n00bs and Hard-Core Gamers Play Nice

When the Wall Street Journal decides to include something about video games, I tend to read what’s written…even if I don’t necessarily agree with it.

The point of the whole piece is that game developers are now integrating “handicaps” into their games so that new players and hardened pros can all play together in a utopian gaming environment where n00bs don’t get pissed off at a game for being too hard and then they don’t bitch to their friends about how much they hated the game. No bitching=better sales and more new players playing the game.

You see this with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with the “you got killed too many times in a row so here’s some extra help since you suck” handicap. To be fair, that’s not what it’s really called but if the handicap doesn’t already have an official name, might I toss that suggestion into the proverbial hat? I think it has a nice ring to it. There’s just something about the way it rolls off your tongue.

It looks to me like handicaps are obviously geared toward new-to-gaming people and not just gamers who are new to a particular game.

Now, I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing to get non-gamers into gaming – cause it’s not. What I am saying is that tons and tons of people have come up the gaming ranks without these handicaps and cheats and have done just fine without the help. You take your lumps. You learn the game and then in a couple of weeks, you are now the one who’s laugh at the “new guys” as then dive into the game and get obliterated.

I get that making money is the ultimate goal of a game developer but making games “newbie” friendly might end up backfiring.

Image|rileyroxx