Absinthe
The Freeman
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2004
- Messages
- 14,037
- Reaction score
- 30
I'd prefer in-game instruction to a manual, just as I imagine a lot of people would. Unless it contains cool backstory and bits of flavor, I don't touch them unless I have to.
I don't think new gamers are necessarily softer. There will always be a hardcore group that's willing to put up with hellish difficulties and complex control interfaces because they appreciate the challenge, and I guarantee they will always exist. I think it's more a case of games just being less difficult these days as they appeal to a wider audience. Perhaps my hindsight has been affected by age and experience, but I recall an awful lot of older titles I played having impossible endgames, like the developers were just gradually stacking the difficulty until only the most badass (or patient) players could reach the end. Or if there was some kind of obfuscated game mechanic/feature, the developer could trust the player would "get used to it". That's not really an approach one can take today given the rise of casual gamers. They don't have the experience to draw upon in order to decipher unintelligible UIs or gameplay.
It's all for the better IMO. I'm completely for more intuitive and polished gaming experiences if that makes them more fun (and they do for me). That might remove some of the challenge that games of old had, but its exactly the wrong kind of challenge to have; that is the challenge of learning how to play the game, rather than actually playing it. And people generally want to play ALL of the game they paid fifty dollars for. Not have it beat on them until they crap out 3/4ths of the way through.
I don't think new gamers are necessarily softer. There will always be a hardcore group that's willing to put up with hellish difficulties and complex control interfaces because they appreciate the challenge, and I guarantee they will always exist. I think it's more a case of games just being less difficult these days as they appeal to a wider audience. Perhaps my hindsight has been affected by age and experience, but I recall an awful lot of older titles I played having impossible endgames, like the developers were just gradually stacking the difficulty until only the most badass (or patient) players could reach the end. Or if there was some kind of obfuscated game mechanic/feature, the developer could trust the player would "get used to it". That's not really an approach one can take today given the rise of casual gamers. They don't have the experience to draw upon in order to decipher unintelligible UIs or gameplay.
It's all for the better IMO. I'm completely for more intuitive and polished gaming experiences if that makes them more fun (and they do for me). That might remove some of the challenge that games of old had, but its exactly the wrong kind of challenge to have; that is the challenge of learning how to play the game, rather than actually playing it. And people generally want to play ALL of the game they paid fifty dollars for. Not have it beat on them until they crap out 3/4ths of the way through.
