Games: what happened?

Ok people, this is related to the "polemic" i caused on General Discussion forum with my topic "Changes on Premium" but im taking the problem to a larger scope of debate, so you guys can give me your opinions on the matter.

So, my history with games date back to my infancy, my father was a nerd and like every nerd with a son he showed me the wonders of this strange machine that only in the 2000´s began to be popular here on Brazil (i had something like 8 to 9 years this time) and he showed me great classics like Half-Life, Age of Empires and most important of all, Civilization 3 (even my musician uncle liked this game), i had my first introduction to the (g)old console games like Super Mario World, Enduro, Riveraid and so...from this time to now, i saw many things changing in game industry, i saw very closely the ascension of the Call of Duty franchise(damn i finished COD 2 more than five times!), i saw when graphics began to be much more important than gameplay with the first Crysis, i saw the ascension of casual games on cellphone, smartphones, "whateverphones" and finally Tables. I saw the game industry growing up to be bigger than Hollywood...but saw many awesome things too, like Civilization IV (the best game of the series until now), Half-Life 2, the many innovative and creative indie games...but, after all this, what defines the actual situation on the gamming universe today? the answer to that is what i call the "Casual Mentality of Gamers".

Why for example a game like Angry Birds is way more popular than Civilization or Europa Universallis? why is the big companies are investing so much money on the casual games and brilliant, intelligent games like Dragon Age are becoming action-packed shit with shallow story and dumbed down in the sequences? because you, yes, YOU let them, with your pocked, buying more and more "Angry Birds", "Fruit Ninja" and similar, you are telling them "MOAR Angry Birds" and "More casual!!!!!1111".

Let me clarify, im not telling that every gamer want this, but when you play COD MW3 like it is the best shit there is to play while actually good games like Spec Ops: The Line are being negligence and alienated to the "status" of "cult". do you have the right to say that "today games are shit"?

said that, i´d like to hear your opinion on the matter, am i right? wrong? neither? tell me!


obs: I know this text wans´t the best, but bear with em, english isn´t my natural language and i have a immense effort just to write what i think without being redundant or retarded. thanks.

Geschreven door Madrox1, 11.03.2013 at 12:37

Why for example a game like Angry Birds is way more popular than Civilization or Europa Universallis? why is the big companies are investing so much money on the casual games and brilliant, intelligent games like Dragon Age are becoming action-packed shit with shallow story and dumbed down in the sequences? because you, yes, YOU let them, with your pocked, buying more and more "Angry Birds", "Fruit Ninja" and similar, you are telling them "MOAR Angry Birds" and "More casual!!!!!1111".

Casual gaming is a natural progression due to people have less time overall in a day to go fully concentrated on a 2-3 hour game of battling intelligence, tactics and strategies. Most of us want entertainment good and fast. Back into the days, games were a competition between friends (cough Monopoly) or having skill in games of social identity (cough Chess/Playing Cards both originally for the higher class). From a 21th century commercial perspective, the more people you reach, the more income and profit. How do you get more people? Make simpler games!

It's simply a question of contemporary attitudes and business. I started computer gaming through flash games and the whole sector used to be treated/perceived like shit. How things have changed in 2013.

PS: You mean tablets, not tables. Playing Cluedo on a board and playing Candy Crush on an iPad have nothing in common

Geschreven door ezzatam, 11.03.2013 at 13:22

Geschreven door Madrox1, 11.03.2013 at 12:37

Why for example a game like Angry Birds is way more popular than Civilization or Europa Universallis? why is the big companies are investing so much money on the casual games and brilliant, intelligent games like Dragon Age are becoming action-packed shit with shallow story and dumbed down in the sequences? because you, yes, YOU let them, with your pocked, buying more and more "Angry Birds", "Fruit Ninja" and similar, you are telling them "MOAR Angry Birds" and "More casual!!!!!1111".

Casual gaming is a natural progression due to people have less time overall in a day to go fully concentrated on a 2-3 hour game of battling intelligence, tactics and strategies. Most of us want entertainment good and fast. Back into the days, games were a competition between friends (cough Monopoly) or having skill in games of social identity (cough Chess/Playing Cards both originally for the higher class). From a 21th century commercial perspective, the more people you reach, the more income and profit. How do you get more people? Make simpler games!

It's simply a question of contemporary attitudes and business. I started computer gaming through flash games and the whole sector used to be treated/perceived like shit. How things have changed in 2013.

PS: You mean tablets, not tables. Playing Cluedo on a board and playing Candy Crush on an iPad have nothing in common

Casual gamming is the only progression to idiocy, in my own opinion, and i do not think its about elitism.

I forgot to talk about the MMO´s and multiplayer "experience", thanks for remembering me.

I think you already saw images like this:


What do you see here? visual pollution.
WoW and many actual games follow the designing rule "Easy to learn, hard to master" wich means, first you play the game, if you are a "normal" gamer you play the "demo" first, then you pay the "stater" edition of the game, and you play until you "learn" the mechanics, but, by then, you will reach the limit of the game and then comes the master play of their, you need to pay a monthly plan to be able to develop the game, if you reach this point in the game you have 2 options, give up and play another thing or you are so immersed in the game that you "need" more and more, and finally pay them, its a fucking gold mine (or you have a bad experience in bizarre private servers).

In COD we have a completely different concept, here you have a biased game design to amplify multiplay, of course, singleplay exist, but "feels" like a demo to the gamer, the story is absolutely shallow, you have not the complete experience that the game can give, and here they go play the damn multiplayer mode that give you little "rewards" like perks, kill streak, levels, all to satisfy the ego of the gamer. And there no space for brain, or intelligence in this equation.

Flash games are a entire different story, as much as we have "casual" games, you have many games that have depth and a good story, but they are still rarer, flash games are the very spirit of casual, but still, there no comparison when you talk about the kind of "casual" of RPG Shooter: Starwish or SHIFT and the kind of casual you have in tablets and "whateverphones".

PS: Exactly, it was tablet, thanks. i will correct this.