As a media, video games are kind of weird.
In any other media, whether they be books, plays, tv shows, songs, and so forth, you can try a genre you’ve never tried before and the worst that can happen is that it’s just not your jam. Maybe it doesn’t grab your interest, maybe you don’t like the writing style, or the music style, or what other style that is within that media. However, most of the time, unless your media literacy is particularly terrible, you’re able to consume media of a different genre, and sometimes, you may find you actually like it.
This is the reason why you can have break out shows, music or books that span across a wide audience. Most audiences have tried several different types of genres and even if it’s not their usual genre, they may find something within that media they will like.
Video games do not run by that logic due to the interactable nature of a video game. Especially since game genres tend to be highly influenced by their game mechanics.
As a result, skill, experience and play style become barriers for players trying to get into a new genre they might not have played before.
Skill is pretty self explanatory, if you’re very skilled in a particular game mechanic or genre of game, you’re going to enjoy those games. Especially if those games are tailored to your particular game mechanic preferences. However, this means that games that are tailored to your particular tastes will not be friendly towards newcomers.
And it’s not just about getting better at the game. I’ve mentioned this several times when writing about games I’ve played. Often, while I love the game, because I love that genre, I recognize that the tutorial is either lacking or the knowledge expectation is high. Modern video games, for genres that have been around for a long while, simply treat certain bits of information as common knowledge.
This has been especially obvious in popular games that have received a sequel such as Hollow Knight or Slay the Spire, where the sequel is far more tuned into the knowledge of players who had played the previous games. It leaves newcomers often struggling to get through the game.
Or in the really rare cases where a niche game breaks out to a wider audience because it did their niche very, very well.
But the other barrier is play style. Sometimes, the way a player prefers to play a game does not mesh particularly well with certain genres or game expectations. Like, despite the fact I love Two Point Museum, it is a bit grindy for me, but that is a me problem. I am a very safe player, I don’t like to take risks if I think I will be punished for it. As a result, resource management games, which do have some form of risk if you want to get through the game quickly, tend to be grindy for me. The reason why I continue to play Two Point Museum is because I like to decorate things, so there’s always something for me to do even if it takes forever to get through the game itself.
On the other hand, I am also a player that does like to explore and feed into curiosity as long as I think I won’t suffer for it. This means point and click adventure games like Blue Prince are a lot of fun for me. It feeds into my curiosity, and rewards me for exploring even if that reward isn’t something I can use right away.
I was actually one of the players that enjoyed Blue Prince a lot. The game never felt grindy to me, and I didn’t suffer from the ‘bottleneck’ problems that other players did. The only reason why I stopped playing the game is because I recognized that I didn't have the skill to solve all of the post-game puzzles.
And that recognition is key to my enjoyment when playing video games. Knowing when it is a skill, experience and/or play style barrier allows me to decide when it’s worth my while to actually play a game.
For all the popularity of games like Hollow Knight and Slay the Spire, I will probably not pick those games. I might pick up the first Slay the Spire, because I am relatively decent at deck builder games, I am not the brightest person when it comes to that game type. Though I do feel very clever when I make a very good combo.
Exacting platformer games though are well out of my realm of both skill and experience. I am relatively more experienced with 3D puzzle platformers, so I am more likely to play the ones that emphasis more on exploration, because that is my jam, but not likely the ones that require a lot of fighting.
In the end, the reason why I am writing this is to remind people that video games are not like other mediums. There are much higher barriers to getting into a game that might not be your usual fare. And if you decide to try that breakout game even though you’ve never played that type of game before, more power to you.
But… if you don’t enjoy that game, ask yourself honestly, is it the game, or is it me? And if you really, really want to get into that genre, I’d recommend asking for recommendations for games that are for newcomers, or ask for recommendations for Let’s Plays of people who will gladly narrate their thought process, I find it helps when understanding where I am going wrong.