You define a hardcore game as any game that takes more than a few days to learn to play competently. I would definitely put Tamagotchi in that category then since it takes at least a week to even understand if you're doing the right things to get your pet to survive. Electronic board games and card games would certainly fit here as well. I've been playing chess for years and still feel incompetent when playing against certain people.
Alternatively I could also say that Morrowind is a casual game because it only takes me about 5 minutes to get through the tutorial which gives me everything I need to know to be competent in the game mechanics: Left-click attacks, right-click brings up my equipment, space bar interacts with objects - easy sauce.
So would you say if Bejeweled or Tetris was a multiplayer game, it would be hardcore, but not so if it remained single player? What about scores? That is not a multiplayer component, but yet can still be used to compete with others.
Heh, it's an odd thing. I think it's a combination of mastery curve and learning curve.. games that take both a long time to learn and a long time to master are the most hardcore. Games that have a very small mastery curve and very small learning curve are casual.
Tamagotchi, Pokemon is a bit of a niche. I wouldn't call them casual, and I certainly won't call chess casual. Chess is as hardcore as it gets. Card games are casual by my definition, poker would be easy to get and plenty of people learn it fast, even though it takes effort to master.
Warcraft and Starcraft, even with the fanatics are not really hardcore, and neither are sports games. But a sports game that takes days to figure out like Football Manager would be hardcore.
Bejeweled and Tetris, even when competitive don't count as hardcore, because they take no time to learn. Yeah, maybe not Guitar Hero or Left 4 Dead either. Scores only matter if people cared... like if people actually spent several dollars trying to beat high score Tetris at an arcade, it's no longer casual.
Morrowind and Fallout 3 is a little exception. I wouldn't call them casual because the character creation and tutorial takes half an hour to soak in. It's not hardcore because it takes no time to master. What makes it non-casual is most probably that you need hardware expensive enough for a hardcore gamer, but not if you're playing it on a console.
I still wonder where DF lies on it. That would make all of us.. hardcore gamers.
Heh, anyway, it's not so much a derail. Games are headed one way or another. I once thought that people would move up from casual games to more hardcore, but I'm not so sure. I know that DF would never be a good first game. I did pick up X-Com when I was 12 and failed bad at it. My dad plays Age of Empires using only cheats because it's too tough for him, but he could play Superpower 2 and Simcity 4 (on hard) comfortably because of his MBA.
I think some people are deluding in thinking that people want all those casual games. Well, my girlfriend is a non-gamer and she has absolutely no interest in Bejeweled because it's boring. She does play The Sims because she likes it and wants to learn DoTA, but can't. My sister is definitely a hardcore powergamer, she finds flaws in The Sims' game mechanic and uses it to build filthy rich Sims who are maxed out in every skill. Then she plays again with tougher traits. She plays the Sims too, but for different reasons.
I'm not even sure what I'm saying here. It's just that casual games aren't the magic product non-gaming investors think they are. If this was the food industry, casual games are like snacks, or fast food at best. The only worrying thing is if a restaurant owner decides to sell them too because they're the new trend.
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Topic: The prediction of the game industry-Let's talk about blu ray and copy machines. (Read 7541 times)