The casual/hardcore crap gives me a headache and is stupid.
This type of whining was why the Operation Rainfall games almost never had a chance of coming over to North America.
...Why did I miss this blog post until now!? D:
Bridging the Gap
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 On 12/05/2011 at 04:37 PM by Jesse Miller See More From This User » |
Gamers are creatures of habit. Change comes to us slow, and when it does we lash out like a child getting a tetanus shot. We would never admit this, though. We’ll bitch and moan about how Activision shouldn’t release another Call of Duty game for a while, but when release date is upon us we’ll be lined up at midnight release parties, parting ways with a few dead presidents for the annual release in a series we earlier proclaimed as old and tired.
The new, scares us. It takes us out of our comfort zone. When something new comes around we stare at it from afar, wishing it was more like something old and familiar. We don’t like taking chances.
We’re quick to doom something that veers from the status quo. We don’t want innovation; we want improvement on what already works. We stand by the old saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ to a point that makes us seem antiquated.
These statements certainly aren’t representative of all gamers, but one has to admit that a large percentage of the ‘core’ community is reminiscent of the old man sitting on his porch, spouting off how things were better in the good old days.
I bring this up because of some of the reactions to the announcement of the Wii U. While largely receiving positive feedback, the system has certainly been the focal point of Nintendo naysayers. This group has made it clear that they believe that a system that they know next to nothing about is going to fail because it fails to excite the ‘core’ gamer.
This prompts the questions, “What does the ‘core’ crowd want?”
The answers are quite predictable. They want something that will produce much better graphics than the Xbox and the Playstation; not just a minor upgrade. They want a more ‘traditional’ controller. They want ‘mature’ games.
Essentially they want more of the same.
A very familiar sight
Between the 16bit and 32 bit generations there was some massive change. We went from a cartridge standard format to disc. We went from pixels to polygons. We went from d-pads to analogue sticks. There was a lot of change.
The next generation didn’t offer a whole lot of new content. We experimented with online gaming, the Xbox introduced the internal hard drive and that’s about it.
The following generation merely refined what was already there. Online came into its own, hard drives got bigger and controllers stayed the same.
Unless you owned a Wii.
‘Core’ gamers scoffed at the simplistic controller that offered new ways to play games. It’s true that the system was less powerful than the competition, but it offered a wholly new experience that enticed non-traditional gamers to flock, in droves, to the stores to pick one up.
I don't know what that is, but it scares me
Yet the ‘core’ crowd still sees the Wii as a failure. Even the fact that Nintendo produced the best selling console of this generation (so far) that has been profitable since day 1 (it took years for the other machines to turn a profit) didn’t matter to them. The lack of sheer graphical power and a weird new controller turned them off.
Now, some people will say that the games weren’t there, but this is a weak argument. Had the ‘core’ crowd embraced the console from the beginning the game developers would have followed suit. Ultimately, developers go to where they can sell the most copies of a game (which is why the Playstation 2, which developed an enormous user base by offering a DVD player with the machine – DVD players were rare back then – was more successful than its more technologically superior competition).
The ‘core’ crowd is an elitist group. They revel in the fact that they are a minority in the gaming world – as if they are an exclusive club. I liken it to hockey fans (which I am one) and American soccer fans who scoff at new comers to the sport; alienating them because they just now took notice. The ‘core’ crowd does this too, dismissing all the new gamers in the industry, being particularly harsh on the so called casual gaming crowd.
Only 'core gamers allowed
They clung to their ‘core’ machines and mocked those gamers that played on the Wii, smartphones and social networking sites.
And now Nintendo is releasing a system that could bridge the gap between ‘core’ and ‘casual.’ And this scares the shit out of them, because this will mean the end to their exclusive club. I know, sometimes it sucks when a band you’ve been listening to for years goes mainstream, but ultimately that success is good for the band. You should be happy for them; it’s selfish to think otherwise. Same goes for our videogame industry.
Love it and learn to share it.
Add to the discussion by sounding off in the comments section below!
Happy Gaming.
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