the casual gamer demographic is ruining the indutrie

[Praelanthor]

i recently accuired a copy of spore and it was without a doubt the first time i have ever raged at a developer they took something that could have been great but no they just had to go after the casual gamers leading them to build a game for the "pants on head retarded" i feel that the chase for this demographic is leadign to another video game industrie crash and i want to prevent it from happining what devs need to lear is never under any circumstances stupify thier games subtle complexite is what keeps em interesting as with spore u just drop down onto a hostile planet find the settlement strafe circle whilst bombing the crap outta it tilkl it dies or surrenders then u leave the system move on rinse repeat and ... sadly i fear i can never take will wright and maxis seriously again.

Discuss

 

[Omega-z]

Well if you look at the sims it is a game for casual gamers I gues.

 

[Praelanthor]

yes but the sims was complex requireing concentration to obtain balacne with your sims which kept it interesting

 

[tobyornottoby]

NOT TRUE

the casual game segment is a seperate market. If this market didn't exist, Spore would have never been made like it is now. And I'm not talking about complexity, I'm talking about scale.

Games are too expensive to make these days. Developers need the money from casual games if they want to continue making hardcore games.

Oh and too bad this is an intersting subject. Else I would only have said that a little punctuation wouldn't hurt

 

[Space Spoons]

I've never understood the argument that going for the casual gamer's buck is somehow ruining the industry. More money = more/better games. It's as easy as that.

Maybe Spore didn't turn out to be as hardcore as you might have liked. Well, look at it this way: With all the money being pumped into the industry from it's popularity, there's bound to be a more hardcore game of a similar style produced at some point. A Spore 2.0: Dash Super Hyper Fighting Championship Edition, if you will.

Side note, that was possibly the longest sentence I have ever read. Punctuate, dear boy, you'll run out of breath.

 

[Praelanthor]

I've never understood the argument that going for the casual gamer's buck is somehow ruining the industry. More money = more/better games. It's as easy as that.

Maybe Spore didn't turn out to be as hardcore as you might have liked. Well, look at it this way: With all the money being pumped into the industry from it's popularity, there's bound to be a more hardcore game of a similar style produced at some point. A Spore 2.0: Dash Super Hyper Fighting Championship Edition, if you will.

Side note, that was possibly the longest sentence I have ever read. Punctuate, dear boy, you'll run out of breath.

my point is if ur gonna make a game for casual gamers say so dont say one thing and do another i remember watching spre when it was in development seeing an underwater creature stage additional systems in the editors deeper more complex space stage... so on and so forth

 

[Space Spoons]

I've never understood the argument that going for the casual gamer's buck is somehow ruining the industry. More money = more/better games. It's as easy as that.

Maybe Spore didn't turn out to be as hardcore as you might have liked. Well, look at it this way: With all the money being pumped into the industry from it's popularity, there's bound to be a more hardcore game of a similar style produced at some point. A Spore 2.0: Dash Super Hyper Fighting Championship Edition, if you will.

Side note, that was possibly the longest sentence I have ever read. Punctuate, dear boy, you'll run out of breath.

my point is if ur gonna make a game for casual gamers say so dont say one thing and do another i remember watching spre when it was in development seeing an underwater creature stage additional systems in the editors deeper more complex space stage... so on and so forth

On that point, I agree with you. From everything I heard about Spore, I was expecting it to be some huge, epic masterpiece that changed the way we looked at gaming forever.

Clearly, this wasn't the case... But I think this could be said of any game that sees a development period of a few very highly publicized years. Just look at Too Human/Star Wars: The Force Unleashed/Assassin's Creed; We read about them for years, about all the changes and innovations they were going to bring to the industry, and about how we were going to have to wait just a little longer to actually play them. By the time they came out, our expectations had been built up to a point that no game could actually measure up.

Spore was just as guilty of this as any other. Still, though, I don't see the harm in going after the casual demographic. After all, they tend to have fat wallets, the better to purchase multiple copies of Wii Fit.

 

[Praelanthor]

I've never understood the argument that going for the casual gamer's buck is somehow ruining the industry. More money = more/better games. It's as easy as that.

Maybe Spore didn't turn out to be as hardcore as you might have liked. Well, look at it this way: With all the money being pumped into the industry from it's popularity, there's bound to be a more hardcore game of a similar style produced at some point. A Spore 2.0: Dash Super Hyper Fighting Championship Edition, if you will.

Side note, that was possibly the longest sentence I have ever read. Punctuate, dear boy, you'll run out of breath.

my point is if ur gonna make a game for casual gamers say so dont say one thing and do another i remember watching spre when it was in development seeing an underwater creature stage additional systems in the editors deeper more complex space stage... so on and so forth

On that point, I agree with you. From everything I heard about Spore, I was expecting it to be some huge, epic masterpiece that changed the way we looked at gaming forever.

Clearly, this wasn't the case... But I think this could be said of any game that sees a development period of a few very highly publicized years. Just look at Too Human/Star Wars: The Force Unleashed/Assassin's Creed; We read about them for years, about all the changes and innovations they were going to bring to the industry, and about how we were going to have to wait just a little longer to actually play them. By the time they came out, our expectations had been built up to a point that no game could actually measure up.

Spore was just as guilty of this as any other. Still, though, I don't see the harm in going after the casual demographic. After all, they tend to have fat wallets, the better to purchase multiple copies of Wii Fit.

yes i would appreciate during those development times if the devs would say were making this for casual gamers just so i can tune out before wasting my money

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

I can understand your point but I disagree. casual gaming helps make more games as developers have the capabilities (money) to make better games.

