Casualfags

June 30, 2008, 7:50 AM

So for a long time I've been seeing the term "casualfag" thrown around on /v/ and alot of animosity towards gamers that are casual. For a while I was neutral towards it, but now I'm starting to realize just why casualfags are hated.

For example, if any of you have been watching the Bonus Round on GameTrailers, you'll know that they're talking about stuff coming up for E3 and speculating on things. Well, half of what they've been saying amounts to "HURR I THINK SONY IS FINALLY BRANCHIN OUT TO CASUALS" like the PS3 is trying to be the Wii and "XBAWCKS ISNT TRYING HARD ENUFF TO BRANCH OUT THEY ONLY APPEAL TO HARDCORE" like appealing to the hardcore is a bad thing.

Now, I'm no business expert, but to me it seems stupid to try to appeal to casuals. Sure, things might sell great for a year or two, but casuals aren't going to be a steady consumer base like your hardcore gamers. The Wii is the perfect example. It's selling like hotcakes, but who's making it sell and what? Soccer moms and nursing homes. WiiSports. WiiFit. And look at the amount of good first-party games on the console, there's not many. Good third-party games are even fewer. It's almost as if they're turning their backs on hardcore gamers in favor of appealing to non-gamers just to make more money, but they don't realize it's going to backfire on them. Hardcore gamers are going to stray from the Wii because there's not enough games for them on the system, and eventually the casuals will get bored and move onto something else. I mean, just look at Mario Kart. The DS game is fantastic. But what about the Wii version? Yeah, it's still a pretty solid game, but they've made it even more casual than it used to be. Powersliding? Gone. The need to memorize tracks or just plain practice at a course? Gone.

Take a look around you, what kind of crap is popular these days? Guitar Hero and other rhythm games. The Wii is selling because of peripherals and games that aren't really games. And what's the most talked-about exclusive game for the PS3 now that MGS4 has passed? LittleBigPlanet, another casual title. Plus, with the advent of casualfags, we now have whiny little cunts who declare a game crap when it's too hard for them. This kid is a perfect example:

Now I'm certainly no good at Contra. As a matter of fact, I'm not very good at hard games at all. But I don't cry and declare a game crap when I can't beat it, I try harder (and if I can't beat it, I sell it). Casualfags are going to destroy gaming. It's just like anything else, the more mainstream and popular it becomes, the more corrupted it becomes by people who really have no business dealing with it.

Thoughts?

June 30, 2008, 9:25 AM

So you think that in the future, people are just going to turn away from the games because either they're too hard and/or too boring for them to play? I see the point.
Maybe the gaming industry thinks that by churning out hundreds of casual gaming out there, they'd be able to appeal to a wider demographic (possibly with the hope of converting them into hardcore gamers?) and even if this demographic were to turn away from these games, a new batch of casual gamers will arise. Eh.

June 30, 2008, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by .Z.

So you think that in the future, people are just going to turn away from the games because either they're too hard and/or too boring for them to play? I see the point.

Perhaps not turn away entirely, I think there will always be some hardcore gamers out there, but the numbers certainly stand a chance of being reduced.

Quote:

Maybe the gaming industry thinks that by churning out hundreds of casual gaming out there, they'd be able to appeal to a wider demographic (possibly with the hope of converting them into hardcore gamers?) and even if this demographic were to turn away from these games, a new batch of casual gamers will arise. Eh.

That's probably the tactic they're using, which in itself is flawed. If you churn out hundreds of casual games, hardcore games will become a rarity. And even if the casuals grew to be hardcore gamers, they've been raised on casual games, so if a developer were to come along and make something harder, it would meet with minimal success.

So that would just hurt the industry by forcing developers to create nothing but casual games if they hoped to succeed. That would eventually lead to nothing but constant shovelware and half-assed games churned out by the minute. In other words, we'd have a repeat of the Atari days and gaming would eventually come to a halt. Then there'd have to be a new Nintendo to revive gaming.

I hope to god none of that actually happens...but it's a distinct possibility.

June 30, 2008, 12:26 PM

I think you should GB24chan

Seriously though. Casuals are killing gaming?

Bullshit, You know what I think, I think that all these stupidly complex games are getting boring as fuck. I've played many a video game in my lifetime, I've played some of the hardest shit around.

Nowadays however, it would appear that these new innovative challenging games with amazing graphics. Are not hard. And the Graphics are mediocre.

I shall elaborate:

Hard Games:
Hard Games are meant to have some for of challenge to them, for example solving a ridiculous puzzle, killing a stupidly powerful entity. Games nowadays have none of these, Instead they're tedious. Solving a puzzle actually involves scouring the map for some obscure item. That's not hard, that's boring. To quote Maddox:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maddox

If I wanted to play virtual scavenger hunt I'd clean my room

And as for the really strong boss, if you pound enough attacks into it repeatedly it dies. There's no challenge, there's no tactic. just hack and slash or shoot until you have to reload, then go hide some more. Boring shite.

Graphics:

The graphics, while they're far improved from the PS2 and Gamecubes. They aren't advancing beyond where they have reached.

Examples?

This is a screenshot from the Xbox360 games, Quake Wars (A damn good game, basically Team Fortress 2, with some modifications)

This is Halo 3

I've often wondered, why everything single fucking game nowadays has to have a bastard sunset in the background or the sky resembles that of sundown, and the only colour pallete these designers to utilise being Poo Brown or Urine Yellow. Where's the innovation for christ sake? It's depressing, I get bored and depressed from playing the same shit over and over again. I'd rather be called a "casual" that be some sad pretentious hardcore gamer who masturbates into a sock every night over the new trailer he managed to find and because his level 27 Paladin just found some really cool item on WoW

Generalising that people complaining about games being shit because they're too hard is stupid. Maybe it's the fact all the quality games are the damn same.

