JamesG's sister and Morrowind

[Tom Chick]

In case you guys missed this because it was buried in some boring political thread, here's a great example of what's cool about Morrowind. JamesG mentions his sister monopolizing his Xbox:


Which brings up another (totally off-topic) point: I never would have considered Morrowind a good choice for casual gamers until watching her play. She completely ignores all of the power-gaming strategies and barely pays attention to the main story and instead runs around trying to get people to "like" her, exploring caves, and trying to find cool looking things to wear. Her latest goal is to kill all of the Telvanni, "because they're assholes".

Casual gamers are funny.

-Tom

[Brian Koontz]

This illustrates how important (and how financially lucrative for publishers and developers) *freedom* is in games.

When there comes a time when you can do *anything* in a game, then the game caters to everyone.

A Fashion paradise? Sure.

Monster killing? Yep.

Social relationships? Absolutely.

Owning a shop, ruling a town, riding a horse, etc, etc.

The more freedom, the merrier.

[Anonymous]

Isn't JamesG's sister, like, 9 years old?

[Doug Erickson]

My wife loves Diablo 2 just for the shopping/dress up components. She spends hours bopping through Nightmare mode looking for choice equipment for her assassin, toggling between the character and inventory screens looking for the "perfect" outfit to complement her Shadow Skills/Martial Arts assassin. The monsters are "nice", she says, because they make her feel like she earned her gear, but the story and setting are largely trivial, serving only to validate her choice of attire and weaponry.

She now wants a pair of REAL katars, which makes me a bit nervous.

[Anonymous]

Some days I sincerely wish I was still a casual gamer. They have it good. I have noticed, however, that the less I discuss/write about games and embrace my opinions to the point of being completely narrow-minded, the more I enjoy my games.

Or at least fool myself into doing so.




Gaming is so complicated!

[Alan Au]

Isn't JamesG's sister, like, 9 years old?
Sure, give or take a couple decades. In the original thread, he mentions that she makes a pretty sharp laywer. Boy, those law students are getting younger every year...

Casual gamers are really funny. I wouldn't have thought that MW would make for good casual game fare. That's because the description of James' sister playing MW sounds like something I would do, and it's pretty clear that I don't fall into the casual catergory.

- Alan

[Ben Sones]

I think people (mostly we hardcore folks) underestimate casual gamers. We like to look down on them for having only a casual interest in something that we hold near and dear, but ultimately the biggest thing that seperates us and them is the fact that they have less tolerance for all the dumb idiosyncrosies of gaming that we have all learned to ignore. It kind of bugs me when people use the term "casual gamer" as a judgement of the quality of the person's tastes (usually with negative connotations). The fact that they don't play games all the time doesn't mean that they don't know a good game from a bad one (and likewise, the fact that we do play games all the time doesn't make our opinions unassailable--just more experienced).

Just sayin'.

[Supertanker]

Just like in real life, I consulted my wife when trying to decide what to wear in NWN. I had some blue +3 Half Plate, and some gold +2 Full Plate, so the AC was the same. She thought the Half Plate looked better with my circlet, and I liked the way it showed off my 'tat, so the Full Plate got sold off. I still have my Rainbow Plate, thought I only wear it to pick fights in bars.

[Doug Erickson]

I wanna start seeing an equipment subclass called "Bling".

[Jason McCullough]

'It kind of bugs me when people use the term "casual gamer" as a judgement of the quality of the person's tastes (usually with negative connotations). The fact that they don't play games all the time doesn't mean that they don't know a good game from a bad one (and likewise, the fact that we do play games all the time doesn't make our opinions unassailable--just more experienced).'

No, it just means they're less likely to have evolved taste in games. It's like comparing a movie critic to the average horrid-movie attending moviegoer.

Well, we're probably somewhere between a movie critic and a passhole.

http://www.thestranger.com/2002-06-06/feature.html

[xahlt]

You think that's good, here's an excerpt from those endless roleplaying vs powergaming in RPG threads from the NWN boards:


This morning before work my 8 year old daughter was pestering me to play NWN which she has been watching me play for the last couple of nights with great interest. I was late (as usual) so I just started the game, showed her how to save without screwing up my game and left for the day. When I came home I found her still on the computer with the manual out in front of her. She had found her way to the middle of the prison level (pretty good for a just graduated 2nd grader). She was playing a 3rd level bard named Brittany Spears When I asked her why she didn't pick any armor for her character she told me, "'cuz you can't dance with armor on!" Now THAT, my friends, is what role playing is all about. Its not always about getting the best armor and the most hit points. Its about embracing an alter ego. I am so proud of her. Looks like I past the nerd gene on after all...

