Game developers spend millions of dollars, sometimes even billions of dollars, trying to create huge worlds with amazing game mechanics with open worlds. They do a great job, too. Some people will always be drawn to those games and want to experience an immersive world like those we see in GTA or Red Dead Redemption games. So why is there still such a huge market for simplicity in gaming? People still play these simple games in their millions, and things like word games and table games remain globally successful.
Simple Casino Games
Casino games are usually very simple in their premise and help to show the appeal of these sorts of games. Many are based on principles that are hundreds of years old, including card games.
Besides card games, roulette focuses on an even simpler mechanic of a rolling wheel where people can try to evaluate and guess which part of the reel will see the ball fall within. It is a simple game of chance that has been played in casinos for centuries and now online roulette has continued the trend. People will really struggle to find anything that is more simplistic in the whole of gaming, but there is still a big audience of people who want to play roulette, so it shows that games do not need to be complex to draw people in.
The same can be said for games like Blackjack, where the game focuses on getting as close as possible to a score of 21 with the cards.
So even as games have become 3D and detailed, the simple interfaces have survived and even thrived, plus games with video connections to dealers have also grown.
Simple Console Games
Not everybody classes themselves as a hardcore gamer, and there is a big industry around something called “casual games” which are games that tend to have really easy and simple mechanics that don’t take long to learn.
Some of the simplest console games in recent years have included options like Plants vs. Zombies, where people play as an owner of a property during the zombie apocalypse, and have to use their weaponized plants to try to stop the zombies from getting to their stuff. It is a light-hearted game and really easy to get to grips with.
People also play games such as Mario Kart, which have simple controls in spite of the fact the game is frenetic and fast-paced. This has proven to be a popular multiplayer game.
Lots of simple games that are still popular are real throwback games like the Sega Genesis games still played today, which come from a time when games had to be simple due to a lot of technical limitations, and people couldn’t put a lot of data on discs and cartridges that stored the games. Retro gaming is a genre that people love and lots of retro games are even remastered for modern consoles which proves that gaming isn’t all about complexity, and that huge open worlds and great graphics don’t mean everything.
Why People Are Drawn to Simplicity in Games
There’s a bit of digging to do when we look into why people are drawn to simplicity, plus why there are still so many of these games in the market and why people like them.
The Digital Revolution
The digital revolution is one of the reasons why simple games continue to thrive, and there is no longer a need for a game to have a massive budget, and no exaggeration to say that someone can potentially make a game in their bedroom that is then played all over the world! The release process for games has become way more straightforward and publishers aren’t needed to make physical copies and distribute them all over the world – people can just sell their games digitally.
Ease of Understanding
Have you ever come across a game that has so much going on you find it hard to understand? One of the reasons why so many people like these games is that they are drawn to the casual. They don’t want to play games that will take them forever to work out, or that have really complex mechanics. Some people love a complex game, but others just want something intuitive that they can get good at pretty quickly. There is fun in mastering a game pretty fast, or at least being able to do the basics.
Conclusion – Why Players Will Always Like Simple Games
Tetris will always be fun to a large group of people, regardless of how many games are released and how much new VR and AI technology is introduced. This means that there are simple games that can become successful or even go viral overnight with millions of players getting involved. Simplicity isn’t the only thing people value, it is one of the ways that people can make their games more accessible and build success in simplicity.
