FeedCasual games are not killing the PC at all
by Mellow on Feb.03, 2009, under Opinions, PC, Rant
When I read this blog, I was astonished. I couldn’t believe what I just read. I completely disagree with the aforemented blog, and here’s why.
First of all, what do these casual games have anything to do with us ‘real’ gamers? Veraliis suggests that for some reason gaming becomes less fun because his grandmother is playing Peggle. Really, I don’t care at all. If I play a game because of my e-peen, I’ll at least compare myself to others that play the same game, not people that are playing an entirely different game.
Secondly, it’s not like there are suddenly less real games coming out because of these casual games. Almost all developers that make these games are new to the market. There are almost no renowned developers making flash games or easy downloadable games, unless they have already been doing so from the start (PopCap, for example). Most developers that make these kinds of games are new to the market, just looking to make a couple of bucks and using video games as a medium. These are honestly not interested in video gaming, but just see it as a business. They will never make real games, and will continue to pump out bad games until they stop making a profit.
10/10, best game of last year
So Veraliis, could you please tell me how casual games are destroying the PC? It’s the medium that’s probably suffering the least from the fad of casual games. Other systems suffer from renowned developers, like Ubisoft, making bad minigame collections or amazing Imagine games. Have you ever looked at the shelves of the Wii in a game store? At least 50% of it is pure, unfiltered crap. And do you know why? Because the Wii hasn’t got a download service for new games. You can just download your crappy games from the internet on your PC, but for the Wii you have to buy them.
The flood of casual games can be annoying, yeah. But it’s never more than a minor nuisance. The PC definitely isn’t dying because of this.
February 3rd, 2009 on 10:55 pm
Essentially you just agreed with everything I said. I used to work in a Gamestop, and the PC section was the least moveable of the entire store, most of the time the games that sold on the PC were of two camps, one who was bored housewives and the other hardcore gamer. The difference is that there were way more bored housewives. And the point I was trying to make was the same reason why the Wii business plan is going down the shitter. Casual games are moving the genre into the quick bang for little buck atmosphere, limiting the amount of serious releases and support for by far the most expensive platform. I think things like Steam is one of the only things keeping a hardcore market alive on the platform.
February 3rd, 2009 on 11:45 pm
I would have to say that the biggest thing killing the PC is a lack of good games. What is causing the good games from drying up is not my concern. All i care about are results.
February 4th, 2009 on 12:09 am
Yeah and developers must not see the PC as strong as it used to be, but it’s only been like 3 years since that flood of awesome blockbuster titles that were ported because of their awesomeness, Half Life 2 and Doom 3 are cases of this. The shift towards casual games is moving the platform away from games like this and way closer to stuff like WoW, PopCap, and the abysmal real life simulator The Sims.
February 4th, 2009 on 2:39 am
I don’t think you get it Ver. Saying CASUAL GAMES ARE PUSHING OUT HARDCORE GAMES doesn’t make any sense. It’s not like the government is only funding one or the other or something. You can have both kinds of games on a platform, it’s not like it’s one or the other. If you want to be silly and blame it on one thing, you have to chalk it up to the success of consoles. They are easy to use and easy to move around. Does that mean they are the best platform? not necessarily. Are they killing pc games? probably.
That’s why I shy away from interpretation in this case and skew towards results. Cant argue with those.
February 4th, 2009 on 8:01 am
>and the PC section was the least moveable of the entire store, most of the time the games that sold on the PC were of two camps, one who was bored housewives and the other hardcore gamer.
Note how I point out that this is only true for the Wii, because most casual games are actually sold online nowadays, not in stores.