A lot of the time when people come over I hand them the controller to play a game with me and then I proceed to watch them flounder around for five minutes before calling the game boring and quitting saying that they don’t like video games. You could argue that the game should be more accessible to people who don’t play a lot of games and you could also argue that the player is at fault for being so bad.
Gamers are the most suppressed minority because true gamers such as myself are extreme and are serious about the games they play, which means those filthy normies can’t understand the complexity of staring at a screen for five hours. Casual people are typically people who don’t play many video games if at all, and as a result are very bad and aren’t able to experience a good number of games. Party games that don’t take any skill are more common among casuals and difficult skill-based games are usually what real gamers play.
Which begs the question: should a game cater to casuals? In my opinion, the answer is yes. I think it’s entirely possible to make a game both accessible to newcomers and challenging enough for veterans. First off, casuals are casuals because they don’t want to dedicate time to playing video games all day, which means they won’t be good at them, which means they won’t like them, which means they won’t want to dedicate time to playing video games all day. Gamers spend all day staring at a monitor and as a result are very good at video games. The skill gap between the two is enormous. Even someone who isn’t extreme but still plays games as a hobby will absolutely demolish someone playing for the first time, or the seventh time, or even the hundredth time.
Video games are very hard to get into especially if you haven’t started playing them since a very young age. The thing is, after playing a game for the first time, you’re not going to see any results. Even after playing for three months you might not see any results, at least nothing significant. And that’s what turns people away. The lack of results. It feels like your efforts aren’t getting you anywhere.
The problem for most people (at least from what I’ve seen) is that people are uncomfortable with the controller. On the NES, there was a d-pad, two buttons, start, select, and that’s it. Just by looking at it once you can understand what it’s all about. Look at a modern controller with a left stick, right stick, d-pad, four buttons on the front, two triggers, two bumpers, L3, R3, start, and select. It’s a lot more to take in and constantly I tell people to press a certain button and they have to look down and find where it is, even after having used that button multiple times.
Now, the controllers aren’t just getting more buttons for no reason. As technology advances the games get bigger and have bigger ideas, which means more buttons that will have to be used in order to play all these big ideas. So you’re kind of stuck: use less buttons to cater to casuals, or use more buttons to cater to gamers who want a bigger experience. Honestly there should be an in between. Inevitably some games are going to have to use all the buttons but a lot of the games I play just have a lot of buttons that aren’t being used for anything.
I think Nintendo is the company most casuals go for when they want to play a game, because be honest, no casual would ever buy an Xbox or Playstation, probably because it comes off as too hardcore. Nintendo seems a lot more newcomer friendly in that regard.
The Wii is a console that came out a while ago, 2006 or 2007 I think, and that was the casual machine, which is why it sold so well. It was the only console competing at the time that was trying to cash in on the casuals while the Xbox and Playstation were fighting for the gamers. As a result a lot of gamers turned up their elitist heads and decided they were too cool for the Wii. But the casuals loved it because of how simple it was.
First: the controller. Point it at the screen and press A or B. Simple as that. For other games: turn it on its side, use the d-pad and the buttons labeled 1 and 2. I think they were trying to make the controller similar to a TV remote since that’s what casuals would be most familiar with, and it worked.
Second, the library. There are hardly any hardcore games on Wii because no gamers owned a Wii, the Wii didn’t have enough buttons for a hardcore game, and the Wii’s hardware was weak compared to the Playstatin and Xbox. Thus, the Wii’s library is flooded with casual party games. Simple, low skill games for casuals to enjoy. And apparently it worked because the Wii sold better than the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, the other two competing consoles at the time.
For Nintendo’s next console I assume they were trying to cater to both casuals and gamers with the Wii U. It had more buttons but also the same friendly Wii vibe. It also sold terribly and was a huge failure. There’s a lot of guesses as to why it did so bad. My guess is that casuals just got tired of casual games which makes sense considering how simple they are.
Anyhow Nintendo’s next move was releasing the Switch which did really well and catered to casuals and gamers alike so I guess it can be done. The controller might be too scary for some but then you turn it on its side and play with only one joycon and suddenly it’s not so bad.
so guys, i hoped you enjoyed my blog. Don’t bother responding because your opinion is wrong and you’re just a hater. sayonara!