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This midweek musing is the beginning of a two-parter, about trends I see in games. They are exemplified by two games; Plants vs. Zombies and Evony. Whether by happenstance or an ongoing battle for gamer meme space, a great parody ad recently appeared linking the two. If you have seen Evony's ubiquitous ads on game sites, you know the basis for the ad. This week I talk about Plants. vs. Zombies, next week Evony. I blame Plants vs. Zombies on my friend Francine. We share similar tastes in addictive games. When she offered up Pop Caps newest confection I thought, "Hey, I haven't wasted nearly enough of my life lately. This should slow down all that nagging productivity." I confidently set out to achieve this goal, which was quickly realized. Plants vs. Zombies has classic Pop Cap trappings; brightly colored, amusingly animated game content, simple interface, quick play. The music loop is pop-music style, as bright as the animation, with the ability to occupy brain space you might want for other things at a later date. Pop Cap games usually have rock-solid game play, and Plants. vs. Zombies follows that rule. What I find fascinating is that Plants. vs. Zombies is, at its heart, an RTS that has been streamlined down to a casual game. You are defending your home from waves of zombies. Each level starts with a brief view of the types of zombies you can expect to assault you at some point. Zombies attack a row, advancing until they reach your house, in which case the player loses the level. The player defends his home with plants he grows in the rows, to impede or destroy the advancing zombies. It has the classic RTS choices; how much effort to spend gathering resources, when to develop cheap versus expensive units, which units to create, and decision making against foes approaching in real time. The basic resource gathered is sunlight; sunlight falls naturally, but you will need sunlight-generating plants to put up a decent defense. Every plant requires sunlight to plant. Some work immediately after being planted, others take a few seconds to mature. The tech tree is represented by the plants you may use in each level, and defensive bonuses you can purchase from the back of a crazy man's car. The player unlocks the tech tree as he completes the levels. I have talked to a few Plants. vs. Zombies players who really enjoy the game, but wouldn't think of touching Rise of Nations or Dawn of War, or the classic Starcraft. Part of the reluctance is theme; conquering the world or slaughtering orks doesn't sit well with the casual game crowd. But Pop Cap performed some game alchemy distilling the essence of an RTS into one that plays casually. They had to find what makes an RTS fun, and discard everything else which would turn off a casual games crowd. Micromanagement? Almost non-existent. Map size? Tiny. Length of battles? Short. Research decisions? None. Impact player choice has on the outcome of a battle? Completely huge. Picking the right mix of plants for your defense, planting them at the right time in the right spots, and quickly patching holes when a wave isn't going your way, determines the outcome. Plants vs. Zombies really is an RTS in miniature, colorfully packaged to appeal to casual gamers. And the appeal is apparently strong. Blurring the delineation between hard-core games and casual games helps both. Casual games and hard-core games start to form a continuum, rather than being seen as distinct types. I think this creates new gateways for genres of games; some casual players will move along the continuum to more hard-core titles of the genre's they love, and hard-core gamers of one genre may be more willing to experiment with new genres of games at the casual level. This is a development that excites me. I enjoy marble-popping games, but I am thrilled to see casual games take on classic game genres. I hope to play many more in the near future. X3: Terran Conflict is a good game in the space-faring genre of Elite or Freelancer. But if you are new to space games, the interface and complexity of the universe might be pretty daunting. Currently, I know of no casual title that could fill that gap in the way Plants vs. Zombies does for RTS games. My hunch is, that in the next ten years hard-core genres which can be distilled down to casual titles will have a bright future, and that the genre's that are irreducible will stagnate. With the cost of game production rising, producers are going to be more and more reluctant to spend money on a gamer base that isn't growing. If you are a fan of RTS games, then you have a rooting interest in Plants. vs. Zombies. If you a fan of other genres, you should be cheering for casual game versions of those genres, even if you think you have outgrown them. As always, your comments are welcome. See you next week.
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