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| [Jul 16, 2009, 09:13 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
The Houston Chronicle - Racism in video games? The new norm? Thanks
GamePolitics.
One of the games that comes to mind is "Left 4 Dead 2." Though the game
isn't out yet, it's already causing an uproar. Set in New Orleans, players
will have to fight their way through hordes of zombies - with several of
them who appear to be African-Americans. When I saw the first trailer for
the game, all I could think about was Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath.
Setting the game in a city that was scene of dead, bloated bodies floating
by so soon afterward was a bad call, IMHO. The city has had enough to deal
with -- Valve, you should have spared them, even if it's just a video game.
Sessler's Soapbox - Indie Games Are Important.
The Sess wanted to explain why he thinks games coming from independent
developers are so important for the industry and gamers alike. If you bring
more creative voices to the table, everyone else has to match their game and
be just as innovative, creative and interesting as the other guy. So press
play and find out what Adam has to say on the subject.
IncGamers
- WoW is Killing Itself.
Essentially, the problem is that WoW has gone off the track. The game
gained popularity because it appealed to normal gamers, willing to devote a
few hours a day running dungeons and completing quests in a game they really
enjoyed. However, WoW has evolved. The game is now catering to a small
minority of so-called 'hardcore' players - according to one developers'
research, these make up less than 5% of the overall population. The WoW
developers have repeatedly discussed the fact that the hardcore players
experience is the best, most challenging content in the game; have more
skills than 'casual' players, and therefore receive the best rewards. Even
normal, average players now accept these ideas as fact.
IncGamers - WoW Is Not Killing Itself.
In Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard really went to town and introduced 10
man raids alongside 25 man ones. When this announcement was made at the WWI
in Paris last year the cheer from the crowd was deafening. Bleeding edge
guilds certainly weren't happy with losing their exclusive access to the
hardest encounters in WoW, but this change meant the majority of level cap
players would finally get the chance to see end game content.
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| 18. |
Re: Op Ed |
Jul 16, 2009, 15:39 |
Krovven |
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A casual player is not going to see the end of Ulduar; they aren't even going to see all of Naxxramas or Malygos unless they have more hardcore people to run them through it.
Nobody is saying they should. But in the past, and with other MMO's high end content only has 1 setting...Raid at X number of players. There was no Normal & Heroic modes. You couldn't do part of the dungeon as a 5 or 10 man group instead of the 25 man, etc, etc. There are also plenty of various ways to get gear that would help those players get geared well enough to eventually go on those raids should they choose to.
The high end raid content and dedication required for that is still there. There is just a much softer curve and defining line for the casual player to get there over a long period of time, or at least to prevent them from being cut off from a huge chunk of that content.
ie: Everquest, Planes of Power, when it was first released, succeeded in royally screwing any form of casual player from accessing 75% or more of the expansion content unless they were in a raiding guild. Hell even many raiding guilds found themselves cut off from the content because there was no such thing as instances and they had to race far more advanced guilds for the same content (due to individual player flags [keys] being required to move forward in the content).
WoW raiders that haven't played older MMO's don't know what hardcore is. 4 hours is hardcore in WoW? Shit, some EQ raid content when it was first released took guilds running 60 to 100 players 8+ hours each. Hell Vex Thall took weeks and weeks of guild raids to get key parts to make the Vex Thall key, then it was a 2 day raid to fight to the end of the dungeon...until they started getting better gear of course.
Long and short is...WoW raid/group content is VERY accessible to casual players.
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