Competitive focus vs. Casual focus

[Newtonjar]

I'm just curious, how much do you guys think that the developers focus on making splatoon competitive vs. making the game fun for casual gaming.

My personal opinion is that this game has the duality of both a casual game and a competitive game. I mean as far as casual fun the turf war is a pretty hectic fun mode with a non penalizing scoring system, plus the aesthetic is very cartoons and stylized making it a lot more aproachable for all audiences.

But on the other side nintendo for possibly the first time in its life seems to really be pushing the competitive aspect and the game as a real e-sport with the nintendo sponsored tournement getting real excitement. On the mechanichs side the squid kid mechanics seem to offer lot of depth, it's still pretty new so we can't quite tell yet, but it seems like it was meant to increase depth and be fun.
This all combines to make a game that will be enjoyed by everybody.

So what are your guy's opinions. What do you guys think this game was designed for?

 

[Zunoa]

I think this game was designed for both, as Nintendo is catering to the E-Sports community along with the casual community. It's like a beautiful child of both types of gamers.

 

[Zero Meddler]

I think this game was designed for both, as Nintendo is catering to the E-Sports community along with the casual community. It's like a beautiful child of both types of gamers.

It's like Smash Bros. in that sense. It can be played For Fun and For Glory. The best part, neither play style takes away from the game.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Whenever I see this type of discussion, I always think of the distinction between the Timmy, the Johnny, and the Spike. Usually, I can figure an orientation towards one or another (Smash Bros. is more of a Timmy kind of series, Guilty Gear is for skilled Johnnies, and Street Fighter tends towards Spikes, for instance), but I am really not sure where to classify Splatoon.

I suppose if anything, it embodies all three in similar quantities, though I'd have to say Timmy gets the edge in this one: The game is oriented around spectacle and upsets while keeping Johnnies happy with difficult-to-use weapons and random customization and Spikes for its competitive balance. But it's a fast-paced spectacle kind of game and hence is Timmy-oriented.

 

[Newtonjar]

It's like Smash Bros. in that sense. It can be played For Fun and For Glory. The best part, neither play style takes away from the game.

Yeah, I feel like that is one of the best comparisons, smash has a great duality of play. The major difference to me is the fact that smash was never intended to be competitive in any way, it just sorta happened while splatoon I think was definately made with that aspect in mind

 

[[EJ]_Locke]

I'm just curious, how much do you guys think that the developers focus on making splatoon competitive vs. making the game fun for casual gaming.

My personal opinion is that this game has the duality of both a casual game and a competitive game. I mean as far as casual fun the turf war is a pretty hectic fun mode with a non penalizing scoring system, plus the aesthetic is very cartoons and stylized making it a lot more aproachable for all audiences.

But on the other side nintendo for possibly the first time in its life seems to really be pushing the competitive aspect and the game as a real e-sport with the nintendo sponsored tournement getting real excitement. On the mechanichs side the squid kid mechanics seem to offer lot of depth, it's still pretty new so we can't quite tell yet, but it seems like it was meant to increase depth and be fun.
This all combines to make a game that will be enjoyed by everybody.

So what are your guy's opinions. What do you guys think this game was designed for?

Oh no, here we go again. This topic is fairly controversial, but I would have to say it was built on the premise of "casualness." The fact that the entire culture of the inklings is basically a bad spin off of American teenagers, and that the game at launch was in no shape to have meaningful competition, I would say is good enough to tell that Nintendo intended this game to be casual.

Edit: never mind, the points being made in here are all very good, and not really flamy.

 

[Zunoa]

Yeah, I feel like that is one of the best comparisons, smash has a great duality of play. The major difference to me is the fact that smash was never intended to be competitive in any way, it just sorta happened while splatoon I think was definately made with that aspect in mind

I get that feel too. I think they knew this would happen and were just waiting for it to arrive. The game just feels like it was intended for competitive play, but not so competitive that it singles out casuals in Multiplayer, *cough*Street Fighter*cough*.

 

[Newtonjar]

Oh no, here we go again. This topic is fairly controversial, but I would have to say it was built on the premise of "casualness." The fact that the entire culture of the inklings is basically a bad spin off of American teenagers, and that the game at launch was in no shape to have meaningful competition, I would say is good enough to tell that Nintendo intended this game to be casual.

Edit: never mind, the points being made in here are all very good, and not really flamy.

Yeah, I tried to make a discussion without it turning into a flame war. The main difference is that I don't say that it has to be one or the other, both definately work. As far as release, that is definately a valid point I would argue that Nintendo just didn't want to overwhelm people or to keep interest with the game long after launch. And a lot of the updates were things that were already on the disk so the lack in content could be seen to definately cater to the casuals, but because most of it was on the disk it could have been designed with both aspects in mind (Sorry if this seemed a bit rambling).

 

[missingno]

I think the Splatoon devs managed to understand that these things are not mutually exclusive, and that a game can try to do both and succeed. Just focus on making a good game that's accessible but deep, easy to learn but hard to master. Don't worry about needing to dumb things down, go ahead and give players room for mastery. Just let matchmaking take care of the skill gap and casuals/novices will be fine playing with other casuals/novices.

Now if only someone could explain this concept to Sakurai.

 

[Zunoa]

I think the Splatoon devs managed to understand that these things are not mutually exclusive, and that a game can try to do both and succeed. Just focus on making a good game that's accessible but deep, easy to learn but hard to master. Don't worry about needing to dumb things down, go ahead and give players room for mastery. Just let matchmaking take care of the skill gap and casuals/novices will be fine playing with other casuals/novices.

Now if only someone could explain this concept to Sakurai.

Wow, you summed up how I felt perfectly! I just couldn't put it in words. Splatoon is a game that just seems to break that self-imposed gamer mentality that a game has to be one or another. It combines both nicely and use things like matchmaking to achieve further unity of the two.

 

[Ramble_On_Rose]

Nintendo has been in a slump, that's no secret. I feel like they were definitely trying to appeal to EVERYONE with Splatoon to try and sell more systems. It is a family friendly game with a competitive aspect that you don't even have to touch if you don't want to. a kid can pick up the game and gain points, but a competitive gamer can play with meaning, the ranking system isn't as easy as the leveling system.

 

[SquiliamTentacles]

It's like Smash Bros. in that sense. It can be played For Fun and For Glory. The best part, neither play style takes away from the game.

The best part is that, unlike smash, competitive Splatoon follows nearly the same ruleset as casual

 

[Berentxo]

It seems to me it was mostly a casual thing that was left open to something more competitive if it got that sort of audience. It's not like it's the first time something Nintendo make led to something more, so I wouldn't be surprised if they designed Splatoon with that in mind.

 

[CrazyDude]

It's definitely designed for both. It has a ranked mode (which let you improve cause the higher you climb the better people you face and learn how to play against them - unlike ''for Glory'' in Smash 4 for example where you mostly play against bad ones)
Additionally, Nintendo gave the community some time before they released the private battle rooms / squad ranked modes to get some knowledge & meta sense about the game.

And then we have Turf war which is a good fun mode especially if you play with people on your friend list and try out new weapons.

TL-DR: It's designed for competitive and casual uses. Overall it's a great balance.

 

[Mr.HawK]

yeah anyone can do what they want in this game. it can be either/or at this point. it just matters what you personally want to do