[balut]

You think that's good, here's an excerpt from those endless roleplaying vs powergaming in RPG threads from the NWN boards:


This morning before work my 8 year old daughter was pestering me to play NWN which she has been watching me play for the last couple of nights with great interest. I was late (as usual) so I just started the game, showed her how to save without screwing up my game and left for the day. When I came home I found her still on the computer with the manual out in front of her. She had found her way to the middle of the prison level (pretty good for a just graduated 2nd grader). She was playing a 3rd level bard named Brittany Spears When I asked her why she didn't pick any armor for her character she told me, "'cuz you can't dance with armor on!" Now THAT, my friends, is what role playing is all about. Its not always about getting the best armor and the most hit points. Its about embracing an alter ego. I am so proud of her. Looks like I past the nerd gene on after all...

Hmm, I dunno, "Britney Spears Goes to Oz" just doesn't sound like the kind of wholesome entertainment a 9-year-old should be seeing. Especially if Britney isn't packing some sort of body armor to protect herself.

- Balut

[Joe O'Malley]

I used to buy 20+ games per year, but now just do about maybe 6-12. I used to finish most of the games that I played, now I just finish a few. I don't play enough to remember complicated interfaces, stay practiced with hotkeys, or remember nifty "cheats."

Egads, I've become a casual gamer. :oops:

From this new point of view I can see the points that JamesG's sister brings up, or the dancing little girl's enthusiasm, with Morrowind. On the XBox it's easy to play. It looks great. You aren't nailed into a linear story, so you do what you want. And it is huge. Good grief it's huge. I've been playing about an hour a day for over a month and doubt I have 20% of the island explored. Granted I spent a lot of time in cities beefing myself up and running those quests, but it isn't like I ran out of quests or anything. Just amazing.

I notice a few things are a lot more important to me now than before. Back in the day it was a privilege to get a huge manual with an old flight sim. Now I look at the thing and say "fuhgettaboutit." I like things that are easy to look at and let me know what they are, because I don't want to have to remember too many things. I like easy interfaces for the same reason. I like wide-open storylines not just because they are good for letting me play the game longer, but because I may not play enough or be geeky enough to have good enough notes to remember where all the quests are. It's like a game full of Easter Eggs after a while as I meet up with people who want to thank me for doing something I forgot I did. Last, I like the game because it can be challenging in a lot of ways, but doesn't require me to really face it being challenging in ways I don't personally find enjoyable. The classes work well that way, as does the RPG building aspect. Not everyone likes the same things in a game. By not pigeonholing itself, Morrowing is free to appeal to a broader range of folks without cheating the hardcores out there.

[Supertanker]

I wanna start seeing an equipment subclass called "Bling".

You'll have to cut & paste the link into your browser, but here is my character with Bling maxed out: http://www.theforumisdown.com/uploadfiles/0702/NWNBling.jpg

Looking at that again, I think Tomi is checking out my ass. Don't underestimate the power of The Bling.

[Jason McCullough]

I wanna start seeing an equipment subclass called "Bling".

You'll have to cut & paste the link into your browser, but here is my character with Bling maxed out: http://www.theforumisdown.com/uploadfiles/0702/NWNBling.jpg

Looking at that again, I think Tomi is checking out my ass. Don't underestimate the power of The Bling.

God, that's hilarious.

[Joe O'Malley]

Her latest goal is to kill all of the Telvanni, "because they're assholes"

Okay, I've been adventuring in the Grazelands the past few days. She's right. The Telvanni are the French of Vvardenfell.

[Doug Erickson]

I gotta ask: how do you pronounce two "V"s?

[Lee Johnson]

"W". ;-)

[bgumm]

"W". ;-)

actually, wouldn't two "U"s be a "W", hence the name "double-U"?

mmmm?

[Alan Au]

But in German, isn't 'W' pronounced like 'V'?

- Alan

[algahar]

But in German, isn't 'W' pronounced like 'V'?

- Alan

please refer to me EuroEnglish post on the Everything Else forum :wink: