| dcIKeeL said: @ Kung gras Edit: The largest demographic of gamer is often overlooked and can best be described as "Mainstream" gamers ... These are the gamers who make games like Guitar Hero, Mario Kart and Halo so popular. The only thing they're worried about when it comes to games is if a game is fun enough for long enough to justify their purchase. ^^ That statement is ridiculous pure and simple. Exactly what is the reason for buying games??? Isn't fun the most important factor? This statement is so absurd, you just described every person that's ever purchased a game. Everybody buys games based on how fun they think it is and if it's worth your money. If someone purchased games with any other mindset how could they not buy every game released? The manner in which the person playing the game approaches gameplay is important but so is the intention of the developers who make the games. Developers that make games for traditional gamers make them so they require a certain level of involvement and devotion. The player has to immerse themselves enough to play the game. I'm pretty sure all the middle aged women and dudes who buy transformers the game because they think it's as good as the movie, don't want to bother with anything resembling an HUD or leveling up systems etc. It'll put those type of people off. Just why is halo a mainstream 'casual' game??? Because it sells extremely well? Halo requires the player to fully immerse themselves. The controls are complex for casuals like most of the wii gamers. The multiplayer is immersive and intuitive and requires heavy gameplay not to mention devotion for things like the forge maps. How could you even claim that halo is a game for mass consumption. There are simply just that many gamers nowadays that allow it to sell that way. If you claim something like Forge is something that would appeal to casual gamers you're view is either skewed or you refuse to see the truth. Nobody that plays one game for more than 5 hours at a time can be considered casual in my opinion anyway. |
Once again you are missing the point. If I wanted to devote myself to a game it would not be Halo, because it's not competitive enough. The most popular playlists online are the social playlists for a reason. If I wanted to devote myself to a game it would be a game that is made to be completely skill-based, like Starcraft or Diablo II.
The mainstream gamer statement is not ridiculous. It's actually quite spot-on. Mainstream gamers are the ones that buy the mainstream genres, like the big fighters, and the big FPS games. Not to devote themselves to them, but to play them in a non-hardcore fashion. As for console games, this would be a "casual" fashion mind you (Hardcore is defined as playing competitively or by any means trying to aquire extreme skill in the game, or anything else that could actually justify the word "Hardcore"). Console gamers that play console games in a really "hardcore" fashion are either really nieche or doesn't know that the PC excists. A counterstrike expert would laugh at a competitive Halo or Killzone 2 player.
If Halo required players to fully immerse themselves, I would never have played Halo 3. The most fun I have had out of that game since I bought it is completing the Single player campaign, and fooling around in big team slayer and playing Infection with friends. Pretty casual stuff. The multiplayer is only fun on the social playlists because that's were I can pilot a wraith tank and blow people up. In the Ranked AKA COMPETITIVE AKA "Hardcore" Playlists, all the fun weapons are gone and I just wish I was playing Team Fortress 2 or Counterstrike Source instead because the dual analog controls are so broken. So yes, Halo 3 is a core or mainstream game at "best" but It's definatley best played casually (infection pwns).
And yes, forge is casual. A hardcore player would only use forge to try an balance the maps which means removing all the fun overpowered stuff that Halo 3 has and thus making a boring map. All the fun forged maps are made by casual players, and they are fun because they are so ririculous, like my Helms Deep maps.
People don't play on consoles to be "hardcore". They play to have fun. I like consoles because they are simpler and are always guarranteed to play the games made for them. But not to be "hardcore"
EDIT: If you think that people are put off by leveling systems and HUDs then look at this scenario. When I was a really small kid, I had never played games before (exept for Super Mario Land on a friend's gameboy) But I got Pokémon yellow for the gameboy colour and suddenly I started playing it to death. It's my most played game by far. Was I "hardcore"?
I LOVE ICELAND!
