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ardcore gaming is not dying. It’s dead. Games are getting easier and easier, with focus test inspired hand holding giving us kinder checkpoints, bread crumb trails and automatically adjusting difficulty levels. We cry if a game does not come with a fully explained tutorial of what the game expects of us. We use game guides and video walkthroughs to tell us and show us what we should be doing. The hardcore gamer has gone soft.
Add to the mix; motion controls, Facebook games and mobile game playing devices in the hands of half of the world, and the balance would seem to be shifting from a hardcore pastime to a future of casual gaming dominance. Read on to investigate the case of the death of the hardcore gamer…
There was a time when I was lucky if I fully understood half of what was going on in a game. If I got stuck on a level or boss fight, I had to hope one of my friends was playing the same game or that next months computer magazine printed a cheat code or happened to mention the bit I was stuck on. Most of the time the only things that got you through were perseverance and the sheer determination to succeed. There was no better feeling than passing a point that had halted you progress for a matter of days, weeks or even months. I still get a sense of satisfaction from playing a game and beating a certain tough point, but not to the same degree as it used to be. These days, if you can’t be bothered to finish a game you can just go watch the ending on Youtube, or read the whole story on Wikipedia.
Am I still a hardcore gamer?
There is so much vying for our attention these days that if a game gets too difficult or repetitive, gamers often give up all too easily and move on to the next less annoyingly challenging challenge. I am part of the problem. Part of what got me thinking about this is hearing just how many people are in the exact same boat (or Spaceship) as me when it comes to the first Dead Space. With the launch of the second game I have yet to hear anyone talking about it without adding the line “I never finished the first game but…”. I only got about 2/3 through the game. I really liked the look and feel of the universe, the way the game and story were presented and to begin with I really loved the game…until a point. I reached one room that was filled with Necromorphs aplenty at a time when I had virtually no ammo left. I played through the level a few times, got frustrated and remembered thinking to myself “This has stopped being fun”. I put the game down and never looked back.
I am not alone. According to raptr.com, (arguably a reserve of hardcore gamers) less than 44% of their registered users completed Dead Space on any difficulty and just over 6% completed it on the hardest difficulty setting. With Ubisoft announcing that less than 40% of gamers completed Assassin’s Creed II, this figure appears to be a fairly accurate representation of just how few people play good quality hardcore games to completion.
The best selling console on the market is the least hardcore of the three with sports simulators, fitness, exercise and dancing games leading software sales. In the UK barely a week goes by that Just Dance is not somewhere near the top of the charts. If you had told me ten years ago that the hardcore market would become so infatuated with the lets-pretend-we-are-in-a band-by-playing-plastic-instruments genre I would have looked at you like you just bit Ozzy Osbourne’s head off.
There are those that will say I am being overly dramatic and granted I am playing up the downside of this situation but if you think this is not really happening then it is not me that needs the reality check. What was Microsoft’s big Christmas title last year? Halo:Reach was a bit too early for a Christmas release and what else did they have? Answer; Kinect. A casual gamers best friend. No fiddly analog sticks to stare at ceilings & walls with, no having to remember where buttons are and more fitness, exercise & dancing games than in a Tiger Woods foursome. The ‘Killer App’ for Kinect was Dance Central, a 3rd party motion controlled dancing game. Not Gears of War, not Halo, not even Blinx the f-ing Timesweeper! No, Microsoft’s Killer Christmas App was a dancing game made by Ubisoft.
Like many of you out there I have practiced and honed skills on joypads for many years and the advent of new control methods, like the Wii or Move, or the complete absence of controllers seen with Kinect, may seem to indicate a future where the skills we have learned may become redundant. A possible daunting prospect and perhaps the reason so many gamers are quick to be dismissive of motion controls. However, I would have to admit to having found enjoyment from some of my time spent playing on all three of Wii, Move and Kinect games. Their enjoyment may be many limited to more social occasions, at times where there are a number of people playing with various gaming abilities, but they definitely have found a place in my game playing habits. Like it or not, control pads represent a barrier to entry for some people and conversely, motion controlled games won’t be for everyone.
The hardcore gamer is at the very least a term in danger of becoming extinct. The lines between hardcore and casual have been blurred more than ever before. If someone owns a console just to buy a football game once a year and only ever plays that game, are they a hardcore or a casual gamer? If someone plays Bejeweled for 8 hours a day Monday to Friday, are they hardcore, casual or just really slacking at work? If someone plays an hour a week of Call of Duty online are they any more or less hardcore than his friend who plays Angry Birds on every hour long morning train journey?
The truth is that the hardcore gamer hasn’t died. We’ve won. Gaming is busy conquering the world. We may feel that the “industry” has less time for us and isn’t paying us enough attention as we see all the nice new shiny toys that a new generation of gamers get to play with. Much like a child with a new baby brother on the scene, we are going to have to learn to share both the toys and the parent companies that provide them. It might be worth having an internet tantrum and throwing our Move controllers out of the pram every now and then, while we can still get away with it, but the avalanche of top quality hardcore games throughout this year should show us that there is more than enough gaming for everyone. Hardcore games may be getting more accessible but both mobile and motion gaming are finding their feet and producing experiences that satisfy and soften even the most hardcore of gamers.
