You're welcome to consider casual Youtube video watchers and people who make a career out of criticizing and reviewing movies as part of the exact same category "video watchers". You can rationalize this however you want, I however, see a very definite distinction here. It's the same way between Facebook/phone apps vs. AAA games or Indie games made for PC. The quality itself is not even necessarily the most important factor, but also the way the games are played, the major differences in development, production values, competitive aspect, and of course the target audience.
Like I said: It's all perception. Movies these days, one way or another will never be anything other than absolute crap to me. Production values? Dont care. If I want high-end visuals, the PC will do that with some game or other. Movies shouldnt be all about flashy CGI 'splosions to begin with. Alot of movies people consider to be classics are downright ancient, and dont have any of that sort of thing. I could get the same CGI splosions offa Youtube. But it'd be more entertaining than what the movies would give me.
Quality? Again, perception. Most AAA games are bottom-barrel to me. Trash. While that may not make them actually BAD, as plenty will like them, they're bloody horrid to me.
The way they're played, too, is another thing of that nature. An indie dev could, without too much trouble, create a game that plays just like such-and-such AAA game. Not even close to hard to do; the only hard part is the graphics.... but there are more indie devs these days that can now manage THAT, too. That one, I can think of plenty of examples of. In the end, the game will play however in the bloody hell the developer wants it to play. Specific gameplay types are not relegated only to either "casual" or "hardcore".
Hell, frankly, I dont think most people even agree on... or even know, in some cases... what those two labels MEAN. Which just proves my point, that they just dont matter.
The idea of iOS VS PC games, for instance, is something that is often thought of as "casual" vs "hardcore". In reality, there's no difference... it's perception, and a lack of research. People have this bizarre idea that things like Angry Birds are all that are on there. Can thank the #(%&ing publishers behind those for THAT misconception. I have an iPad myself. It exists for gaming, as the handhelds cannot give me the challenge and such that I want (no, seriously. There's hardly anything on the DS or Vita that'll do that). What do I play on iOS? Well the number one thing is the hyper-difficult bullet-hell shmups that I tend to be known for (and it's quite possibly the single greatest platform for these that I've ever seen). Complicated roguelikes are another one, the really nasty sorts where you die after like half a floor. Or one of the more "hardcore" type of RPGs out there, the sorts that play like Wizardry (I give the handhelds credit that there ARE at least a couple of THESE on them as well), difficult platformers, retro-style games and compilations of actual retro games.... and so on and so on. In other words, the exact same sorts of games I have a PC for. They've always been there, but most people dont look past the end of their noses, and so dont ever, ever find these. The App Store being bloody horrid doesnt help (I never, EVER use that to browse. It's useless.) but that's another topic altogether. So this perception gets created, that says that "oh there's only THIS kind of game on here. None of THIS type or THAT type". While i have nothing whatsoever against Angry Birds and whatnot (I do play some of those myself, because they're entertaining and in many cases can be harder than they might appear), people lump those together stupidly, declare them to be the only things that exist, and walk away. Again, perception. They see the ones that typically get actual advertisements, they see what very, very little the accursed app store bothers to front-page, and they hear others tell them that only a certain type of game exists on there, and the perception that this is true is born.
I could ramble on some more about tablets as a gaming platform, and make some other major counterpoints that go against the usual damn stupid ideas, but you get the point.
Think of Arcen's games here as well. We're all familar with THOSE, right? Heh. Those games are the way they are not because they're on PC, but because the devs designed them that way. If the games were put on console? On tablets? They'd be the EXACT same games... just with possible control scheme changes. Which proves, again, that the platform doesnt matter... only the developer's design and style matter at all. The developer decides what to make, not the platform. Putting that idea the other way around doesnt even make sense. Even if people THINK it does.
There's more to say here, but I cannot remember what the rest of it is. Not that this is a surprise.
If someone is watching a TV show, Youtube video, anime, movie, cartoon, etc., they are "watching" or "videoing". The distinctions here are hardly relevant, right? In fact, we should just blend all the categories together to make it easier.
(...did this quote just change WHILE I was typing this? I looked back at your post and it's now gone.... but I IS QUOTING IT ANYWAY HAHAHA.)
Yep.
Pretty much.
They're all video-based entertainment. Every single one of them could be called "stuff that you watch". Which actually IS what I usually call them. All that matters is your own tastes and preferences, and wether you're enjoying it and getting something out of it or not.... not what type of format it is, or who designed/wrote it, or how much money was used to make all the splosions.
And I really do consider all these damn labels to be irrelevant. Yeah, I can ramble like crazy about it on here... but partly that's because it's something to do (I have literally nothing but free time, ALL the time...) and because it makes for an interesting debate-ish topic. Beyond that, in reality I just dont actually care all that much. I find the games I want, and I play the damn things. They might be on the PC. They often are. They might be on the ancient Atari 2600. ...and again, they often are. They could be a physical board game for all I care. All I care about is that they exist and that they give me whatever I happen to want at the time. Not the format or production values or "Casual VS hardcore" or blah blah blah. And my actual personal definition of "casual" will always mean "easy", whereas the opposite will always mean "hard" to me, regardless of complexity, thus the ancient 2600 gives me a more hardcore experience than the current consoles currently do, hah. I kinda wish I was making that up.
All just a matter of perception and taste... nothing more. And so I just ignore the damn labels and play the games, whatever they are.
There, "rant because I'm bored as heck" is done now. I'll let this topic return to.... what was this about again? I'm not even sure anymore. Dont remember what #GamerThing is.
