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I was an avid video games player, owned every console, etc. Then I discovered BW and battle.net in 2004 and never bought any other game since. I only play some games on my Android phone once in a while (mostly emulated SNES RPGs).
I tried a few games on Facebook because my wife was playing them. Never got caught up because of the terrible lack of skill required. I did play Ogame in hardcore mode for a year, and when I quit I had never felt I had wasted that much time in my life before.
I believe social games is just a natural evolution, following the recent debilitating trends, they're just to classic games what TV reality shows are to standard shows. Have any of you seen the movie Idiocracy ? I believe people are becoming dumber and dumber (no offense to people who just want to watch something retarded to relax after work, I can understand that one may not wanna play BW competitively or watch scientific documentary after a hard day working day), but still overall the trend is there.
I mean when I was a kid, I got interested in a lot of stuffs, because my parents bought me a lot of books, didn't watch much TV etc. But nowadays, why would a kid be interested in reading books, or invest time in anything when his parents just sit on the couch watching retarded shows. People are only looking for an instant gratification. Many friends think I'm kidding when I say I spend so much time reading Wikipedia, or studying poker theory or anything that does not provide an instant reward.
Sad.
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
>endy
I gotta check that movie out...
Also, your words remind me of the recent Al Jazeera article on America's grow thing anti-intellectualism.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/10/2011109112727162598.html
I think one of the great blessings in disguise was when I was weaned off of TV during college. Similarly, getting myself off of Facebook and onto critically-thinking news aggregators like Hacker News has been a boon to productivity and my intellectual breadth.
I don't think I've ever read so many books in my life before either.
edit: and yes, it's quite sad. But on the other hand, this proliferation of technology has allowed us to find others who take steps to swim against the tides of anti-intellectualism. This, I think has been a wonderful development.
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Idiocracy was a moderately fun movie, conceived as a satire. But the more I think about it, it holds some unsettling truths.
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There are a few TED talks about gaming. (maybe like 8 or so) there is one in particular that talks about social games in depth and how they are infiltrating everything in life (and its a good thing). Things like earning points using cards or cashback rewards at grocery stores etc. Its all sort of game like and they presume that it will be more and more gamelike as time goes on.
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This is not specific to social games.
Final Fantasy is a good example too. The storyline and artistic work is decaying, favouring immediate satisfaction (character's perfection and attractiveness, perfection, easy challenges, constant care to the player's feelings). Even though FF VII marked the beginning of this trend, it still did not hesitate to shake the player up (Aerith's death), or portray weak beings (a mythomaniac being the hero).
To me, most of the industry is behaving like a bunch of drug dealers, and most players consume games just like they would consume cocaine.
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
On October 17 2011 20:09 Kukaracha wrote:
This is not specific to social games.
Final Fantasy is a good example too. The storyline and artistic work is decaying, favouring immediate satisfaction (character's perfection and attractiveness, perfection, easy challenges, constant care to the player's feelings). Even though FF VII marked the beginning of this trend, it still did not hesitate to shake the player up (Aerith's death), or portray weak beings (a mythomaniac being the hero).
To me, most of the industry is behaving like a bunch of drug dealers, and most players consume games just like they would consume cocaine.
Reminds me of the fact that I quit FF after FFVIII 
Like an addict who cut the habit, I haven't looked back!!
Interestingly, when you mentioned "did no hesitate to shake the player up", I immediately thought of the manga series "Once Piece", which is very predictable and seems to gratify the reader.
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On October 17 2011 19:26 thedeadhaji wrote:
>endy
I gotta check that movie out...
It's been criticized by some as a "Nazi" movie because it implies intelligence is inherited from one's parents, hence confirming eugenics theories. But it's really worth watching it in my opinion.
I don't know how to interpret that. I lived most of my life in France and this is definitely not happening only in America.
My mum was a teacher in elementary school, and that's really something she noticed about her pupils. There was a huge correlation between the will to learn, discover things, and the parents intelligence / behavior with their kids. Doesn't sound surprising, but often people will refuse to admit it.
On October 17 2011 19:26 thedeadhaji wrote:
I think one of the great blessings in disguise was when I was weaned off of TV during college. Similarly, getting myself off of Facebook and onto critically-thinking news aggregators like Hacker News has been a boon to productivity and my intellectual breadth.
I don't think I've ever read so many books in my life before either.
I don't own a TV since 2001 and I know exactly what you mean 
On October 17 2011 19:26 thedeadhaji wrote:
edit: and yes, it's quite sad. But on the other hand, this proliferation of technology has allowed us to find others who take steps to swim against the tides of anti-intellectualism. This, I think has been a wonderful development.
You can't imagine how glad and grateful I am to be a member of TL.net.
At the meantime, if I weren't on TL, I would probably be talking to "less smart people" (damn I feel so bad using this term) and maybe show them how Farmville sucks and how they should play Starcraft instead (replace Farmville and Starcraft by any relevant hobby). It's not a real segregation as it's not enforced, but it's quite close.
There are so many interesting people on the internet, I don't feel the need to talk to less interesting people. At the meantime, when I claim reading encyclopedias for fun, I am perceived as an elitist intellectual and people don't even wanna talk to me. I even sometimes feel like Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory....except that my social skills are pretty good.
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good lord, convoluted doesn't even begin to describe that article. The discussion in here is much better.
anyway, I tend to agree with this, specifically the part about traditional or hc gamers dropping their title of choice for Farmville
On October 17 2011 17:48 Emlary wrote:
However, I don't think Zynga-ish games grab the "low-end" segment of video game market. The target audiences are very different and the overlap is small. Someone may switch from War3 to SC2, or play a lot of WoW at home and a bit Farmville in office (or on mobile). It's also reasonable that someone who played Cooking Mama on DS now plays Restaurant City or The Sims Social. But have you heard someone drops any hardcore game, say COD, because of Farmville? No, they are different gamers.
Big corporations will follow any profitable trend in the industry, diversify their business and lower risks. That's why EA acquired Playfish for $400 million two years ago. It doesn't mean they are giving up core business, as long as the "traditional" core business is still profitable. Video game is not really a high margin business (except MMO segment, and specifically I'm talking about Chinese MMOs), neither is social game: surprisingly Zynga's operating margin is less than 10%. Believe it or not, Zynga's R&D expense accounts more than 30% of its total revenue, which respectably high for any gaming company.
I would think that you'll see some bigger companies adding social games to their line up, but overall, the trend won't change too much. I think the demo that this stuff hits are women and people around our parents' age—people who never played much to begin with. I don't think the audiences overlap too much, and if anything, I think it increases the chances that someone tries a more traditional game somewhere down the road.
I think another interesting discussion is how microtransactions are finding their way into traditional games. EA loves this shit with its sports titles. NHL12, if you play EASHL (the 6v6 league) you can buy boosts for your players or earn them in game. There's also another game mode within NHL12 which you can do this. Pretty sure it's the same for FIFA as well.
I think the concern is not that developers will shift away from the traditional market that we all love, but that they will find a way to bastardize it with shit like that.
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The last paragraph of the essay really feels like it applies to Starcraft 2, in my opinion at least. Bnet 2.0 being the most obvious connection, but the game design itself somewhat.
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EPT
