Over the last week or so, I've been teaching a couple friends how to play fighting games. This only happened because I recently procured a fightstick, and so now there are two available on the regular at my house. Explaining the concept of the quarter circle, half circle, forward-down-downforward, and charging has been quite the task. Apparently, the only way to get non-hardcore gamers into fighting games is to give them eight shiny buttons, and a snappy joystick. I've tried to ages and ages to get my non-hardcore friends to jump in and play games with me, but for some reason the stick was the turning point.

However, during the course of the training it became increasingly obvious that the standard tropes of the hardcore gaming niche are debilitating hurdles for any "casual" player to surmount. It begs the question, what actually defines a "hardcore gamer?" Is it even possible to switch from one party to the other? And why do so many people, including those who already play a fair amount of casual games, have such difficulty crossing the threshold?

According to my (now dated) gaming design classes, the hardcore gamer (henceforth referred to as core) is an 18 to 25 year old male, who plays upwards of fifteen to twenty hours a week. Keep in mind, this is obviously a blatant generalization, as there are women, children, and adults who fit the loose description of "playtime of more than X hours." It was simply pointed out as one demographic that stands opposite of the casual gamer. Core gamers have a higher attach rate, more playing time per game, and a higher tolerance for difficulty. They also tend to have a smaller tolerance for bugs or imbalanced game play. This definition is kind of in transition, as the average age of the Core gaming market has increased from around 22, to upwards of 25, meaning that core gamers remain core gamers well into adulthood.

The fact remains, that even as an adult, the casual observer is less than capable at even distinguishing what is going on in the game, much less how to actively play. The complexity of games has made it so anyone even willing to try must subjugate themselves to weeks, or even months of constant losing.

It never really occurred to me how deeply I fit into the Core demographic until I was called on to teach my friends to play. Upon picking up the stick, my friends jiggled them around a little bit, had fun poking the buttons, and proceed to start to play. This is roughly how it went. For the record, we were playing SSFIV.



Me- Ok, go ahead and pick a character. I'd recommend Ryu, and his first ultra (Metsu Hadouken).

Friend- How do I pick? Nothings happening.

Me- You have to hit start first.

Friend- Oh, ok. Where's that guy?

M- Top left.

F- Why aren't there any names?

M- There are, you just have to highlight them first.

F- That confusing, how do you know who's who?

M- I just do, some of these characters have been around for like two decades, so picking out the new ones is easy.

F- Ok, whats this?

M- Costume, just hit X.

F- What's this?

M- Thats your ultra, you should pick the first one. It's a big fireball.

F- Is that japanese? How do you know which is which?

M- Just ask if you don't know, I'll explain it. Just hit X.

F- What's this?

M- Handicap, just hit X.


Notice how many questions I've had to answer, before you we even start playing.

At this point, we reach the stage select, and the game loads. The map pops up, and then we start. The basics of movement, blocking, and attacks are quickly explained, but execution is what's holding my friends back. This is fine, it's completely what I expected. I've done my best to explain which move does what, and when you want to use it. I tried doing this in lieu of having them use the move list, because it's incredibly overwhelming to try and remember what does what with the stupid little diagrams. There are, what, at least four pages for each character? Even things as simple as distinguishing between ultra one and two took an explanation. They eventually learned what they meant so I wouldn't have to do a rundown at the beginning of every match, but how is someone supposed to learn the moves if the diagrams aren't intuitive?

I had to preface the entire experience with a quick explanation of the three character types, being command, charge and grapple. This was met with a basic understanding, but ultimately I had to drop it for the sake of their attention span.

One of the first things they asked about was ultra combos. This entailed explaining the bars.



There are three of them. Each has its own specific set of rules. *Sigh* But it eventually became clear enough, and we moved on to the act of initiating an ultra.

It's funny how easy double qcf is to me, but how insanely difficult it is for a casual gamer. You can't hit in the wrong direction (with some tolerance), you have to do it fast enough, you have to hit the buttons at the right time, etc. If they mess up the buttons, it does nothing, the wrong move or an EX move, wasting meter. If you mess up the stick, it does nothing, or the wrong move. If you time either wrong, you potentially whiff. Even if they pulled it off, it must have been frustrating having it blocked, or dodged. There was a certain amount of anger when then got poked out of them as well. Even the ultra bar is an odd concept, because it seemingly rewards you for taking damage.

