Call of Duty now Casual?

[Gatx]

I can see where you're coming from but I think there's a greater level of focus and attention required to play CoD than, say, a Facebook game or mobile game, especially those ones that are basically just various levels of loading bars you're waiting to for to finish (like those mobile "trading card games" for example). Plus I feel like the main point of "casual" games is to kill time - you're at a doctor's office? Whip out your cellphone and start playing tetris. With CoD, even though you can play in short bursts, you're usually still playing to play the game.

 

[Eve Charm]

COD is casual, Just take a look at the marketing. Those commercials showing real life people acting like they are playing call of duty is framed for the casual audience. They show stuff like lawyers, causal people, people in suits, that burger shack guy, not a bunch of people that look like they came out of the basement for the first time in a week.

It's the most popular game, before it was madden, and they called that casual. Are there people that play these game hardcore? Yes. but 90% off the people that play both of these games if not more, play in an casual sense.

Also add the fact that gamers now are growing into that 18-35 range that mature is pretty much casual now. Like most popular movies getting the R rating.

 

[SerithVC]

If you take the wikipedia definition of casual games ("Casual games ... are typically distinguished by their simple rules and lack of commitment required in contrast to more complex hardcore games. They require no long-term time commitment or special skills to play, and there are comparatively low production and distribution costs for the producer."), it's clear that CoD isn't casual.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble but most people who play CoD just spray and pray. They just run around and shoot without and use of tactic or strategy. And much to annoyance, the CoD games actually penalize people who try to play tactically because of kill cams, kill streaks, and just being built to have everyone running around shooting wildly. I don't know what it's like on the 360 since i used to play on PS3 before giving up on the PS3 due to the lack of interesting games coming out. Anyone can pick up a controller and play CoD and do moderately well at it which makes it a casual game. As much as i hate to give Dark Souls any kind of praise, it was a Hardcore game when it first came out (before all the updates). Dragon's Dogma was somewhat of a hardcore game.

Also if you really want to break it down, almost every game is casual. Especially games like Final Fantasy and other JRPGs, because anyone can grind through most of them. You can play them for an hour or two and come back to them days/weeks/months later and do the same. Also i think almost every game in the last decade or more is casual if you go by the time it takes to beat them since few games take more than 12 to 24 hours to beat (meaning the main story line you completionist ass hats that i know are gonna ***** and say 'you havn't really beat a game until you've gotten everything'. Beating a games means seeing it's story through to the end, not finding every little side quest (an unimportant quest that has no effect on the main plot for some bonus) and/or hidden item. Same with trophies/achievements/etc, it's just artificial lengthing of a game that does nothing for the games Narrative.

So here's an idea. Lets stop with the oh this game is casual/hardcore nonsense and just play games. Do i care that a game was short but was still fun? No. Do i care that a game took me longer than 24 hours to beat? Not really, as long as it's a fun game or has a really good narrative. I'm looking at your DA:O. Do i care that a game isn't popular with other people? No, because i find most of the people they ask are the FPS only games so i couldn't care less what they have to say about a non fps game.

So to end this post I'm gonna give a recommendation. Pick up Binary Domain. It's a really fun 3rd Person Shooter where you get kill a lot of robots (and boy do i love killing robots) with good gameplay, a fairly good story where the decisions you make effect the ending of the game, and some actually fun NPC characters that i actually gave a damn about because they felt more real than most of the characters i've seen in ages. Also this game has the Robo-Bro-Bro and had a storyline moment that made me go on an in game rampage and then just as i had murdered enough ZOMBIE ROBOTS (side note: I don't know if i like killing zombies or robots more) that one of the NPCs told me that we would have to do something i didn't want to do in game and i was given the option to tell him no, and then when it got to the moment it gave me options to go through with what i didn't want to do (and gave me fair enough reasons to do so) or to stick to not doing it. Also on my first playthrough i made a mistake and at an important moment one of the characters turned against me because of it. And as much as i enjoyed this game, i beat it in about 8 hours the first playthrough. There are a few irritating points in the game, like one boss in particular is really irritating, but it's not until late in the game, and two parts where you have a limited amount of time to do them or you lose. Still no game is without it's flaws.

