Casual games, still part of gaming
Casual games are on the rise, that’s no secret, with games like Bejeweled being so addictive it makes sense. PopCap is one of the biggest casual game company with its name known to both casual and hardcore gamers, Zynga is up there too thanks to FaceBook.
EA is trying to get some of that sweet casual cash as well, they’ve bought casual game developers in the past, even Nintendo set the Wii up for the casual crowd.
With both big and small game companies making games for casual players the question is begged to be ask, do gamers really care? Seriously ask yourself “Do I really care about casual games?”, you should be able to answer that quickly.
Casual games have been around since the beginning of video games, Tetris is pretty casual now-a-days but a few years ago it could have been consider hardcore, try to play that game when the blocks drop after 1.5 seconds of appearing and the music gets faster.
That brings me to the topic, why are gamers so gosh darn biased against the casual crowd? Yes, Nintendo sorta betrayed us and yes with the Wii and DS being so unbelievably popular they have helped set a bad trend of shovel-ware but look at how many people are actually playing games…and loving it.
Casual Gamers the next step?
Casual gamers are the next step for video games, when you were younger what did you play? Most of us will say Mario and Sonic but that’s not what I’m talking about, think about the casual games you played: Pac-man, Tetris, and even Solitaire (You know you’ve played it).
Face it people, we thought those games (Pac-man and Tetris) were hardcore in a way, but there was Metriod, Mario, Sonic, Zelda, and Final Fantasy. We were casual gamers at one point, it never came out because games weren’t mainstream yet so everyone who played video games were considered a gamer.
Now that you remember your casual days look at the casual games today, they’re brightly colored and easy to play, just like the games we use to play. I enjoy a good game of Bejeweled on my Xbox 360 and I even like some of the casual games on my iPhone so I could never understand why people hate casual gamers so much, there’s nothing wrong with slowing down and enjoying a peaceful puzzle.
Whine and complain
I hear a lot of gamers complain about Gears of War, Halo, Call of Duty, God Of War, Dante’s Inferno, Farmville and Mafia Wars, to be honest I’m sick of it. According to the posts I’ve read and the things I heard from my fellow hardcore gamers, games are made for us and only us; they are not meant to be played by children and single mothers, nope they should be made for only the hardcore.
I hate those thoughts, why can’t they be played by single moms? We still get our Bioshocks and our Metal Gears so what’s the problem? I love the thought of my mom playing a game with me, mind you it was my mother who got me into video games in the first place.
“Look at all of the shovel-ware the Wii is getting.” So, don’t buy them, not every game that comes out is going to be a story driven blockbuster. At $60 I want a pretty big bang for my buck just like everyone else but I know there are going to be some stinkers out there, it has always been that way, as long as a game is fun than I’m fine.
“A five hour campaign is way to short.” Yeah I agree but do you see casual players whining about Bejeweled being the same game over and over again? No and you know why? Casual gamers know how to have fun with the games they play.
I see and hear about a lot of hardcore gamers just rushing through a single player game and than whine about it being short, if that’s your problem play RPGs or RTSs and if that’s not your cup of tea than stop playing games.
Back in our days….
I miss the days when you could have a conversation about a game and actually talk about the gameplay and levels, not how short it was and how fast you beat it.
Remember when you could go on for ages about your strategy to beat the fire boss on level six or how you found the secret passage by accident? Those were the days, I’m only 23 (at the time of this article) I shouldn’t be talking like I’m in my 60s while kids ride by on their hover scooters.
After all is said and done do you remember your casual days? They were fun and innocent, so who are we to look down on casual gamers and say that they are ruining the gaming industry?
We should be leading them to bigger and better things, my mom has tried to show interest in my video games for years now but she still rather play Mario or Sonic, we should take casual gamers by the hand and show them some alternative games that relates to the games they like.
Stop being biased towards casual gaming and embrace it, from the looks of it there seems to be more brilliant ideas headed that way.
I think it’s a good point but thinking on the wrong base. What I hate is when casual gamers think there hardcore gamers. I hate that gaming has gone completely mainstream now, these days everybody is a gamer and it’s not right, it’s just a new fad. What about us gamers who have gone through the time when it wasn’t mainstream. Remember playing call of duty years ago and being called a geek for it? Now look at it. If you had a games console and thought you weren’t a geek then you played sports games and didn’t stray from it. Games belong to us hardcore gamers, it’s no become a fad and it annoys me, I think it’s time that us true gamers told the casual gamers to get off our patch. Be a casual gamer fine, but don’t claim your at our level
Alas, a good post dude, it let me let of some steam