The link from the title points to a Wiki on the different types of gamers that exist in the world. This effectively scientifically analyses gamers, but in reality we are obviously not as defined. There are a number of sub divisions of casual and hardcore players. A casual player can be anyone one plays Solitaire on their PC during the coffee break, or could be a console playing gamer. There are thousands of what I consider to be casual gamers who play sports or fighting games. They maybe play with their friends over a few beers.
There are also competitive professional players, or even
cyberathletes (as some may be known) who travel the world and play in large tournaments for money.
There are also hardcore gamers like myself, who find the rich worlds and stories behind games immensely captivating. We tend to love action adventure and single player story driven games.
Very different to us are the perfectionist players, who will stop at nothing to complete a particular game 100%. They will unlock everything, beat every difficulty setting and always try to beat their high score. This type of gamer is a phenomenon I don't particularly understand. They generally make excellent computer programmers - many of the good programmers I have met in the past can stay up all night in order to get their one piece of code to work. They're incredible!
Bad design, or is it just me?
Been playing through Dead Space in the evenings. I managed to enjoy the first 4 chapters before the fifth sadly forced me to restart from the very beginning. This isn't the first time this has happened with survival horror or action game games, and I suspected I might run into problem from the outset of Dead Space. First things first, I think my general gaming skill level is pretty low, with respect to
joypad skills at least; puzzle solving is a different story. I tend to find even the normal difficulty setting a challenge, which I suppose is kind of embarrassing. But that aside, I see a recurring problem with this survival horror genre.
These titles use a 'limited space' inventory system, so in other words you can only carry a certain limited amount of health, ammo and other beneficial equipment (possibly specific to the game). Any extras you find have to be ignored, or you can drop items to make space. This is done, I imagine, to add that extra dimension of strategy to the game, and on paper it sounds very viable. However, personally, it doesn't float with me. I've only recently come to realise how frustrating I find it!
Obviously, gamers around the world enjoy this design approach. I ask why? The WHOLE POINT is that you don't know what is around the next corner, so how the hell can you prepare for it with the required items!? Maybe you need to have psychic abilities that mere mortals like myself simply can't comprehend...
I replayed a section with minimum ammo about 30 times and finally passed it, only to be thrown into another enemy swamped area with next to no ammo, making it impossible, hence the restart, this time on easy mode... Why not put unlimited storage capabilities or change the mechanic in some way to stop this from happening. Are there people out there who really enjoy repeating the same thing 1000 times?
I've been following this game's development through the internet over the past few months, it's not out on console until Fall 2009 but it's shaping up to be awesome. The game is already out in the arcades in Japan with 2 existing versions: Tekken 6 and Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion, the latter being an update featuring 2 new characters as well as several other upgrades including new customization options. The fact that the console release is not for a good long while gives the team plenty of time to perfect the game. I'm hoping for many good things from Tekken 6.
I was looking through
tekkenpedia at some of the screens and noticed a heavy emphasis on customisation. If the arcade version features so much customisation, then I can only assume the console release will expand on this with the aid of DLC. This concept also makes the idea of separate character costumes (ie. the 1P and 2P outfits with a possible third unlockable) a thing of the past. I believe that Tekken 6 characters are designed independent of their costumes allowing various items of apparel to be mixed and matched. This is somewhat similar to Soul Calibur 4, although it has the added feature of full character creation, which from what I've seen is very impressive.
Thinking again about the arcade machine, there is a deluxe cabinet which has 4 separate monitors with a fifth, larger monitor for TEKKEN-net matches. I feel that it is a shame that the arcade scene is virtually non existent in the UK these days. Fighting games are by far best played against human opposition and although I am personally not particularly skilled at them, I love the representations of the martial arts that not only Tekken, but most fighting franchises contain.
Finally, I found several videos of high level Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection play from the Evolution West tournament a few years ago. Have a look
here. Remember, this is a last gen game but still looks awesome. Tekken 6 will be huge...
