I Am Beating It

See, that's a dead horse. I used a title that you may have thought suggestive, but in actuality referred to a proverb (Wikipedia calls it something different, but meh). That's a literary device or something. Ahem. Anyway, I wanted to put a proper blog post up today, but had no original ideas. Thus, I'm falling back on a topic noone cares about any more. Well, noone who matters anyway. Hardcore vs Casual gamers! It's like the internet's equivalent of the existence of God(ess)(e)(s)! And it's now [EDIT] after the break!

As the info to the right doesn't fully say but the post below hints at, I am currently at university learning how to make video games. Thus, it would seem a good idea to have a healthy interest in the topic area, and so I tuned into Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe (link behind the picture above) on the iPlayer earlier in the week (is that tuning in? Does it matter? No to both). It was an interesting, fairly amusing, vaguely informative programme about the basics of video games, presented in a rare positive light rather than the usual media scaremongering. A "beginner's guide", if you will, but a good one. During the show, various celebrities popped in for vox pops about why games are good/bad. One of these was one of the writers of Father Ted lamenting storytelling, and another was Dara O'Briain informing us that he is rubbish at games. Or, as some might say, "what is wrong with games." You see, Dara is what we might call a "Casual".

The definitions are hazy, mostly because they are used for varying means, but basically a Casual is a person who is bad at games, new to gaming, or who plays easy/popular games. A "Hardcore", on the other hand, is (generally speaking) someone who has been gaming for a while, who is good at games and plays harder, possibly more obscure games. And, going by the "loudest voices" principle of the internet, they hate each other. Hardcores consider Casuals to be ruining games by making them too easy, and Casuals think Hardcores are just elitist jerks. Most people actually don't care, but that just makes us hard to label and therefore nonexistant.

Where do I stand? Well, I'm planning to go into the industry. The more consumers, the better, so I say let all the Wii-playing kids on in! No old people though, the remote would get smelly (DISCLAIMER: that was sarcasm). Getting back to the most recent example, Dara Casual compared games to older media such as books and albums. His examples were mostly erroneous of course, most attempts to compare wildly different media are - but just imagine if, upon the release of a new book by Richard Dawkins, a whole wave of new people realised that they had seen the light (or not, as the case might well be) and become Atheists. But all the people who had been Atheists before said that these new, "Casual Atheists" were ruining Dawkins' writing, making him too easy to understand... This is, partially on purpose, an egregious metaphor, but showcases the bizarrity (that is a word now) of the situation nicely. People who were used to being different, being outcast, now find themselves part of the flock and do not like it.

I wasn't wildly popular at school, I only ever had a couple of friends at a time until I was about sixteen. Part of this was because I was shy and withdrawn, and would rather read, and part of that was because I didn't have friends to easily socialise with. Depressing cycles, bla bla bla. Early computer games such as Doom or Duke Nukem (I refuse to link those, you should know) were played mainly as a way to interact with my very geeky Dad, because it was something we both enjoyed - not that we were complete strangers otherwise, but I'm veering off-topic. These games led me to others, and eventually games like Pokemon and Golden Sun replaced books as an escape mechanism. I doubt I'm alone in this approach to video games as something done on the outskirts of society, which also kept me there, but I never had the self-esteem to think of myself, a geek, as "above" the "popular" crowd.

It is perhaps a reflection of simple optimism vs pessimism that some geeks consider themselves intellectually above the masses while others consider themselves socially below, but it seems odd to me that this would reverse itself. The Hardcores, as I see it, having elevated themselves in their own minds, now find their uniqueness compromised and seek to dispel this. I would not hasten to speak for any others, but having considered myself at most an equal to the "grunting jocks", I can't help but feel that there is no reason not to welcome them over to my field of expertise.

It is not an unheard of situation, I am sure, that as teenagers progress from (if you'll pardon the Americanisms) elementary to high school, those physically or socially "better" people start to appreciate what the mentally "better" have to offer. While I was in a clique of geeks in Sixth Form, some of whom looked down on the "Sports morons", I had no problem with the increased acceptance that came from being recognised as able to help with maths problems (a cynical view, to be sure - an equal part in the reduction of my being shunned was a general mellowing out that came to many of these people as we approached university). It is this same attitude that I take now.

So while the Elitist Hardcore shell themselves away in pixellated fortresses of skill and curse down upon the Mythical Casual, I'll be down at the gate, welcoming them in with open arms, saying "glad you like it" and "try this out". This is, I think, moreorless Nintendo's attitude when they talk of the Wii attracting people who have never played games before. And hey, it's working pretty well for them.

PS: Firstly, ironically enough, I've just noticed on the clock that this post didn't quite make Sunday like I wanted it to anyway. Secondly, Blogger's automatic spellchecker doesn't recognise "blog" as a word and I find that hilarious. And thirdly, sorry for dredging up such an old topic, but I really wanted to get writing again.

PPS: Now I've worked out how to insert screenbreaks, I've gone back and put them into my most recent four posts (this one included). Going forward I'll be formatting all my posts sensibly like this, and will enable viewing of more posts on the front page because of it :).