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noname2200 on 17 June 2009
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The Ghost of RubangB said:
Pineapple said:
The Ghost of RubangB said:
@noname, what you're describing is called a microwave, and it did not kill hardcore cooking.

But that's not at all what he's saying! Or well, what I think he's saying that is.

There are people who only eat microwave food, aren't there? I've seen a fair bit of programs/read a few articles that have this as a major problem. The majority of these people should know that eating microwave food isn't as good for you, but they simply don't know how to make anything else. At an earlier point, they had the choice between cooking "real" food and microwave food. They chose microwave food.

I'd say this fits right in with his analogy.

Edit:

Another thing, Noname never (at least as far as I know) said anything about killing the hardcore market. He said this would stop "casual" gamers from becomming "bridge" gamers. What this does is, rather than expand the market, actually preventing people from becomming more serious gamers.

I started out as a microwave only chef.  Then some bridge meals moved me over to hardcore cooking.

If somebody doesn't want to make the jump from casual cooking/gaming to hardcore cooking/gaming, who cares?  Honestly, who cares about a single casual not making the jump that some internet jerks expect them to make?  More gamers means more games.  It's good for everybody.

Pineapple's done a great job of summarizing my viewpoint, but I'll add a few more details to flesh it out. I don't much care about people becoming "hardcore" or staying "casual" gamers (honestly, I don't believe such a divide even exists, but that's a whole 'nother issue); all I want is for more people to become gamers, period. As I wrote in this post, I fear that this new feature will have a retarding effect on that transformation.

I actually really like this feature for most people who are already into gaming, but I fear that newcomers who are only considering becoming gamers will use this feature to skip more and more "hard parts." To an extent that's fine too (I'm not the type who's insisting that "I suffered through Battletoads, and ur not l33t until you do t00!" or anything), but by skipping challenges newcomers won't be able to build up the skills necessary to progress later in the game, so they'll end up using the feature more and more as the game wears on, until eventually they're watching the computer play more than they're actually playing themselves. And I'm highly skeptical that anyone will think of that as fun: some folks like to watch friends play games, but that's a far cry from watching a game play itself. So if you're a new gamer, and the games you're playing aren't fun...why would you keep playing?

You're microwave food analogy is imperfect, but I'm willing to go with it for a bit to illustrate what I'm getting at. Imagine you have a friend who's never eaten Mexican food. Ultimately, you'd like for that person to start eating all the goodies like chile rellenos and enchiladas, but instead of starting with an intro dish like a taco or empanada, you start them off with one of those microwave chimichangas that you get for 99 cents at 7-11 (in the unlikely event that you like those things, pick a nasty microwave dish instead). Not surprisingly, that person doesn't like the chimichanga, and is now soured on "Mexican food." Because you started off with the wrong approach, you've seriously damaged your long-term goal.

I know it's not a perfect analogy by any stretch, but I do fear that in the long term this feature will have a detrimental impact on new gamers. To summarize: it's great for people already into gaming like ourselves, but because it presents a very tempting way to not learn the rules and skills of a game, this feature will lead to newcomers watching more than playing the game, which is why I feel it's not a good thing. What alarms me is that no one's yet done anything to persuade me that my fears are full of it.