Lately, with the coming of the Wii, which i enjoy quite bit, mind you, some new terms have been thrown around like they were, well, nothing. Yes im talking about "casuals" and "Hardcore" Gaming.
I dont quite understand who the hell decided WHO is "Harcore" and who is "Casual", it seems like it is the most absurd classification system for anyone to have for, well, anything. one person can be casual, and another person can say that they are " Hardcore", without having any real differences in their habits. This always seems to bring up discussions about what each entitles, and im personally tired of hearing about it, so im going to take a crack at it.
The "Hardcore" gamer is basically... a reason to complain and whine about the games coming out, nothing more, nothing less. they are CONSTANTLY complaining about games coming out not being "Hardcore", but when you ask them what a "Hardcore Game" is, they are usually drawing up blanks, or spewing random filths out of their opinionated mouths. You see alot of this in the Wii forums. every game that comes out is either not hardcore, or, well, not hardcore. Good Example: Super Mario Galaxy.
i can not TELL you how many times "hardcore gamers" have talked about how " aimed towards casuals" this game is. it sickens me, so heres a little secret: ALL MARIO GAMES ARE AIMED TOWARDS EVERYBODY! i would like for you to walk up to a person, just a random person, and ask them if they didnt know who mario was. chances are they will answer yes, and probably have at least PLAYED a game with him in it. does that mean mario is casual? no. he is an ICON, but even moreso, he is a GAME. People play games, people dont care about "Casual" and "Hardcore" wich brings me to another point: Master Chief
This section is short, for the emphasis on it is quite easy. how many people play halo? alot right? how many KIDS play halo? im talkin' younger kids, you know exactly who im talking about, that kid who keeps killing you all the time, who you SWEAR just picks you out of everyone and kills you while fighting with someone else, 70 times a match, who taunts you every time you die. and yea, you consider yourself hardcore, but if you're getting constantly picked on by 12 year olds, just how "Hardcore" are you?
Lets talk about the casual gamer. the "Casual" gamer, can be any age, any height, and weight, any gender, any... ANYTHING. the "casual" gamer will go to a store, find a game, and buy it. end of story. chances are, they will have fun with the game, no matter what it is, and why? not because they have no standards or smarts towards games, not because they are simpler beings, but because they are just better gamers overall. yep. out of all the time playing games you "Hardcores" spend, a "Casual" will have more fun than you playing it. This could be because the casuals dont waste their time learning about the game before they bought it, much like all of us gamers used to do, and hey guess what? we played alot of games back then, without worrying about ratings or any crap like that. You " Hardcores" put so much effort into researching games and heckling games you havent even PLAYED, you miss out on alot of gaming.
Now lets talk nintendo. Alot of "hardcore" fans feel betrayed by nintendo's love towards the "casual" players, when in all actuality they arent doing much of anything different. Motion sensing and touch screens took video games to a whole new level, they inspire people to move, god forbid. they are out all the time, thinking of ideas of how people can use this motion sensetivity and take you to new places, without making it necesarilly hard, like wii sports. anyone with a wii had fun with wii sports, granted there was no real challenge, it was totally self paced and it was fun. Nintendo is still coming out with new material, and all i hear from the boards is: WE NEED ZELDA MARIO METROID STARFOX PLEASE WE NEED THESE HARDCORE GAMES BLAH BLAH BLAH! i am SO sick of hearing about what the players want. deal with what you are getting instead of complaining about not getting exactly what you want. try new things for pete's sake, and get over it! none of those games have EVER been aimed towards "hardcores" and you know why? Nintendo is a business. they do not see hardcore and casual, they see people, countless nobodies, who will buy a product. Motion sensing is incredible and anyone can get into it, it feels like there arent nearly as many button to remember, and people like that.
i guess thats most of what i have to say for now, so... bye bye