[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN} Who to design for?

[Sean Howard]

"Caliban Darklock" <cdarklock at gmail.com> wrote:

> Your position is that because casual gamers have been known to buy and
> play very complex games, the complexity of your game is not important.

My position is that casual gamers MAINLY buy complex games! Outside of
bejeweled, one can argue that the most famous casual games out there have
been MORE complicated than the competition. Probably the biggest casual
market is sim games - have you played Rollercoaster Tycoon or SimCity
4000? Those things put games like Final Fantasy to shame in complexity.

> My position is that every casual gamer considers the complexity of a
> game as part of the buying decision.

I disagree. I think just about everything else has a greater importance to
which games casual gamers will buy than complexity. Why do casuals buy
Microsoft Flight Simulator X and not something like Ace Combat 4? I think
if complexity mattered, you'd be able to find an example to back up your
claims. As it is, nearly every example of casual gaming that didn't come
pre-installed on someone's computer / cellphone is in the upper echelon of
gaming complexity.

I think the only implication you can take from complexity being a factor
is that casual players are stupid. Maybe it's not something you say out
loud, but that's the underlying message when you try to ease somebody into
a game gently. When you say complexity is a factor, what you are really
saying is that some things are TOO complex.

But casual players aren't stupid. The things that define a casual player
is that they have a different primary interest other than gaming that
affect their interest and ability to be a "gamer" - be it family, hobbies,
a job, or whatever. That in no way implies anything about their ability to
"get" a game. All it says is that you've got to try a different approach
to get that interest in the first place - and making games simple and dumb
is going to be about as effect as making games where you dress up purple
horses with pink bow ties was at increasing the female gamer population.

There's something else at work. Common wisdom is wrong.

>> Natual or not, harmony is harmony and it is the destination all
>> designers must aim for.
>
> I find that to be a very dangerous idea. Whenever someone decides
> there's only one Right Way to do something, it almost never ends well.

But the One Right Way is that every project has a unique Right Way that
depends on the nature of the project. If "consider each project on its own
merits" is a "very dangerous idea", then I shudder at the thought of the
safe ideas.

-- 
Sean Howard