 

[stroopwafel]

While I don't think 'labels' are particularly useful I do think it's important(espescially for those who make/publish the games)to distinguish between the reasons people play videogames.

The CoD player is primarily interested in the competitive/social aspect of their game. Hence why they only play one particular title. The actual game itself is only of secondary importance to them. That's why they quit 'gaming' so easily when their social scene moved on or when they've simply grown out of a game like CoD. This audience is mostly teen to young adult.

Then there is the sub-category of hardcore MMO players who also play games mostly for the social aspect. Maybe its the game or maybe it are the players but MMOs(espescially WoW) often lead to obsession and excess. Also, only with one particular game.

Then you have the 'casual'(for lack of a better word) who play games just to kill some time. They usually play on their phone or tablet or web browser. These are just simple games that costs next to nothing to make. This audience can be anything but I think is mostly represented by older adults.

Then finally you have the gamer who plays videogames to truly get immersed in the experience. They like/love videogames as a medium and are (mostly) interested in the single-player/cinematic/narrative driven experience. Their interest reaches beyond the game and into the actual creative process and commercial industry that brings us these games. Mostly been playing games their whole life and, on and off, will continue to do so. It's more a passion that continues to exist, which is absent in the other categories.

The distinction is important though b/c what the industry fails to understand is that success in one segment of the market won't automatically jump over into another segment of the gaming market. In fact you run a larger risk of alienating fans. What happens when they try to shoehorn the CoD-formula into every game, and why this always fails. On both a creative and commercial level.

 

[Denamic]

1. Believe it or not, CoD does require skill. You cant just jump in and play with people who have been playing for years. It is the arcade shooter of this generation.

Just like to point out that you can. In my first ever blops game, in the first FPS game I've played on a console since Resistance 2, I got a solid 20 kills to 7 deaths. Sure, I was playing on someone else's account with shit already unlocked, but it was still remarkably easy to rack up kills, and I'm not even an FPS gamer. The skill requirement is very low for a competitive game.

 

[MetroidNut]

how dare other people enjoy games that they enjoy

will people next call themselves lord of the rings fans without having memorized the silmarillion in elvish

when will the madness end

 

[Piorn]

Wait, are we arguing that teenagers play a game marketed for teenagers in their freetime?
How could they?
They don't have a right to play it in their freetime because they don't study it and earn money with it!
And now the playerbase is infested with casuals and the game can't be taken serious anymore!
It's ruined forever!

(See what I did there? It's called sarcasm.)

 

[prpshrt]

I was under the impression it was always casual given all the 12 and 13 year olds that play it lol. I'd call it more mainstream than casual though.

 

[Something Amyss]

I thought this was a given.

I also don't really care, to be honest.

I appear to be a casual player, in that I like to play games socially and don't resort to death threats when my games get patched or women try and join the party. I will play what I play, however.

 

[Raikas]

I'm sorry to burst your bubble but most people who play CoD just spray and pray. They just run around and shoot without and use of tactic or strategy. And much to annoyance, the CoD games actually penalize people who try to play tactically because of kill cams, kill streaks, and just being built to have everyone running around shooting wildly. I don't know what it's like on the 360 since i used to play on PS3 before giving up on the PS3 due to the lack of interesting games coming out. Anyone can pick up a controller and play CoD and do moderately well at it which makes it a casual game.

I used to agree, but my brother-in-law was given the PS3 version of CoD at Christmas and was complaining about how hard the multiplayer is - "killed within 40 seconds, every time" was his comment. I think he sticks to playing split-screen with his 10-year-old these days.

So here's an idea. Lets stop with the oh this game is casual/hardcore nonsense and just play games. Do i care that a game was short but was still fun? No. Do i care that a game took me longer than 24 hours to beat? Not really, as long as it's a fun game or has a really good narrative.

Yes! Why people want to label the games or define other people's enjoyment of them is baffling.

 

[rob_simple]

Sorry but I find it hard to see the comparison to CoD and Farmville after watching the video of the guy in Modern Warfare who uses nothing but knives to fight. That's a level of skill you just don't see in a casual game.

