trust me on this one, I know what I am talking about.  (Hmm... that was more of a general statement then a response to Clip, sorry about that! heh)

Datamage

We can admire the extra effort and time the developers spent on a game to make it that much worth while. We can marvel @ a beautiful game whose framerate never hitches. -- Now, is it worth knowing all the extra hard-core, technical, enthusiast junk, to be able to appreciate the game?

In my opinion, definitely not.  I\'d much more prefer to be ignorant and wowed about the subject for the first time ever then marvel at a game for what it does accomplish more so then another game.  

Take movies for example:  The best movie I have seen this summer was Shrek.  Why was it the best movie?  Simply because when I walked into the theatre, I had no idea of what to expect.  I didn\'t know the plot, why it was good, if it was funny, or even if it was a good movie.  I walked in just expecting some neat little graphical CG effects and instead, I got a practical masterpiece of a film.  The fact that I knew nothing about it made it 100 times more enjoyable then all the Pearl Harbors, Planet of the Apes, and Mummy Returns combined.  The same thing can be said for games because I am more excited about a hidden talked about gem then I am a full on blockbuster like Shenmue.  I think Shenmue\'s hype killed the game for me and that is completely unfortunate, but I am looking forward to Shenmue 2 loads more with nowhere near as much knowledge as I had for the first before it came out.

AlteredBeast

It ain\'t easy being hardcore.

This raises an interesting point.  Does being hardcore mean being overly picky?

Lavan

I still think I have moments of wonder and amazement that parallel the same feelings I experienced in my youth with the slew of excellent games on the SNES, the Atari ST and the Spectrum.

That is true.  However, because the moments that we feel this way are so incredibly short, does that make the moment fleeting?  I know I have felt the same wonder and amazement seldomly in the 128-bit generation, but all the moments that I originally tumbled upon are completely clear cut in my mind and the unfortunate thing is, the moment only lasted about 10 seconds.  In my opinion, 10 seconds of wonder in a game that takes 15 hours to beat is terribly fleeting.

RichGUK

but I also think that not having the same excitement like we used to is due to our ages and the fact that now for most of us this is our 4th generation of gaming, we have seen it and done it!

I don\'t think this is the case.  I have seen movies all my life and I am still wowed by even the latest of films despite them being tired cliche\'s of the last ten years of Hollywood filmlore.  I may have gotten older, but if I keep my nose clean about a specific film, I am generally amazed by it if it is a good movie.  This hollywood summer crapfest has been no exception to the general comrodory I expect from those tired lame cliche\'s, but there have been at least 1 or 2 movies this summer that really made me glad I saw them and in each case, it was not a movie I was highly expecting and the same goes for games.

Take my Final Fantasy VII point I made earlier.  The only glimpse I had of it was of the demo included with Tobal No. 1.  However, once the game picked up afterwards, I was utterly hooked.  I spent all of my free time (just about every hour I was not in school) just playing that game over a 3-day binge until I beat Sephiroth at the end.  No game since then has amazed me enough into binging like that and it\'s sad really.  I long for the day when a game hooks me like that again and I thank creators like Hideo Kojima for submerging the anticipated games beyond our sights.