Hardcore casual gamers?

Gay.

I used to muse that if I put the time and effort I put into Diablo, Halo, Battlefield, The Elder Scrolls, Zelda, Mario, Mass Effect into, say, learning about the stock market, I could have made millions by now. Then I just reread the Lord of the Rings for the 16th time.

"This is going to sound lame, but you feel like it's so hard to be significant in anything in the world, really,"


This guy is in the wrong industry. People like him who are searching for significance should be creating things, not spending a lifetime in other people's creations.

/im only projecting a little

Goddamn, the pusher!

Let's be fair - any game with 1.7 million players easily accessible from devices that can be accessed anywhere is going to have a group of hardcore players.

EU guilds that put in 20 hour days on WoW progression raiding read article, laugh, drink more coffee.

Wait until they discover minecraft.

/busy creating a game something like minecraft

I used to game 40 hours a week, until I took a bird to the knee.

UsikFark: Goddamn, the pusher!

Great historical reference. I like the cut of your jib.

wow, even the farmville players can look down on these losers. That's rather difficult to achieve so gotta give them that.

/how do you kill that which has no life?

Funny, I've read similar articles about less popular games and this behavior was described in psychological terms, like social deviancy. Now it's described in terms of perfecting a golf swing.

zombiegoat: UsikFark: Goddamn, the pusher!

Great historical reference. I like the cut of your jib.

just in case someone needs some tunes:

The Pusher (new window)

SWTOR?

/pretty damned good so far.
/it's like a single player bioware game (ala Mass Effect) with MMO elements and thousands of players.

Can't be arsed to try Angry Birds honestly. It's one of the few games for N900 available in the Ovi Store and still can't.

Ten occasional minutes with Raft Wars (new window) is the closest I'll ever want.

The only reason to spend 40 hours a week playing Angry Birds is if you have dysentery.

Foxxinnia: The only reason to spend 40 hours a week playing Angry Birds is if you have dysentery.

Well played. I LOLed and hereby award you one internet for your efforts.

These people are such losers.

/#2,205 on Angry Birds
//#2,030 on Angry Birds Seasons
///#1,476 on Angry Birds Rio

/in it for the achievements

I'll just leave this link (new window) here.

/includes non-kitten "It's dangerous to go alone..."

Hate to break it to them. 40 hours a week playing game is NOT hardcore.

I'd cast a stone, but I spend about an hour a day playing Robo Defense. Not to mention I am currently on the Geek tab of Fark.

swahnhennessy: I'd cast a stone, but I spend about an hour a day playing Robo Defense. Not to mention I am currently on the Geek tab of Fark.

Yes, but how could anyone really stand to play Angry Birds for 40 hours a week? There can't be that much variety. It seems to me that these people are taking entertainment and turning it into a meaningless chore. Who creates spreadsheets of their scores? Besides the King of Kong.

namatad: Vertdang: SWTOR?

/pretty damned good so far.
/it's like a single player bioware game (ala Mass Effect) with MMO elements and thousands of players.

get back to me in 6 months ...
let me know how many people are still playing it then ...

It's BIOWARE. Probably a fair few. Hell I still play Mass Effect.
/plus 8 seperate full story lines. 1 for each class. that's a TON of replayability.

Angry Birds is not a game. It is an app. There is no story, character development or anything that makes a game distinctive as a game.

SilentStrider: and this is a problem why?

I don't get it either. It's no less stupid than the guys who obsess over donkey kong or asteroids. Angry birds just isn't "cool" with elitist douches who self-identify as "gamers"

thefireandpassion: Angry Birds is not a game. It is an app. There is no story, character development or anything that makes a game distinctive as a game.

Describe the character development in chess. Now monopoly. Now super Mario bros. either you're a successful troll or you need to pull the stick out.

thefireandpassion: Angry Birds is not a game. It is an app. There is no story, character development or anything that makes a game distinctive as a game.

That logic makes "chess" an app.

miniflea: I used to muse that if I put the time and effort I put into Diablo, Halo, Battlefield, The Elder Scrolls, Zelda, Mario, Mass Effect into, say, learning about the stock market, I could have made millions by now. Then I just reread the Lord of the Rings for the 16th time took an arrow to the knee.

/ftfy

moothemagiccow: thefireandpassion: Angry Birds is not a game. It is an app. There is no story, character development or anything that makes a game distinctive as a game.

Describe the character development in chess. Now monopoly. Now super Mario bros. either you're a successful troll or you need to pull the stick out.

THIS.
now, BATTLECHESS had an awesome story.

Vertdang: SWTOR?

/pretty damned good so far.
/it's like a single player bioware game (ala Mass Effect) with MMO elements and thousands of players.

Is it possible to just go solo through the whole game, ignore everyone playing it, and generally try to keep up the fiction that Bioware just released KOTOR 3?

Vertdang: moothemagiccow: thefireandpassion: Angry Birds is not a game. It is an app. There is no story, character development or anything that makes a game distinctive as a game.

Describe the character development in chess. Now monopoly. Now super Mario bros. either you're a successful troll or you need to pull the stick out.

THIS.
now, BATTLECHESS had an awesome story.

But it ran slow as hell. On the other hand, watching the Rook eat other pieces was cool.

MoronLessOff: swahnhennessy: I'd cast a stone, but I spend about an hour a day playing Robo Defense. Not to mention I am currently on the Geek tab of Fark.

