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Hardcore Gamers on the Decline?
Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog takes a look at the numbers for last year, and makes an interesting observation: hardcore gamers are probably not the future. Specifically, last year's videogame sales numbers show a huge trend in the adoption of mass-market licensed games. We've also previously discussed the extreme popularity of casual games. Despite Gears of War selling around the same amount as Cars (both around 2 million units), the cost in time and money to create Gears was substantially greater than the cost to create the Pixar-licensed title. The result? "As growth continues, we're bound to see some substantial changes. As it stands, hardcore gamers are still a pivotal purchasing force in the games market: most of the top ten titles were what I would consider "hardcore" games. However, the trend away from the hardcore and towards the casual is becoming increasingly more predominant. We've talked quite a bit lately about the growing demand and response for casual games, and when coupled with the shocking sales of licensed products, I'm left wondering whether or not the number of hardcore gamers is dwindling."
the number of casual gamers is rising faster than the number of hardcore gamers? Maybe there will be more licensed crap but still be the same amount of quality original games made?
"I'm left wondering whether or not the number of hardcore gamers is dwindling."
As it happens, no. They're just all playing WoW.
Tell me something...it's still "We, the people"... right?
So hard core gamers can't buy mass-market licensed games? Maybe these licensed games are finally starting to be decent. There are some licensed games (ex. X-Men Legends/Marvel Alliance) that are licensed and appeal to gamers who I would consider "hard core." Of course they also like their "Gear of War."
But is Cars really that great of a game? It sold 2 million because it was a popular movie and the game's sole purpose was to rake in more cash. In a year is Cars going to continue to sell as many units as Gears? Moreover, in many years are people going to care about Cars or will they remember how awesome Gears was and how they can't wait for part 2 to release?
You constantly struggle for self improvement - and it shows.
Hooray for bad Engrish on fortune cookies
True Gamers don't need friends or outside time. And they wear Depends when they camp the MOBs because they're so fuckighardcore.
AKA casual gamers and thank our new overlords ... oh, a shiny penny! my, back when I was a kid, a penny could buy you two pieces of gum or if you had two you could get some candy, and just five and you had a whole bottle of coke ...
... well, you know, there are more important things than gaming, if you get my drift ...
Um, yeah, casual gamers - it's a lot like being in a candy store. Unlike those hard core gamers who need to buy lots of Depends and energy drinks.
But, on the bright side, lots of pretty women and girls in the casual gaming camp, and
VD Day!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Yes, I used to spend countless hours tweaking and overclocking my computer in order to get those extra FPS in CS Source and HL2. Now i just really don't care - I'm still 18, the "peak" age that everybody wants to market to, but I just lack the time or desire to pour hours on end into video games. School, life, and girls are more important to me now, and this videogaming thing has been slipping away.
I used to play 4 hours of video games a day back when I was a "hardcore gamer", it's just not worth it anymore. Has anybody else feel their killer instinct slip away?
Reduced costs from the Pixar end. I would think that even if Pixar didn't write the game, whatever properly licensed publisher couuld try to obtain the computer models straight from Pixar for use in the game. This means that one guy copies/pastes/scalee from Pixar into the game companies format. If a game company did its own IP from ground up, of course they'd have more work to do.
Actually, when I think of casual games I think of the games that my wife plays: JewelQuest, solitare, and mine sweeper. I wouldn't class a "Pixar Cars" game as a casual game. It may be a kid game, but it that still doesn't mean that it can't be difficult for the casual adult gamer. (Heck, I played one of my kids Sponge Bob's game to try to get them past a level to the next save stop and I was surprised that it was hard. It had limitless lives, but the task (racing course) was difficult for even me, which startled me.) I like that "hard-core" gamers will always be around. They will be those that instead of buying 5 games for family/friends during Christams or combined through out the year, will buy 5 games every few weeks. They will always have publishers that target them. They'll always rail against the mainstream for purchasing games like JewelQuest, Dr. Mario, or Tetris as being cheap to develop and raking in far more money than they should. I wonder how many "hard core" gamers have disappeared into WOW or similiar games.