However I do agree that there are alot of shite games being made, that's hardly the fault of the "casualfags". Supply and Demand, it's simple. If there are more people who want casual games which they won't spend years trying to finish 100%. Then the companies will make more of these games to boost their profits. If they didn't then you would have NO video games at all. So maybe it's a different matter, they have to make these shitty boring football games again and again, in order to fund the production of the decent games.

Also there are more shitty games because they are so easy to make they make them in weeks. The decent games however, take so long to make you only get them every few months or so. The ratio of shit games to good games will always be higher for the shit games.

But there will always be Decent games in production.

So casualfags are not killing gaming, if anyone is, it's the companies making the games for them. If you blame casualfags for killing gaming. It's like blaming Polish people for stealing our jobs. If it weren't for the employers employing them, they wouldn't be here. You get the idea.

tl;dr: Companies make games for casualfags because there is more of a demand, but will still make quality games, it just takes longer, and casualfag is the worst thing I've heard to come out of /v/ in a long time. Don't use it or you'll sound like a retard

June 30, 2008, 1:34 PM

Hmmm...

I think that they are going about it the wrong way. There are those who aren't interested in deep, hardcore experiences, but more populist, shallow gaming. Whilst you can expand your market share by trying to appeal to the wider, disloyal "casual" market, it decreases long-term, hardcore satisfaction. I am, by no means, the most hardcore of gamers, but I'm no casual, either. I like a satisfying challenge, and I am becoming very weary of games sacrificing story and gameplay for graphics and the "x-factor". Resistance, for instance, is a prime example of such. Hardly a challenge.
I'm all for good graphics and glossy presentation, but when it gets in the way of the quality of the game, no thanks.

There must be a middle ground inbetween casual and hardcore gaming.

June 30, 2008, 1:55 PM

So basically you think that because games aren't as good as they used to be, the fans of those games don't deserve to be called a gamer, because you're so hxc? Fuck off. There's going to be people out there who think that the game industry right now is as strong as its ever been, and that it's going in the right direction. Just because there's a load of games that you as a "hardcore gamer" don't like, doesn't mean that "casual gamers" are ruining it. It's pretty much the same as the debate that the music industry is going backwards compared to what it was like 30/40 years ago. There's always going to be fans of each generation, and neither are right or wrong.

June 30, 2008, 1:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Juliet

So basically you think that because games aren't as good as they used to be, the fans of those games don't deserve to be called a gamer, because you're so hxc? Fuck off. There's going to be people out there who think that the game industry right now is as strong as its ever been, and that it's going in the right direction. Just because there's a load of games that you as a "hardcore gamer" don't like, doesn't mean that "casual gamers" are ruining it. It's pretty much the same as the debate that the music industry is going backwards compared to what it was like 30/40 years ago. There's always going to be fans of each generation, and neither are right or wrong.

2nded.(However I will remain a pretentious faggot about my music tastes 8D)

All in favour of him GTFOing and going back to 4chan to discuss with fellow hardcorefags (seewat i did thar, I made a label and insult by adding fag to the end. I'm so funny man)

June 30, 2008, 8:22 PM

I'm not going to blame casual gamers for the decline in the quality of videogames (if you believe there's such a decline, that is). Everyone should be able to enjoy videogames--not just those who consider themselves hardcore gamers. While many games seem to be geared towards players who don't wish to devote their entire lives to the experience, there are plenty of games that appeal to the more intensive players. If that were to change, and games like Bioshock, Gears of War, Mass Effect, GTA IV and MGS4 started to give way to games like WiiFit and Nintendogs, then I'd have a problem. For now, I feel that there's an adequate amount of great games for people of different preferences to play.

The kid in that video is irritating, however. Branding a game "terrible" simply because you can't excel at it is ridiculous. I don't characterize casual gamers by that trait, though. Plenty of hardcore gamers with shitty attitudes do the same thing.

June 30, 2008, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finnegan III

If you blame casualfags for killing gaming. It's like blaming Polish people for stealing our jobs.

But polaks stole all my jobs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Piedmon

Hmmm...

I think that they are going about it the wrong way. There are those who aren't interested in deep, hardcore experiences, but more populist, shallow gaming. Whilst you can expand your market share by trying to appeal to the wider, disloyal "casual" market, it decreases long-term, hardcore satisfaction. I am, by no means, the most hardcore of gamers, but I'm no casual, either. I like a satisfying challenge, and I am becoming very weary of games sacrificing story and gameplay for graphics and the "x-factor". Resistance, for instance, is a prime example of such. Hardly a challenge.
I'm all for good graphics and glossy presentation, but when it gets in the way of the quality of the game, no thanks.

There must be a middle ground inbetween casual and hardcore gaming.

Thank you. At least someone else gets it. Gamers seem to be alot more shallow these days and are easily won over by pretty graphics and little gimmicks. There's alot more coming out these days to appeal to the shallow gamers.

Indie games seem to be gaining alot of ground too, which I suppose has its ups and downs. On one hand, it gives good developers a chance to become known. But on the other hand, it's making the sort of casual, "quick fix" games more popular. One of the titles I've been hearing alot about for the PS3 is Pixel Junk Eden. It looks nice enough, but five years ago I never would have imagined something like this actually being on a home console.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Juliet

Fuck off.

No u.