The Truth About Comfort Zone Gamers…

Million dollar question

Hypothetical question: Try to pick one game, which you are only allowed to play from now on. Would you be able to choose?

A lot of people could find this quite challenging and often distressing to think that a lot iconic games will be lost forever during the process of elimination. There is such a vast array of ideas, themes and story-lines in today’s marketplace; one could feel slightly swamped under the pressure of this question. What if this choice was straight forward – you never played a million and one games, and that you only had the opinion of maybe two or three? There are people out there today with this exact option.

For years ‘gamers’ have gradually found their loves and hates, which have been marketed towards as well as possible by video game designers. The veterans will play almost anything and are well looked after like old war hero’s in a care home. Young girls get thrown Harvest Moon, Katamari, and cute RPGs. Children have a whole console dedicated to them within the Wii. Now there seems to be a class of players who are pretty damn good at the games you find them with, but will rarely try anything out of their comfort zone. They play a few certain games religiously, and have no interest in ever trying anything else; can we really call them true gamers? Some are probably better than seasoned ‘pros’ at the chosen few games they put their hand to, but can they be grouped in the same category?

The games in question

One of the main attributors to this hardcore (yet slightly casual) gamer genre is the Call of Duty franchise. The majority of players of the multimillion selling games have tried their skills out online, pitted against other competitors, levelling up and gaining a prestige or three. The latest online addition to Modern Warfare 2, the Stimulus map pack, sold over 2.5million copies in the first week, and players were already finding sneaky hiding places, excellent sniper positions, and other ways to out-do any less knowledgeable opponents. It becomes more of a mental challenge then it does a ‘game’ with people constantly trying to out manoeuvre each other. Two of the five maps available in the download were old classics from the first Modern Warfare title, so anyone who also played those previously also had the upper hand to those who did not.

I have witnessed first hand during MW2, or watching others, quite a few of the other players who excel in nearly every angle of the online game, are those who have not played many other games, according to their profiles. They spend countless hours seeking out the best vantage points, levelling up to a multiple prestige count, and basically destroy anything and anyone in their path. It seems so important to be the best they use certain techniques to get there. These include ‘dash-boarding’ (quitting a game mid-play, leading them back to menu screen, so that the deaths they incurred in the game don’t count), playing set games to simply stand in a circle and shoot each other to level up quicker, or cheating by purchasing their 10^th prestige title online. The only thing is, if this is one of the only games they ever play, of course they are going to know it inside out and take advantage of it…

Another range of games, which seem to have a similar effect as Call of Duty, is football based. The FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer games, especially the latest FIFA 10 and the soon to arrive 2010 FIFA World Cup: South Africa, have men (and women) all over the world playing online, with friends in co-op, as mini-tournaments, or completely alone. The player has a skill level assigned online, based on the amount of games you win or loose. Again I have seen a vast amount of players who are extremely good at these games, and will not sway to anything else. Put Braid in front of them and they won’t know left from right, let alone care for the complexity of the narrative and truly beautiful artwork. Try to beat them at a game of FIFA however, as they give you a head start by playing as Spain, and them as a local team, and they will still end up victorious (laughing all the way). They know how to time the killer through ball, and how to score from any free kick better than you. I have known controllers to be broken when online matches haven’t turned out in the player’s favour – maybe this is a form of football anger that has yet to be addressed. Then again, a lot of games can cause rage at the best of times.

Included in this category could be racing games such as Need for Speed, Forza etc, which also have a similar following, like the football and FPS games mentioned. In Need for Speed, at the end of a race you can either opt for in-game cash, power-ups to help with future races, or points to level up. To add to the ‘showing off’, the new Need for Speed World, coming out later this year, will include connections to a player’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, to add friends in the game, and post their winnings online for all to see.

All the games mentioned seem to follow a few trends; they are all based on power, one-upmanship, levelling up, competition, and skill. Point systems awarded in the Call of Duty games show other players how skilled someone can be, or how long they have been trudging through to level up. Being the top of the leader board at the end of a Deathmatch session will definitely add confidence to any ego, as will your kill:death ratio. Goals, and dominating a game for example show skill in FIFA games. Winning races and having fast and shiny cars, levelling up, and showing everything off soon on social networking sites in Need for Speed World has the same effect. It is all about being the best at that particular game, and proving it.  Maybe this is why these players rarely leave their comfort zones, and explore other options: they are scared of failure. They don’t go out and buy the latest Final Fantasy, which will take days out of your life. RPG’s still have the levelling up system these players love, so why don’t they play them? The simple answer is that the majority of them are not online, and are not competitive. They need a fast paced game that is pick-up and play, and show off while doing it.

So back to the question… can these players of powerful, competitive games, who play nothing else than what they are good at, be called true gamers? I believe so. They are a new, mostly online class of gamers, who are very strong and will most probably kick your butt. One thing’s for sure, in the eyes of many we are all, as gamers, seen as social outcasts, hated by the media, the elderly and usually the opposite sex (if you’re a bloke). We are all in the same boat, whether we play one game continuously, or get through a game a day.