Accessibility of Genres

Hardcore Games and Casual Games

Why do many games which ‘hardcore gamers’ play seem so arcane and confusing to non-‘hardcore gamers’? Is it because these people didn’t grow up playing video games and they just missed their opportunity to get into those games? If that were the case, it would fail to explain why non-‘hardcore gamers’ are able to get into games which don’t build off of existing genres. These ‘casual’ games or ‘quirky’ games seem to be accessible to a much larger population.

If we view these ‘casual’ or ‘quirky’ games as not simply stand alone games, but as starts of their own genre, then there seems to be an inverse relation between the accessibility of a genre and the age of the genre. Genres which have been around for several years are much more difficult for a new player to get into than a much younger genre. That is, games like Katamari Damacy, which could be viewed as the beginning of a genre, are much more accessible to people than games like Halo, which is many generations away from its genre originator.

If we view game genres in the same way we view artistic periods or literary movements then there becomes an obvious problem with video games. The vast majority of entry points are gone. It is very difficult for new gamers to play the older games which introduce a series of skills needed to play many of today’s games. The entry points to these genres which ‘hardcore gamers’ play are not really available to new or returning gamers.

Game Genres as Movements

• Vocabulary

  
  Within a movement, people create a language to describe the various features. Only through seeing many examples of the vocabulary in this new language can someone fully understand a work in a specific movement. If a person was placed in the thick of a movement without any basic steps to build a vocabulary, the person will become extremely confused, lost and frustrated. Much in the same way many non-‘hardcore gamers’ react to attempting to play ‘hardcore’ games today.
  
  Video game genres definitely have a vocabulary. Consider the FPS genre; the ‘vocabulary’ is made up of various things that seasoned FPS players seem to instinctively know. Weapons often have two fire modes. It is better to point rockets at the feet of the opponents. Barrels explode and boxed break apart. Health, armor, and ammo are often hidden away in corners. The ability to circle strafe. All of these things (and many more) build up the vocabulary for the language of First Person Shooters. If someone doesn’t know this vocabulary, they will be lost in most FPS games on the market today.
  
  

• Building the Vocabulary

  
  For a movement to be accessible (and, in my view, for a game genre as well) it needs to have a way for people to build up a vocabulary. This is often done by studying the emerging pieces of the movement. If one wanted to understand impressionist paintings they would start by looking at the works of Monet.
  
  The problem video games have is that these emerging works are not well preserved. Most old games seem virtually impossible to run on today’s computers. Even if one manages to get these games to run, the dated graphics and interface often discourage new players. Even if people are not avid gamers, they have had contact with technology which provides a basis for their interface and graphical expectations.
  
  This problem isn’t as significant in other artistic works such as movies, art, or writing. Compare a painting from 500 years ago with one today. There are differences, yes, but the painting from 500 years ago doesn't look like a crude stick figure drawing compared to today's painting. A book written 500 years ago may contain vocabulary or references which are not common today, but the basic way in which the book is read hasn’t changed.
  
  Movies do suffer from this same problem but on a relatively insignificant scale. Silent movies are often inaccessible to the vast majority of people today. People have become accustomed to a certain way in which they watch a movie. Silent movies and today’s movies are watched in different ways. Black and white movies don’t suffer this strong of a stigma because they only lack color. The basic act of observing and understanding the movie is not greatly hampered by the lack of color.
  
  Video games can be compared to paintings if we burned any painting that was more than 5 years old. The only way you could know about these older painting is from people who saw the painting and could tell you about it or if someone attempted to re-create the painting in today’s standard.
  
  Look at video game’s closely related cousin, board games. Think about the board games you played as a child (or possibly still play). Does Monopoly require any knowledge of previous board games? On the extreme, one could say ‘yes.’ What the game pieces are, what the game board is, what dice are, and how to take turns is necessary to play Monopoly, but those concepts don’t usually take more than 10 minutes to convey. Board games also have the advantage that at least one person present has played a board game before. Video games don’t have that. They’re solitary activities. Yes, some games are played online, but you simply compete with these people (or work towards a common goal), but if you got onto an online game and asked for help on how to play, I highly doubt the response you get would be something you’d let your mother read.
  