It's casual gamers on the increase. With the expansion of the video games industry, this is to be expected.
... I'm alive and healthy!
Compare this to the music market - even though it is tremendously bigger than the games', they are common in some senses.
Although most of the music being sold is mass produced crap, there still is good music to be found. I believe the same will be true for games.
Can't say I disagree. I'm 20. However, for me the most deterring factor for me is the decline in PC game quality. There used to be great titles like Thief and Deus Ex. Then all of the sudden everything had to be lobotomized so that it could be played on consoles as well as PCs. Wroooong move. Atleast I don't find a lobotomized point-and-drool interface that a chimpanzee could use very appealing.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
I'm sorry but the distinction between a hardcore and a softcore player is blurred. I'm sick of people saying that things a hardcore player likes that a softcore player doesn't like. If you make a quality game, people will play it. The problem lays in the fact that people don't make quality games and they lay their excuse here.
For example: The article says Gears of War sold as many units as Cars even though Gears of War cost more to make. They then go on to say it is because of hardcore vs softcore players. When in fact couldn't it be that Gears of War doesn't do anything new in gaming. Its just another FPS, and doesn't even have a ladder like Halo 2. If they actually did something with all the money they spent in production of Gears of War, it could be the next killer FPS. You only need 2 things for the next killer FPS: 1) Ranked Online Play 2) Balanced Weapons . You could even make a MMOFPS and it'd instantly be better than PlanetSide which lets you level to max in a day basically. But no they chose to do a very expensive FPS.
Hopefully gaming companies will get these terms Hardcore and Casual players out of their head, so they don't give up totally and not try anymore.
God spoke to me.
Just like more moviegoers = more movies catering to the lowest common denominator.
More tv viewers = more drek reality TV. That's what the masses want.
Larger market for music = more Britney.
But, even so, there still are good movies made now and then, there is still enjoyable TV to watch, and some good music to listen to. Not everybody tries to target the largest possible audience, the business of it realizes that the little niche markets can be very lucrative.
This summary bases it's whole premise around Gears of War, and is the same fallacy the RIAA/MPAA use: they assume something should sell x jillion copies, then go pointing fingers at others when it doesn't. I'm sure the ESA will come out to tell you it's because of piracy, but frankly, I didn't think Gears of War was all that great. I found the gameplay was awkward, the plot generic. It just didn't float my boat.
Hardcore gamers don't buy based on hype alone. Sorry Cliffy B, you actually have to deliver more than shiny graphics and a paint by numbers shooter about "space marines fighting aliens".
Frankly, there was nothing hardcore about the game, IMO. I thought about buying it, ended up putting it on the shelf and getting Dead Rising instead.
Also, when you're charging 70 bucks a game after tax, don't expect me to buy the games in the same volume as I used to.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Just as a note, the number of hard core gamers is hardly dwindling. It is just that they are making up a smaller percentage of the whole pie. BIG difference, though I've noticed many companies can not figure that out...
Although I have seen numbers drop in some areas where 'hard core' gamers feel that their needs are simply no longer being addressed due to the percentage drop, and thus they actually are exiting the buying pool.
Not just marketing for the game, but marketing for the whole franchise and how it spills over. A groundwork was already put in place by the original content and the game builds on it. 'Fresh' content isn't going to get this head start.
The license/movie tie-in or whatever has marketing on its side. Lots of people probably bought X-Men legends because they read it was a good game...but I bet just as many bought because they loved comics, or they loved the movies, or their friends loved the comics and told them about it. They went in a store and saw a game with 'X-Men' on the box, or in this example 'Cars' and said "Hey, I liked that...maybe the game is good". Some buy the game right then and there, others do some research on it and buy it later. The game stands on the shoulders of the movie.
This doesn't always, but can assure that even a terrible game based on a good movie sells well. It works for sequels to games and movies as well. Hell, look at the new star wars...everyone watched them even though they suck. Why? Because we loved the originals so much. Is it any surprise that the same power can spill across mediums?
