Non-Gamers Reviewing Games: Wait, What?

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:37:00 GMT

I don't know if it's intentional or not, but hallowed gamer webcomic Penny Arcade sometimes manages to deliver a perfect set-up and punchline in its first panel. Take, for example, this recent strip about Fable II and the reviewing thereof:

Gabe: "Peter Molyneux is telling reviewers they should get people who don't play games to play his game."

Tycho: "They don't play games, though."

Gabe: "He never said it would be easy."

Since the birth of the Wii, there's been an influx of "non-gamers" who are suddenly very interested in throwing around remotes. That's fine. In my opinion, that's great. I'm hoping that when established gamers are finished their pissing contests over "casual" versus "hardcore," we'll all realise the benefits of our elders having fun with consoles instead of cringing away from them like they're rabid animals. Then we'll be a big huggy family.

At the same time, I'm not naive. My father hadn't touched a video game since Duck Hunt (for which he had his own pronunciation, with special emphasis on the second syllable: "ducKHUNT") when he asked to come over and, um, play with our Wii. He's a golfer, so he went straight into Wii Sports' Golf game. No surprise: golf is relevant to his interests, and the Wii remote puts non-gamers at ease because it's primarily motion-based. He took to it with no problem at all.

On the other hand, when I tried to get him into Guitar Hero (he's also a guitarist), he didn't know what to make of the Fisher-Price guitar, the buttons, the menus, etc. It's standard for us, but for someone who hasn't touched a game in a long time, it's easier to point and click than to remember that "A" makes a selection and "X" goes back to the main menu.

That's why, as cool as Fable II looks, I have to sigh a little at Peter Molyneux's review manifesto. Every sane company wants to capitalise on Nintendo's success, but they're all looking at the sky instead of at the reason why the Wii is printing money. I haven't played Fable II yet, but I can imagine my father's reaction if I were to hand it to him: "Oh my God, there are twenty million buttons on this damn controller. What the hell do I do?" He'd do the most natural thing: toss the controller aside like it's a viper. To be fair, that'd be his reaction if I handed him certain Wii games--say, for example, Super Mario Galaxy--but RPGs in particular are not really accessible to non-gamers.

You know what, though? That's okay. It's okay that non-gamers are going to continue to be stumped by some titles. Even Nintendo's record at capturing non-gamers is fifty-fifty at best: Hotel Dusk and Elite Beat Agents didn't draw in grandpa like they were supposed to.

I understand why Molyneux wants to appeal to non-gamers. It's not just a money thing; it's very special to watch the faces of the digitally impaired light up when they grasp a game's mechanics. He's also very correct in his assumption that someone who doesn't play games on a regular basis will see an adventure from a different perspective. You can't really force these things, though. Breathe. Relax. Let the Universe flow where it will.

Related Links:

By Any Other Name
Personal Firsts: My Gaming Scrapbook From A to Wii
Along Came a Gamer: James Patterson and Authors in Games

61 Frames Per Second : hardcore gaming

Non-Gamers Reviewing Games: Wait, What?