KEN-JENNINGS wrote:
Miggle wrote:
KEN-JENNINGS wrote:
How did the PS3 and 360 change casual gaming? The casual gamer has always been there, same as the serious gamer. The difference is that more people are playing games period. The older generation that grew up on Intellivision, Atari and NES are the core of the casual gamer population.
they made local multiplayer a lot rarer and added a generally shit online service.
The first video games were casual games. "Serious games" is the niche market, not the other way around - and it's always been that way. The x360 and PS3 made casual gaming more accessible through use of online services. For consoles, hardcore gaming is done LAN. Online service made it easier for the casual gamer.
Not sure where or why this new-found rage at the downfall of "serious gamer/games" has been so prevalent as of late. There have been good games and shitty games since video games were invented. There still are great games that draw a competitive crowd - look at active Warcraft ladders, WOW, Starcraft, etc. Perhaps you guys are holding out for something that isn't going to happen.
Casual game =/= shitty game.
That's Finray's argument, not mine. Consoles have been and should be mainly for casual games, yes. To a degree they still are, but as the current generation of consoles have come out, the things that made them good have disappeared and been replaced by mediocre substitutes. That's all on the console end. On the PC end, Devs have been making shooters primarily on the 360, which is one of the least capable machines available, with one of the least capable audiences available. Why does this matter? Because it means that PC games have become largely ported console games.
I'm not a competitive gamer, I find that playing competitively often takes most of the fun out of games for me. That doesn't mean I want dumbed down games that have sacrificed quality for advertisement. The industry on all sides was better when consoles and PCs were seperated completely, with ports failing miserably.
"But Miggle, you sound like Finray, not citing any examples" Well, I have a few up my sleeve.
I currently own both the PC and Gamecube versions of 007 Nightfire. Why? Because they're completely different games. PC nightfire has a much more difficult and complex singleplayer campaign and runs the Q3 engine. It also has a mediocre online multiplayer mode. Gamecube Nightfire has a fun, quick, easy singleplayer, as well as a wonderful splitscreen multiplayer for hours of playtime with friends.
But wait, there's more. I also own Burnout Revenge for PS2 and Burnout Paradise for PS3. Burnout revenge may lack some of Burnout Paradise's depth of singleplayer gameplay, but it wasily makes up for it in its vast selection of local multiplayer modes. Paradise shipped without local multiplayer, and offered a $10 DLC for an incredibly thin pass the controller game.
Consoles should still be the platform of cheap, casual, splitscreen games. PCs should still be the platform of Deep singleplayer and Online Multiplayer games. But as it is, they're both just the platform of shit games.