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Nintendo and the Decline of Hardcore Gaming
angry tapir writes "Chris Jager from GoodGearGuide argues that the rise of casual gaming means near-certain death for hardcore gaming. The sales of casual 'party-friendly' games are massively outstripping the sales of classic hardcore games, and the makers of other consoles are taking note of Nintendo's success in attracting non-traditional gamers to the Wii and DS. There is evidence that Sony and Microsoft are both trying to tap into the casual market, and it's only a matter of time before hardcore gaming goes the way of the Nintendo PowerGlove."
Of course, the trend toward casual doesn't just involve Nintendo — World of Warcraft's success (and the huge effect it's had on the MMO genre) is often credited to its focus on casual gamers. While it's not unreasonable for game studios to want all players to see all of the game's content, perhaps there's a better way of catering to the more hardcore players than tacking on difficulty modes and "do it the hard way" achievements.
"World of Warcraft's success (and the huge effect it's had on the MMO genre) is often credited to its focus on casual gamers"
Sorry, but if you're writing an article claiming that casual gaming is ousting hardcore titles, you don't pick the world's most notorious timesink as supporting evidence. People who lose their jobs, homes, families and even lives, playing 20 hours a day, 7 days a week are not what I'd consider "casual" players...
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
The sales of casual 'party-friendly' games are massively outstripping the sales of classic hardcore games
Don't forget that some 'hardcore gamers' also own Wiis. The end is not as nigh as you think it is; people like a change in pace every once and a while.
Besides, what do you think is happening to all the current hardcore gamers? They don't just disappear, you know.
How many times does it need to be said?
Show me that stats that say their main player base comes and goes on a monthly basis.
Show me a casual gamer who DOESN'T buy gold.
World of Warcrack IS a great game, I have spent more than the usual $100 for the game itself. Perhaps that is what the article means? It is likely to bring back people who have not played for a while? Suck them in for a few months, then spit them back out into their normal lives, free from addiction?
Repeat after me : WoW is NOT casual gamer friendly!
There are literally millions of hardcore gamers! Even if we have a billion casual gamers, there will still be those millions of hardcore gamers.
There will always be a market. If most of the developers are developing casual titles, then there's a decent niche for any medium sized developer to aim for the hardcore market segment.
In fact it's analagous to calling heroin a casual drug because the dealer gives you the first hit for free
Or perhaps the Japanese market isn't particularly similar to the (much larger) American and European markets, where the Wii still tops sales by a wide margin and the PS3 is in last by a mile (probably because it costs a ton and has no games worth playing).
Semper Games
As has been said before, Correlation does not equate to Causation! For at least a decade now, the games industry has shown an incredible growth. Its bigger than motion pictures! We can safely say that more people have been gaming, its become less of a social taboo (or sign of nerdiness) and more mainstream. I think it would be safe to assume that with more people gaming, there are also more people going hardcore. Its better to say there are "more gamers" than to say there are "more casual gamers".
"Sarcasm is for *winners*, Alan." - Charlie Harper (Two and a Half Men)
Look what happened to music when it was popularised. Or movies. Or television, newspapers, radio... When the general population gains interest in something, the market has a tendency to pander to the lowest common denominator. That hasn't meant no more "hardcore" movies or tunes are being made. In the games industry, we get casual gaming instead of Britney or your feel-good rom-com. There will always be fewer people willing to put in time, effort and thought into their entertainment (note that this is not the same as being "addicted"). These few will always be on the fringe of the market. Further, "hardcore" artists, regardless of their chosen media, will always seek to create with integrity, without compromising their vision for the sake of the mass market.
Question everything?
I'm sick of what seems to be the sudden belief that, unless a game has the most up-to-date graphics and is filled with so-called 'mature' content (which seems to be a euphemism for gallons of blood and swearwords), it's not 'hardcore', and anyone who doesn't play it is a casual gamer by default. Gaming is my main hobby, and I spent the majority of my free time and money on either playing games or other related activities; and yet apparently because I don't own an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or a gaming-calibre PC, I'm not one of this self-professed hardcore.
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
Just because the PS3 outsold the Wii for 1 out of 16 months (in one country), doesn't mean that only the hardcore players are left to buy peripherals and software. There are still substantially more Wii owners out there than any of the other consoles, and some of those people are still buying new accessories.
And given that you are obviously a hardcore player (who are apparently now in the minority), your personal preference of which console you use cannot have any bearing on this discussion because you cannot extrapolate it to all other gamers.
