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GDC Online 2011: BioWare's Damion Schubert takes a wrecking ball to the casual vs. hardcore model
"I'm trying to finish a product, Star Wars: The Old Republic, which I am not going to talk about today." Thus began BioWare's Damion Schubert's seminar, Double Coding: Making Online Games for Both the Casual and the Hardcore, at this year's GDC Online. "This is more of a weary man, sort of stream-of-consciousness design theory talk." Schubert wanted to call the talk "Moving Beyond Double Coding," which is a term that comes from cartoons, of all places. Double coding is content that reaches two different groups of people at the same time. Looney Tunes, for example, would entertain both adults and kids because the writers and animators designed it so. With MMOs, Schubert says that devs are often trying to double code the games for both casual and hardcore players. This is where the well-known slogan "easy to play, hard to master" originates. He held up Blizzard as a primary example of this model. Blizzard's "donut," as Schubert calls it, has a casual outer ring and a hardcore center for both types of players. By double coding, Blizzard ensures that casual players can invite their hardcore friends to experience the game and vice-versa. However, this model is faltering, and Schubert pinpoints why after the jump!
