The Importance of Casuals

Over the last week we've seen a bit of fallout with the release of Street Fighter V. There are quite a few people who feel that at its core, SFV is a solid game: good mechanics, works great. However, it is severely lacking in features, especially play modes. For the hardcore fighting game fan, this isn't really an issue. As it stands, the game has what they want already: a decent-sized roster of characters and an online versus mode. Be that as it may, a lot of people are upset by this, ie. everyone else who isn't hardcore aficionados of the genre. There are quite a lot of people that get these games with little to no intent of ever playing against another human being. They want a story, cool characters, maybe some other interesting modes tossed in, and if they can successfully pull off most of the moves along the way, so much the better.

Given the bare bones state of Street Fighter V's launch, these casual fans of fighters are a bit miffed. It doesn't matter if there's more content coming down the line. They plunked down $60 and they aren't finding a whole lot that they want to do with the game. The worrying, and not entirely unexpected, thing about all of this is how a vocal quadrant of hardcore community lashed out at the casuals voicing their concerns about the state of the game. It really goes to show that there are some impressively narrow-minded, myopic individuals who are utterly lacking in foresight.

The diehards of any given hobby are always comprised of a very small, vocal minority. They have very specific things that they want and they'll make a bunch of noise until they get it. This isn't just the case with Street Fighter. We can see it in most genres. Look at the last 10-15 years of MMORPGs. There was a time when raiders, another small, noisy group of people, would shout and stomp their feet on a game's message boards until they got what they want. The problem was that there were a lot of other people playing the game, quietly enjoying regular dungeons, leveling alts, dressing up their characters, or being silly with friends in a hub town. As the tiny group of raiders were increasingly catered to, everyone else was feeling left out when it came to new content. Sure they could raid, but if they're generally uninterested in such activities, it seemed silly to force one's self to. So, over time, as the casual set was increasingly left behind, they let out a collective, "Okay, bye, I guess..." and quit these games. This resulted in a sizable loss in customers for these games, and their publishers began to worry, scrambling to find ways to win back these people who unbenounced to them, were actually a larger source of revenue than the smaller, noisier group of "hardcore" players.

This could be translated to one genre after the next. How many people love competitive Starcraft? A decent amount, sure, but how many more view stuff like custom maps and clicking on units repeatedly so that they say silly things as highlights of the game? A lot more. This is one of the things that is nice about the game. Hardcore folks get their ladder and off they go while the casual crowd can just go off and do as they like in these custom modes or just enjoying the story. The game stays accessible to new players and those that have no interest in playing at a high level while also being good to go for the more competitive crowd.

There are some folks that shout on the internet about how they play competitively and think everyone else should as well, and it's turned into a bit of an echo chamber where these people get together and start thinking it's the natural order of things without stopping to think that there are quite a few people out there that don't feel the same. Whether it's hardcore members of the fighting game community, MOBA players arguing about normal matches vs. ranked, or MMO raiders, they just start talking among themselves, earnestly agreeing with one another while shouting down descent.

For a time, it may well seem like what they're doing is working, but often as the months and years pass we see less and less casuals entering into these games because they just don't want to deal with any of that and the games don't offer features or game modes that they're interested in. Moreover, this leaves a limited pool of hardcore folk, and that cohort of people inevitably shrinks as its members get older, their priorities / life circumstances change, and they find themselves leaving the scene. Then what happens to these games? Their publishers are businesses, not charities. If they aren't making enough money to support their product or they think future games in the genre won't sell well, the suits that make all of the big, money-related decisions at the company may not greenlight future projects.

So, hardcore gamers need to think long and hard whether they want to put these walls around the games that they love so much. If they can support them financially on their own, great. However, if that isn't the case, casuals are an absolute necessity for many games to continue to exist, never mind flourish. Shouting at the "filthy casuals" may score brownie points in their little circles, but it may well actually kill off the games these people love if they aren't careful.

Noteworthy February 2016 Game Releases

With the shortest month of the year right around the corner, February doesn't seem to be lacking for interesting game releases, especially for PC. I remember a time when the first three or four months of the year were nothing but tumbleweeds rolling by as game web sites licked their wounds from having to review dozens of games in short succession in the run-up to Christmas. Memories...

Anyway, looking at the games due out next month there are quite a few that stick out for me. As much as I'd like to play them all, time and my wallet won't be having any of that. Nonetheless, let's take a moment to look at some of the stand out titles due out then, at least the ones I'm interested in and know I should probably avoid so to whittle down my backlog instead.

Tales of Symphonia

While I've not religiously followed the series, I do enjoy picking up Tales of games every now and then. They have nice, light stories that feel like something out of an anime series and tend to sport fairly interesting combat systems. Missing out on Symphonia was something that I'd always regretted, especially when the Wii game's price started going up on auction sites as folks realized it was a bit rare and in-demand. Now, with it getting ported to PC there's a chance at getting the thing at a reasonable price, assuming Bamco doesn't get greedy.

Arslan: The Warriors of Legend

An anime where big armies face off against one another? Sounds like the ingredients for a musou game. Tecmo Keoi certainly seem to think so. Musou's gonna musou, so I suspect fans of the genre will keep an eye on this one while the haters will keep on hating. It looks pretty nice visually, and the folks at Famitsu rated it reasonably well with all eights, so I guess it plays reasonably well. I'm not in a rush to pick up the game myself having recently binged on some Dynasty Warriors, but could see myself being tempted by it at a Steam sale.

