Games are like food...

[Starik20X6]

I've been doing some thinking about the apparent disconnect between 'casual' and 'hardcore' gaming, and I've come up with a bit of a theory: the worlds of gaming and food are remarkably similar.

'Casual' games are like snacks. Small, pocketable chunks of entertainment that are often great for when you're on the go or when you're at a party. They're often quite addictive too, like a bag of chips you start playing just for a couple of levels and soon you've eaten the whole bag.

'Hardcore' games are more like meals. They require their own allocated time slot, where you can sit and fully savour and enjoy the rich flavours and experiences the game has to offer, and should leave you feeling quite satisfied once you've finished.

As with food, a healthy gaming diet involves balance.

This extends to the world of game-creation as well, with game companies being the restaurants and take-away places we get our game-food.

Nintendo are like a pizza place. They've got a well known menu of favourites that they're constantly tweaking their recipes for. They might change the base a little, add a few extra herbs or toppings but at their core they're still the delicious pizzas we all know and (most of us) love.

Rovio make potato chips, but talk like they're a 5-star restaurant. To a connoisseur, they're chips aren't that special, but to most people they're chips may as well be dusted with cocaine for how popular they are.

EA is like Taco Bell- everyone knows they're horrendously bad but somehow people still keep buying their food.

I think it'd be a good idea to start referring to 'casual' and 'hardcore' games as 'snacks' and 'meals'. So, Escapists, food for thought?

 

[Racecarlock]

I just wish I wasn't constantly insulted for consuming said snacks. I like marathon 2's survival mode, which is basically just "Shoot aliens until you die", but I don't think that makes me an idiot.

 

[2fish]

Spoiler: You made me try to think up what kind of food date sims would be...you monster

This is not a bad way of looking at the two types. I just don't think it would help bridge the current issues between camps. It mostly comes down to perceived slights to people's favorite area of hardcore games.

I mean the new xcom cannot live up to the classic for me because it is missing features I loved (mostly the great range of control on your people). This does not mean it is a bad game yet some people will see this as a slight against them by the company for trying to appeal to the casuals and ditching the original market. This distinction seems mostly emotional.

Seeing as the distinction seems to mostly be emotion based I wisj you luck on talking logic to emotional people.

I do not think this fight can be won.

 

[krazykidd]

So , if i don't eat snacks , does that make me a hardcore food eater?

OT: i guess ... Whats the point of this thread again?

life is like a box of chocolates , you never know what you're going to get. Discuss .

 

[Jfswift]

So , if i don't eat snacks , does that make me a hardcore food eater?

OT: i guess ... Whats the point of this thread again?

life is like a box of chocolates , you never know what you're going to get. Discuss .

Disagree. You can almost always get info on said 'chocolates' before your purchase. If no one else liked the triple chocolate snack, chances are you won't either.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Loved the EA one.

Does that make Valve Five-Star restaurant that offers all different kinds of food at great prices?

(We got a fanboy over here)

 

[Starik20X6]

OT: i guess ... Whats the point of this thread again?

Thought experiment? I dunno, I just had a brainwave and felt the need to share it. I suppose what I'm trying to get at is there is room for both 'snacks' and 'meals' in a person's diet, so to claim one is detrimental or another is superior is stupid when they both serve different functions and cater to different needs.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Wonder how LoL fits into this? It's probably technically "casual" but the amount of time and effort you have to put into the game, not to mention the insufferable dickheads in the community who think they're pro and they never make mistakes ever so it's never their fault when they die, no sir! Makes it more hardcore I suppose

As a great man once said:

"I am pro and these guys suck! I can't believe how UNLUCKY I was that game!"

Playing several games in a row would be like binging on one of those variety biscuit boxes, the ones where you like some and hate the others. One game you're having a blast and the next you badly want your entire team to die

Obviously Persona 4 would be the prize main course lobster. Or whatever other food is supposed to be super fancy.

Yea, and unfortunately most people would rather eat a shit sandwich, instead of filet mignon.

Filet~, filet~, filet mignon!

Sorry, I mentioned Persona 4, you said something about steak so it sparked a thought about the time when Chie started singing a steak song.

Persona 4 is awesome.

 

[veloper]

Wonder how LoL fits into this? It's probably technically "casual" but the amount of time and effort you have to put into the game, not to mention the insufferable dickheads in the community who think they're pro and they never make mistakes ever so it's never their fault when they die, no sir! Makes it more hardcore I suppose

How about extra spicy indian take-away. It's not haute-cuisine and it's not bland fastfood either.
Food analogies are brilliant because you can always make them work.

BTW online unpleasantness isn't typical to HARDcore gaming. Pick any popular core game, like MW3 or another shooter and you'll find it.