  This inability to access older video games stunts the ability to provide entry points for newer gamers. This also causes video games to be set so separate from other artistic works.
  
  

• Re-Building Vocabulary

  
  Occasionally someone will produce a game which could serve as an entry point to an existing genre. These games often have the stigma of being a ‘dumbed down’ or ‘watered down’ version of existing games. More often than not these games get marketed as games for kids. This, obviously, isn’t something which is going to draw in a significant number of new players into an established genre. How many people would be interested in the impressionist period of art if the only way to get introduced to the formation of the period was through 'Impressionist Painting with Barney!'?
  
  Some games have successfully re-created entry points without having the stigma of being kiddy versions. Consider Pikmin. Granted it isn’t a game that appeals to the ‘hardcore’ audience as a whole, but it is a strategy game which is accessible to new gamers. It provides some of the basic vocabulary needed to play RTS games. However, it lacks various other vocabulary points which lead directly into the RTS world (such as resource gathering or unit building), so it doesn’t work as a complete entry ramp into the established RTS world, but it does provide a step in that direction.
  
  Note that games which rebuild an existing language from the start need not develop in the exact same language. Taking Pikmin from above, it could be built up to a completely different type of RTS which doesn’t hold much resemblance to the established genre aside from moving units around in real time.
  
  

• Entry Ramps

  
  Even if these entry points were preserved or re-created, the transition between the entry games and the current games is still missing. Consider generations of specific game genres. Each generation builds upon the previous one causing things to be more complex and lowering the accessibility of each successive generation. Look at the FPS world:
  
  
  • Generation 1: Wolfenstein 3d
    
  • Generation 2: Doom
    
  • Generation 3: Duke Nukem 3d
    
  • Generation 4: Quake
    
  • Generation 5: Half-life
    
  • Generation 6: Half-life 2
  
  Each one increases in the amount of things the player must master before being able to play the game well. Putting someone who has not played any of the previous games in Half-life 2 and they will probably be very frustrated. Put someone at the start of the generation ladder and walk them through and they will probably be able to do pretty well in Half-life 2 from the get go.
  
  The problem is that from generation 3 or 4 and back, those games are no longer accessible. Wolfenstein 3d and Doom are simply too old to run on today’s computers. There are versions out there that have been modified to play on today’s computers, but because of their dated graphics and rigid interface, most players will find them inaccessible.
  
  If Generation 1 was re-created and was popular enough for most people to enjoy, the ramp up to today’s games is broken. Generations 2-4 are still missing. To be able to provide access to today’s games, a new gamer would need a reconstruction of games up until generation 4 or 5. As time goes on the problem becomes compounded. With each year, new FPS games are created and the generation line is increased. This means more games need to be preserved or re-created in order to keep the ramp ‘open’ for new gamers.
  
  This creates a problem where the FPS games can be inaccessible to a great number of people because of the lack of any entry ramps. A player can go back and ‘rough it’ to play those old games, but they probably won’t get the same level of enjoyment and engrossment as today’s gamers did when they first played them. If the player can’t get past the technological problems, they probably aren’t going to get caught up in the genre.
  
  

• Jumping the Ramp

  
  It is important to note that not everyone entered into the FPS genre this way. There were various entry ramps and if people were really interested in the genre, they could skip generational steps. If one really likes the idea of running around and shooting enemies in the face, the lack of an entry ramp probably wouldn’t be an impassable obstacle for entering the FPS world. If that type of game strongly appeals to someone, then the difficulty of learning the ins and outs of the genre aren’t going to keep them away. But without that driving interest, the FPS genre can become something that players are ‘just not interested in.’
  
  

• Looking Ahead

  
  As genres become more complex, it is important to preserve the entry ramps. If the entry ramps become too old or unable to be preserved, then they should be re-created by the current standards. This would allow games to become far more accessible and allow people who have interest in the established genres to enter the genre without weeks of frustration.
  
  Re-creations which are meant to preserve the entry ramp could be excellent promotional tools used to stimulate interest in an upcoming game which is deep within an established genre. For example, if a company was making a new RTS game which builds upon the established vocabulary (or uses its own), then a simplistic game could be developed along side of it which uses a smaller vocabulary to provide an entry ramp into the main game. This simplistic game could be given away as a teaser or even sold as a budget-ware title.