The forgiving vs punishing split holds up way better than the literacy angle. I've seen game-literate players bounce off Dark Souls-style punishment but sink hours into Stardew or Animal Crossing, and vice versa. The Bejeweled example is sharp, no penalty for swapping wrong gems was genius beacuse it removed the fear of experimentation. What stuck with me is how casual players in the survey played everyday but still self-identified as casual, that suggests the label is more about relationship to chalenge than time commitment. The cosy games boom kinda proves the forgiving model was just waiting to scale.
Aye, I heartily agree- we decided to run both these pieces because the first one sets up the second one, but this punishing vs forgiving split has proven much more significant in practice. That's because it's a division between groups of players buying and playing a lot of games - the game literacy angle was a barrier, but it operated in a different way. That said, I found it noteworthy that players of, say, FarmVille, often had played no other videogame whatsoever. The game literacy angle was almost certainly relevant in the uptake of so-called 'social games' (i.e. Facebook games) that did expand the player base for games by opening up 'new markets', as they say.
"The cosy games boom kinda proves the forgiving model was just waiting to scale."
The forgiving vs punishing split holds up way better than the literacy angle. I've seen game-literate players bounce off Dark Souls-style punishment but sink hours into Stardew or Animal Crossing, and vice versa. The Bejeweled example is sharp, no penalty for swapping wrong gems was genius beacuse it removed the fear of experimentation. What stuck with me is how casual players in the survey played everyday but still self-identified as casual, that suggests the label is more about relationship to chalenge than time commitment. The cosy games boom kinda proves the forgiving model was just waiting to scale.
Hi 'Neural',
Aye, I heartily agree- we decided to run both these pieces because the first one sets up the second one, but this punishing vs forgiving split has proven much more significant in practice. That's because it's a division between groups of players buying and playing a lot of games - the game literacy angle was a barrier, but it operated in a different way. That said, I found it noteworthy that players of, say, FarmVille, often had played no other videogame whatsoever. The game literacy angle was almost certainly relevant in the uptake of so-called 'social games' (i.e. Facebook games) that did expand the player base for games by opening up 'new markets', as they say.
"The cosy games boom kinda proves the forgiving model was just waiting to scale."
Well said!
Thanks for commenting! Greatly appreciated.
Chris.