When game designers finally realise that the 'hardcore' gaming community doesnt need yet another console FPS with the words army, tactical, squad-based or post-apocalyptic written all over it, maybe they'll tap into the millions and millions of other game genres/scenarios/storylines which would actually be interesting to play.
That's funny, but it's also true. Not too many years ago, there could just as easily been an article about how the rise of computer games would lead to the decline and eventual, near-certain death of tabletop or pen and paper gaming. While it's true that electronic gaming has absolutely eclipsed more traditional methods of hard-core gaming, they haven't been killed entirely. In fact, I would wager that they're nearly as popular as they've ever been, they just don't dominate the space anymore. As long as there are people who are willing to do hardcore gaming, there will be people willing to take their money to feed the habit.
(Ill get modded down, but it needs to be said...) Just because Nintendo et al are catering to a previously neglected market for games, thus making more of their revenue form people who aren't traditionally the customer base of the games industry, it *does not* follow that hardcore gaming is being dumped, dying or abandoned in any fashion.
Exploiting a previously unfilled niche, for overall growth does not require that some other aspect of the system loses out. Aside from obvious logical flaws in TFA's rant, observations above don't stack up: since when are World of Warcraft players considered 'casual'? You could be forgiven for making that assumption of course, until you actually meet a few or play yourself.
Hardcore gamers are not going anywhere, even if they aren't going to be the biggest percentage of revenue in the future.
So unless the current mainstream s selling their PS3s in order to buy a Wii - making a change in habits - the overall games market is growing because of the addition of new consumers.
I would have found it a more plausible read if TFA was talking about how casual gaming is a *gateway drug*, and how it is a very clever marketing move.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
You're missing my point: it's not a dichotomy of "if you play games then either you're a casual gamer or an addict". There's a spectrum, and you fall in the middle. At the very least you want three pigeonholes: casual, committed, and hard-core.
Someone who plays Minesweeper or Bejeweled for half an hour in their lunch break some days and occasionally has an evening playing Wii Tennis with friends is a casual player. Someone who intentionally invests time in a game to improve their ability is no longer playing casually but showing a level of commitment. Someone who self-identifies as a gamer, spends hours every day playing games, or aims to be recognised as an elite player of one game is hard-core, but not necessarily addicted.
There will always be RTS, where the people who suck at playing the game still will keep on sucking and the good players will play other good players.
Only bad thing is "random team" where you have to if you want to team kill the retard you are playing with or keep him ;)
..even for an outsider like me, putting "World of Warcraft" and "casual gamers" in the same sentence, seems odd to say the least. I associate WoW with people spending several hours per week, even per day, playing online.
But, if I've been wrong, I am glad: there's this beautiful real world that awaits to be discovered - it would be a pity not to do that, and waste your time playing WoW instead.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Or maybe it has to do with there being no major Wii game releases in several months? Yes, there was Wii Music but that fell pretty flat (can't have a smash hit every single time) and didn't really sell systems. The release drought on the Wii simply prevented the Wii from increasing in appeal in that period of time and thus sales slowed down as the number of appealed-to-but-not-sold-to people ran low. This has nothing to do with "casual" gamers losing interest and everything to do with there simply being no games for them to be interested in.
If you want anecdotes here's mine: When the Wii drought kept going for too long I bought a 360 (it was fairly cheap, 200€ for the 60GB Pro, down from 240€) to expand the library I can buy titles from. Because I couldn't find anything interesting on the shelves I got some points for XBLA and my first game on this brand new HD gaming system was a port of a Playstation 1 game that I bought because I liked the sequels on the handhelds (CvSotN), now capable of displaying its 320x240 graphics in glorious HD. Maybe it's the way demos are set up on the system but only one of the six retail games I bought had a demo, most of the demos I played ended up repelling me from the game. By now I've really enjoyed two retail games on the system and liked three downloadable games quite a bit, I've still spent 30€ less on games than the console itself. Played the games I liked to the exhaustion point (either the ending or where they got boring) and now the thing's collecting metaphorical dust. It simply has a total lack of games, anything good is available on the PC as well and costs 20€ less there (with much faster pricedrops so even bigger savings if you wait for the bargain bin). I'm sure someone would be inclined to point at Gears of War now but guess what, they didn't even release that in this country (because reducing the violence would mean "compromising their artistic vision", whatever the vision behind a game about space marines chainsawing alien dinosaurs is*...). Meanwhile my Wii kept accumulating games, both retail and downloadable despite being in a release drought (WiiWare wasn't in a drought and many older retail games kept falling into the bargain bins).