Yes some Games which weren't supposed to be casual were but they make games for a mass market. You can't make a game for 5 people, no matter how good it is.


And work on your spelling, if you can. It's absolutely terrible.

 

[HuCast]

@Space spoons: Easy as that? Sorry but I think its waaay to optimistic! Once the big companies have learned that you can make MORE money with a casual game there is no need for them to produce better/more complex games for hardcore gamers. They will spend the money for bigger adverts or to buy the next studio but not for better games

 

[Space Spoons]

@Space spoons: Easy as that? Sorry but I think its waaay to optimistic! Once the big companies have learned that you can make MORE money with a casual game there is no need for them to produce better/more complex games for hardcore gamers. They will spend the money for bigger adverts or to buy the next studio but not for better games

It's true that some companies might do that. Indeed, it seems as though some developers are already moving in that direction. *glares in Nintendo's general direction*

Still, I think it's excessively negative to assume that every company would follow that path. It might be gaining more of a casual audience, but the gaming industry is still run by gamers, and I don't think they'd let the idea of a well-made, complex and overall entertaining game die because they realize they can make a quick buck with a Wii waggle-fest.

 

[MarcusStrout]

Great subject. I love the Sims 2, and I am about to go play it again.

On that note, man, capitalization, spelling, grammar, punctuation, stuff like that. It's a gift, and you don't have it. At least friggin' read it before you post.

 

[theCardinal]

The casual movie goer is ruining the movie industry. X recent comedy was so low brow where as Y older movie had much more complex humour.

 

[Praelanthor]

@Space spoons: Easy as that? Sorry but I think its waaay to optimistic! Once the big companies have learned that you can make MORE money with a casual game there is no need for them to produce better/more complex games for hardcore gamers. They will spend the money for bigger adverts or to buy the next studio but not for better games

i agree completly and unless i have my facts wrong (which is extremly likely) the last time the industrie was mass producing games that werent fun it lead to the industrie crash which took 10 years to recover.

also im in australia its like 12:30 at night asnd i havent slept in 23 hours i just CBF backspacing to correct mistakes.

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

The casual movie goer is ruining the movie industry. X recent comedy was so low brow where as Y older movie had much more complex humour.

Good point. Todays humor is rarely funny, some of it admittedly being funny but Yo' Momma jokes in a multi-million dollar movie is just sad.


Is it me or does it seem like everything is slowly going down hill?

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

yes but the sims was complex requireing concentration to obtain balacne with your sims which kept it interesting

I really wouldn't call the Sims complex. Sleep, eat, toilet, work, call a friend over, eat, play, wash, sleep.
The only way you could think casual gamers are killing the industry is if you're a Nintendo fanboy in my opinion. As for your Spore comment, I think everyone agrees that the game didn't go into enough detail when it came down to the evolution stages, not really anything to do with the demographic as many casual gamers I know haven't heard of it. It was very much aimed at gamers, it was just too brief.

 

[Galletea]

the casual gamer demographic is probably the only thing keeping smaller companies alive. the sheer cost of producing a game for this generation of consoles means that companies dare not take risks, thus the mass of fps in the wake of the halo/gears success. people are so keen to find something different that anything new gets hyped to godlike status, only to emerge as a malformed freak.

 

[theCardinal]

The casual movie goer is ruining the movie industry. X recent comedy was so low brow where as Y older movie had much more complex humour.

Good point. Todays humor is rarely funny, some of it admittedly being funny but Yo' Momma jokes in a multi-million dollar movie is just sad.


Is it me or does it seem like everything is slowly going down hill?

I was being kind of sarcastic in saying that. While there is a lot of crap produced by the film industry there are still a lot of good films being produced. Even more so this applies to the game industry in my opinion. The volume of games being produced is far larger than it's ever been. Even if 90% of that is crap the 10 good percent probably represent more actual games than ever before.

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

[
also im in australia its like 12:30 at night asnd i havent slept in 23 hours i just CBF backspacing to correct mistakes.

I'm in Australia too. Doesn't stop me spelling correctly. Believe me I'm still typing coherently at 6:am on my second day straight so a little effort would be appreciated.

A lot of people here won't even bother reading your posts if they can't read it without getting migraines, so If you want to make a point that people will pay attention to spelling and grammar helps.

Just a bit of advice.

 

[tobyornottoby]

@Space spoons: Easy as that? Sorry but I think its waaay to optimistic! Once the big companies have learned that you can make MORE money with a casual game there is no need for them to produce better/more complex games for hardcore gamers. They will spend the money for bigger adverts or to buy the next studio but not for better games

i agree completly and unless i have my facts wrong (which is extremly likely) the last time the industrie was mass producing games that werent fun it lead to the industrie crash which took 10 years to recover.

also im in australia its like 12:30 at night asnd i havent slept in 23 hours i just CBF backspacing to correct mistakes.

sweet dreams then, ttyl

and who is saying the games these days aren't FUN? Spore, Wii fit, the Sims... now YOU might not find them fun, but A LOT of people do.

@HuCast: don't shoot the messenger. as theCardinal has said, casual movie goers are ruining the film industry. Casual music listeners are ruining the music industry. Casual eaters are ruining the cuisine industry. Casual wearers are ruining the clothes industry. It's just how it works