Poll: Casual Gamer - Derogatory Term?

[Brown Cap]

Hey fellow escapists!

I was speaking to a fellow gamer of mine, and she mentioned to me one of the reasons she rarely talks about video games is that she is frequently mocked for what she plays, often being called a casual gamer.

She plays Animal Crossing, mostly, on her DS. She also has a Wii and plays a couple Mario Bros. games. However, when it came up during discussion, she would say "I love video games! I play Animal Crossing!"
Often, the people with whom she spoke would ridicule her, saying "that's such a stupid, easy, pointless game. That's for casual gamers."

To her, that is the equivalent of saying "What you whole-heartedly enjoy is stupid and you are stupid for liking it."
The word casual, to her, is like saying that you are not a real gamer, you aren't playing a real game, and how silly you are for thinking otherwise!

At first, I was thinking, yes, Animal Crossing is hardly a challenging or meaningful game, and I would, to a certain extent agree with those nasty critics. But she is completely right, and I feel bad for thinking it was that way.
She plays a video game that she thoroughly enjoys, and wants to share that experience with others. Isn't that the whole point of video games? How can we say that her experience is different or less important than someone who has played any Bethesda Game, Mass Effect, or competitively plays COD?

What do you think, Escapists? Should we reduce/remove our use of the word "casual?" It is evidently an ignorant label that can prevent potential members of the community to join/enjoy the very same things we enjoy.
Do you think she is right? What are your opinions? I am curious.

 

[Zhukov]

Folks are still pulling that one?

Man, I thought the whole Casual Vs Hardcore thing went out of fashion in 2011, if not before.

Look, it's a stupid argument born of petty elitism. People who pull that shit can be cheerfully dismissed as not worth your time.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

It depends on the context and how you use it, as with all language.

Obviously some people do use casual gamer as a derogatory label for people they think don't play 'proper' games, but there is no council that is able to determine which these casual games are for people.

To be a gamer I'd suggest that you'd need to play more than 1 game. And the word 'casual' I would apply to people who don't so much seek out video games, but instead have video games as an extra that they can turn to when it is needed and would normally only play for those brief periods.

As to what games you play, I don't think it matters. I've never considered telltales The Walking Dead a difficult or challenging to complete, but I do see it as a 'proper' game. So I don't see the necessity of difficulty to validate a game.

I get why people would not think that you are 'one of us' if you just play bejewelled and farmville on your phone and have no other connection to gaming, but I honestly don't care. Each gamer to their own and many people would consider themselves marginalised to a certain genre, so people obsessed with shooters shouldn't be calling out other people for not being 'proper' gamers, as they too should open their horizons to more games. Not that they 'have' to, but I'd suggest they should try.

This is like the FPS vs. RTS wars that have been going on for years. Each ridiculing the other side for their genre and saying that theirs is the superior one or the one that 'actually needs' skill.

Meh..

 

[nesbitto]

The poll is badly worded and confusing, you might want to change it OP.

OT: Causal is a terrible word. All gamers are real gamers.

"Casual gamers" usually refers to people to who play "non-hardcore" games, like Animal Crossing or The Sims. But it has no inference to how they play the game. Sure, they mightn't be able to be played competitively, but I imagine some folks play a lot more AC than I do CoD. If I only play four hours of CoD a week, and this other gamer plays four hours of AC a day, who is the "casual" gamer here? Am I a laid back hardcore gamer, or are they an obsessive casual gamer? Or something else?

Casual got stuck as the term to describe certain types of games. It's definitely not the best word to use. I'd suggest "softcore" but I'd probably be called out for it being too "pornographic". Like Hardcore is any better.

In the past I've been very critical of casual gamers, but I've found as I've matured and mellowed as a hardcore gamer, my opinion of them has become much more accepting. Gamers can be a right shower of w***ers when it comes to things they disagree with (i.e. casual gamers are real gamers), it'll take some time but eventually everyone will be treated the same.

 

[Brown Cap]

Folks are still pulling that one?

Man, I thought the whole Casual Vs Hardcore thing went out of fashion in 2011, if not before.

Look, it's a stupid argument born of petty elitism. People who pull that shit can be cheerfully dismissed as not worth your time.

Looks like I missed the party. Sorry for the repitition, and I appreciate the insight from all who replied.

 

[The Lunatic]

"Casual" gamers and "Hardcore" gamers really just represent the two sides of the industry, the "Enthusiast" level of interest and the "Hobbyist".

I'm of the opinion that games to appeal towards the enthusiast market should cater to the enthusiast.

And games that cater to the hobbyist market should cater towards those people.


So, I guess in certain situations, when talking about certain games, the "Casual" user's opinion may be of less value than an enthusiast.

And vice versa.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well take it as you will, but if you tell someone you love literature and then say your main reading material is Vogue no one will spare a laugh at your expense.

Obviously the term is thrown around like dog shit these days whenever people want to get you riled up, but in the proper context it's application does stand, certain types of entertainment do not require effort on your part and are casual.
And if you are offended by this then good for you.

