Why do we care about casual games?

[Lee]

It was one Christmas morning that I opened up a present from Santa and it was a Nintendo Entertainment System with Super Mario Bros. 3. The first gaming argument I can remember having was over who was better, Mario or Sonic. The kid I was arguing with would make a point and I'd destroy him and then he got annoyed with his last shot “Well Mario doesn't spin, Sonic does!” without even a second thought I replied with “Yes he does, when he has the star in Super Mario Bros. 3 when you jump he spins”. Whilst I was clearly correct on the matter it would be a long road for my eight year old self and that was just one of many 'discussions' I've had over the years. I could make a list of what people say about Nintendo: It's for kids, the graphics are rubbish, they just use Mario/Zelda/Pokémon, you get the point. Though there's one term I despise and that is casual.

Casual gaming in itself is hard to describe though it refers to games with simple game play, games in short bursts or those played by people who have no real interest in gaming outside of this. The rival to the casual gamer is that of the 'hardcore gamer' who spends a lot of times on games and can cope with the more in depth games such as Skyrim. The sad thing is that this has become a huge thing with this generations consoles and I ask a simple question....why?

Gaming is an entertainment medium, it's purpose of existing is to entertain the masses and make its publisher some money. The problem is that the niche market of games don't sell: For every Just Dance there's a Little Kings Story, for every Rock Band there's an A Shadow's Tale, for every fitness game there's a game published by Rising Star Games. That's the reason casual games exist is because they sell but here's a question, does it matter?

What would be a 'hardcore' TV show? I suppose Lost would be considered as one. In the UK Lost was shown on Sky1 which also showed the TV show 'Dream Team'. For those who don't know about Dream Team it was a soap that followed the trials and tribulations of a fictional football club called Harchester United. Two very different shows shown on the same TV station but did fans of Lost complain because there was a Dream Team or other trash on the same channel? Of course not.

What about a hardcore Movie? I think the perfect person to epitomise the balance is Jim Carrey who starred in three of my favourite movies of all time: The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Man on the Moon. These were after he had done Ace Ventura, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber yet when he returned to do these sort of movies in Bruce Almighty and Fun with Dick and Jane there weren't any complaints. “He used to cater to the hardcore market but now he's targeting the casual market” I heard no one say. So why is it the same with games?

It shouldn't matter that casual games exist, embrace the new casual gamers and allow them to realise there's a lot more to gaming than Farmville. Remember when we started with Tetris and Pokémon yet we quickly were sucked into Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Quake? Exactly. As I said before gaming is an entertainment medium, it's not a little secret geeky club. Lets enjoy it.

Originally posted at www.nintendolee.com​

 

[Loveless]

There's a very simple reason "hardcore gamers" hate the casuals. It's because the casuals caused the dumbing down, shortening, simplifying, eternal sequeling and graphic ****ing of the entire industry. The industry sold out to the lowest common denominator and ruined the inherent creativity to the point where original and imaginative games get buried under a mountain of crap. I despise casual gamers

 

[Diet Soda]

There's a very simple reason "hardcore gamers" hate the casuals. It's because the casuals caused the dumbing down, shortening, simplifying, eternal sequeling and graphic ****ing of the entire industry. The industry sold out to the lowest common denominator and ruined the inherent creativity to the point where original and imaginative games get buried under a mountain of crap. I despise casual gamers

Welcome to capitalism 101; find your lowest common denominator and sell sell sell. You shouldn't despise the casuals though, without that market the industry would cease to exist. Remember, these are business folk, they don't give a monkey's about the "hardcore gamers". That'd be like asking Vince McMahon to appreciate the opinion of a TNA mark.

Also, I'm going to have to raise this, but are you treating the "dumbing down, shortening, simplifying, eternal sequeling and graphic ****ing of the entire industry" as a recent occurrence? Franchises like Mario, Sonic, Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, Mega Man, Zelda, and so forth are incredibly guilty of this, but it's just how the industry has progressed over the past quarter of a century. You see it now with Call of Duty and Halo, for example.

It depends, I think, on how you define a 'casual' gamer now. Are they the ones who just pick up a Wii for the sports and fitness spiels? Are they the ones who'll own an XBox for the sake of pawning noobs on an online FPS network, but wouldn't know their arse from their elbow with an RTS? Are they the ones who download Minecraft just to rear livestock? Or are they the ones who keep up with the latest hardware, but will only play the top tier franchises - such as those mentioned above - because that's they know they like and they stick to it? What all three have in common is that they're consumers and they have that choice. So I definitely echo the right honourable Lee's sentiment by stating, does it really matter? Since, after all, games for the hardcore gamer still get developed, year in, year out.

 

[loucar86]

I am what i consider a normal gammer. i play gears of war, NHL, arkham city to name a few right now. My girlfriend loves to play mario kart on the old N64. SO naturally i am going to get a wii for us to play. do I personally want wii sports and all the simple games? no but i rather play wii tennis then watch say yes to the dress. so thats why i care about them bc i dont have to watch lame tv shows haha

 

[DirtyD79]

It shouldn't matter that casual games exist, embrace the new casual gamers and allow them to realise there's a lot more to gaming than Farmville. Remember when we started with Tetris and Pokémon yet we quickly were sucked into Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Quake? Exactly. As I said before gaming is an entertainment medium, it's not a little secret geeky club. Lets enjoy it.

Originally posted at www.nintendolee.com​

The thing is a lot of geeks see themselves as the gatekeepers of the franchise or in some cases a whole genre of entertainment. They feel that it's their own special club and can't stand it when the "casuals" start showing up because then they feel they're no longer above the great unwashed. It also happens with music, it happens with TV shows, it happens with everything. In some cases yes they have a point sometimes the franchise does go downhill to cater to the mainstream fans.

But like it or not the company has to make money to stay in business. Even if the creators themselves are willing to take a loss that doesn't mean the people who work for them are willing to forgo putting food on the table or paying their rent. In the book publishing industry for example every book sold has to pay for at least ten that didn't sell. So yeah you can bet your sweet Aspercreme publishers are gonna spam the Twilights, The Harry Potters, and anything they think is close enough that people will buy it. The video game industry is no different. All those Maddens, Guitar Heros, Halos, and Call of Dutys are paying for all those games collecting dust on the shelves.

 

[Alastor]

I think the genre of gaming that got hurt the most are MMORPGS. The casuals that start playing Farmville are used to paying to win. They bring that attitude to the new Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Quakes of the future. That's why third party sites prosper. It will only get worse in the future as FTP,P2W is going to be the industry standard due to how commercially successful it is. Developers are now more tempted to make an empty shell of a game and leverage on players bruised egos to sell upgrades for them to stomp on each other. New content simply mean adding more numbers to existing stats. Even Blizzard has turned to this for Diablo 3 to earn extra revenue and also to combat third party sites.

What used to be rewarding long duration spent in game to improve one's character has turned to using paypal to win in a second. I know many will argue these games were already meant for casuals as taking hours to kill the same mobs doesn't require skills, but that was the buffer to separate hardcore and non-hardcore gamers.

 

[Trill Co$by]

I actually love blockbuster game titles... although Halo never really started as a blockbuster title. In fact, it was kind of basic. What got its success was the fact that Microsoft donated consoles with Halo 2 to Iraq and Afghanistan stationed troops. To this day, Microsoft still donates consoles with either a Halo game or a sports game in with it.

The way I see it, gaming is just like sex. You've got to find that special one to make you committed before you dive in completely.