 

[Tentaquil]

This analogy is the most apt analogy that I have ever heard. Bravo good sir, Bravo!

 

[Guffe]

That was a really fun read.
And yeah I can relate, but I won't start using those terms, just yet

 

[TehCookie]

Spoiler: You made me try to think up what kind of food date sims would be...you monster

Spoiler: I'd picture it as something like this:

It's nice in private, and it takes a lot of balls to admit you eat that to the public.

 

[C F]

life is like a box of chocolates , you never know what you're going to get. Discuss .

Bribe the distributor.

OT: I suppose that's an apt comparison.
Just between you and me, sometimes I eat meals for snacks and snack for meals. The same goes for games: I casually pop heads in Halo and then get down and serious for little flash games over the internet.

CAPTCHA: i'm sorry.
Hmmm... Nah, I don't think I am.

 

[Vegosiux]

Life is like a box of chocolates...doesn't last very long for fat people.

As long as it was a good and quality box of chocolates it doesn't really matter how long it lasts!

Though the best kind is the one that lasts for hours yet makes it seem like minutes.

 

[Something Amyss]

Games are like...Like games. They are generally played for fun, and as long as you're not tying people down and forcing them, nobody else should give a damn what you're playing.

 

[Call me Baz]

I don't think that's really fair. People may consider themselves casual gamers but they play the "hardcore" games. What does that make them?

Then there's the other side of that coin, where people sink weeks into "casual" games.

We still haven't decided as a whole on what constitutes a casual or hardcore gamer, lets not put games in their own categories until we can all say with one voice "casual gamers are .. X" where X is the mutually agreeable definition (I'm not even going to give my opinion as that would Daystar the thread)

NB Yes, I did use Daystar as a verb meaning "to derail"

 

[The Wykydtron]

Wonder how LoL fits into this? It's probably technically "casual" but the amount of time and effort you have to put into the game, not to mention the insufferable dickheads in the community who think they're pro and they never make mistakes ever so it's never their fault when they die, no sir! Makes it more hardcore I suppose

How about extra spicy indian take-away. It's not haute-cuisine and it's not bland fastfood either.
Food analogies are brilliant because you can always make them work.

BTW online unpleasantness isn't typical to HARDcore gaming. Pick any popular core game, like MW3 or another shooter and you'll find it.

Yeah you'll find rage in almost any online game but there's something about LoL, or rather the entire MOBA genre that generates a complete mess of rage and violence over practically nothing. It's the fact that you can't ragequit properly, people can single handedly lose you the game, you can lose even though you did perfectly well and the list goes on.

I swear a few prolonged games of LoL can turn into a therapy session because of that one obnoxious guy who refuses to see that you can still win, spams the surrender vote and blames everyone for anything has to be persuaded down by one or more people on his team before you can get anything else done gameplay wise.

What's an intense therapy session in food terms? Question of the day.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

I can't help but feel someone's been watching Sequelitis... (For reference, 14:20)

OT: Games are games. Not food, silly. But if Valve made food, it would be stuff that you would find in a 5 Star restaurant. :3

 

[Racecarlock]

Yea, and unfortunately most people would rather eat a shit sandwich, instead of filet mignon.

As proved by best sellers such as daikatana, E.t on the atari 2600, and superman 64, right?

Well, no, of course that's not what you meant, this is simply another slam at call of duty players because they're not searching for anything more deep than that. But that's the thing. Maybe they don't want to eat something that's incredibly complex all the time, especially with how much time it takes to make it. Oh, but you can't have that, right? No, everyone who enjoys different things to you is stupid, and everything that doesn't cater exactly to your tastes is total shit. People keep wanting the same sandwich with extra condiments instead of the next sandwich to be a salad instead, and apparently that's horrible, because people apparently shouldn't have their own preferences.

 

[Racecarlock]

Yea, and unfortunately most people would rather eat a shit sandwich, instead of filet mignon.

As proved by best sellers such as daikatana, E.t on the atari 2600, and superman 64, right?

Well, no, of course that's not what you meant, this is simply another slam at call of duty players because they're not searching for anything more deep than that. But that's the thing. Maybe they don't want to eat something that's incredibly complex all the time, especially with how much time it takes to make it. Oh, but you can't have that, right? No, everyone who enjoys different things to you is stupid, and everything that doesn't cater exactly to your tastes is total shit. People keep wanting the same sandwich with extra condiments instead of the next sandwich to be a salad instead, and apparently that's horrible, because people apparently shouldn't have their own preferences.

Never said that THEY were stupid, just that they have shit taste. I have a friend that's smarter than me (book smart) but he would rather have dominoes pizza, while I would rather have an authentic Italian pizza.

How does that work anyways? Like, how the hell can someone criticize someone else for having different tastes?