*=Speaking of space marines chainsawing alien dinosaurs, Dawn of War 2 got a 16 rating, Gears of War was apparetly too violent even for an 18 rating. Seriously, a freaking Warhammer 40k game passed as 16 without any censoring and they can't get Gears of War into a sane range?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
That's the mistake of equating a market segment and a playstyle. The "casual gamers" people talk about when they talk about markets are simply people who prefer games considered crap by the older gamers
When I've seen the term "casual gamers" used, it has nothing to do with what "hardcore gamers" consider crap, but rather about people who play games casually.
The "casual gamer" isn't necessarily casual,
How can the "casual gamer" not be casual? That would make the term meaningless.
that's just a stereotype built up by detractors who want to sweep this massive market under the rug
Say what? Almost every use of the term I've seen is to promote casual gaming, not to detract from itself. I haven't seen casual gamers being afraid of the term, they even use it to describe themselves.
Gaming "outgrew" the simple fun of the arcade
When did that happen?
and with that left a lot of the people behind who were just not interested in this whole "games are art" masturbation...
Whoa. I don't think "games as art" really has anything to do with the "hardcore gamer" - surely they would scoff at the notion? Although I have seen many casual games referred to as artistic and creative.
On the whole, I find your post to be oriented approximately 180 degrees from reality.
... and then they built the supercollider.
He doesn't get it. The hardcore gamers aren't gone, Nintendo has just tapped into a new market - parents, girlfriends, grandparents, young, old and everything in between.
From what I've seen about my friends and family that play wii (and have never played Playstation or XBOX), they get bored of wii sports/guitar hero/wii fit/etc. after 2 or 3 months and then never pick up their wii again. If anything, the hardcore gamers are the ones that are going to stick around and continue to buy new games
It seems there is a debate about what casual means:
- rare, short, light gaming sessions: the gaming pattern is what defines "casual"
or
- ages 7-77, easily accessible: the accessibility is what defines "casual"
Anyhooo, I guess casual gaming will kill hardcore gaming the same way family sedans killed sports cars. Slow news day ?
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I'd just like to point out that what is deemed "casual" in World of Warcraft is usually very different from what is deemed casual regarding the Wii.
Actually, in WoW, the term hardcore and casual are thrown around to mean so many different things, they are almost worthless. Before I got bored and quit recently, I was the raid leader and main tank of a medium sized guild. I raided typically 4 hours a day for 3-5 days a week, and spent a quite a bit of time in addition to that farming, PvPing, gearing up guildies in 5-mans, etc.
Your average person would probably call that hardcore, but in WoW, that would be considered casual by many people.
When I imagine a casual Wii player, OTOH, I imagine someone who doesn't spend much time or money playing games, has a Wii, maybe spends a few hours a week playing Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii, etc, and maybe busts it out for friends. Much different than a WoW casual.
Anyway, the idea that "hardcore" and "casual" gaming are in a zero-sum conflict is silly. Both can and will survive, and there is a huge amount of overlap between the two. "Hardcore" gamers frequently will play a game of Wii Sports now and again for a change of pace, and there's nothing stopping a Wii-loving casual soccer mom from playing Halo 3 on her kid's Xbox 360 once in a while.
Most "hardcore" gamers I know own either all 3 systems, or own a Wii and a 360 or PS3. (I have all 3.) They may grumble about the Wii and casual games from time to time, but most still enjoy a good game of Mario Kart now and then.
That's not a fair comparison. Think about the implied costs of pen and paper gaming. Now compare that to the cost of creating a game like COD5 of Street Fighter IV. Why would they waste their time and money on games such as the aforementioned if casual gaming is more profitable?
I consider my self a "hardcore gamer" in the sense that I prefer games where there's actually some progress to made. No matter whether it's a story that slowly unravels, a character that develops or just new levels which are a little different/more difficult than the previous one. I don't switch on my PS3 every day - not even every week - but still, virtual dart or bowling is not for me.
The reason why people like me have started to look into so called "casual" games is that it's actually these titles that add new gameplay and original ideas nowadays. Whatever game magazine you look at today, the headlines are always occupied by the next incarnation of yet-another-fps (now with even better graphics and more realistic blood, yadda yadda).