It'll come back.
I grew up on Atari, C64 and NES, then SNES. I'd play constantly. Then I hit "the age of chicks and parties".
I completely skipped the N64 and PSX years. Never got either system until a couple years ago, when I picked them up used for like 15 bucks.
After I finished university and settled down in a job, wife, etc, I'm back to playing games again. Dreamcast came out the year after I graduated, and I bought one.
I don't know if I'd use the word "hardcore", but I have time for games again.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Aren't the truly hard-core gamers the one's who get doped up and play for 160 hours straight until they drop dead from systems failure?
1 voice in a sea of voices
My clan just started playing Cars in league play. It's pretty intense.
hardcore gamers don't reproduce.
I feel as though this article is being used to say, "In ten years, hardcore gamers will be a thing of the past." That's quite absurd. Certainly they may no longer have the majority on purchasing power, but games will most certainly still be made for them.
Hardcore gamers bring something to the table casuals will likely never be able to, dedication. So long as they are playing game X, they will tell everyone they know all about game X, how game X is the bee's knees and they're so 1337. This may annoy a fair number of casual gamers, but it spreads the name of the game by word of mouth rather well.
Talk to a casual gamer, and the most you'll get is, "Yeah, I play games" unless you really press them to go into further details.
That's not to say that all hardcore gamers are utterly loyal to their games, or that casuals don't ever talk about games. Rather, it is saying that of the two groups, hardcore gamers are far more likely to spread the word.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
I'm over 30, and I can definitely feel the decline... eyes going, body getting heavier, reflexes not what they used to be ;)
Help test the
Raise your hand if your aim is better with a controller than a mouse? Not me.
I paid more for my SLI Nvidia's than anyone paid for their damn X-Box, so where did all the killer games go?
If we can get a Starcraft III, it will out-sell any damn Halo interation.
Bring it, bitches!
I've heard the difference between hardcore gamer and softcore gamer described thusly, "Hardcore gamers buy a lot of video games during the life of a console, whereas non-hardcore gamers buy only a few popular titles."
I've also heard this, "Hardcore gamers are the ones who line up for consoles and pre-order games, wheras non-hardcore will wait until they are cheap and readily available."
But wait, I've also heard, "Hardcore gamers like traditional games (RTS, RPG, FPS, etc.) while non-hardcore like non-traditional (Brain Training, Nintendogs, Wii Sports)."
Well, which one is it? Is it all three? How does this impact Cars versus Gears?
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
Lost Garden: Nintendo's Genre Innovation Strategy
Tycho of Penny Arcade called it the "probably the most interesting article I've ever read.". That article is longer than TFA, but definitely worth reading and digesting.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
All the hardcore gamers are just occupied right now playing WoW. They'll be back in force in the near future.
... things like Raptor or FlatOut, I'm all for it.
First of all, Gears sold THREE million by Jan. 19th. Second, Gears was an early, exclusive game on a new system with a user install base between 7-10 million, whereas Cars came out on every platform under the sun, probably including cell phones. Third, an increase in 'softcore' gamers does not mean a decline in 'hardcore' gamers. Considering the 360's install base, Gears is a phenomenal success.
Has anyone plotted the number of hardcore gamers against the unemployment rate? It seems to me that I would expect to see a decrease in the number of hardcore gamers as a society moves towards full employment rates.
Yea, I would say there is a generation gap between those of us who nearly crapped their pants when seeing Wolfenstein 3D at the state fair for the first time in 92, and those who saw Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RtCW) and merely yawned a decade later. There are different driving forces for kids growing up with computer games as a given, like television.
I haven't found a game since RtCW that I've truly went bonkers over, and most of RtCW was reliving my childhood. And speaking of reliving my childhood, can we get another Wing Commander?
> I don't know if I'd use the word "hardcore", but I have time for games again.
Yeah, but don't expect to go back to 4 hours of gaming a day.
There are those who play casual games in a "hardcore" manner. Surely they count as hardcore players?