How did a game about beating people up get so incredibly complicated?

And so we soldiered on, and played like that for a couple days, with each person sticking with one or two characters, and I would cycle through random so they could see each person, learn how they move, yadda yadda yadda. I sandbagged pretty hard, knowing from experience that getting absolutely beat on isn't conducive to any sort of learning environment. They steadily improved, getting more and more consistent with each passing day. It was at that point that I decided to introduce more key concepts.

First was focus attacks. Two buttons, easy enough, right? Hold them down, charge it up, let it fly. I figured it would be pretty easy to explain, but as always, hard to master. The thing is, it's not that easy for anyone who doesn't play fighting games regularly.

For one, getting them to understand the focus armor was difficult at best. Being able to eat a hit sounds fun, until you realize it doesn't come back if you get hit again. You can't move, making it strategically difficult, but explaining dashing out of it was simply too much. If they mash focus during specials, it does a focus cancel, draining their super meter while seemingly doing nothing. Every time a logical sniggle arose, I was forced to do my best to explain it, without speaking in jargon or being condescending.

And then there are the armor breaks.

Keep in mind that this if for a simple two button command.

Topics as of yet unexplained include frame canceling, super and ultra canceling, feints, counters, wake up and stand up attacks, the magic series, 360 and 720 buffering, holding attacks by holding buttons, command throws, etc. etc. etc. etc. ETC. ETC. ETC.


WHAT THE FUCK WAS I THINKING?!? I can't possible explain all this! I can barely understand when this shit happens, much less actually integrate it into my game. And now I feel motivated to teach it. What kind of sadistic asshole designed this shit?

My friends have valiantly plodded forward, getting better and better. They'll continue to do so, so long as I'm willing to open my house up to them so they can practice. But it raises the question, if I hadn't taken the time to explain all of this to them like my brother did for me, what would they be doing?

The answer is simple. Someone would buy Super Street Fighter 4, because it was pretty. The players would dick around, occasionally throwing (read:spamming) hadouken, and perhaps if enough flailing was going on, they'd get to see a super every couple of rounds. There isn't a good tutorial, there isn't a dictionary, and there is hardly a welcoming community around to help. Not saying people aren't friendly, but without arcades, the only experience playing actual people would be online, and it can only be assumed that everyone online is a soulless asshat (myself included.) You don't go online to give pointers to the scrubs you fight, you mercilessly destroy them.

And so, the casual player would get bored, stop playing, and an incredibly fun and deep game would go unplayed, becoming a 60 dollar beer coaster.

But moving on.

For example, this is the Tekken 5 DR character select screen.



Notice the lack of any names whatsoever. The only name you can see isn't even a character name.

And lets check out the command list. I'll show you the one for Devil Jin (not regular Jin, mind you), who's one of my favorite characters.

http://www.tekkenzaibatsu.com/tekken5dr/movelist.php?id=deviljin

Yeah, click that.

And then tell me, if you don't play Tekken, if you can tell what the fuck is going on.

Because I bet you can't.

And this isn't an isolated incident in fighting games. Have you ever watched someone play COD:MW or MW2? The game is confusing enough, with the quick deaths, frantic pace, flash bangs, killstreaks, etc.

But then there are the menus.

Have you ever watched a true gamer creating his classes in between rounds? Even the most experience player has trouble following the actions of other people in the menus. That shit is out of control. Besides the complexity of the system in general, the need to constantly update your classes creates this artificial wall, which you CANNOT surmount without the technical ability to navigate menus. Granted it's why you have multiple classes, but passing while playing with casual players online or even split screen means having to struggle with the menu in the minute you have in the lobby. It's yet another way that the casual gamer is discouraged from entering into the Core audience.

Consider any game, since we here are mostly core gamers. Any one you play a lot. It can safely be assumed that you would have to explain the finer points of that game to any friends that aren't as hardcore as yourself. Smash brothers seems to have successfully bridged that gap, but with the addition of Brawl, Nintendo firmly declared their devotion to the casual market with the addition of "balancing" like the incredibly frustrating tripping.

Why is it that core gamers are relegated to a niche market? Games have become insanely popular, but without a middle ground, there cannot be a true general understanding of games among those not technologically inclined. Is it simply too difficult to create a game that has depth, without culling the casual gamers at the difficulty wall? Because it certainly isn't a curve.

I'm done ranting for now, I might add some later, but can anyone explain this to me?