Posts Tagged ‘casual’
Hardcore Casual
Posted by Jeremy S. in Gaming Tuesday, 15 December 2009 23:57 No Comments
(Haha, yes I swipe it and turn it into a titular blog post.)
I’ve been thinking about Hardcore Casual while reading a lot lately on raiding.
I may be wrong on different nuances here, please feel free to correct me.
Raiders(hardcore if you will) usually find an instance to farm, loot, gear up, and raid it again. It’s a cycle full of adrenaline junkies, I suppose. It’s fun. I found it fun, intense, and rewarding.
But what seems apparent to me is the ones that only do this, or subscribe heavily to the idea that all an MMORPG is made for, or the pinnacle that an MMORPG can provide, is for high level, end game raiding- even the unknowing player that hasn’t even realized until after 100 instance runs that they are in this cycle. Yes it comes with various forms of baggage. You’ll have elitism, etc… but at its core it’s a very simple pattern that easily excludes many other parts of an MMORPG. Socializing? I don’t think there’s much room for that. Not when you know you’re needing to run 20 raids in the next week and you have X hours to spare. It’s a min/max hardcore world right?
When I look at what these hardcore people are doing, I see something similar to what the majority of the gaming world would call casual.
Casual game play. All those little games on Facebook immediately come to mind. I have a sneaky suspicion that all you Mafia War fanatics tend to love Halo and MMORPG Raiding. And within just MMORPGs, you probably socialize little, just enough to not be overly selfish when that’s all you want to get to the top, because the top is where everyone has to be, right?
That’s almost exactly the definition of casual games. All the Bejeweleds and Peggles of the world, they provide a singular purpose, a cyclic repetition of increasingly harder levels, and expanding time doesn’t fit into the equation either. Reducing time is the only logical step. Getting to the top as quickly as possible is the efficient logical way. Even if fun does not equate to logic, people derive fun in many different ways.
So are you hardcore? or are you casual?
Commentary on Massively Speaking #60
Posted by Jeremy S. in Gaming Wednesday, 8 July 2009 18:30 No Comments
Massively Speaking is an MMORPG podcast that this week talks some about “redefining MMOs”, “Runes of Magic” as well as other current events.
Their “redefining MMOs” series is interesting, and I actually wrote a piece that hits on that subject, while pointing to a possible evolution of where MMORPGs may be headed in the future (see Gamebunny Article).
More directly to Massively’s first article on the terminology. I feel the social terms that have developed naturally are still sufficient:
- MMO
- MMOFPS
- MMORTS
- MMORPG
- Etc…
I think those are very adequate to describe online games. I think the focus is on how the person uses those terms. I always try to be careful in delineating between just MMO or MMORPG when I’m discussing games.
I think there may be changes in terminology and how we should be using it, but I think the heart of it is that the terms are being shaped by the small, recent evolutionary changes that many genre of MMOs are undergoing and players perceptions on how they are deriving fun from MMORPGs.
- Casual based like Freerealms are becoming popular
- MMORPGs are inserting more horizontal gameplay that resembles activities in other virtual worlds like Second Life.
The player base seems to slowly be evolving as they are changing how they get fun out of these games. There’s still raiding and gear grinding, and will always be those focuses in a game. But as a whole I think players are starting to explore more how they are having fun, out of a desire to want(or need) something new.
Games like Everquest, that’s been around for 10 years, may be around for another 10. Players who want nothing but arena PvP and raiding for gear will always find joy in World of Warcraft. The fact that WoW has the largest player base shows these player perceptions aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
On the other side though, games like Everquest have been slowly adding massive amounts of horizontal gameplay with player housing and crafting. Freerealms is garnering much attention with their very casual atmosphere and mni-games. Runes of Magic and EVE online have slowly but steadily been getting more players as time goes by and both these games offer a lot that isn’t directed toward reaching level cap, and raiding for gear.
It will be interesting to see where this progression takes MMORPGs and other MMOs in the next 10 years.
Casual MMO Explosion or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Posted by Jeremy S. in Gaming Thursday, 18 June 2009 17:24 2 Comments
The casual video game market has been the largest for a long time now, this is no news. With the current spotlight on FreeRealms, some other companies are following suit to cash in. They may be on to something by slipping in casual gaming into MMO’s
Most people might think it’s some sort of death of MMO’s or at least a nail in their coffins but I don’t think so.
Change is constant. I think the focus is just changing but it won’t be the death of anything.
We need to start looking more specifically at genres. while Casual MMO’s may be garnering more attention, I still think MMORPG’s will always be around and the difference more noticeable as time goes by.
I think the wording will better label the different games in the future but Casual MMO’s are not MMORPG’s and I think the two can co-exist. Sure, maybe Casual MMO’s will become more popular and have larger servers, but I don’t think it will have an adverse affect on who, and how many play MMORPGs.
I find it strange that sites like WoW Insider are giving “guides” for WoW players to play FreeRealms. I understand it, but I still think it’s strange. I’m sure there are a lot of WoW players that love it for its casual gaming allure, but I personally don’t see FreeRealms winning over WoW players. At the most, WoW players will just play both. On top of that, Blizzard has announced that they are trying to make WoW more casual-friendly.
Maybe we will have to start thinking about niche gaming differently. Maybe MMORPGs will become niche games. The prospect of this makes me smile a bit. It could ensure that players go into the games a bit more educated about what they can expect, resulting in games I like full of more(or mainly) other people like me.
However this new explosion of Casual MMO’s affects the industry, I don’t think it will win me over. I like casual games. I loved my Nintendo DS’s Puzzle Quest game, and I still occasionally play tetris and other fun casual games on my phone. But I have specific ‘wants’ when it comes to MMORPG’s, that no Casual game can replace, no matter how fun and accessible the “mini-game” aspect of play it provides.