Casual Games: Re-Introducing the Masses to Gaming – part 1
The first Pong machine was set up in a bar. Flash forward a decade or two, and there’s a war being fought in Washington which rests on the general assumption that Video Games are children’s toys.
Actually, I’m sorry for that. I don’t mean to be too political here, and I’m not yet about to start my rant on games legislation. Instead, I want to focus on the divide between Games and the mainstream, how it’s weakening, and how that may or may not “help” games in general.
First, let’s talk about modern games. The hardcore. What’s special about God of War, or Beyond Good and Evil? Comparisons are often made between the gaming industry and the film industry, mostly in predicted profits. And while games are beginning to share much of the visual flare of the Hollywood movie, one consumes a game much differently than they would a movie. The game is interactive, it demands user participation. It also takes time, something around 30 to 40 hours a game. Games aren’t like movies, they’re like books. In the same way that we can’t just pick up War and Peace, read a few pages, and be done with it, modern video games demand that we make time for them. Starting a game of Ico is a commitment to sit with the controller in hand for a significant period of time.
Then there’s the casual. These are games which are designed to be quick and disposable. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying casual games are bad. They’re just different. One doesn’t plan to play Tetris for seven hours, it just happens. And then, when you realize you have something else to do, you just turn it off. There’s no need to save, you weren’t really working up to anything.
Many would say the difference between Hardcore and Casual games lay in the rules, and while I won’t dispute it, I’m not so sure. I think the big difference is narrative. In my personal opinion, you could boil down Metal Gear Solid by taking away all the com-link stuff and the cut-scenes, and you’d have a perfectly playable casual game. Actually, I guess that’s what Metal Gear Solid: The VR Missions was. After all, most of Metal Gear was the narrative. Take that away and you’ve just got running and shooting.
It’s narrative in games which demand more participation from the player. It’s easy to stop playing Tetris at any time, but Final Fantasy VII is a bit harder because the player is still working for their reward, the end of the story. Once again, boil Final Fantasy down to a purely abstract game of statistics and management, and it becomes something you can just turn on and off whenever.
I’ll finish with my controversial statements with my next post.