Current mood:

thoughtful

Are you hardcore?
While I can understand that the writer of "Taking the hardcore out of gaming" is entitled to her views-- that is, a non-gamer's perspective-- I can't help but feel that some points in the article is plain strange and misleading.

For one thing, I'm not sure DS and Wii games can be called "computer games". But that's just terminology.. meanings change, and definitions depend on the person, and all that. I guess some non-gamers call all the console games "computer games". Well, I can't tell a halter from a spaghetti or whatever terms they're using. Fair enough.


But then there're these statements that're just... "huh?":
With the market dominated by games designed for the hardcore gamer -- Halo, Counterstrike, Battlefield, World of Warcraft and Guild Wars -- all of which require speedy reflexes and lots of practice time, the Wii and DS make it okay to game casually and still have fun.
1. Granted, I'm not sure of the "market", but I'm unconvinced it's dominated by these... "hardcore games". Of course it might be just the people/fandom I hang around with, but nobody I know who game-- alot-- play those. Certainly not games that require "speedy reflexes and lots of practice time". Is this the impression most people have of 'gamers"? People who sit around practicing to be the best in their game? DS and Wii are wonderful and all that, but the market has always been bigger than that even before they came along. Where have you been, lady?
2. And making a statement like "the Wii and DS make it okay to game casually and still have fun" is the same as saying "you can't have fun with those games/before Wii and DS if you just play casually/are not hardcore", which is like "uh, what?" IMO, you can play as casual as you like in any game and still have fun.. unless you're actually competing against these "hardcore gamers" who spent hours honing their skills at one game or the other, in which case they might 'spoil your fun', so to speak, but if you're a "casual gamer" why do you care to compete??

"Where gaming used to be an intimidating and demoralising experience, breaking a few eggs in Cooking Mama or missing a birdie in Wii Sport is funny rather than humiliating."
The word choices are also fascinating. Gaming apparently used to be "intimidating" (perfectly understandable for non-gamers who claim to be brand new or have hand-eye coordination difficultires), "demoralising" (now this depends on perspectives..) and 'failures' "humiliating". =_=? By this point I ran out of excuses for her. Something tells me someone is unncessarily/strangely competitive and/or has a bad first experience with gaming. Did she get into Counterstrike because her boyfriend was playing it or something, sucked, and got laughed at?

"By breaking away from a gaming market that's begun to take itself too seriously, Nintendo has gone back to where it all began, making gaming fun again."
I'm curious how the market was "taking itself too seriously". I guess she means those hardcore gamers that spend hours to be expert at some games, which made it "not fun", apparently. Interesting that she used "making it fun again". It's probly just a careless word choice. I doubt she knew/thought it was fun before the "hardcore gaming" started.

Enough nit-picking. I think I took too much text analysis modules. XD But it's probly because something about articles with (what I perceive to be) misrepresented information ticks me off. Misinformation is a big peeve of mine, so I guess that's why. I'm not expert of the gaming scene but I still think her perception is extermely limited and oddly biased. While it's not her fault, isn't there anyone who checks the validity of what gets published? Or is there no real gamer in journalism (because they're all busy level-ing up)?


It's not even a personal reaction, since going by the way she defines "hardcore gamers" I don't think I'm included. I never touched those games "pre-DS/Wii" and in any case, besides the time I spend on games, there's nothing hardcore about me. XD Most offline games like RPGs, strategy, dating sims, etc... don't most anyone just play it as it is?? Except for the precious minority (I think) who digs into every secret of the game and writes the walkthroughs and FAQs. The only times I feel 'demoralised' were when I get stuck in damn mazes or when some bosses just Never Die (but sometimes they just spur me to try again with a different approach). But these are more like exasperation/challenges that's part and parcel of gaming. Oh, and when in Suiko3 the strategy battles are mostly lose-able, meaning victory is optional. Which, in my book, translates to "if you go out of the way to prepare/train you can win it". (compare to Suiko4 where I never lost a ship battle -_-) Meaning I just let my side lose (and then feel oddly demoralised about it). XD So it might be just the bochap me - I can't see how offline games in general (not just DS and Wii -_-) can cause the feelings she described. Do you feel demoralised/humiliated in your games?

So she might've meant online games, going by the games she listed (CS, WoW), though why you would compare online with offline (DS and Wii, which aren't the first offline game consoles) is beyond me. I've only played a few. In Maple (and most RPGs) I'm forever in the magic range of lv30+ - 40-ish. Noob considering there're many in their 100s with the top being 200. Audition I'm just a novice, but rank doesn't matter in that game, so personally I put my skills somewhere in the middle, maybe slightly better than average (when I still played), there're many more experts around that I can never hope to reach in terms of skills. Pangya also maybe slightly better than average, with many pros around topping the high score charts. I played with one (zepy) regularly too. XD Was it demoralising?? How so? There'll always be people better at the game/willing to practice more to get better at the game, so unless you plan to be one of the top too, there's really no need to be demoralised from being outperformed is there? ._.? Unless you really lose like 90-100% of the time wherever you go.. then well, maybe pick up another game/hobby. I don't know if missing a birdie on Pangya was funny.. of course, we played team alot, so it was more like "OMG I'm sorry" (or sometimes just "oops :P") more than humiliating, and if playing singles, nobody much cared if you missed the birdie (busy chatting. XD)-- or in our case, more often the HIO, which we care about abit more, but when someone misses we just go "aww" or 'did zepy estimated wrongly?' XD I guess if playing against strangers I would feel lousy for performing badly. And if that doesn't motivate me to improve myself, then I drop the game (which is pretty much what happened after I paused playing it for so long)! What's so hard about that? The way she put it, it sounds like she's 'blaming' the games for "having to spend a lot of time practicing for it to be fun" but isn't something as fun as you make it? If you're so competitive that it spoils the game for yourself, can't you either be one of those hardcore and get to the top, or go find another (preferably offline) game? Possibly, she doesn't know there were other options. For me, with the amount of available games and my attention span, I can never care about getting to be one of the best, so it doesn't bother me much, and then I'm one of those 'blessed ones' that can get okay to pretty good at a game just by playing it (I won't even call it practice usually) for some time, and being average-y is enough to protect my vulnerable pride most of the time. As for level-ing.. well, being high-level is cool and all, but I never try too hard to level fast... noob then noob lor so what? ... Is my attitude too bochap? XD Am I the one who has the wrong ideas about gaming? XD What do you feel about online games?

Anyway, simply put, this writer (1) doesn't seem to know that there were more games other than CS, WoW, etc. (or if she did, she doesn't show it), and (2) seems to exhibit the Singaporean attitude of "if it doesn't go right, blame others": Games not fun? The other gamers 2 hardcore lor. The games 2 demoralising lor. The market getting 2 serious lor. Haiz. No that's not what she was trying to say, but the tone is there. And no I'm not dissing her. It's just a combination of personal interest and 'occupational hazard' (linguists read too much in everything XD) and just a general "WTF" response. 8D And that I love ranting, if it isn't time for my games. :3

Right now I'm getting Musou Orochi (jap)~ ♥ Hopefully I really manage to get it this time. I think the US/English version is coming out too. And also "One Piece Pirates Carnival" (jap) X3
Now going to try to link-battle pokemon and yugioh with my brother. XD I want to win, but a loss won't be too humiliating~