Now, if you excuse me, I am just going to decide whether to play Peggle or Killzone 3. I like both. I am a casually hardcore casual gamer with hardcore tendencies. You can just call me a gamer.
by MightyMutt
Add to the mix; motion controls, Facebook games and mobile game playing devices in the hands of half of the world, and the balance would seem to be shifting from a hardcore pastime to a future of casual gaming dominance. Read on to investigate the case of the death of the hardcore gamer…
There was a time when I was lucky if I fully understood half of what was going on in a game. If I got stuck on a level or boss fight, I had to hope one of my friends was playing the same game or that next months computer magazine printed a cheat code or happened to mention the bit I was stuck on. Most of the time the only things that got you through were perseverance and the sheer determination to succeed. There was no better feeling than passing a point that had halted you progress for a matter of days, weeks or even months. I still get a sense of satisfaction from playing a game and beating a certain tough point, but not to the same degree as it used to be. These days, if you can’t be bothered to finish a game you can just go watch the ending on Youtube, or read the whole story on Wikipedia.
Am I still a hardcore gamer?
There is so much vying for our attention these days that if a game gets too difficult or repetitive, gamers often give up all too easily and move on to the next less annoyingly challenging challenge. I am part of the problem. Part of what got me thinking about this is hearing just how many people are in the exact same boat (or Spaceship) as me when it comes to the first Dead Space. With the launch of the second game I have yet to hear anyone talking about it without adding the line “I never finished the first game but…”. I only got about 2/3 through the game. I really liked the look and feel of the universe, the way the game and story were presented and to begin with I really loved the game…until a point. I reached one room that was filled with Necromorphs aplenty at a time when I had virtually no ammo left. I played through the level a few times, got frustrated and remembered thinking to myself “This has stopped being fun”. I put the game down and never looked back.
I am not alone. According to raptr.com, (arguably a reserve of hardcore gamers) less than 44% of their registered users completed Dead Space on any difficulty and just over 6% completed it on the hardest difficulty setting. With Ubisoft announcing that less than 40% of gamers completed Assassin’s Creed II, this figure appears to be a fairly accurate representation of just how few people play good quality hardcore games to completion.
The best selling console on the market is the least hardcore of the three with sports simulators, fitness, exercise and dancing games leading software sales. In the UK barely a week goes by that Just Dance is not somewhere near the top of the charts. If you had told me ten years ago that the hardcore market would become so infatuated with the lets-pretend-we-are-in-a band-by-playing-plastic-instruments genre I would have looked at you like you just bit Ozzy Osbourne’s head off.
There are those that will say I am being overly dramatic and granted I am playing up the downside of this situation but if you think this is not really happening then it is not me that needs the reality check. What was Microsoft’s big Christmas title last year? Halo:Reach was a bit too early for a Christmas release and what else did they have? Answer; Kinect. A casual gamers best friend. No fiddly analog sticks to stare at ceilings & walls with, no having to remember where buttons are and more fitness, exercise & dancing games than in a Tiger Woods foursome. The ‘Killer App’ for Kinect was Dance Central, a 3rd party motion controlled dancing game. Not Gears of War, not Halo, not even Blinx the f-ing Timesweeper! No, Microsoft’s Killer Christmas App was a dancing game made by Ubisoft.
Like many of you out there I have practiced and honed skills on joypads for many years and the advent of new control methods, like the Wii or Move, or the complete absence of controllers seen with Kinect, may seem to indicate a future where the skills we have learned may become redundant. A possible daunting prospect and perhaps the reason so many gamers are quick to be dismissive of motion controls. However, I would have to admit to having found enjoyment from some of my time spent playing on all three of Wii, Move and Kinect games. Their enjoyment may be many limited to more social occasions, at times where there are a number of people playing with various gaming abilities, but they definitely have found a place in my game playing habits. Like it or not, control pads represent a barrier to entry for some people and conversely, motion controlled games won’t be for everyone.
The hardcore gamer is at the very least a term in danger of becoming extinct. The lines between hardcore and casual have been blurred more than ever before. If someone owns a console just to buy a football game once a year and only ever plays that game, are they a hardcore or a casual gamer? If someone plays Bejeweled for 8 hours a day Monday to Friday, are they hardcore, casual or just really slacking at work? If someone plays an hour a week of Call of Duty online are they any more or less hardcore than his friend who plays Angry Birds on every hour long morning train journey?
The truth is that the hardcore gamer hasn’t died. We’ve won. Gaming is busy conquering the world. We may feel that the “industry” has less time for us and isn’t paying us enough attention as we see all the nice new shiny toys that a new generation of gamers get to play with. Much like a child with a new baby brother on the scene, we are going to have to learn to share both the toys and the parent companies that provide them. It might be worth having an internet tantrum and throwing our Move controllers out of the pram every now and then, while we can still get away with it, but the avalanche of top quality hardcore games throughout this year should show us that there is more than enough gaming for everyone. Hardcore games may be getting more accessible but both mobile and motion gaming are finding their feet and producing experiences that satisfy and soften even the most hardcore of gamers.
Now, if you excuse me, I am just going to decide whether to play Peggle or Killzone 3. I like both. I am a casually hardcore casual gamer with hardcore tendencies. You can just call me a gamer.
by MightyMutt
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