Aside from that, why do you care? Unless there are tax breaks for hardcore gamers what does it matter if people misguidedly think they are one? I just say I play video games, I probably do it more than the average person, but I also do it a lot less than other people I know of.

So, why does it matter? Oh, because you think 'the soul of gaming' has been usurped and destroyed. Bullshit. I don't know how many times I'm going to have to repeat myself, but once more can't hurt: Just because the mainstream is becoming more homogenous (which isn't necessarily true, as it happens,) that does not mean that the entire hobby is now a procession of grey uninspired sludge.

Check out the indie market --even the handheld market-- and then try to tell me that games are all marching to the beat of the same drum. This is like someone who has only ever watched James Bond movies complaining that all films are just the same thing over and over again.

 

[rob_simple]

As an aside, a huge portion of the CoD players I know are guys in the 30-45 age range who used to play a wider variety of games but don't have time for it. They have maybe 15 minutes free between work/kids/life stuff, so why wouldn't they play a game that allows for that? Would you prefer that they not play anything so as to not dirty up your "gamer" identity with their life balance? C'mon now!

This is a fantastic point that isn't brought up enough.

All these 'hardcore' 'old school' gamers (i.e. people who have nothing else to do with their time) don't appreciate that most people over a certain age have other commitments that actually have to be attended to, (careers, families etc.) and don't have the time to hunker down over a weekend and log in thirty hours of Skyrim.

Only having a few hours a week to play video games doesn't make you a filthy casual, it makes you a functioning adult member of society.

 

[Bad Jim]

As an aside, a huge portion of the CoD players I know are guys in the 30-45 age range who used to play a wider variety of games but don't have time for it. They have maybe 15 minutes free between work/kids/life stuff, so why wouldn't they play a game that allows for that? Would you prefer that they not play anything so as to not dirty up your "gamer" identity with their life balance? C'mon now!

I think, once you get to that stage in your life, you just have to admit you are a casual gamer. There's nothing wrong with that. Work, kids and life are more important than gaming. So they play on a casual basis. I don't know why they would object to that label.

 

[Raikas]

I think, once you get to that stage in your life, you just have to admit you are a casual gamer. There's nothing wrong with that. Work, kids and life are more important than gaming. So they play on a casual basis. I don't know why they would object to that label.

One of the OPs points was that casuals have "stolen" the gamer identity - but many of the CoD players do call themselves gamers (among the other facets of their identities). That's what I'm challenging.

Personally I think all the labelling is absurd - once you get into the distinctions about casual players of hardcore games, or hardcore players of casual games and the nitpicking about which is which, it all starts to seem meaningless. But it's not meaningless to plenty of other people, and they have a right to see their gaming hobby through whatever framework they like without someone with more free time (or even just different taste) accusing them of posturing or not being real gamers is nonsense.

And given all the defensiveness about games being an acceptable form of entertainment for adults, you'd think people would be more welcoming of games that are inviting for older players.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

It has been a casual game since Modern Warfare at least.

I feel that "casual" should really only be applied to games that do not require much active mental engagement. By this I mean: If you play a game so you can turn your brain off then it should probably be considered to be casual.

This isn't actually true - for a game to be casual does not imply it requires no thought from the player but rather that it have a low skill floor. Skill floor is important is it largely defines the minimum skill necessary to play the game in question. Most fighting games have a very high skill floor since, in order to actually play fighting games as the great game of bluff and counter bluff that all the great ones are at their heart, you have to be able to execute a significant portion of your characters moves on command. By contrast, a game like chess has a very low skill floor - you simply need to memorize a small set of rules governing unit movement (there are six unique pieces), unit capture, and a tiny handful of special case scenarios. The entire rule set of Chess can be printed on a small piece of paper - as a result, just about anyone of any ability can sit down and play the game.

But, as you might note, what chess lacks in mechanical complexity it makes up for with staggering depth and is hardly a game for mindless interaction.