When I was a "hardcore gamer" putting in probably 20 or more hours a week into gaming, I only played a handful of games. This was even before extensive multiplayer features. Now I imagine people just play 1 or 2 games for months or years. Does anyone really need the next multi million dollar game when they're still playing World of Warcraft or Counterstrike?
Kids, on the other hand, are fickle. They'll play Cars for a couple of days/weeks, and then when the next CG movie comes out, they're gonna hound their parents to get the game for it. Of course you're gonna have bigger sales to that market with crappier games.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
This "decline in PC game quality" is nothing but a selection bias. There have been crappy games throughout gaming's short history, we have just forgotten about them. Therefore we only remember the Nethacks, Zoids, Wolfensteins and Starcrafts. And there are plenty of innovative games coming - such as Spore - or derivative games which look much more promising than the current fare - Huxley and Warhammer Online.
"We have an A-Bomb...what more do you want, mermaids?" --I.I. Rabi, speaking in defense of Robert Oppenheimer
Comparing Gears of War to Cars isn't really fair since Cars is not your typical softcore game. Instead, it's a product tie-in game. It didn't sell because it's a softcore game, it sold because it had a built-in fanbase from a very popular (especially with kids) movie with a lot of marketing muscle behind it. The casual or softcore nature had little to do with its sales; if it were more of a hardcore game with a billion options to customize McQueen or tons of optional/unlockable content it still would have sold well since the quality of the movie and Disney's ties with companies like Walmart guarenteed a certain number of copies would fly off the shelves. Sadly, game quality had little to do with the sales.
As people who could be identified as true "hard-core" gamers (the real ones, not the ones Microsoft tries to claim play Xbox all day) grow older, they eventually find they don't have as much time to play games. So they naturally play less, become less skilled, and lose interest. To really play at a hard-core level, you have to put in alot of time and practice into the games/genres you like. Without time/practice, it's really impossible to keep up that level of skill. I've went back and played games I used to rock at, and of course they kicked my ass, because I had not kept up practice and lost my edge.
Of course, new gamers may come forward to take their place. They are unfortunately not an easy market to target, and in addition, more and more casuals are entering the market. They are where the money is, so it's likely truly hard-core games will become a thing of the past, or only be made by fans who want to challenge themselves and eachother.
Look at the top 10 sales charts. Things haven't changed, casual games make up most of the list. Typically you'll have a hot casual game/genre like Deer Hunter (*sigh*), pokemon (on the console side) or the Sims dominate, while a few great hardcore games round out the list.
1998 Top 10 PC Games
(6 "casual", 3 "Hardcore", 1 not sure (I'm thinking Titanic was supposed to be a Myst clone but never tried it)
1. Starcraft (Blizzard)
2. Deer Hunter (WizardWorks)
3. Deer Hunter 2 (WizardWorks)
4. Myst (Broderbund)
5. Cabela's Big Game Hunter (Head Games)
6. Titanic: Adventure Out of Time (Knowledge Adventure)
7. Lego Island (Mindscape)
8. Frogger (Hasbro)
9. Riven (Red Orb)
10. Unreal (GT Interactive)
Top 10 Games 2002
(7 "casual", 3 "hardcore")
1 / The Sims: Unleashed / Electronic Arts / $26
2 / Age of Mythology / Microsoft / $40
3 / Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets / Electronic Arts / $28
4 / The Sims Deluxe / Electronic Arts / $42
5 / RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 / Infogrames / $29
6 / Backyard Hockey / Infogrames / $19
7 / Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania / Microsoft / $31
8 / Zoo Tycoon / Microsoft / $28
9 / The Sims: Vacation / Electronic Arts / $29
10 / EverQuest: The Planes of Power / Sony Online / $29
Top 10 PC 2007
(5 "Casual", 4 "hardcore", 1 both (WoW has both kinds of players)
1. World of Warcraft--Vivendi Games
2. The Sims 2--Electronic Arts
3. The Sims 2: Open For Business Expansion Pack--Electronic Arts
4. Star Wars: Empire At War--LucasArts
5. The Sims 2: Pets Expansion Pack--Electronic Arts
6. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion--Take-Two Interactive
7. Age of Empires III--Microsoft
8. The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff Expansion Pack--Electronic Arts
9. Civilization IV--Take-Two Interactive
10. The Sims 2: Nightlife Expansion Pack--Electronic Arts
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
In this article Mark Rein puts the development costs of Gears of War at less than 10M. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid= 20176
I doubt whether Cars has been made for that amount of money, especially since they could possibly reuse animations & models from the movie. I guess you should include those costs too right?
