EA: "Our Games Are Too Hard To Learn"

[Solitude]

I like it if a game throws you into the deep end and you have to learn to swim yourself.

The first 10 hours of Final Fantasy XIII feels like a tutorial. They did it smartly by introducing a new concept every now and then but it feels like they just wasted too much time doing that. The amount of fights you have to go through to get to the next concept were way too many.

I think a lot of people also stopped playing Final Fantasy XIII after an hour or two because it feels incredibly simplistic. It's only after quite a few hours that you realise that it's quite a complex system and in my opinion they could have showed you everything in an hour or two. Not ten.

It's as if game developers expect their gamers to be stupid these days. Maybe they are...

[The_Imp_ZA]

Did you play the DLCs? Think it was the Firewalker DLC where they brought back Mako v2.0

The Hammerhead

Yeah, but those missions weren't very long. IIRC, I read that their original idea was to have a more open game using the Hammerhead as transportation. They didn't have enough time so they cut the scope of the game back to something that they could finish. The Hammerhead was very fun though, the other DLC mission that used it - Project Overlord - was one of the best in the entire series!

It had a really creepy atmosphere to it.

"The square root of 906.01 equals…"

[PsychoFish]

That's exactly it Solitude, take the latest Tomb Raider as an example. They teach you a simple concept, then they let you go with it for a bit. Then they introduce something new, etc etc. I think the key is to start with the basic movements and key mechanics, give the player some time to get used to it and then crank it up with a new trick/mechanic. Just don't make it feel forced, try to keep the story flowing as much as possible.

[Grievous]

The first 10 hours of Final Fantasy XIII feels like a tutorial. They did it smartly by introducing a new concept every now and then but it feels like they just wasted too much time doing that. The amount of fights you have to go through to get to the next concept were way too many.

I think a lot of people also stopped playing Final Fantasy XIII after an hour or two because it feels incredibly simplistic. It's only after quite a few hours that you realise that it's quite a complex system and in my opinion they could have showed you everything in an hour or two. Not ten.

I stopped playing because I felt I didn't know what was going on. I felt it was really simple to get by in combat, but incredible hard to really understand the mechanics to do everything well.. I also didn't know where the hell to go sometimes. I kind of just felt lost in the game.

[Snare]

What they are essentially saying I think is that they are moving the focus of the company to be more accessible to new players rather than catering for the old crowd.

[The_Imp_ZA]

What they are essentially saying I think is that they are moving the focus of the company to be more accessible to new players rather than catering for the old crowd.

While doing so, they alienate the group most likely to buy their games. The casual crowd are called casual for a reason, just because your game is easier to play, doesn't mean they'll come running to you.

Yet these CEO's can't understand that... :/

[Snare]

While doing so, they alienate the group most likely to buy their games. The casual crowd are called casual for a reason, just because your game is easier to play, doesn't mean they'll come running to you.

Yet these CEO's can't understand that... :/

The CEO's look at the numbers and they understand that the casual game crowd is growing at a faster rate than the core gaming crowd. Now when you look at this situation you can draw certain conclusions and then revise your strategy accordingly. They obviously looked at the data; and concluded that instead of attempting to cater to the core gaming market by making the casuals adopt certain things from core gamers; they went the opposite direction and decided to make the core market adapt to what the casuals want. Is it wrong? Maybe; but until we review the financial data in the years to come and review it in accordance with now then we can only speculate as to whether this change is a good business decision or not.

[czc]

Think back just a little bit. When they released Alan Wake on PC there was the option to turn off the HUD to make the game "more scary and challenging" I went for that option. I'm sure I enjoyed the game for that reason. It brought back those memories of long ago, explore a level, try to get through, try again if you fail. A lot of games lack that these days. Running in the direction of an arrow the entire time, seeing at what number your HP is, meh. Alan Wake turned out to be one of the most enjoyable games for me in recent memory because of the turned off HUD and difficulty level.

[FarligOpptreden]

Didn't Far Cry 2 also feature a very minimalistic, almost non-existant HUD? I remember them trying to create immersion with the whole map and compass mechanic. It worked quite well, imho.

But agreed on Alan Wake being good - it was one of the best and most immersive games of recent years.