That said, Call of Duty's status as a casual game is rooted in that low skill floor question. Thanks to copious aim assist, the player has to do relatively little work to line up a shot. Thanks to highly lethal weapons, they don't require much to actually get a kill. Moreover, there exist weapons like grenades (thrown or projected) easily capable of getting kills without anything more than passing accuracy and timing. Of all the skills a player needs to learn, simply knowing the common routes through a map and places people generally hide is the most important - a knowledge that is easily earned. If you fail, you are instantly showed how it came to pass which makes the process of learning the maps all the easier.

That isn't to say Call of Duty is a game without much skill; simply that various elements that seek to democratize the experience (in order to make it appealing to someone just starting to play) effectively narrow the probable skill gap between players in a server. By contrast, many shooters of old were such that an unskilled player had effectively zero chance against a highly skilled opponent and other more technically challenging shooters (Arma for example) requires a tremendous investment of time to simply play competently.

 

[thebakedpotato]

Why does it matter if a game is casual or hardcore? Why does it matter that those people call themselves hardcore and/or they never branch out?

This is the thread winner, just a heads up. Letalisk, you win the thread.

COD is a video game.
A video game that has introduced thousands if not millions of people who would otherwise not play video games.
If they choose not to play anything else, that's their call. It's their lives and their money.

Our call is to decide if we welcome people into our community and share something that we love in the hopes that others will love it too. Or we can toss about qualifiers and rankings about people and the games they play.

Me? I'mma play fucking video games.

 

[BQE]

Phht.

"They took it from us, guys. They took our hardcores! They took the soul of gaming!!!"

I take issue with you definition of "casual" and the implication that this is a bad thing. "Very simple, very repetitive tasks with the exact same payoff each time, only to take shear pleasure in restarting a few hours later to do the exact same thing" could be used to describe every video game I can bring to mind.

Pong? Casual.
Tetris? Casual.
Pacman? Casual.
Patriot Command? Casual.
Every Mario ever? Casual.
Every Zelda ever? Casual.
Doom? Casual.
Every FPS ever? Casual.
Starcraft? Casual.
Every RTS ever? Casual.
Every Final Fantasy ever? Casual.
Every MOBA ever? Casual.
Ever MMO ever? Casual.
... and so on and so forth.

If CoD is a casual game then I challenge you to name one that is not.

Kerbal Space Program! It's (Quasi) Rocket Science!

 

[someonehairy-ish]

It always seems strange to me to call hobbies 'hardcore'. Unless you're talking about mountain climbing, or skydiving, or err... pornography?
So as a rule of thumb, it's not hardcore unless you risk actual physical harm to yourself. Or at least risk your flatmates walking in on you and it being really awkward.

 

[gavinmcinns]

Break down what the qualifications of a casual gamer are. People who usually put hundreds of hours into very simple, very repetitive tasks with the exact same payoff each time, only to take shear pleasure in restarting a few hours later to do the exact same thing. People who maybe play two games total on an annual basis.

I see it every. single. day. Tons of kids, and adults alike coming in with stacks of the same two games: Call of Duty, and Madden. Or Call of Duty and NBA 2K. Or Halo and NHL. Nothing else is in their library. And I sometimes ask why they're trading them in. I get the same answers. This is all they play, and a new one is coming out. Or, even worse, this is all they've ever played and they're giving up on gaming. I get the impression they've only ever thought this was all there was to gaming without ever branching out.

These people call themselves 'hardcore gamers', something which without our even knowing, they took from us, and even worse we don't even remember exactly when that happened. And the more we each individually try to figure that out, the answers become both clear, painful, and even further each time. We made gaming successful by supporting it. They made gaming mainstream by making it just like Hollywood. We keep playing because the popularity has made it look better, like we always wanted, but the cost has been the soul of real gaming.

Does that make us all casual gamers now?

NO.

Wasn't expecting much, but you actually make some stunningly simple and cogent points.

To me, call of duty has always been a casual experience, but I never took the time to define why. The mind numbing repetition, the easiness... to me this defines a casual experience. And we need casual games.. but the mega saturation of this particular market has made me hate everything casual. Casual should be 5% of the market, not 95