Americas (and Worldwide) up ! 3rd July

[Jordahn]

DarkisWR said:

Jordahn said:

DarkisWR said:

Jordahn said:

LordMatrix said:

Reach said:

BenVTrigger said:

i hear on N4G that Reach special edition is in the works...dont know if its true but probably is...

GameStop dude , please tell me that u are not serious when u are saying that kinect is having massive pre orders :/ this is bad...

no I'm not kidding at all.  Honestly though we are seeing very few core gamers pre-ordering Kinect so far, its leaning almost entirely to the casual or female markets.  In fact I would say 90% of its sales are going to that market.  Lots of parents picking them up for youger kids.  Also our number 1 pre-ordered Kinect game is Kinectimls.  Not sure how the rest of the country is fairing, my numbers are based off of one state so things could be different in other markets mind you. 

Videogames are lost then... Kinectimals... what a shame... Well im seeing that kinect will be a sucess and Microsoft will probably go Next Gen with kinect in mind wich isnt very good...

Nothing is lost! The majority of the interest is with children and female gamers right now and having games that cater to everyone is not a bad thing. Sometimes we core gamers need to step back and realize we aren`t the only ones that play games nor is it just 18-32 year old adult males either.

I step back to see that the hardcore is loosing ground to the casuals.  Face it, it's a growing trend.

How so?

Have you not seen how many AAA hardcore games have come out so far this year and how many are coming out during the rest?

So some casual blood and violence free games come out and its the end of the world...0.o

First of all "AAA" is relative, and even if a game is "AAA" doesn't mean it appeals to every hardcore gamer.  Now, do I claim Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn a "AAA" game.  No, but I prefer it over, let's say, MGS4 which is arguably a "AAA" game.  And as a hardcore gamer, I will not be swayed to a game just because it's "AAA."  That's casual talk, casual thinking.  I look deep into a game to decided whether I want to play it or not.  Most casuals do not do this.  They usually go with what's most familiar to them in real life.  As this userbase grows, more games and resources will be allocated to them, overshadowing titles such as Siren, Bue Dragon, and Folkore.  We don't often see unique titles like this because they are too risky in our current economical and western cultural climate.  So less risks are being taken with developing these games.  Compare the successes of Bioshock to Halo.  And IMO, Bioshock rocks while Halo sucks.  What do the masses mainly go for?  Halo, obviously because it's far more familiar.  And I prefer Alan Wake over Halo anyday regardless of the rankings.  Guess which franchise Microsoft will push more?  Go figure.  Anyone who has been keeping up cannot deny that the masses are catered to more and more while that unique expereince is getting harder and harder to find.  Yes, gaming is expanding as Nightsurge pointed out.  But as I said, there is a negative side to it that effects the hardcore.

...sigh.

 

I really dislike it when one's opinion/likes/dislikes about games is spouted like fact.

I'll start with your AAA bit...

1) just becuase it doesn't appeal to every ''hardcore'' gamer does not make it less/not hardcore.

2) Most times ''AAA" is equated to quality. Anything else is casual talk and casual thinking.

"Compare the successes of Bioshock to Halo.  And IMO, Bioshock rocks while Halo sucks.  What do the masses mainly go for?  Halo"

1) Thats comapring apples to oranges...both are on such differnt ends of the fps spectrum that you cant comapre em.

2) Last time I checked casuals really arnt running out to pick up highly competive shooters. If you can say that about Halo then you can say that about MW1/2,WaW,Gears,KZ2,Mag.

3) Theres alot of ''Hardcore" buying games like Halo/MW etc.. 

4) So far by your reasoning any game that sales like Halo is the masses aka the casual.

If the majority of the ''Hardcore'' are worried about not being supported...then guess what...go buy core games.

 

"We don't often see unique titles like this because they are too risky in our current economical and western cultural climate.  So less risks are being taken with developing these games."

Disagree indeed...

1) Dev's and pub's want safe bets...not niche games with niche profits...Your forgeting...gaming indurstury is about one thing and one thing only...MONEY.

2) Cause of #1 we see less risky endeavors...even more so if they are under funded and not on a high lvl of quality.

3) Western cult climate as oppessed to what Japans? Europe's? Yeah...w/e

I would appreciated if you would not put words into my mouth by twisting things.

I NEVER said that a game is less hardcore if it doesn't appeal to every hardcore gamers, NEVER.  I do not know where you got that from.  And you say "AAA" equates to quality.  But the problem with this is that severyone will not always agree on the quality of some games.  Moot point.

And "casuals really arnt running out to pick up highly competive shooters?????"  Let's not get too narrow minded here.  Can it be highly competitive with some shooters when playing online?  Yes.  Is that suppose to mean everyone who buys that shooter bought it to play online?  Nope.  There is something called a "campaign mode" which casuals buy the game for while it doesn't stop them from going online when they want to.  And as I mentioned previously, "But when all you want to do is shoot and blow things up, you are either a gamer that prefers to play shooters or shooting is all you really want to/can understand.  I tend to come across the later who are not gving games like Beautiful Katamari, Mass Effect, and Lost Odyssey a fair shake" usually applies to the casuals.

And I NEVER said that it wasn't smart for developers to do what they have to do to make money.  If you can recall, I did say that it was a double edged sword.  And it's not just about being niche.  I said "...the masses are catered to more and more while that unique expereince is getting harder and harder to find."  Those unique experience we find in some games aren't necessarily niche wouldn't have such a hard time justifying itself if i t weren't overshadowed by what's popular.

And yes, I did say "western cultural climate."  As a general statement, most westerns are knee-jerked, superficial, short attention spanned, and looking for that instant gratification.   Again, general statement.  Unfortunately, this is rather characteristic of most casual gamers.  Most hardcore gamers look for that deeper experience where the patience in playing that games gives greater rewards.

Step back and you'll see.