...what matters is what you like, not what you are like...
Yes, same here. I used to play games a lot, but then back then I didn't have lots of studying, working, etc. These days, I barely have time even on weekends (1-2 hours if I do have time). :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
By definition 'hardcore gamers' are not the 'main-stream', they can't and wont ever 'dominate the industry'.
Just because the pc-game era has been dominated by 'hardcore' games (well at least among the 'hardcore gamers'), doesn't mean the industry has. It is just full of buzzwords, that don't really mean anything. Good games have always sold and there's always been a diverse range of games on a fairly wide number of platforms.
Maybe people are just sick of 'yet another kill everyone army trainer' - I know I could never really get into fps games although I tried.
Not that any data from the story really supports that notion anyway - xbox owners traditionally fit into the juveline blood thirsty teenage boy category who wear 'hardcore' as a badge of honour, so GOW was always going to sell on such a relatively small platform, and Cars had MUCH wider brand recognition, appeal and installed base to target.
_
\\/ are accustomed' - First Lensman
This is like saying that the future of the cocaine industry is in baking soda.
I reverted to a Casual Gamer once I went from being self-employed (read: unemployed) to getting a real job. It's amazing how much time a real job take away from gaming time.
7 million Wow accounts and rising. Add the growth in the console markets, etc. Eventually it will be just like watching a TV channel. Totally mundane and ubiquitous.
Hardcore players are not declining. There are more hardcore gamers now than any time in history. There is just a large market for casual games and that market may be (is) larger than the market for hardcore gamers. This is kind of a "duh" moment. Hardcore, by definition, is represented by those people who take things to an extreme. If everyone was hardcore, then that would be "normal" and wouldn't be called hardcore. So they are saying games that appeal to "normal" people (i.e. the majority) sell better than games that sell to a niche. Brilliant! Sometimes I seriously wonder how people get paid to figure out the obvious.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
There will be more, not fewer, hardcore gamers in the future, but only in absolute terms because the population is rising. As a percentage of the overall number of gamers, they are already a dwindling minority and increasingly irrelevant. In five years' time, fifty zillion Indian and Chinese gamers will be playing games on their mobile phones. They are the market of the future. Hardcore gamers will become a niche just as audiophiles are a niche, or people who own full-bore home theater systems are a niche. Individually, they spend a lot, but there aren't enough of them to justify making a large number of products for them.
I piss off bigots.
4 hours a day is not hardcore at all, i'd call that casual gaming
now 12 or more hours a day that's hardcore
There used to be great titles like Zork and X-Com. Then all the sudden everything had to be lobotomized so that people without imagination could play them. ;)
Welcome to getting older (and at 20 no less), where the past is always better than the present. If you don't watch yourself, you'll be telling kids "Get off my lawn" before you turn 30. ;)
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
I used to play MMORPGs as what I would classify as "obsessive", but then you start to realize that there's more to life and farming for plat.
okinawa japan
>You Cannot Get Ye Flask
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
No, what matters is that the company doesn't dilute its brand if it hopes to continue milking it. Enter the Matrix sold a shitload of games and The Matrix Reloaded brought in truckloads of box office sales but look what happened afterwards. The Matrix Online has less than 50,000 subscribers, The Matrix:Path of Neo was practically shunned by the mass market and The Matrix Revolutions brought in less than half the box office sales as The Matrix Reloaded.
