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

[Sean Howard]

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

>> Gameplay is absolutely universal. The thing which
>> separates the casuals from the hardcores is the wrappings.
>
> While I agree with this statement, I think there's an associated
> concept which people forget: complicated gameplay isn't necessarily
> the goal. What we really want, in many cases, is games that both
> casual and hardcore players can play and enjoy side by side.

Of course. I'm just saying that complexity doesn't factor into it. Both
casual and hardcore players can enjoy simple games as well as complex
ones, so the complexity of a game should not be artificially reduced
through some misguided attempt to target a specific group of people.

>> I think you are close, but I think games become more hardcore over time.
>
> I don't think that's a foregone conclusion.

No, of course not. But I think it is something that is difficult to fight
against though. I mean even something like the Sims creates its own
hardcore Sims players, and each new expansion pack increasingly targets
only their desires rather than the far broader goals of the original.

The only way to keep a game from becoming too hardcore is to actively
punish the hardcore players for their behavior. I know it sounds extreme,
but I honestly believe that the hardcore players hate the casuals (and
vice versa) and that you'd have better luck getting Muslims and Jews to
have a nice breakfast together. The needs of the hardcore are naturally at
odds with the needs of the casual such that they cannot exist in the same
place for very long without war breaking out. The hardcore usually win.

(By that same stretch, if a game becomes too casual, you'll have to punish
the casual players - but since a game becoming less casual isn't a
practical problem, it's a moot point).


> Most game designs are shortsighted.

I don't know that I'd blame the design itself. For instance, World of
Warcraft started as, in my opinion, the perfect casual MMORPG. But over
time and through the decisions made in future patches and content
releases, more raid content has been released and classes have been
balanced out of the casual realm. Where before one could go from 1 to 60
no matter what, the game now requires groups where it didn't before, and
at higher levels is balanced towards loot that is well beyond the grasps
of weekend warriors. WoW started great, but then it went psycho.

By contrast, LOTRO is perhaps even more casual friendly than WoW was.
Their first content patch is supposed to be a new zone with a majority
solo quests set at the 30-40 level range where there is currently a lack
of it. So, unlike WoW, LOTRO is actually making an effort to make the game
more casual, more solo-friendly. I honestly hope they maintain this effort
since I'm finding LOTRO to be one of the few MMORPGs where I don't feel
like a second class citizen or like I'm somehow playing the game "wrong".
And the big irony is that I almost didn't play it because Turbine's other
MMORPG, Dungeons and Dragons Online, had no solo content at launch and I
really hate Tolkien.

>> I don't think having goals is what makes you a hardcore gamer.
>
> It's the kind of goal that matters, but whenever I try to describe
> what kind of goals hardcore gamers set, people yell at me. Sort of
> like when I talk about toys and games being different things. ;)

Oh no you don't! I'm not falling for your bait!

I think most goals are acceptable to most people, even the ones that are
seemingly hardcore. For instance, I'm more than willing to replay a game I
like on a harder difficulty level in order to unlock a new character. But
after trying it, if the challenge or frustration isn't worth the reward, I
won't bother. So, like, I never collected all the Pokemon because it
required playing through the game multiple times or knowing people who
would part with one-time-only pokemon. But I did collect all the cards in
the first SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash, because the criteria for
collecting the cards was far more acceptable.

I think that some things sort of skew hardcore. For instance, anything
with a time limit. If you've got to win a level in 14 minutes, the first
time a player tries and gets 14:26, you can be sure that only the most
hardcore will try again.

--
Sean Howard