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The Great Debate
- Category: Scribe's Corner
- Last Updated on Thursday, 04 August 2011 21:19
- Written by IceRazor
Icicles is back, and in a new article system! This week, we're weighing in on an ever-contentious debate: casual vs. hardcore. So get your hate-mail ready! As always, any questions, comments, or future article ideas are appreciated.
Some people play a lot, some people play a little. Everyone knows and understands this, yet it causes major issues in MMOs. Different types of player want different types of content, and developers have to please them all (or at least try to!). We’re going to break down the basic player types and then how Bioware is going to try to appease them in TOR.
Player Types
First, we need to start with some definitions of the major player types, so everyone knows what the terms mean. As you read what characteristics of each type, try to picture which category your gaming style fits into. Note that while we talk about these things in terms of the extremes, most players are not at those extremes; they’re somewhere in between.
The Casual Gamers – These gamers own a Wii. They game when they have some free time, mainly on the weekends. They focus on the social aspects of playing video games, particularly when in MMOs. The casual gamer will typically make less progression, and have lesser gear than their hardcore counterparts. This is not to say that the casual player is a “worse” gamer; it’s simply a function of MMO progression being tied mainly to time investment. Casual players will often be labeled as noobs, but that’s not a true characterization; many casuals are elite players. One more key fact is that casual players do represent the majority of players.
If grandma plays it, it's for casuals.
The Hardcore Gamers – “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” These famous words from Ricky Bobby appropriately describe the hardcore gamers’ attitude. They live to get the best gear, kill the best bosses, and do it all faster than everyone else. The hardcore gamer plays a lot, gaming is a major part of their life schedule. They often get a bad rap for appearing to flaunt their achievements with an air of arrogance, but that is only true for a small portion of hardcore gamers: the elitists. Elitists are the jerks that give hardcore players a bad name; they aren’t representative of the larger population.
48 hours... No sunlight...
The Fight for Content Control
The major contention over content occurs at endgame. The leveling process is typically a solo adventure, so time commitment isn’t a problem. But once the player reaches the point that they’re into raiding, time commitment is a much larger issue. So what does each player type want from the endgame?
Casuals are mostly concerned with being allowed to participate in endgame. If anyone was around for vanilla WoW raids, you can understand the fear that casual players have. With their 40-man raid size, endlessly long dungeons, and difficult attunement requirements, it was extremely difficult, if not impossible, for casual players to raid at all. In addition to content availability, there is a small segment of casual players that want equal gear as hardcore players. Those people are out of their minds. Casuals cannot be given equal gear or there would never be an incentive to play more. If you can beat the best content by playing a minimal amount, why keep playing? That isn’t going to work in a successful game. However, content availability for casual players is a good goal for developers.
40 man raids. Casuals need not apply.
Hardcore players on the other hand, want extremely difficult content that is inaccessible to most other players. The idea to this is simple: if content is very exclusive, then there will be less competition for those precious world-first boss kills. Also, if the content is extraordinarily difficult, it can keep hardcores interested longer because they can’t just stroll through it easily. But how can this type of content be created without shoving casual players to the wayside?
Bringing Balance to the Force
The developer answer for making both sides happy is to use difficulty settings. I think difficulty settings are great, but only if they’re done with certain conditions. First, there needs to be a small (8-12) raid size available to facilitate casual players. Second, “hard mode” needs to actually be hard. Hard enough that hardcore players will always find it a challenge, and most casual players will never be able to beat it. Finally, there needs to be a significant gear advantage for tackling the larger, harder raids.
Welcome to hard mode!
Luckily, with all the new info coming out of E3, we know a fair amount about endgame raiding (Operations) in TOR. First, in an interview with Gamespot, Gabe Amantangelo confirms that TOR will indeed have multiple difficulty settings in raids:
Gabe Amantangelo: There will be varying difficulty modes, much like what is found in other BioWare games. The challenge, mechanics, and rewards will vary with the modes.
Then, Daniel Erickson tells us about raid sizes in an interview with Darth Hater:
Daniel Erickson: We know there are eight-mans, and we know there are more than eight-man raids. We do not know the max size yet; it is really a thing of testing and checks.
So we know Bioware is going to cater to the casual player with a small raid size. The question is: will the hardcore crowd find the difficulty that they’re looking for? If you take the developers' word for it, the answer is yes, but we won’t know for sure until release.
What type of gamer are you? Do you think TOR's endgame will cater to your gaming style?