Casual vs Hardcore
Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 12:38 pm
I don't want to sound down on this, because I am really enjoying myself in the beta, but I think that it is really important for the QCF guys to realise that there is clearly something of a gulf between the "hardcore" players and, um, us ordinary mortals, who are more "casual" players.
At present there is not nearly enough help in the game for those of us who genuinely don't understand what these hardcore players are writing about in forum posts. There are assumptions that they are bringing which are fine, but seem counter-intuitive e.g. a game that appealed to me originally because it was more of a pastime seems to need "farming" (not a jargon term I especially like, I must admit!) in order to progress sensibly; there is little guidance about features that suddenly appear (like Weaken and Corrosion) and how to deal with them; there is especially little help with dealing with Bosses who - from this rubbish gamer's perspective - appear impossible to deal with (e.g. I still have no idea how to handle Bleaty, and that's supposed to be in a "easy" dungeon! Mind you, I don't think I ever defeated SuperMeatMan in the alpha either.) I appreciate that this sort of "tutorial" help will inevitably be one of the last things to get added; please don't forget it.
Again, please don't get me wrong - I like the game and absolutely do not regret prepurchasing it. And I realise that this is still the beta phase where balancing the game is important. I just want to remind folks that balancing a game for hardcore players is a very different proposition to balancing it for those of us who are more casual. (As a games designer myself, albeit board games, I know that it's very easy to forget the people who haven't learned all the things you have during the development process, and as a result, skew things horribly away from them...)
At present there is not nearly enough help in the game for those of us who genuinely don't understand what these hardcore players are writing about in forum posts. There are assumptions that they are bringing which are fine, but seem counter-intuitive e.g. a game that appealed to me originally because it was more of a pastime seems to need "farming" (not a jargon term I especially like, I must admit!) in order to progress sensibly; there is little guidance about features that suddenly appear (like Weaken and Corrosion) and how to deal with them; there is especially little help with dealing with Bosses who - from this rubbish gamer's perspective - appear impossible to deal with (e.g. I still have no idea how to handle Bleaty, and that's supposed to be in a "easy" dungeon! Mind you, I don't think I ever defeated SuperMeatMan in the alpha either.) I appreciate that this sort of "tutorial" help will inevitably be one of the last things to get added; please don't forget it.
Again, please don't get me wrong - I like the game and absolutely do not regret prepurchasing it. And I realise that this is still the beta phase where balancing the game is important. I just want to remind folks that balancing a game for hardcore players is a very different proposition to balancing it for those of us who are more casual. (As a games designer myself, albeit board games, I know that it's very easy to forget the people who haven't learned all the things you have during the development process, and as a result, skew things horribly away from them...)