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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.
I'd said he's being a little more obtuse than that!
try { Signature mysig = new CleverAttempt(); } catch(NonCleverSignatureException e) { postanyway(); }
While I would say the exact opposite with respect to raids: the reason they're such a chore, and feel like work, is because the drops aren't completely randomized. Each boss has its set number of predetermined items with well-known drop percentages, and the players all need certain sets to be considered ready for higher level content. So you go in, slog your way through boring bosses you don't need, then get your one chance at getting anything out of the evening from your one or two targets. And often, of course, you fail, because to maintain their virtual value, they have to be rare.
See, the definition between "work" and "play" for animals is much simpler than we think: if the rewards are set and universal, it's work, and boring. If the rewards are completely random, it's play, and fun. That's it. That's the fundamental psychological difference between the two, and it's the first thing every game designer needs to understand. It's so basic, it's how we train animals: the first thing you learn is that if you give a treat every single time the trick is completed, the animal grows weary and will stop performing the instant it stops receiving treats. Give the treats on a random basis, and your dog will roll over every single time you ask him to - and seem to enjoy doing it - in perpetuity.
In humans, slot machines are perhaps the most flagrantly obvious real-world example of the principal of random rewards in action. Imagine a job where you pull a lever, some lights flash, and ten seconds later you get a dollar. That's your job, all day, every day. That's going to be a damn good salary; I think many of us would like to be making that much. But can you imagine yourself, day in and day out, enjoying the job itself?
Now replace that lever with a slot machine: a machine you know full well will cheat you over time, as the house always wins. And then go to Vegas and look around: people are sitting in chairs pulling levers and making lights flash and losing money hand over fist. It's a cruelly intelligent gambit, preying on this very facet of the human - nay, animal - brain. A certainty of making a lot of money is far less interesting than a slight chance of making a mediocre amount. Even if we logically force ourselves to take the safe, better bet, it would still fall squarely in the realm of what we call "work."
Blizzard would do well to remove boss-specific drops altogether. Give the entire dungeon a large but universal drop table, with higher level bosses having better chances to drop the better loot (but nothing exclusive, ever, trash pulls included). I know the die-hard player will balk at this, but think about the reasons you're balking: is it because it sounds less fun, or because it sounds like someone else might get something without "working hard enough?" Imagine how much less complaining you'd have about trash if the very first pull of a dungeon had a tiny, tiny chance to drop the best item in the place. Imagine arguments about which boss you'd fight next determined entirely by which one people thought was the most fun!
What's most sad about WoW's failure to accept the fundamental principles of random rewards as it relates to loot is that they themselves are responsible for one of the most successful examples of it done well: Diablo 2. Do you think it's a coincidence that players keep coming back to such a relatively simple (albeit well executed) game? That people will run much simpler boss fights than WoW's over and over and over again, and often enjoy doing it (so long as they're not trying for a specific item)?
There were a lot of complaints about Naxx being too easy. Blizzard's intention was to make it an entry level raid probably to allow more people to get exposed to raiding content. Aside from the from the first boss, Ulduar is definitely a notch up in difficulty.
Sometimes my arms bend back.