Giving hardcore games to casuals

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Me: "Switch to the Gravity Hammer."
Girl: "Which one is that?"
Me: "... it's the one that looks like a hammer."
Girl: "But which one's that?"
Me: "THE BIG STICK!"

This is a small transcript of my efforts to help a non-gamer play Halo: Reach multi-player.

 

[Professor Idle]

Well, my mum managed to get through the ship level in Call of Duty 4 on Easy, although very quickly after she threw up due to seasickness. From a game.

 

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

I hate to say this, but I find that I'm turning into the equivalent of someone's dad when it comes to video games. I used to be awesome at twitch games like UT2004 and CS:S, and played it all the time online and at public LAN events. But ten years later I honestly feel like I've lost my edge, I tried BF3 recently and may as well have had flippers for hands. It also doesn't help my "I'm becoming an old man" feeling when I realize the only reason I tried an FPS again is because it came for free with SimCity.

These days I'm more into simulation games and MMOs like GW2, so maybe there's hope for me yet in the less twitchy genres.

 

[Rob Robson]

Would you mind defining "hardcore"?

Certainly. A hardcore game is either:

A. One that takes several hundreds of hours to master (playing Aliens in Natural Selection 2 for example)
B. One that is extremely unforgiving (Say, Dark Souls, to provide an example most here can relate to)
C. One that has both balance and skill gap in multiplayer,* and thus is competitive (say Starcraft 2/ NS2/ Red Orchestra 2)
D. A persistent game (usually MMO) with permanent death and PvP looting.

*It is much more common to relate to C. as 'competitive' or 'hardcore competitive'.

 

[ASnogarD]

Hardcore = Gamers who spent way too much time on games and forget they are meant to be fun , if you aint having fun it aint fun.

Casual = Someone who picks up a controller occasionally to relax, will not spend hours on end to master the art of a specific title and will simply dismiss a game as not fun if it cant be understood and played after picking it up.
(Note: Played, not completed...if it cannot be played)

It is blurred by the console / PC division... I am reasonably adept at playing CoD Blops II, CS (Tho the Source engine has really crappy hit reg), TF 2, BF 2 , BF 2142 <3 , BF 3 </3 ... I aint too bad on FPS on the PC, but cannot play half as smoothly on a console because to me the controllers are awkward.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

Hardcore = Gamers who spent way too much time on games and forget they are meant to be fun , if you aint having fun it aint fun.

Casual = Someone who picks up a controller occasionally to relax, will not spend hours on end to master the art of a specific title and will simply dismiss a game as not fun if it cant be understood and played after picking it up.
(Note: Played, not completed...if it cannot be played)

It is blurred by the console / PC division... I am reasonably adept at playing CoD Blops II, CS (Tho the Source engine has really crappy hit reg), TF 2, BF 2 , BF 2142 <3 , BF 3 </3 ... I aint too bad on FPS on the PC, but cannot play half as smoothly on a console because to me the controllers are awkward.

Trying to use a gamepad for FPS is just... it's like having my hands swapped with my feet.

OT: I only really have stories about me introducing friends to PC and my own personal battle with console FPS. Also, my friends get really annoyed when I point out frame rate drops, texture pop-ins, reduced FoV, etc. I can't help it! Now that I can notice these things, I can't stop noticing. I'm sick!

 

[Aircross]

I was watching my little brother play Megaman X. He couldn't get through the intro level. Then I told him that Megaman X isn't even the hardest of all the Megaman games.

Hardcore = Gamers who spent way too much time on games and forget they are meant to be fun , if you aint having fun it aint fun.

Casual = Someone who picks up a controller occasionally to relax, will not spend hours on end to master the art of a specific title and will simply dismiss a game as not fun if it cant be understood and played after picking it up.
(Note: Played, not completed...if it cannot be played)

What some people find it fun mastering a game? Example: Speedrunners...


...and competitive gamers.


You cannot blanket your definition of fun over others.

 

[Palmerama]

I cannot stand the "hardcore" & "casual" definitions! There have always been people who play games at different rates & different games but this generation has really laid out the divide!

I've been playing games for over 20 years from Pac-man to Castlevania, Tetris to Resident Evil, Angry Birds to Dark Souls and I've never called myself a hardcore gamer. All games require an evolution of skill.

My girlfriend prefers playing iOS games and played a game called Dragon Skies so much when it came out the game couldn't handle the amount she'd done and constantly crashed. She had to wait for them to update the game enough for her to continue. Playing a casual game to the extent of a hardcore gamer? Blurring the lines a bit isn't it?

Surely someone who has a K/D of 12.0 in CoD has a right to brag as much as someone who's 3 starred every level in Candy Crush saga? Both took a degree of skill and a dedicated time to achieve. Regardless of the type of game.

 

[dangitall]

Send anyone unfamiliar with RTS into DotA, LoL, HoN, etc.'s multi-player lobby.

No, that's a bit too cruel.