Do you want casual or in depth gaming?

Bullet points or depth

The words “casual gamer” are thrown around so much in the mmo community that it has become one of those phrases like “polished game.”  In fact, when Scott Hartsman was a guest on the No Prisoners No Mercy show not long ago, he talked about games being “accessible” – and there is certainly a great deal of truth in that. Some gamers seen to throw around the term with intonations they normally reserved for when they step in a pile left by the neighbor’s dog. Yet not everyone has the time, or the inclination, needed to dedicate to game mechanics that call for it.  “Back in the day” when level 60 was the top of the heap in World of Warcraft, there was no doubt that any attempts a gamer made to immerse him or herself in the end game raiding would quickly accelerate (or degenerate depending on your outlook) into a part time, if not full time job. Yet as much abuse as some gamers may like to heap upon games that just give us the bullet points, rather than depth, this does not need to have negative connotations.

To put it in terms of movies (a penchant for which I will certainly admit) there are many times when I say to myself “If I want serious drama I will watch an Ingmar Bergman film.”  There are times when I just want to enjoy the mmo equivalent of an action film. These are the time when I want to be the assassin character in Aion Online that fights like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan combined, hopped up on speed. These are the times when I simply want to be a super hero, rocket boots jetting me across the sky of Millienium city as I keep the world safe from “The Purple Gang.”

But there are also times when I am interested in some depth in my video games, and this is one of the subjects we discussed with Keen from Keen and Graevs gaming blog on show 47 (finished and released soon).

It’s there is a great deal of difference between a game with “depth” and a game that simply takes a long time to reach end game (where most developers concentrate their new content).  A game that has depth seems best expressed as the antithesis to what Dr. Bartle called a “game world.”  A game that has depth is more of a “virtual world.”  I tend to think of it as the oft expressed difference between a job and a career: A game world is something you do to pass a few fun and entertaining hour here and there.  A game with depth, a virtual world, like a career, is a place where you can engross yourself in a life (albeit a virtual one).  It is a place where I ask myself questions like “what will I do today?” and not “what do I have to do to level up today?”

Both games, both play styles are important to the gaming community – they are like “yin” and “yang”. Either style of game could easily get boring and over bearing.  The only pause I have for thought on the subject at this point, however, is that we seem to have a lot more of the “bullet point” type games these days then games who truly do have depth.  In the future, it seems like balance will find its way into our choice in games that come not from the big developers of “triple-A” games, but rather from the independent game developer that can afford to bring us something new and refreshing.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

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