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The downfall of hardcore gamers(In My Opinion).
countryfan1123 | 11:54 PM on 08.13.2008 18 comments


Hardcore gamers. To me a hardcore gamers is one that has devoted most of his or her free time and possibly life to the art of playing video games, they are ones who will play games made by their favorite developers, not based on whether they are good or not, but just because they believe in the developer, or aren't afraid to take chances. Two of the games that I am referring to are Psychonauts and Beyond Good And Evil, these games were two of the best games published by Majesco and Ubisoft respectively, yet they didn't sell all that well.

On November 19th, 2006 the Nintendo Wii was released. This date will go down as probably the one date in the history of video games that can directly be pointed to as the day that hardcore gamers were led on a path to obscurity, to being a niche, to being ridiculed. This was a day that game makers realized that the Wii was drawing people who had never thought about playing games, let alone buying a system in which to play them on, to it. This day and the next few months showed developers and publishers that if they made a game that used to Wii-mote and nun chuck in a way that would appear to be somewhat exercising, that they would sell like hotcakes. This was a day and subsequent months that developers saw that if they wanted to make a load of money they need to stop worrying about games that only a set group will play and start making a game that they can market to the people that have bought the Wii under the false guise that it will help you loose weight and make you healthier, which by the way, in my opinion, is total BS, they make a game in which you flail your arms up and down people will run to get it so that they can say they are exercising and so that they can feel good about themselves. Well it worked, and so in a few years we can look to Nintendo, the company that brought in so many gamers and then subsequently made them hardcore gamers, as the company that destroys them.

It will get to a point where the Xbox 360 and PS3, and later Microsoft and Sony game systems, will be afterthoughts in making games and pitching them. They will go the way of the PC only a niche group of people play them. They will get crappy ports of even crappier games, jsut so developers will be able to look the gamers in the eye and tell them they made games for their systems. It will get to a point, and has to a certain level, where companies will not want to be any more innovative than they already have because they don't need to. And then there will be a point that the Wii starts to become a fad and people will start to stop playing it, they will stop buying games, and the companies that have hitched their wagons to the Wii will be screwed and will probably go bankrupt and will look to the hardcore gamers, or whats left of us because they(the companies) have drove them to pick up other activities and hobbies, to bail them out and there just will not be enough of us to bail them out and they will go under. The only company that will make any money will be Nintendo and they are the only ones that will profit from the Wii. Companies will have short term success and long term despair.

That is just my opinion of what is going to happen, although I dearly hope that it doesn't. And before Y'all say that I hate Nintendo and the Wii, just know that I have a Wii, a gameboy advance, a gameboy, a 64, an SNES, and a NES, and love them all along with a Xbox 360.



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18 comments | showing # 1 to 18

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Tubatic's Destructoid Blog
Oi, is this the new welcome post: talking abotu hardcore vs casual?

Hi. I'm Tubatic. Welcome to D-Toid. Tell us a little about yourself.

Do you like video games?

What's your favorite?

Do you like movies about Gladiators?

As they say here at the Wasps Nest, welcome and don't suck.
Skribble's Destructoid Blog
Starcraft II
Diablo III
Bionic Commando Rearmed + Next Gen
Megaman 9
Prototype
Infamous
Afro Samurai
Beyond Good and Evil 2
Brutal Legend
Ghostbusters
Dark Void
Darksiders
God of War III
Heavy Rain
Dead Space
Damnation
Mafia II
RAGE
Mirrors Edge
Mercs 2
Resistance 2
Skate 2
Star Wars Unleashed

Do I have to continue naming games? Because I can add at least 20 more games to that list for 2008-2009 alone.

Your argument is based on nothing but speculated opinion. You have ignored the fact that there are still plenty of awesome "hardcore" games being released that are not simply rehashed franchises or gimmicky flops waiting to happen.

PS3, 360 and PC are after thoughts? PC gaming is a niche group? What the fuck kind of drugs are you taking and where can I get some, because your vision of reality is vastly skewed to the one I see every day. Ever heard of a little thing called STEAM? How about its 13 million users? And that's just on STEAM! There's still a lot of people who don't use it.

Your vision of post apocalyptic video game world is a farce beyond reasonable explanation. Perhaps some research in to the state of the games industry would calm your shattered nerves.
groudaxius's Destructoid Blog
Nintendo Propaganda Bot?
randombullseye's Destructoid Blog
The definition of hardcore gaming somehow got merged with competitive gaming. Around twelve years old I realized that hardcore gaming was a bullshit term anyway. The same as "old school gamer," or the now popular "retro gamer."Now I don't want to call myself anything. Anything except Napoleon Bonaparte of course.

Quit trying to define us with words. Quit trying to impress the rest of the class by proving you're a hardcore gamer. If you play a lot of games, we can tell or not. Play video games. Don't worry if their art or outselling movies. Just play games. Don't worry about storylines and "what they mean" just play video games. The old games ain't going anywhere no matter how much new games crap all over them. Just play video games. Welcome to destructoid, I love you.

