"Casual" Gamers

I don't like casual gamers. "Why?" you ask? Myself, or any fan of Nintendo can tell you exactly why. Everyone's (especially Nintendo's) focus right now is on casual gamers. What's that mean? Why doe it matter to hardcore gamers? It means that everyone *coughnintendocough* is coming out with all these crappy, family friendly games that have no real value. "So?" you ask? Let's put it this way, the hardcore gamers, yes, the gamers who game as a hobby, who love video games and who enjoy video games - especially good ones, are being neglected. Let's make a list here. Using Nintendo as an example, because Wii owners understand the annoying pests that are "casual gamers" more than anything. We can say that the Wii probably already has more games out than the Gamecube ever hoped to have. That's a good thing. Right? Wrong. Let's make a list of good Wii games, that people have heard of, and are enojoyed by hardcore gamers.

Metroid Prime 3
Super Mario Galaxy
[Eventually] Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess

That's about as good as it gets. That's even including 3rd party games (notice how there aren't any 3rd party games there anyway). Now, let's see all the crappy Wii games meant to appeal to the casual gamer.

Mario Party 8
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Carnival Games
Wii Sports (count this, if you will.)
Wii Play
Boogie
Game Party (wtf?)

...that's just some of them. And essentially all any of those games are is about 20 minigames in 1 box. What was going on there was Nintendo was using big names (Wario, Mario, Sonic) to attract casual gamers who will recognize these and buy them simply for that reason.


"Oh, it has Mario in it, it must be good." Is what they're thinking. Now, if Nintendo's going to continue going down this path, I would like to give them some advice. Go ahead, cater to casual gamers, just because there's more of them than hardcore gamers. But if you're going to do this, at least put some more 3rd party games out there. And not crap like Call of Duty 3 and Medal of Honor. I mean good 3rd party games. Studios like Ubisoft, Bioware, 2k Games, [sometimes] Capcom. Buy out Square Enix if you will (I'm not a fan of FF, but I know they're out there). Just try harder to appeal to everyone, and not just focus on the money (that includes yen). You won't have to work harder to crank out great games, it will make hardcore gamers hate casual gamers less, and everyone can be happy. Do you know how well Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock sold? Those are Hardcore gamers playing those games. And think of it this way, you can still make your precious cash off of stupid, gullible casual gamers, along with the extra money made from having good games hardcore gamers will want to buy. I hope I made my point clear, and didn't appear to be rambling on and repeating myself here...