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General Gaming Discussion / What do "hardcore" and "casual" mean to you?

« on: May 16, 2011, 02:19:25 PM »

So this generation the big sub-culture buzzwords that get thrown around are "hardcore" and "casual". The problem with these, like many buzzwords that are used outside of their denotative form, they mean different things to different people. So, what do they mean to you?

To me, games aren't either hardcore or casual but can be approached in either  a casual or hardcore way, and will be accepted amongts a group based on their accessibility to them. (With some exceptions where one style of play is so vastly dominant it's completely one-sided) Hardcore games are those that offer a significant challenge in some way, whether it be in the form of 100% completion or just getting through the game. Casual is a game's ability to not require a huge investment to enjoy it. Here's a game I think illustrates my point: Donkey Kong Country.

Donkey Kong Country is probably all my dad's girlfriend ever played (that and Frogger's Adventure on the GBA) and she would play that thing to death. She went after all the pictures and animal tokens, KONG letters and coins, etc. This is a hardcore approach to the game.

Me? I'm not that into it. It's fun, but I'm content just going through the levels and seeing the ending. I'll go for KONG letters if they're easy because of the extra lives, but other than that I'm not conerned with the collectibles in the game. This, imo, is a casual approach to it. The opposite holds true for Pokemon. I have a friend who will only play Pokemon up to the last boss, while I'll go into it and do everything there is to do almost. (I say almost, because things like the B/W surveys are too tedious for me.)

Now, there are exceptions. Animal Crossing offers almost no challenge, and it is a largely casual experience imo. However, Fire Emblem is a vastly hardcore game, thanks to it's difficulty, permanent death, and limited experience points to be distributed. To see the end of Fire Emblem, you HAVE to approach it hardcore.

What are your opinions on hardcore and casual games/gamers?

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Anything Goes / Guilty pleasures?

« on: May 14, 2011, 12:10:42 PM »

So, what are some of your guilty pleasures. Things you enjoy you don't necessarily care to tell most people you enjoy.

My guilty pleasures are:

-The Village People, I love their songs. Macho Man, YMCA, In The Navy, it's just so corny and fun.
-The new My Little Pony cartoon. But if anyone gives me flack I'll point out some of the writers used t work on the Powerpuff Girls.
-Another song "Total Eclipse of the Heart". Tuuuurn arooound, briiiight eeeyes! :P

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General Gaming Discussion / So I played Dungeons and Dragons for the first time

« on: May 12, 2011, 09:04:19 AM »

Well, second time, me and some friends experimented with a starter set years ago but didn't do too much with it. I recently found a newly opened comic shop close to home that was starting a D&D group, so I joined because the only cost was my own set of dice and a pencil.

And wow, this bull is crazy. We start off as a group of adventurers in a town where everything is locked except a tavern. Instead of talking, this one girl randomly hits a villager and gets us into this epic barfight that nearly kills everyone. (The Dungeon Master, the guy who runs the game, had to make up a deus ex machina in the form of a law official to save our butts) Then it turns out they're being attacked by raiders and we decide to help and check out a nearby cavern. We spend so much freaking time deciding HOW to go into the cavern we don't actually find anything in there for at least an hour. By the time we got there it was late, everyone was tired and at eachother's throats and people were trying to make friends with skeletons and threatening not to give healing prayers to teammates.

We eventually killed the monsters, whether or not they were the raiders we don't know, I'm under the impression that next week we'll just tell the townspeople they were anyway. So all in all it was very crazy and fun. There were maybe 8-9 of us as well, but next week there's going to be another DM so the group will be splitting up to make things more manageable.

So, anyone else play D&D or another tabletop RPG and want to share an experience?

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Mega Man Discussion / Archie's Mega Man #1 on shelves NOW! (SPOILERS)

« on: May 11, 2011, 08:01:46 PM »

So, the Archie Comic's Mega Man monthly series is finally on shelves. I picked it up and what's it like, you may be asking? Very good actually. The art is superb, and the story right now is following MegaMan 1. (The comic even opens up to Mega Man visiting Wily's castle and fighting the Rock Monster before flashing back to what lead up to Wily's betrayal.

There's a very good atmosphere to the title, and even though I've known these characters for years the writer did such a good job I honestly felt like I was being introduced to them for the first time. Light is a peace-loving scientist who wants to to good, and is ashamed that he had to make fighting robots for the military (The Sniper Joe is mentioned) to achieve the notoriety and respect he needed to make the Robot Masters. Wily has enough of a personality that he's a believable friend and partner to Light but we can see how he would have easily been driven to evil.

Like Mega Man X, there's a strong theme of "peace" and fighting for the weak. Seeing Rock decide to take on the robot masters even though neither he nor the army nor any other robot in the world was currently strong enough to fight them was just so incredibly charming, and then we were treated to an almost 60 Million Dollar Man-esque sequence where Light upgrades Rock into Mega Man. The title ends not back in Wily's castle where it started, but with the introduction of Mega Man in the flash back.

All together, it's an excellent comic and I myself don't want to miss an issue. The current storyline is said to last 4 issues, which gives me hope that they won't spend forever going over game material and hopefully we can soon get some original stories. Though, let's just hope it doesn't ever delve into soap opera like the Sonic comics tend to do now and then.

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General Gaming Discussion / Roguelikes, also hey I'm new here.

« on: May 03, 2011, 02:53:29 PM »

Random introduction to get it out of the way, I'm a newbie here. Learned about the forums from my cousin who will know who he is when he reads this. Interesting place. Can't get on 8BDM yet because I'm visiting family and don't have a decent mouse, but I hope to get it soon and see you all there!

Anyways, Roguelikes. Who here likes them, plays them, hates them? In my recent quest for freeware I was reintroduced to the genre, and am currently hooked on Steamband, Dungeon Crawl, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Izuna 2. I tried ADOM which I hear is a major one, but withing 5 minutes of playing it I already knew I didn't like it. Which ones do you all play? Have you ever completed one? I haven't.

Anyways, if you're unsure of what a roguelike game is, (pretty late to this, ha.) It's a turn-based action/sometimes RPG famous for it's plethora of randomly generated maps, and with an emphasis on hack-n'-slashing through dungeons. The name comes from the game Rogue, and a flash based version can be played here: http://www.freewebs.com/drussell/Rogue.htm