I was surprised to read in today's new post that Tycho believes (due to Microsoft's mission statement for the service) that XBLA is aimed at casual players. For those of you that are scared of the PA main page, here is the pertinent text.
Live Arcade is actually a subset of Microsoft Casual Games, so while the hardcore certainly appreciate weekly content infusions and clamor when they are not timely, we were never its aim. The purpose of Live Arcade is to make their platform a valid mainstream play. Marketplace has a wider purview, but Live Arcade is designed to deliver a certain kind of inoffensive, family-oriented product and it does so. Until recently, the scope of these products was also enforced through a stringent filesize restriction.
Microsoft's position here (as elsewhere in their empire) is to establish the platform and then let partners create the real value. This means that for games in miniature, ready to deliver, they have often sought out players who are already doing the same thing on their other connected gaming platform - you've seen this content before, in many cases. You can contrast that with Sony's approach, which has thus far been to channel much, much less content of vastly higher polish, often from teams that are first party or powerfully aided thereby. I don't actually know which one consumers prefer, I can't see the deep stats - I simply find these disparities fascinating.
Now, I'm not about to tell MS what their mission statement and/or intent for the XBLA service ought to be, but I don't think that they're following it. Games like Alien Hominid HD, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Contra, DOOM, Heavy Weapon, Smash TV, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 don't really appeal to the traditional casual market. It could also be argued that the 360 isn't a platform aimed at the casual gamer either. Most of what they want to play is available on the PC. Prices for individual games there may be higher (Heavy Weapon is $10 on XBLA but $20 (I believe) on Popcap's site), but there is no buy-in cost as most people already own a computer and said computer wasn't purchased solely for playing games.
I'm not sure if there's a debate here or not, but I'd be interested to see whether filling the arcade with more games that appeal to the non-casual gamer would generate them more money and, more importantly to us, more games to play.
I'm not sure what sort of gamer they'd categorize me as, but the arcade games I've got are:
- Boom Boom Rocket (it may have mass appeal for being pretty but it gets damn hard, unavailable eslewhere)
- Heavy Weapon: Atomic Tank (available on the web for $20)
- Hexic HD (available on the web for free)
- Root Beer Tapper (also gets phenomenally hard at later levels, available on the web for free)
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For example, if I am waiting for somebody to pick me up, I'm not going to jump on Gears of war and play a ranked match of Raven Down. I can jump on uno and play a quick hand or two.
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Zuma, bejeweled, all the rest of those crappy puzzle games that nobody should ever spend 10 bucks on. As well as all those a lot of the games you can just pick up and play for 10 or 20 min and be done.
That's the thing though, most of them really do follow the casual gaming formula, and that includes games like Root Beer Tapper. They're short, easy to play games (even though the difficulty does get exponentially harder), but the point is that the initial pick up and play aspect has little to no actual curve to it. Whenever I've went someplace like Gameworks with non gaming friends, it's the old school games like Galaga, Pac Man, etc that really draw the non gamers in. At the same time, these kinds of games do a good job at drawing in the non"casual" gamer in as well. Matter of fact, I recently hit the 25 game mark with the arcade.
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Also, Mini golf is a fun waste of time, Worms is kick ass and my son likes to roll around the marble in Marble Blast Ultra. He's 2 so we stick to the beginner trial level where you can't fall off.
Zuma is awsome That game spread like wild fire around my ship when we were on deployment...
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my girlfriend is like, zuma queen, she loves it.
I just think it's interesting that MS is trying to capture and/or appeal to the casual market with a $300/$400 console.
As a note, Tetris is arguably the biggest casual title ever. Everyone and their non gaming mom was obsessed with it at some point in time, and it is utterly unmerciful at later levels. Casual doesn't just mean easy.
I tried the demo, and using a controller for Zuma feels awkward compared to using the mouse. This strikes me as odd though because Heavy Weapon, another Popcap game, controls wonderfully with the 360 controller, but I hate the mouse controls.
I guess Heavy Weapon just really benefits from having 2 sticks while Zuma really benefits from the mouse pointer giving me a better idea where the marble is going.
but its not just the casual market...
its the people in your home, its something for them to see, and look at you playing and say "oh i want to try that." It's sort of a gateway drug if you will.
I didn't mean to imply in to OP that casual meant easy. I meant to imply that a steep difficulty increase is more prone to drive off the casual gamer than the dedicated one. For example, I still can't beat the punk bar in Root Beer Tapper, but I keep trying. Most non-gamers and casual gamers I've seen play it have gotten pissed at how hard it was and not played it again.
Who is it for? Me... all me. It's for me!
For reals, best thing in gaming since the Mega Drive.
It has my wallet.
That is like, the ant-Wii train of thought.
:^:
Same here.
If I know I have 3 or 4 hours to kill, I'll sit down at my PC and pop in an RPG, but if I'm just killing time until the wife gets home I'm all over the arcade.
i already have most the "Big" ones.
Have you tried that pinball demo? I downloaded it, but I haven't played it yet.
i'm not a huge pinball fan, so i'll probably pass on that.
Alien Hominid HD is an absolute steal.
Releives stress like nothing in this world.
I like what they're doing and I have caught myself thinking "I wish this was on Live" every now and then - I wish The Red Star could have been on there - but it's not really for me. Does that make me hardcore? :oops:
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
That mini golf demo is ass-tastic.
Listen to the dude who said to get Alien Hominid. It's pretty good.
Or Outpost Koloki. That game is WAY fucking underrated.
I have bought.
Alien Hominid
Boom Boom Rocket
Castlevania SOTN
Doom
Geometry Wars
Small arms
TMNT 1989 Arcade
Worms
Ones I received for free.
Contra
Frogger
Joust
I think I remember trying Koloki, is that the space station one?
i think Koloki is the only game I have not bought, that I think I ought to. Everyone who has it says it is cool.
That, and maybe Wiki.
EDIT: I second jclast's recommendation of Heavy Weapon. Also keep in mind that the difficulty level goes up drastically in later levels (or later times in survival mode) so don't let the tameness of the first few levels throw you off; if you last long enough, you'll get to face bullet hells that rival the best arcade shmups.
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Yes and it is very fun.
I d'no.. Contra, Doom, and UMK3 were all pretty mainstream when they came out, and I think a lot of mainstream gamers would still buy them for the nostalgia trip.
As far as family-oriented content, though, it falls short on that aspect (assuming it's MS's aim, but who really knows what that is).
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My friend and his gf love zuma, everytime I visit one of them is playing it (usually his gf). It's a decent puzzle game but I cannot get into it myself after playing it so much at their place.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Well, I remember there being a lot of talk about Uno on here for some reason.