There used to be a time (remember the Amiga) where the most anticipated and big games were the ones that had some sort of original idea to them. But these days the game industry is taking the same path as hollywood or the music industry. No one is willing to invest money into something new because everyone's afraid that it might fail. As a consequence new ideas are only developed in the small game/"casual" marked where the financial risk is obviously limited.
Don't get me wrong, I do like great graphics etc. and I'd be willing to shell out 50 bucks for a game anytime. But now that I'm through with LBP I'm really having difficulties to find anything else that appeals to me. So if Sony and friends want to keep the hardcore game market alive, maybe it's time to start risking something again when it comes to investing in new ideas.
As Simon Cowell's found out, it's easier to shove out something half arsed that the public will quickly forget about (but not before ploughing millions into first) than to come up with anything original.
Yet, the most originality appears to be happening among the so-called "casual" games, while the "hardcore" are mostly endless re-iterations of the same thing.
... and then they built the supercollider.
I fail to see the correlation of a growing population of gamers and many of those being attracted by party games and the death of hardcore games. Maybe it is because you are ignorant enough to think it is the game that makes you hardcore. A new gamer who plays party games in all their spare time is just as hardcore as someone else playing "Ultimate Blood Explosion 3" for the same time.
I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
I don't think it is casual games that are taking control of the gaming scene. What is happening is a change of state in our global society. The people that grew up with the first pcs are now past they're 20s 30s and even 40s. Video games are part of the working force. Kids are now growing up not with an industry in its infancy, but with one that has strong multinational corporations behind them. The computer geek kid is now married and has shown his partener the fun behind gaming. Games are no longer tailored for the boys only. Now were at a point that even those that 10 years ago runned like hell from this type of technologies, are now willing to give it a try and see "what is all the fuzz anyway".
To tell you the truth I think hardcore gaming is only going to get stronger. Why? Simple. Everyone starts as a casual gamer, but as addiction takes hold he becomes a hardcore one. That is already happening. Look at MMOs where wifes, husbands kids instead of watching TV are playing all together online. Casual gaming? It is no longer casual when you pass more than 3 hours playing GTA with your husband.
In my day, I spent hundreds of hours playing Quake (and I don't think I've seen anything that matched it), but I no longer have the time, energy, patience, or remaining carpal tunnel capacity to put up with learning some game's 17 inverse lower Egyptian Ninja super power spin moves. Plus, I have little kids and a wife, so unfortunately the spurting gore- and slut-fests are out.
When I get home from a long day at work, I want to blow up easy-to-hit baddies for a while, or walk around in an interesting and well-written environment. I don't want to see "game over" or even be sent back to the "beginning of the level". Better yet, the game should come with a "god mode" accessible from the very beginning--I bought the damn thing, I'll decide how much I'd like to "cheat".
I'm having trouble finding good games like this, but I have plenty of money burning a hole in my pocket if someone can point them out to me. Zelda Wind Waker was not too bad, though really too difficult to be really entertaining. At this point, Lego Star Wars is about as good as I've found.
That's what "casual" is to me. I have a Wii. Game suggestions welcome.
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
Niches are more attractive than crowded mainstreams.
This is why there are magazines for speciality interests such as trout fishing, even though the circulation of celebrity gossip magazines is much much higher, and they're much easier to produce. The market segment is way too crowded.
Not really. Even during the early stages of TBC when things were "difficult" (in Wow terms...) your '99.9%' is a gross exaggeration. In fact, I daresay the majority of players who stuck with WoW for more than a month have done dungeons. But it's mostly irrelevant, because the game itself has always been somewhat casual, and now in WotLK it's so pathetically easy I'm not sure it's even hard enough to be considered "casual". I mean really, games like Warioland, Mario Party, and Solitaire are more difficult.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
Many players never hit 80. They log in a couple times a month, do a few quests, get into a couple of fights, maybe meet up with a friend or two, and log out.
And they each bring just as much revenue into Blizzard as the most obsessed raider, probably at a lower cost.
why are you making assumptions about the entire game just because of your own personal experience? just because you haven't seen the content, how can you say the game is not tailored for the people who have seen it?
from the sounds of it, you are oblivious to what's available in the game, which makes you a bad candidate to make comments about what it caters to.
Literal man is too literal.
The Wiis also top the resale charts on Craigslist, Kijiji, etc. once the novelty wears off and they discover there's very few games worth buying.
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