Gaming's More Friendly, But Its Controls are Not.

     When I was a kid, games were hard – they were for the elite of skill and coordination. They required dedication, commitment to excellence, and most of all – time. As the years progressed, these areas relaxed, and more predominantly, time became the dividing factor between the aesthetic and technical validity of a product's gameplay. It's not necessarily that those games weren't fun anymore, but that, they weren't at the best they could be. Afterall, technology was (and still is) changing, allowing for a range of incredible and complexingly deep and immersive solutions and outcomes to the way we play games. Though, with such a fast-paced world, time, yet again, becomes the dividing factor, introducing the "Casual Gamer." The player who likes to play, but not commit, who doesn't have the time in the face of family, work, school, and community – or sees difficulty or complexity as a turnoff to enjoyability.

      They all but came out of nowhere. With the advent of the internet as the ultimate social-media platform, it was inevitable that "gaming on the go" would extend from previous iterations of exclusive handheld systems, like Game Gear, or the Game Boy. Ultimately, you've got a transition of easier games that enrich an entire demographical range, reaching out to areas of audiences that were generally, never before considered. One look at games like Angry Birds, Minecraft, Braid, and it's easy to notice the change in dynamic. In addition, "social games" - commonly played on phones or browsers on the web, or sites like Facebook – including, Farmville, Words with Friends, or Hidden Chronicles, are a testament to the validity of the change in direction for games, and their audience brands: going where the money is, while providing simple, solutions for easy comprehensible play with controls and game mechanics which are familiar.

      The greatest Irony of all of this, however, in the face of the, "games are easier - you're muddying the waters of core gamers" debate, is that in the desire to increase profit margins, stock shares, and player-bases through this design scheme, the complexity of controls has exploded to proposterous proportions (say that five times fast). Michael Abbot of Brainy Gamer, and a writer at Kotaku, has a great article regarding the increased complexity of control schemes, and their effects on the wider audiences ability to actually play these 'accessible' games.

      The problem is a resounding one – in the late 80's/early 90's getting through Ninja Gaiden or Super Ghouls and Ghosts was a monumental feat, yet the control schemes were simplistic and easy to understand, which helped facilitate te ease by which a player could adapt to gameplay and jump right in (even with such hard games). Today, however, it's becoming a fast opposite – take Robert Boyd's example: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – The game is relatively easy, simple, compherensible gameplay, and fairly family-friendly and manageable, except nine buttons, and multiple combinations to effectively utilize your character abilities, and play. The article, here, clearly sums it up:

"If your game's controls are so complicated that you feel the need to display the controller on screen at all times for fear of players forgetting how to play your game, YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING WRONG!" - Robert Boyd on the control scheme of Zelda: Skyward Sword

      Of course, there's a host of similar games with deep and rich control schemes, often to the detriment of new players, who otherwise may be engaged enough to participate in said product. In a sense, they're alienating portions of the player-base they've so desperately marketed to over the past decade. Something - it's probably fair to say - companies like Zynga have capitalized on: if the controls of the modern game feel to complex, there's always the quick and straight-forward browser casual titles available at the drop of a hat – something they excel at – with over 1 billion in revenue at the end of 2011, and almost as many monthly users as the population of the entire United States, laid out in detail here.

      At the end of the day, people want more, demand more, sometimes biting off more than they can chew. Case in point being the complexity of controls – something Nintendo's Wii began to remedy, but slowly began to fall short on, as the demand for feature rich content and greater range of interactive options emerge. In a way it's as if there's a 'missing link' between "easier" and "easier-to-play" games, something which, potentially could diminish the debate of casual/core gaming. It would certainly be a step in the right direction for meeting the needs of everyone.