XCOM 2

Part of me is genuinely a bit annoyed that this game broke with tradition and put a number after "XCOM". That's just not how these things are done. We've had Enforcer, Interceptor, Terror from the Deep, and a bunch of others. Those are interesting. Engaging. Sexy. "2"? Not so much. I'm sure this won't be enough to stop folks from grabbing this day one and embarking on another adventure to save earth from an alien threat, marveling at just how bad some of their units aim is. "The thing is right in front of you! Why do you keep missing?!?"

American Truck Simulator

Before Euro Truck Simulator 2, I had no idea that I could fall in love with big rigs and drive them like proper semis. Previously, the only time I'd play a game with such a vehicle in it was in GTA or Twisted Metal because the things were big, heavy, and could wreck carnage with ease. As it turns out, these mighty vehicles can also haul freight across vast distances and the whole process can be extremely relaxing. I even developed a new found respect for backing up trailers and roundabouts while playing that game. Soon, we'll be heading to the even vaster, though less roundabout-intensive, United States where the highways are numbered and roll on for miles. Will there be opportunities of raunchy rendezvous in remote rural restrooms as players embark on long, transcontinental hauls? Only time will tell, but even if there isn't maybe someone can patch it in with Steam Workshop or something.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

This has been out for ages on the Vita, but it's heading to the PC in February, which has caught my attention. A visual novel that combines Battle Royale and Phoenix Wright, high school students try to get away with murder in order to escape the facility they've been trapped in by a sadistic robot bear. You don't see a premise like that every day.

Street Fighter V

After several years of dominating the fighting game scene, it's finally time to put Street Fighter IV out to pasture and bring in number five. It's Street Fighter, so most people have a pretty good idea of what to expect here and those in the know have been playing the beta for months now. I'm just happy to see a mountain man Ryu skin. There will also be a lot of other outfits, as that's the thing folks demand in a fighting game nowadays. So, if you want to see Chun Li, Laura, and the gang oozing out of their clothing, that'll be an option. Personally, I'm holding out for a Rufus outfit that does this.

Disgaea PC

Miss console strategy RPGs of the early 2000s? Like grinding out hundreds of levels on each of your characters? This may be a game to consider. Disgaea getting a PC port is quite the pleasant surprise, as it's something that I don't think anyone was expecting, but here we are. It's a solid game with a fun, lighthearted, and often rather humorous story. What I want to know is if we'll see more of these games if this one does well. There are tons of Disgaea games, as well as stuff like La Pucelle, Phantom Brave, and Makai Kingdom. I'm kind of hoping that this game succeeds and opens the flood gates for other titles in the genre.

Project X Zone 2

Sometimes when franchises crossover we can be in for a fun ride as popular characters team up. I was hoping this would be the case in the original Project X Zone, but found it got bogged down by trying to introduce too many characters. It got to the point where the first few hours of the game felt like the fight scenes from the Anchor Man movies with its cavalcade of cameos. By the sound of things, the sequel will be addressing this with a more fleshed out story which happens to focus a lot on Ryo from the Shenmue series. On top of this, the game will still have the interesting team-based combat system of the first PxZ, so it could be one to watch.

Fire Emblem: Fates

It's finally almost time for a new Fire Emblem game (February really is a great month for fans of strategy games and RPGs). Combat is shaping up to be what one would expect from the series with characters gaining an affinity for one another, permadeath, and all that good stuff. Interestingly, or expensively depending on how you look at it, the game is being split into separate editions. Each of these will focus on a different country in the game as war breaks out. There will be a lot to do in each version of the game, as they clock in at around 30 hours each, but it'll be interesting to see how sales do for the game with Nintendo trying this unconventional means of release out.

Pre-Order Street Fighter V and Enter a World of Mountain Men and Huge Thighs

I think Chun-Li's been working out since the last game...

With the release of the next major installment in the Street Fighter series approaching, that means hordes of special edition and pre-order bonus announcements. The PS4 version has the typical stuff like an artbook and a big ol' statue, but what caught my eye were the costumes folks will get depending where they pre-order the game from.

First of all, I hate when this happens and stores all wrestle for position with these things. As a consumer, I'd rather just get all of the stuff no problem. It's fine if I have to pay for it, just don't subject me to these shenanigans. In any case, some of these have turned out to be quite the alternate outfits.

A newer, more rugged Ryu.

Ryu and Chun-Li are particular standouts. The former is only for those who pre-order from Gamestop, and will have a shirtless Ryu sporting a rather full beard. It's quite the departure from his normally baby faced motif. Then we have Chun-Li, which is for anyone who pre-orders the digital version of the game for the PS4 or PC. Now, I know she's always had huge legs, which presumably comes with the territory given how so much of her move set hinges on kicking people, but oh my have her thighs gotten huge, and this outfit really accentuates it.

By contrast, M. Bison and Cammy's costumes look downright sensible when compared to these two. Hopefully, the other costumes will just get tossed into a DLC pack down the road so people can enjoy what they like, but whatever the case, the Ryu and Chun-Li ones really stood out to me. Guess I'll have to start getting used to giant-thighed Chun-Li since I'll most likely be pre-ordering that version of the game...

M. Bison looks downright sensible in that trench coat.

With her arm positioned like that, I'm not sure if Cammy is wearing any pants...