Fast forward to today and The Matrix series is dead, buried and decomposed. The Animatrix only confused hardcore fans of the series, bullet time is a fad thats been associated with the best aged Max Payne series and other than the occasional The Matrix reference in pop culture, The Matrix is a dead franchise.
I don't want to get into a semantics argument, since I agree that the terms casual and hardcore can be bloody confusing, depending on who you're talking to. But I wanted to give everyone some context of what the industry usage of "casual" means.
-- jchenx
I propose a new category for these movie/franchised titles: mainstream games. They're not exactly your typical casual or hardcore titles, but one thing is for certain
-- jchenx
Well I'm ready with my "back in my day" and "when I was your age" speeches to deliver to young gamers, how about you guys?
& I wish I knew the password to your heart . . . &
If every entertainment title was licensed DRECK, we wouldn't have anything great and innovative.
Vote with your dollars. Okami, Gears, (Harmonix versions of) Guitar Hero, Final Fantasy (any/all).
But don't let BUSINESS get in the way of CREATIVITY. That's why we have 200 channels of TV and maybe enough brilliant stuff to fill a single one!
Well it's capitalism: If hardcore game titles dwindle, a very well run publisher and and developer will come along and see a market that isn't being served and create some titles that will be a big hit. These guys sell a ton of games, as that market segment is in need of it, and other devs will create similar games to cash in on that vibe. If the market gets stagnant or the user base shifts, they'll sell less games and release less titles aimed at serious gamers. At this point the serious gamers aren't getting enough new games and the cycle begins again.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. The gaming industry isn't going to die off, but I do agree that the hardcore market is a little soft right now. As a tactical FPS and PC RTS fan, I don't think there were more then 5 titles I really like in 2006. Only two or three do I play nightly: GRAW (PC) and Company of Heroes. However, this year looks different with shiny new consoles and titles on the way.
they do all the development and then somebody else releases a dust buster.
If by peak you mean oldest, you are dreadfully wrong. Infact, you're probably the bottom of the age demographic games are marketed to (18-34ish).
If be peak you mean best, you're still probably wrong because you'll probably be equally swamped by school as by work, but atleast the older ones have more disposable income.
I feel the same way. I used to play all of the popular games with my friends at LAN parties every other weekend or so, we got really into it. Now that I'm out of high school, real life has caught up to me and I'm busy with work, school, and my girlfriend that I just don't have the time. When I do sit down to play games now, it's never any of the newest, most popular stuff. It just doesn't interest me anymore, I think they kind of suck. Instead, I spend a lot of time playing old ROMs like F-Zero X, Pokemon (yeah red version's the best game ever), old Dragon Warrior games, and open source stuff like Crack Attack, Frozen Bubble, and BZFlag (actually that one's cool on a LAN). Basically, I don't play games nearly as much, and when I do, it's not something I spend much money on.
### This "decline in PC game quality" is nothing but a selection bias.
I don't think so. A few years ago PC games got ported to consoles, these days console games get ported to PC. Which often means crappy controls, bad menus and other issues, since what was designed for a 640x480 TV simply doesn't look very good at 1280x1024 and controls that work well with a gamepad, just don't match nicely with keyboard and mouse. The PC gaming market seems to be left with a few FPS, MMORPG and RTS games, while those games might be good, there has been quite a lack of good games of other genres, the flightsims are dead, adventure games are dead, turn-based strategy is mostly dead, space-games mostly dead and there simply are *far* to much WWII based games out there, what happened to the cool sci-fi or fantasy settings?
Now I haven't really played much at all on the PC in the last years, so maybe I just miss something, but on the other side I have yet to see a new game on the PC that would be interesting enough for me to actually upgrade my system and bring it back into a game-ready state.
Has anybody else feel their killer instinct slip away?
;)
Well, maybe if Rare would make a sequel to KI2 we wouldn't have that problem.
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor."
