Life Your Life
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When it comes to gaming communities there always seems to be some sort of conflict at all time. Sometimes this is in the background, other times it takes priority. The audio gaming world is no exception. This blog post is about something I’ve seen pop up from time to time, something I’ve discussed with others privately. What am I talking a bout? Simply the general topic of casual verses hardcore, and simple verses complex games. This doesn’t even need explaining in the main stream world, but in the audio gaming world no one seems to ever draw or recognize the line between the different types of games. I got my Sharpie and I’m ready to draw some damn lines.
Lets ease into it
For whatever stupid reason I can already see this post making a select few people all butt hurt. I guess I’ll go slow so the few people out there can slow burn their anger instead of burning out too fast. And who said I wasn’t nice?
Take a simple little time waster game like Candy Crush, Most everyone has heard of it. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if my grandma has played Candy Crush in the past. A game I know my grandma has not played is Call of Duty. These are both games yes, but wildly different and they target completely different audiences.
Now if we had two more hypothetical games. Lets call them audio Sweets Smasher and audio duty calls. ASS and ADC, because we love our acronyms in the 21st century. Audio Sweet Smasher is clearly a simple game for a casual gamer. Audio Duty Calls is clearly a more complex FPS for the hardcore gamers out there. Should these two games be viewed equally? I’m sure someone will say yes, but that person is wrong. They are two completely different games, and should be judged using completely different standards. Someone who is a hardcore gamer might think ASS is a stupid simple game not worth time or money. Someone who really likes ASS might think ADC is just toxic and too hard to play, or maybe they just don’t like first person shooters. What ever the reason is, they are completely different games, and deserve to be treated as such.
The problem with this example is how people think simply because ASS and ADC are both audio games, they have to be treated as the same thing. Even if it isn’t explicitly said, is always apparent in the way the games are discussed. We have simple little time waster audio games, and complex large world audio games. Acting like these are the same thing just hurts both types of games.
This finer point has been ignored in nearly all discussions about audio games. I’ve seen it referred to in passing, but I think a bigger emphasis has to be put on this fact when we discuss games in the future. Just because a game is an “audio game”, it doesn’t mean it is the same as all other audio games. People have different tastes, different lives, and different things they want to get out of a game. If I use myself as an example I really don’t have any interest in mobile games, or any small simple games. That would be why Hannibal reviews so many of those on the blog. In general there is a little bit of crossover between these two types, but not as much as their could be. I’m not here to change that, or to say it should be changed, just to point it out.
Lets talk some shit!
We constantly see the shit talking about games. People get really butt hurt when it happens, and though it may be funny to watch, more often than not it just gets annoying. There’s a few different types of generalized shit talking we see the most.
1. That game is too easy and stupid!
2. That game has bad people on it and the community is toxic.
3. That game is not worth buying.
4. That game is too big and hard for me to play. (Never said publically)
I’d like to break these down more, and put them into context with the paragraphs below.
1. “That game is too easy and stupid!”
This is probably something said about a smaller game, maybe something on a mobile device. This doesn’t always mean the game is bad or stupid, instead it normally means the target audience is not hardcore gamers. It is probably a great game for a casual gamer who just wants something to pick up and mess around with. Not so good for someone who wants to be challenged and to fail over and over before figuring out how to win. I’ve felt this way about a lot of games, but as I said before I firmly put myself into the FPS style gamer category.
2. “That game has bad people on it and the community is toxic.
This is commonly said about every game involving PVP, or anything which is based around online competition. Normally these types of games attract the hardcore gamer because they offer a constant conflict the players have to overcome in the form of other players. They take a lot of time to master and are competitive by nature. These aren’t for the person who wants something simple to pick up, this is for someone who wants something that will take time to master, and who enjoys competition with and against other people. Don’t mistake true ass-bangers for people shit talking while playing a game. There is a difference, sometimes an ass-banger is just an ass-banger, and yes they are more drawn to PVP games. If you can’t deal with that, Audio Sweet Smasher is probably more your type of thing anyway.
3. “That game is not worth buying.”
