First of all not all gamers are created equal ;-)

So you are more of a casual than a hardcore gamer: You don't want to read manuals, you want quick successes, you like action games more than adventures and RPGs - and you probably hate strategy games or simulations that involve a large investment of time.
Don't worry - you are a pretty normal fellow! ;-)

This is one method to make the interface easier to understand and it's exactly what I meant with making a game more accessible - which I said is the only "dumbing down" I tolerate.
What you don't exclude with your statement is that you don't reject a game that is complex but easy to control - which is more or less what I said.
Give me complex games like the Thief-series anyday, but don't expect me to calculate the arcs my arrows should fly by hand and enter the numbers manually - I also want an easy to use interface with a mouse and some buttons/keys.

Some people claim that (PC) games are often dumbed down for games consoles which is a statement I don't plainly support. There are many very complex RPGs on games consoles and when comparing them to a PC classic like Baldur's Gate they don't seem to be "dumber" at all.
People confuse the ability of console games to be controlled with a small gamepad with less game complexity (and maybe content).

There are people - and you made yourself quite clear that you aren't one of them - who love to indulge into such stuff. Hardcore-sim-freaks are just one example, strategy game fanatics are another bunch, learning all the data about the units etc.
These folks already enjoy such a game while reading the manual. You maybe would call it "work", they call it "pleasure".

It was always my opinion that you can perform the most complicated procedures (like flying a space shuttle) with a simple enough interface. As the interface is part of the game engine I agree with you.

take care,
Calibrator

First of all.... Matt, another fine video, well produced and informative. You look very relaxed and jovial, which works very well as a counterpoint to a very old and obscure gaming platform. The use of cut-scenes was also very appropriate and interesting. Somehow, you made this relatively unknown platform and its apparently obscure and technical games fascinating. I had no idea that these sorts of games were available for the PLATO platform. Your parting comments at the end of the video puzzled me at first until I made the PLATO connection, then I had a hearty chuckle over it! :-)

My response to critics in the hardcore PLATO community: What'd you expect? If someone who is near-totally inexperienced in the PLATO platform tried these games, this is what they'd see. If anything, Matt (a well-known hardcore gamer) was more diligent than I would be, because I would be TOTALLY lost in these games, especially considering that I have no experience in the PLATO platform. If there are better, more inviting games (or other attractions) on the PLATO platform, then I'm all for seeing a sequel to this PLATO Matt Chat. Although I've never experienced the PLATO platform, I came away from this video with a sheer sense of respect for it, thanks to Matt's video. Perhaps the PLATO community should be more open and inviting. From what I've read here, it sounds like even the PLATO forums are closed off to outsiders.

For those of you in the PLATO community that viewed this Matt Chat favorably, I'm sure we "non-initiated" would love to hear your experiences, anecdotes, and advice on this fascinating platform!

Calibrator: "Dumbing down" games makes them more palatable to people like me. There's NO WAY that I want to have to study a PHD-level course manual to play a game. I don't want to worry about all the nitty-gritty details of most gaming subjects, nor do I have the time or patience; I just want to PLAY. If the game is inherently complex, I want an interactive, in-game tutorial that holds my hand while teaching me the deep workings of the game. I've tried to play several games in my time that seemed that you have to come to the game with a PHD in the subject ("Virtual Skipper 3," for example) with no in-game tutorial. At some point, micromanaging and studying REMOVES you from the game fantasy, rather than immerses you in it. A flexible game engine is preferable to a super-technical/realistic game engine, in my opinion.

LarryLaffer: Let's see, Matt Chat sucks, he should hang it up, Matt and Bill's books suck (which I doubt you've even read), etc. etc. Why are you here if you don't enjoy it? Perhaps you don't understand what we're all about here. Constructive criticism is warranted, but not just "hang it up." Would YOU want to be told that you should "hang it up" in your endeavors? Steel sharpens steel, but fire melts steel. Are you steel, or are you fire?

Bill: I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of the "Lode Runner" series. I played "Space Panic" and "Apple Panic," and clearly they were progenitors to "Lode Runner." And the "updated" versions of Lode Runner were inferior, play-wise, to the original. Even with it's comparatively colorless, featureless graphics, I still get a kick out of the simple but mesmerizing animations of the original. The arcade version was too cutesy, and the larger blocks meant simpler levels. The original "Lode Runner" had something that I'm not sure can be improved on, and I'm saying this as a HEAVY Lode Runner player, and I designed many levels which my friends greatly enjoyed back in the day. Lode Runner WORKED, and I had a blast playing it. None of the later incarnations had the same impact for me, although the Japanese arcade gamers loved the arcade version of Lode Runner.

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I'm thinking of Lode Runner for the next video. What do you guys think? I could tie it into a discussion of user-generated content and maybe look at some of the other early platformers.

If it weren't for you guys - and especially Matt's RPG book and this video - I probably would have never known *how* advanced some of the early Plato games were!

IMHO you demonstrate quite nicely that these games are difficult to play which is not exactly a sensation as their developers weren't experienced designers of commercial games which try to maximize their target audience. Instead these guys tried to program for the fun of it and/or to play that stuff themselves.
Compare these guys with a hobbyist sitting at his C64 (or whatever) and cloning an Ultima-RPG and you see what those Plato guys achieved: They simply had no popular RPG like Ultima or Wizardry to look up to! They had to be creative and invent stuff which is the hardest work of it all!

I think this is outstanding stuff and most games today are so severly dumbed down in user interaction (capabilities) and complexity that it is sickening! The only thing worthy to "dumb down" is the user interface to make a game more accessible, IMHO.

While I think that some clever, polished on-screen menüs or a tiny help-system may have helped these early gems - especially as these weren't commercial games with printed manuals & stuff like maps - one should keep in mind that the system was limited and there are already so many innovations that one cannot expect everything to be perfect.

take care,
Calibrator

I'm confused, what was shut down? What didn't they like about the videos. I used to have an account, but let it lapse. No reason for me to re-join at this point.

Books!
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.