Make Casual Games better

[Monogamie]

So just curious. Let's say you were given absolute creative freedom, an unlimited budget and no deadlines to produce a game. Only one restriction applies: Your game needs to change the way my mom sees videogames.

My mom plays Bejeweled. She likes Bejeweled, only she sees Bejeweled as a silly way to kill off 10 minutes of downtime. You could basically remove Bejeweled entirely from her existence and she wouldn't care much. She also likes Brain Age. She'll talk about Brain Age in a manner that implies that it's 'much more than a videogame', in the sense that it doubles as a productivity suite, not as a touching work of art. As for other titles out there, she simply doesn't get your Braid, your Animal Crossing, your Layton, etc...

So how can we make a game that's interesting to my mom, but that's not a time waster or related to self-improvement ?

 

[Taerdin]

So how can we make a game that's interesting to my mom, but that's not a time waster or related to self-improvement ?

You can't. Shes already made up her mind that she's not into video games unlike that and will not play them. Its really that simple. I know movies that my dad would quite enjoy if he tried but if it doesn't look like something he would enjoy to HIM, I can't make him watch it.

I'm not saying its an impossibility or anything, but its highly unlikely your mom will ever be recanting her grand adventure as a space marine...

Just like I know people who are too 'popular' or social butterfly-ish to ever play games. They're too busy going out to bars and dancing or whatever, they don't have time for games. Your mom seems to have also decided to herself that she doesnt have time for anything more than a 10 minute session so... from my experience I'd say I can't help you here

 

[curlycrouton]

I once met a 12 year old who told me he was a proffesional Wii gamer just because he was better than the rest of his family. The disturbing part is that his mother actively encouraged him in this delusion.

 

[Deschamps]

she simply doesn't get your Braid

Shame on her.

Back on topic though, from how you described her, I can only see her liking other simple pick up and play puzzle games, like tetris and minesweeper.

 

[Abedeus]

I once met a 12 year old who told me he was a proffesional Wii gamer just because he was better than the rest of his family. The disturbing part is that his mother actively encouraged him in this delusion.

Ah, the power of self-denial.

And the irony - being professional at a casual console, where according to polls and statistics average player is under 14.

 

[Erana]

These games you speak of wouldn't be causal games.

I just wish Valve would make a family-friendly game at some point so that non-gamers would understand the storytelling potential of the genre.

 

[NC3]

Show her Indigo Prophecy.

I say that specifically because it got my mother into it without me even asking her. She just saw me playing one night (around the time it came out), and was enthralled that this X-Files/CSI-like movie was actually gameplay. She couldn't get enough of it.

If your mom isn't more curious about games then, I doubt she'll ever be.

 

[Aardvark]

Get a new mother.

 

[SimuLord]

My mom loves Tetris, but when she tried to play Super Mario Bros. she couldn't get past World 1-1. She's just not a gamer---no interest at all in it beyond a simple puzzle game she can use to relax before going to bed. When my brother and I were still kids, she'd watch us play Contra without dying and watch us cooperate on Tecmo Super Bowl with my brother on offense and me on defense and say "I wish you kids would put as much effort into something that you could actually use in life that you do into those silly games."

 

[Kukakkau]

Get a new mother.

if youve kept the receipt you get 20% off the new one. ahh if only you could really do that

 

[Susan Arendt]

The title of this thread is interesting. "Better" for whom, exactly?

While I absolutely believe that there's a game out there for everyone, not everyone is going to embrace the many facets of gaming. If someone never gets beyond killing time with Bejeweled or Tetris...well, so what? That's the way they're happy experiencing games. While some folks don't go beyond that simply because they've never really been exposed to other types of games, for the most part, people like your mom don't really want more from gaming. They get their ten minute fix and are done. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Squarewave]

The closest you might get is something like puzzle quest, that replaces normal combat with a simple puzzle game. And that's assuming she just doesn't like normal video games and doesnt just hate them because she thinks shes supposed to