Also go play video games.
DanMazkin's Destructoid Blog
Hmm, what is this ominous wall of text I wonder?

But seriously, I don't understand why people always assume that there can be only one market for games. Everyone either says "Casual Games must die" or "Casual Games will kill the Hardcore Market". The simple fact is that "hardcore" gamers will continue to buy hardcore games if the big companies continue to make them, so for any company to cut off an entire market thats already going strong just because the Wii is doing well is ridiculous.

Enough fear mongering, as long as you don't stop demanding good games, then game companies won't stop making them, and as it seems that hardcore gamers tend to demand and appreciate games of quality, then I'd say there's nothing to fear.

Have a beer and chill out my friend.
ParaParaKing's Destructoid Blog
Yeah, right.

Also you forgot to talk about how the DS killed the hardcore handheld gaming.
Technophile's Destructoid Blog
All the comments above me are exactly why I love this place.

because you guys get it.
thinkfreemind's Destructoid Blog
Who says everyone that has a Wii is casual? I suppose most people would consider me a gaming addict, and thus "hardcore", as I play games every chance I get. I own all three of the systems this generation, just like I did last generation. Somehow though, because I camped out for the Wii and was first in my city to get one, I am a casual gamer?

Um, nope. Look, I enjoyed Wii Sports as much as the next person did -when I first got my Wii (not so much anymore)- but that doesn't make me a casual gamer. All it means is that I was able to have fun for a while doing something new and different. I can understand where you're coming from, but Nintendo and the casual gamers they have pulled in won't cripple gaming.

If anything, the new gamers who you described will eventually stop playing and they wont be buying more games, which is already a small problem for many Nintendo games with notable exceptions for Wii Fit and the like. When the next generation of consoles comes around and Nintendo goes back to a more traditional control scheme, only then will we see how many of these new gamers (or non-gamers) stick around.

The Nintendo fans like myself will last a long time. Current success may be just a fad. Only time will tell at this point.
njsykora's Destructoid Blog
'Hardcore' gamers are people who give a large portion of their free time to playing games. Doesn't matter whether they're playing Halo or Wii Fit, if they devote their time to it then they're hardcore.
Rider Chop's Destructoid Blog
so, if someone is super good at say contra or shmups or something but they have a job and can only play when they have time for it, does that make them casual gamers?
SurplusGamer's Destructoid Blog
Apart from disagreeing with some of your points, I think it's just that the terms you're using have gone out of date. It's a bit like someone in 1960 saying 'Well, the wireless has really gone downhill lately, hasn't it?' There are more ways to slice a gamer than 'hardcore' and 'casual' nowadays. Take a look at my Instant Replay article in my blog - I link to a pretty interesting article at the start of it.
ParaParaKing's Destructoid Blog
@Rider Chop: Yes and they should stop playing those games and play real casual games like Wii Fit. Or quit their jobs. It's their choice.
randombullseye's Destructoid Blog
The problem is that so called "REAL" gamers have grown up and have jobs. They don't have time to sink into games. Wii Sports is just as much a game as Call of Duty 4. Sorry, but its true.

A problem I noticed is that while I was working, I had tons of money to buy games but never any time to play them. Now that I've all the time in the world, hardly any new games get bought. What a riddle life can be!
hpv's Destructoid Blog
@njsykora: Hardcore Wii Fit player, funniest thing I've heard all day. Has anyone even managed to stick with it for more than a week?
ParaParaKing's Destructoid Blog
The main problem is, that calling console games hardcore is stupid as a whole. The main achievement of Halo was to make FPS games playable with a pad by making them more casual. But instead of seeing that, people started calling games like Halo hardcore, because it's targeted for adults and has violence.
IMO the term hardcore gaming is pretentious and it's a stupid form of elitism. Who the heck cares how much or what anybody else plays? Just play the games you like and be happy with it.
Morrius's Destructoid Blog
That's like saying there will be no more professional photographers (or cameras) because everyone and his dog now has a cheapo shitty digital camera. Some of those cheapo shitty camera owners will migrate to better cameras. Or more 'hardcore' ones, if you will. More casual games just means more people who might migrate to the hardcore base. I use these terms only because you have however, as the whole thing is a complete fallacy. There is no division between hardcore and casual, the two terms don't even define anything objectively.
Rucksack's Destructoid Blog
I'm actually getting rather tired of this "hardcore versus casual" debate".

Gaming is just a fucking enjoyable hobby. It's not exactly something worthy of a lengthy philosophical debate- at least not yet.

Can't we all just go back to enjoying Mario?

Also, welcome to the D-toid.
galagabug 's Destructoid Blog
show me a casual game thats done the numbers of gta iv or halo 3 and i'll agree.


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