Well first off I'm 36 (see sig) and I game for around 10-15 hours a week (no I don't really play MMOG - well BF2 is prob the only one) and probably have averaged that for the last 20 years or so. Now that's out of the way: hmmm, very interesting perspectives in this article's feedback. One thing I might mention is - looking as a nightmare scenario of a world dominated by movie or other popular items licensed into games, casual cutesy games marketed towards girls (no offense) and those looking for 5-10 minutes of simulation, and the vast majority of games designed with less interest in content and design over sales and ease - retro gaming will be our savior. We'll all be firing up our emulators and reliving those glory days of great game design and classic goodness from days long gone when games were developed for gamers with original gameplay and memorable accents and content - all of which are no farther away than the right emulator, roms (or isos), a gamepad, and a 300 dollar pc. But I don't think it will come to that. It will probably balance more, but the pendulum will swing both ways
Gaming for over 25 years
Granted, I can understand why the term came into existence. In the past, it was thought that anyone who played hardcore games generally put a lot of time into it. Those who played casual games, generally didn't spend too much time with them. Either that isn't the case anymore, or it's always been mixed up and we're just noticing it more now.I definitely agree here. However, I think what the original story is implying is that the percentage of hardcore gamers (distinguished either by the types of games they play, or the frequency at which they play them) among all gamers is decreasing. That I can agree with, as the whole games industry is definitely becoming more and more mainstream and accepted (gamers getting older, having families, raising kids who are gamers as well, etc.). There are just so many more gaming options as well, besides the typical hardcore games
-- jchenx
I call it "Mario Kart's Law", which reads as:
Every gamer likes best the Mario Kart version he played first with.
Shockingly, I actually played the original SNES Mario Kart first, but I prefer the N64 sequel. The graphics are horribly dated these days, but the gameplay was (and remains) superb.
Range Voting: preference intensity matters
I get that, but I think there is more going on.
Over the last several years I have played quite a few good games. PC examples include the Doom & Quake series, Everquest I (& expansions), Civ I & II, Master of Orion, some of the Wing Commander RPGs (original Privateer in particular), the Warcraft series (inluding WoW), Starcraft, Total Annihilation, EVE Online, and a bunch of others I'm forgetting to mention. And I've played some really bad games as well.
In addition, I've also been playing a number of console titles. Those titles include the Grand Tourismo series, Need for Speed (although not the last couple - I tried them but didn't like them - not enough "sim"), Knights of the Old Republic (but KotR II sucked bad), and Test Drive Unlimited.
Upcoming titles that have my attention on the PC? None - sad, huh? Looks like more WoW on the big box. On the Console side I'm really looking forward to Mass Effect and Toda's Pro Race Driver on the 360. If Grand Tourismo 5 represents the same level of technological advance that happens with most GT titles I will probably also break down and buy a PS3 when that game is released (mid 08?).
The summary is that I could only play so many hours of FPS (even with deathmatch) and RTS before looking for something that required deeper game play. I still drift in an occasional FPS or RTS mood, but it never lasts long. Another big problem with these games is ultimately the huge amount of repetitive gameplay. I think the reason repetition in RPGs doesn't bother me (as much) is that (in general) RPGs seem to hold a deeper level of immersion.
For me on the PC that mostly means WoW, EVE or replaying old turn based empire building games. Or the GT4 on the PS2; TDU on the 360 is pretty and has alot of cars, but doesn't offer the challenge & customization that GT4 does. I drive real race cars as a hobby - GT4 gets it right.
What I would really like to see is a deep, rich, complex strategy game. Something that would take months to finish - big ponderous and slow with alot of detail. But give me excellent tools to automate all the micro-management; I want to conquer the universe, not audit every detail of it (bad MOO2). As a budding Imperial Overlord I want the ability to tweak anything that catches my fancy, and also to delegate everything with as much or as little detail as I chose. Also a plot & conflict that would really make me think hard and challenge me.
Anyway - my original point is that I and other hard-core gamers are still out here - we just have been spreading out where we spend our money. And to get more of my money you need to offer me something that I don't already have collecting dust on a shelf.
How many people bought Duck Tales for NES? TMNT? Batman?
I rest my case.