Yes, but how could anyone really stand to play Angry Birds for 40 hours a week? There can't be that much variety. It seems to me that these people are taking entertainment and turning it into a meaningless chore. Who creates spreadsheets of their scores? Besides the King of Kong.

I could make the chore comment about WoW or Call of duty. People play to elevate meaningless stats in many games. Look at the guys who try for level 99 in final fantasy games. People enjoy games differently, they have a right to, and the developers put in the functionality. What's the harm?

wagnerism: thefireandpassion: Angry Birds is not a game. It is an app. There is no story, character development or anything that makes a game distinctive as a game.

That logic makes "chess" an app.

Chess isn't a video game, which is the kind of "game" in question.

I'm cool with having no character development or whatever, but progression is important.

Mister Peejay: wagnerism: thefireandpassion: Angry Birds is not a game. It is an app. There is no story, character development or anything that makes a game distinctive as a game.

That logic makes "chess" an app.

Chess isn't a video game, which is the kind of "game" in question.

I'm cool with having no character development or whatever, but progression is important.

That explains why street fighter is so unpopular. Seriously, what's with the video game elitism? Offhand, chess has more video game versions than anything else. Hell, I made a chess video game in high school.

moothemagiccow: MoronLessOff: swahnhennessy: I'd cast a stone, but I spend about an hour a day playing Robo Defense. Not to mention I am currently on the Geek tab of Fark.

Yes, but how could anyone really stand to play Angry Birds for 40 hours a week? There can't be that much variety. It seems to me that these people are taking entertainment and turning it into a meaningless chore. Who creates spreadsheets of their scores? Besides the King of Kong.

I could make the chore comment about WoW or Call of duty. People play to elevate meaningless stats in many games. Look at the guys who try for level 99 in final fantasy games. People enjoy games differently, they have a right to, and the developers put in the functionality. What's the harm?

I played BF2 for a while. Although certain achievements are required to advance your rank, they aren't required to play. I'm currently into TF2. Achievements are mostly useless, but it's neat when you earn them.

But, yes, there are people who enjoy earning them. And you're right. As long as their having fun. I just think it's a little over the top pouring 40 hours into Angry Birds. I can put a lot of time into Kingdom Rush on armorgames.com, but nowhere near 40 hours.

Seth'n'Spectrum: Vertdang: SWTOR?

/pretty damned good so far.
/it's like a single player bioware game (ala Mass Effect) with MMO elements and thousands of players.

Is it possible to just go solo through the whole game, ignore everyone playing it, and generally try to keep up the fiction that Bioware just released KOTOR 3?

so far, yes.
I'm already in a great guild on the Shien server, but I haven't had to rely on them at all. Team for fun, but not necessary.

/Tibanna Miners' Union, a chapter of 3305Local

Mister Peejay: Chess isn't a video game, which is the kind of "game" in question.



The Chessmaster calls shenanigans.

Ulfric Stormcloak is kind of a dick.

/never played Angry Birds

Angry Birds kept me interesetd for about 15 minutes - I've never opened it again and have never missed it.

Mister Peejay: Chess isn't a video game, which is the kind of "game" in question.

OK. PacMan.

miniflea: I used to muse that if I put the time and effort I put into Diablo, Halo, Battlefield, The Elder Scrolls, Zelda, Mario, Mass Effect into, say, learning about the stock market, I could have made millions by now. Then I just reread the Lord of the Rings for the 16th time.

Is it sad that I read this post and thought to myself... hey, it's probably been 5 years since I've read The Hobbit / LOTR- time to do it again? Granted I've only read it 4 or 5 times total. I've read through The Wheel of Time series 3 times... don't think I'm going to manage that again before A Memory of Light is released.

On another note, how in the world do you spend 40 hours a week playing Angry Birds? It's a great distraction while you're waiting in line at Subway, but it gets repetitive pretty quickly.

thefireandpassion: Angry Birds is not a game. It is an app. There is no story, character development or anything that makes a game distinctive as a game.

The basic elements of any game include only 2 things: a goal and an obstacle/challenge. Anything beyond that may enhance an experience, but no game is required to have character development or story. See some of the greatest games ever to reference this: Space Invaders, Tetris, Duck Hunt, Pong, etc... Furthermore quite a few games have given only an afterthought worthy attempt at assembling a story to fit a gameplay idea: namely everything ever produced by id, Unreal, and many many more. Beyond that even are the games whose stories are so incredibly bad that they detract from the overall experience - but that's a whole other topic.

Angry Birds *is* a game. In my opinion, not a particularly good one - but a lot of other people disagree with me and that's fine - because I'm not the arbiter of what is enjoyable for everyone else.

bemis23: I'm not the arbiter of what is enjoyable for everyone else.


Video game arbiter.

I just shuddered because I remembered that clueless time-wasting assholes like this are supposed to fund my Social Security.

namatad: get back to me in 6 months ...
let me know how many people are still playing it then ...

Since BioWare made the (incredibly questionable) move of making the game focus heavily on the single player experience, it seems more like a particularly grindy single player game with 8 different playable storylines.

Vertdang: Hell I still play Mass Effect.

Ugh, I reinstalled Mass Effect 1 the other day and raged about five times before finishing the first real mission because of poor design choices or bugs. I honestly don't know how I finished it once before.

psh...

/quickly diverts attention back to Desert Bus
//restarts Desert Bus