Posted on August 29, 2007 - Filed Under A Look Back, Casual Gaming, Editorials, Off Topic |
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There seems to be two camps of gamers, similar to that of the Dark and Light side of the force. The Casual Gamers are considered the “light side” of the force while the “dark side” is where gamers truly ‘own.’
Why must we look at the two types of gaming habits as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ or ‘light’ and ‘dark’ or ‘easy’ and ‘hard.’ A great example of this is the title World of Warcraft because it’s a very casual game played in a hardcore manner.
What?
WoW is a great example of a casual game gone incredibly wrong. You start out with a very lightweight RPG type game where the entire goal is to run around and gather things or kill things. It doesn’t require a great deal of skill and many ‘hardcore’ gamers believe the line between casual and hardcore is drawn when skill becomes a factor.
They obviously haven’t played Peggle on grand master. We often times want to distinguish a hardcore player from a softcore casualite based on the games they play-not how they play the games.
A casual gamer can play bouts of Halo 2 on and off for months and never become “hardcore” enough to enter a tournament or even play online. It isn’t because a casual gamer lacks skill, they may just lack time or have too many games to occupy a limited amount of time.
Yet, if one writes a story about Halo 2 on a ‘casual gaming site’ many folks would raise a brow asking ‘why?’ because we’re obviously not into that type of game. Obviously? Or, perhaps we just don’t have the drive to log 80+ hours a week playing it.
The reason World of Warcraft differs is because it bridges the gap between hardcore and casual. Both persona will find themselves sucked into the MMO like it was a crack addiction. Yet, without chemical dependency what pitts the two gamers in the same game? It’s the black magic of the WoW addiction I think.
In my opinion, a hardcore gamer can spend just as much time in front of Peggle, Venice, Bejeweled or any other “casual title” and get the same amount of fun out of it. I think some hardcore gamers just don’t give it a chance because they think its to “sissy” or changes their reputation amongst their peers.
On the flip side, a casual gamer may not purchase a game like Saints Row, Gears of War, G.R.A.W or any other type of game of those caliber because they just don’t “commit enough time” or are “too hard.”
Saints Row is a game that requires practice but no more practice than scoring huge in a game of Puzzle Quest or Magnetica! It’s all about perception and what you think you’ll think of a title you’ve never played or demo’d. The same way you’ll tell your parents “I don’t like swordfish” without ever having tried the dish. “Just taste it,” they’ll say or “your taste buds change over time, try it again,” they urge.
Is gaming any different? Perhaps, years ago, you didn’t care for Thief, DOOM or Rise of the Triad, but you really don’t know how you’ll take to G.R.A.W or Rainbow Six unless you give it a try again. Your taste buds change over time.
The same can be said to supposed ‘hardcore’ gamers that don’t believe in playing a “casual game” because they didn’t care for Tetris back in the mid-1980’s.
You don’t have to be a Jedi Knight or a Sith to pick a great game. You just have to have an open mind and try new things.
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