Daily Ramblings: The Videogame Delusion

Here’s something someone sent me:

“Casual. Hardcore. Two terms often heard since the start of the seventh generation of consoles. Many videogamers claim that Nintendo is the pioneer of “casuals” and the new face of the non-gamers. They claim that Nintendo forgot the people that originally made it successful. Back in 2004, the DS was the big handheld that could. For a while its lineup of games was atrocious, and pretty much everyone agreed that the PSP would obliterate the DS. Nintendo would be over. Anyone who would disagree was labeled with the fanboy stigma.

But that never happened and the DS took control. The PSP was a nice effort by Sony, but it wasn’t even close to usurping Nintendo’s unstoppable reign over the handheld market. Even nonbelievers started to believe when the DS Lite came out. Sexy, fun, great library of games, cheap… there were few reasons to own a PSP as a games console. The PSP Slim & Lite only sparked some interest, but that spark withered away. The DS did what the Gamecube failed to do: sell tons and tons of units. Both still made Nintendo money, but the DS did that better, too.

Back to the seventh generation. The Xbox360 was out for a year. The Gamecube sold less than expected. Nintendo knew that making a powerhouse would spell d-double o-m. They expected that their next console would sell worse than the Gamecube, so they couldn’t have made it expensive. Nintendo went minimalist with the Revolution, now known as the Wii. But something happened that no one predicted: the Wii was a huge hit. But with the Wii and DS came a change in the market. No longer were just gamers interested. Non-gamers were, too. The terms hardcore and casual were coined. Hardcore games referred to games like Mario, Zelda, Halo, Bioshock, Resistance, etc. Casual games were Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Play, etc. The “hardcore” are annoyed at the Wii for offering too much casual and not enough hardcore. This is where the gamers fail.
What is a hardcore game, really? It’s a game that the heavy gamers enjoy. It’s a game that would scare off a sporadic gamer. Wii Fit sold incredibly well, but it’s a casual game and hardcore gamers hated it. Guitar Hero and Rock Band, two series that also sold well, are casual by definition but hardcore because the main gamers enjoy it. Likewise, the Brian Age series are fun, but casual. Gamers are terrible. They think the market must focus on them, even though the money is where the “casuals” are. Gamers don’t want newcomers to play games, even going so far to call casuals moronic and stupid. Well, gamers, remember that first time you played Super Mario Bros.? You died at the first Goomba in 1-1. Is that not a stupid mistake? Yet here you are, bashing newcomers for not possessing the skills to beat a lot of games.

The gaming market is changing and expanding; you either have a choice to stay behind or adjust with it. I would very much prefer games like Mario, Zelda, and whatnot over games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit. I played games since I was young, my first game being Super Mario World (best game ever.). I beat it over three thousand times, and I am the delusional definition of the “hardcore” gamer. But I am the true hardcore gamer: I enjoy games. I can enjoy a game like Wii Sports and Wii Fit. I don’t judge games by their graphics, sound, or difficulty: I judge them by their fun. Wii Sports is fun, but it’s a different kind of fun that many gamers are accustomed to. This is where the real test to differentiate the hardcore gamer from the whiner: the ability to adapt and change to gaming market trends. Nintendo realized it first, and even Microsoft wants to follow Nintendo’s footsteps. Sony is a little behind, however. It took them a while to realize that the gamers want games, not multimedia. The PS3 was marketed as a multimedia machine before a gaming console, and Kaz Hirai even admitted it was the wrong thing to do: “We focused too much on other aspects of the PS3 and there was confusion over what the machine was.” People even bought the PS3 as the cheapest Blu-Ray player, without intending to glance at its games. Even the PS2 in a way helped taint the gaming market, as many people bought it as a cheap DVD player as opposed to a videogames console. Sony, gamers don’t want Blu-Ray which has yet to prove its worth, we want games. We want function, not fashion. (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy VII suck)”

-EnnEnn

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