tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5706222432360428997.post1376893115406555492..comments2024-03-28T15:07:16.143-04:00Comments on Game Design Aspect: Building Bridges (Part I)Sande Chenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04783798710597097506noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5706222432360428997.post-26442034682717000912009-05-22T07:18:50.380-04:002009-05-22T07:18:50.380-04:00I feel there's a lot of elements to games that we ...I feel there's a lot of elements to games that we often fail to consider due to being gamers ourselves - see Nels Anderson's Readability series: http://www.above49.ca/2009/05/readability-compilation-now-with-bonus.html<br /><br />The idea that casual and hardcore gamers want two different types of game is, I think, completely flawed. I think they're just turned off mainstream games because certain elements - control schemes, elements of interaction, or narrative elements such as the portrayal of characters and their behaviour - have been designed in a way that is acceptable to hardcore gamers, but not acceptable in general.<br /><br />Think of it like genre-focussed cinema. Paper-thin characters with ridiculous reactions to things, smattered with little touches of racism are common in exploitation action movies, but would kill mainstream movies at the box office. This doesn't mean we can't make action movies that have success at the box office, we just need to make action movies that go deeper than the rest and address the problems common to the genre.<br /><br />As an example in games, take Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I have had personal, first-hand experience at retail of the effect this game had on casual players. They loved it - because, unlike most games, they could relate to the situation, empathize with the believable characters, and the controls were (relatively) simple. Trying to explain Far Cry 2 to the same players is a far more difficult experience, despite it being (in most people's opinions) a far superior game - there's far more going on in the game, it isn't linear and the story is a little more abstract.<br /><br />There will always be a gap between the two types of customer in the games market, but I think there are directions we can take other than creating games to ease casual gamers into the market - we could also make some games simply easier to get into.Alan Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06072612244201764881noreply@blogger.com