This one fits into both parts. A person can have any reason for not purchasing a game, but it is said a lot about smaller games. It could literally mean it just isn’t worth buying, or it might not be worth it to the hardcore gamer. It might even be too bad for the casual to pay for it. Whatever the reason is, if everyone says this than it is probably a bad game. If only “some” people say it, then it is probably just the other side of the audio gaming coin bitching. Remember just because a game is an audio game doesn’t mean the target audience is blind people, the target audience is based on the type of game made, not the ability of the players to see or not.
4. “That game is too big and hard for me to play. (Never said publically)”
I’ve seen this first hand quite a bit. Some people just don’t like big complex games. That’s fine, but the issue is when they use some other excuse for why they don’t like the game. This typically boils down to they suck and don’t like sucking at something, so instead of getting better they quit. I’m sure everyone knows someone like this, I’ve seen quite a few people act like this personally.
Note: It is also important to realize not all people are competitive. Some people enjoy PVP, but they just don’t care if they lose. The opposite is not someone who legitimately rages when they lose, those people are something different. I mean some people just are not competitive at all. I cannot understand this character trait, but I know it is a thing. Normally they fall into some weird form of playing PVP but not really getting into it much. I firmly fall into the competitive side myself.
What to do with this
To Players:
It is important to realize these two differences, and keep it in mind when you want to talk shit about a game or see others doing it. We’ve seen a lot of new mobile games come out in 2019, and they all fall into the easier category. They have their place, but they aren’t the game for the hardcore gamer which a lot of us are. It doesn’t mean the games are bad, just that a large percentage of the audio gaming community would prefer a different style game. They are also easier to make, and don’t have constant running costs like an online PVP game so we are going to continue to see more of them as time goes on. If you make a simple mobile game you are going to lose customers, the same as if you made a online PVP based game. Developers have to find their niche, and no one really knows what that will be. Sometimes it is okay to just say I’m not into so and so type of games. You don’t have to justify your decision or opinion by making shit up, or opening up your butt face. Unless you have a blog, then feel free to open your butt face all you want, some people are into that sort of thing.
To Developers:
Just because you make something that is an audio game doesn’t mean it is a game that all blind gamers are going to enjoy and appreciate. There have been many new games I have no interest in at all, mainly because they are simple little time wasters. I crave a complex big world game that involves competition against other humans. Some people just want to play with their ASS all day, to each their own. Just don’t assume because you made an audio game, all blind gamers, or even half of them are going to enjoy it. Gaming is not a one size fits all solution. It is important to realize your target audience, and also realize that making an audio game does not mean blind gamers are going to appreciate your game just because you made it.
To Everyone:
Every so often we get games that manage to bridge the gap between easy and bad. You see this with Crazy Party, Sequence Storm, and Manamon 2. Only Crazy Party allows for some form of true online competition. Sequence Storm and Manamon 2 are just well done in their difficulty options and how they ramp up in difficulty. This tells me there is a middle ground developers can find between the hardcore gamer and the casual. It requires a lot of game preparation, and predevelopment of balance which is something severely lacking in the audio gaming world.
We’ve had titles like A Hero’s Call which was a good game just because of the quality of the story, but a lot was done to it to make it easier. That game could have been much harder, but doing so would have lost a lot of players because they don’t want to be challenged in a game. That might sound odd to some people but it is clearly true. You only have to see all the people complaining about games or parts of games being too hard and the developers changing them to make them easier. That topic is for another blog post however.
Overall be aware that just because something is an audio game, it doesn’t mean it is a fit for all blind gamers. We are segmented into game types just like the main stream world. We have fewer games to choose from, but that doesn’t mean we have to settle for something that isn’t our style. It is okay to not like a game because of its style or genre. It is however not good to settle for a game you don’t really like just because you don’t have many choices. If you always say something is good when it is actually average, developers are going to keep making those average games and nothing will ever change. It is hard to stress this enough. Be honest about what you like, but be constructive as well.
Like what you like and dislike what you dislike. Just be aware of the reasons why, and think about that next time you want to just say a game is shit. It might have been made specifically for window lickers, or homicidal rage-tards.
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