Maybe some people just aren't cut out for strategic games

[Tmoo]

Someone close to me (not going to mention names) was playing a Disgaea 2 (srpg) level and she got so frustrated she quit and I had to do it for her. She could have easily avoided losing most of her team by just paying attention to the enemy units' weaknesses and strengths and positioning, but instead she just threw all of her units in headlong. She got annoyed when I told her this and said the game wasn't fun anymore.

She only plays for the story....but it annoys me that she doesn't want to learn the game mechanics. She'd have a much easier, and more enjoyable time if she did. I don't understand her point of view, and I'm starting to think some people just don't have the capacity to play games that require thinking, as insulting as that sounds.

 

[Ayen]

I'm not the best at strategic games either to be honest, but that doesn't stop me from playing some of them and at least trying to learn the game mechanics. I enjoy games like Command & Conquer which are Real Time Strategy games. But yeah, I can see it. Some movie goers like to turn off their brains and just enjoy a movie without really thinking about it, so some probably want the same for games.

 

[Martel]

SPRGs are definetely an acquired taste. Something like the Disgaea series (or, come to think of it, any SRPG with Nippon Ichi Software's name on it) isn't for the faint of heart, because it's definetely a game that requires 100+ hours to get the full experience out of, due to the ridiculously high level caps. That said, there are easier, more light-hearted - the fantastic Luminous Arc series, for example - SRPGs that might be better for people who want an easy time of it.

The current generation isn't really geared towards SRPGs, or even RTS games: after all, how can make a strategy game that is more about substance over form? Every developer is so concerned with graphics these days that they forget to pad their games out like they used to, and that would be nothing short of a disaster if they did that with a strategy game, hence why there haven't been many of them recently, an why they're not particularly popular amongst people who haven't played earlier ones.

I love SRPGs, though. They're not that difficult to understand for me, because they all follow basically the same formula, and stuff like Disgaea can keep me amused for far longer than any other type of game, because reaching level 9999 and doing trillions of damage is such an awesome feeling

 

[Sir Fratley]

My friend who loves the hack & slash/shooter type games got Dark Souls, but got rather frustrated with it soon afterwards because he couldn't get past the first bodd. He kept gripping that the boss did way too much damage and was ultra cheap. So I took the controller from him and soloed the first boss without taking any damage. Dark Souls is a game where you have to learn patterns and approach areas carefully, and ever boss has a strategy that is required to beat them, where even the 'weakest' of monsters can kill you if you aren't careful.