Poll: Death of core games?

[BreakfastMan]

No, core gaming will never die. Publishers are smart enough to know that we are their most loyal costumers. Stop making games for us, and they risk losing a massive revenue stream from big-name blockbuster titles like GTA, Halo, Final Fantasy, and Resident Evil, among others. Even if all publishers stop making core games and only make casual games, the indie community will still be making core games. So no, core games will never die.

 

[KEM10]

You worry too much. The people playing the games through social mediums aren't all "casual" players and aren't taking away from your precious games. They play those games because they are bored at the office and having an Xbox hooked up in their cubicle is too obvious. One of my good friends is an avid "hard core" player, yet he spends his tech support time in front of a computer playing Farmville between levels of Lemmings and answering questions.

Here is the thing, the bored housewives were never going to buy those games that you said are in jeopardy. They also aren't going to spend more than the $15 for the Pop-Caps game bundle at Wal-Mart. You are willing to stand in line at 10pm to hit a midnight release for an extended box set that runs close to $100. They are making money, they are just finding different ways to do it (DLC anyone?).

 

[Funkiest Monkey]

Will "casual" games take over the market, or even the industry? Probably.

Will "hardcore" games become obsolete? Never.

 

[Dexiro]

No matter how big 'social' games get we'll still have plenty of games for gamers ^_^

 

[Proteus214]

No, core gaming will never die. Publishers are smart enough to know that we are their most loyal costumers. Stop making games for us, and they risk losing a massive revenue stream from big-name blockbuster titles like GTA, Halo, Final Fantasy, and Resident Evil, among others. Even if all publishers stop making core games and only make casual games, the indie community will still be making core games. So no, core games will never die.

Exactly this. There is a demand for these "core games" as you call them. If that demand isn't being met by the current mainstream developers, then someone else will fill it, be it the indie community or a new mainstream outfit.

 

[titaniumChampion]

So what? For every Inception, there are a thousand Twilights. For every Toy Story 3, there are a thousand Princess & The Frog. I've lost count of how many shitty, formulaic romantic comedies come out every year, but I'm not announcing the death of cinema. This is how it is, and this is how it will always be, in any entertainment medium; the ratio of shit to gold is vastly in favour of the shit.

Yeah, right now there are a ton of faceless FPS games. There are also, as I pointed out in my last post, a lot of truly excellent games that are nothing like those FPS games. Why the hell is this a bad thing?! If I don't want to play a game, I don't buy the damn thing - I wait for something I do want to buy instead of whining that the game I don't want has ruined gaming for me.

Right off, you're ignoring his argument. Yes, both industries do pour out a great deal of shovelware, blatant copies, and poor sequels/remakes. Film is completely different than the games industry. The fact remains that there are fewer companies working on "core" games than in the previous generation of gaming. Due to the birth of motion gaming, we've been hit with an onslaught of games that cater to casual gamers. They are cheap to create and the targeted audience is ignorant of quality. If I were gaming companies, I would be very frustrated with the core audience as well. Every day gamers demand games be released from their personal list, but the release will never measure up to their nostalgia.

This is another flawed argument that really gets on my tits. So Mario is just the same game, constantly being repackaged and sold to the gullible as a new experience? Sure. This is why Super Mario Galaxy is a side-scrolling 2D game that mostly concerns itself with little more than jumping, right? It isn't as if we've had games where Mario went to space (Galaxy), Mario RPGs (Paper Mario), Mario fighting games (Super Smash Bros), Mario racing games (Mario Kart), Mario minigame collections (Mario Party), Mario sports games (Tennis, soccer, golf, etc). Hell, even the regular mainstream Mario installments (64, Sunshine, Galaxy etc) are all different in terms of gameplay mechanics. To claim that they are all the same game is just ignorant. It's like saying the every Zelda game is the same, ignoring the gameplay/story/character changes; it's an assumption based on nothing more than the title.

I'm sorry, did you see Super Mario Galaxy 2 being released. I love that you threw Mario Party in there. That's the definition of casual, and the series hasn't been fun since the N64 days. Mario sports games, which if I recall were resold as WiiSports and Resort. But that's okay, because Nintendo fans will agree the substance doesn't matter; just the title. I wasn't the only person to be cynical with Nintendo's lineup from E3. Re-releasing your games on another platform isn't new. To be honest, I just see it as an opportunity to continue making money off of core people while reaping the benefits of casuals. They've shifted to casual, and don't care about the core anymore.

In short, we're here to discuss the paradigm shift in the gaming industry to casual. The fact is that less core games are being developed in favor of casual ones in this generation.

 

[CitySquirrel]

I think they are developing for different audiences. I might play a few casual games, but I always play them in between the more complex ones.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

Core games will never ever die more social games will come but there will always be games for the Hardcore

I feel, I cant find a proper gamer game in this generation, I've sort of settled on Assassin's Creeds, cause that's the only thing I can properly relate to as a platformer. And it has stealth elements.



And they'll still be around, just not looked on as much as casual games.

 

[WaywardHaymaker]

Are you asking if Farmville and its ilk will destroy games like Half-Life, StarCraft, or Halo?

...No. They can't, really. Unless they find a way to brainwash everyone who would buy those games (Meaning, you know, us) they'll still have an audience, which means they'll still turn a profit, which means they'll still be made.