 

[Silvanus]

All gamers are "real" gamers; there are no tiers, no premium memberships of the gamer club.


Besides, many easier games are awesome. Challenge isn't everything.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I would not classify Animal Crossing as a casual game.
To me, casual games are games that you play on Facebook for 15 minutes a day. Bejeweled, Candy Crush, ext

So would I call your friend a casual gamer? No
If she were a casual gamer, would that be a bad thing? No,
at least not to me personally. "casual games" appeal to a very large group of people who have every right to exist and enjoy games as much as "hardcore gamers". Anyone who uses the term "casual gamer" as a means to put someone else down is immature and needs to get out of this exclusive club mentality.

Now get your friend on here so we can have an in-depth conversation about Animal Crossing. These self proclaimed "hardcore gamers" in your OP clearly don't know the pain inflicted by Mr. Resetti.

Spoiler

Imagine playing Dark Souls and having to listen to this guy every time you reset.

Also
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128868-Infinity-Ward-Says-Call-of-Duty-Players-Arent-Hardcore-Gamers

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I despise all things casual in general. Why partake in something casually when you could instead partake in something else fully and to the max. I find casual people only EVER do things casually. They have nothing they are actually seriously passionate about or devoted to and that's pathetic. I wish casual gamers just used their gaming time for some other meaningful to them activity that they can be hardcore about.



Now, all that being said, Animal Crossing is NOT a casual game. People who said that have clearly not tried it. Casual games are crap like farmville or candy crush. Your friend has nothing to worry about as she sounds quite invested in gaming. She's one of us 100%.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Yeah, this is surely - and thankfully - a dead-in-the-water discussion.
The games industry and the medium as a whole includes: PC's, consoles, handhelds, and smartphone games. Every platform, every way of playing, and every personal level of interaction with gaming is equal.

I still use the terms core and casual, but simply to differentiate fairly obvious target markets and IP's.

Definitions waver, too, e.g. take the original post: I tend to view BioWare's RPG's and Skyrim/Fallout as quite casual games, in the grand scheme of things. And yet, the way in which a core or casual gamer would relate to it could be drastically different. Is RP'ing in a Bethesda game core or casual? Is playing through Mass Effect multiple times core or casual? Etc.

So perhaps core and casual relate more interestingly to how someone plays something, as opposed to what. In that case, most gamers can be both depending on what they're playing.

 

[mecegirl]

I would not classify Animal Crossing as a casual game.
To me, casual games are games that you play on Facebook for 15 minutes a day. Bejeweled, Candy Crush, ext

So would I call your friend a casual gamer? No
If she were a casual gamer, would that be a bad thing? No,
at least not to me personally. "casual games" appeal to a very large group of people who have every right to exist and enjoy games as much as "hardcore gamers". Anyone who uses the term "casual gamer" as a means to put someone else down is immature and needs to get out of this exclusive club mentality.

Yeah... Like, is that how far people have fallen into this mess? When Animal Crossing gets counted as a causal game? It's a pretty established franchise isn't it? Is the new metric "You aren't shooting or stabbing someone so it isn't a real game" LOL

As for things like Candy crush and Bejeweled. I don't see how they are different than Puzzle Fighter or Mean Bean Machine, but those were released before "hardcore" gaming was a thing. My boss loves Candy Crush so much that she tries to get higher scores than her friends (they have the scores posted because the game is connected to facebook accounts. So its like the score board in arcade games). She complains to me about messing up her strategy and how she could have gotten a higher score, and she plays it to relax during the day. It sounds like some of the same things that "hardcore" gamers care about.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Yeah, this is surely - and thankfully - a dead-in-the-water discussion.
The games industry and the medium as a whole includes: PC's, consoles, handhelds, and smartphone games. Every platform, every way of playing, and every personal level of interaction with gaming is equal.

I still use the terms core and casual, but simply to differentiate fairly obvious target markets and IP's.

Definitions waver, too, e.g. take the original post: I tend to view BioWare's RPG's and Skyrim/Fallout as quite casual games, in the grand scheme of things. And yet, the way in which a core or casual gamer would relate to it could be drastically different. Is RP'ing in a Bethesda game core or casual? Is playing through Mass Effect multiple times core or casual? Etc.

So perhaps core and casual relate more interestingly to how someone plays something, as opposed to what. In that case, most gamers can be both depending on what they're playing.

I would say that if there's a built in system that acts as proof of the Creator's intent show us what the developers made their game to be played as (for example, there being a very short time limit that you can play the game for each day) thst could be used to categorize games.

Games meant to immerse you and ones best enjoyed in long sessions. Games with high skill limit requiring lots of time to be invested. Games with extremely nuanced lore thst is integral the core engagement found therein. I'd say they all qualify as core games.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

As for things like Candy crush and Bejeweled. I don't see how they are different than Puzzle Fighter or Mean Bean Machine, but those were released before "hardcore" gaming was a thing. My boss loves Candy Crush so much that she tries to get higher scores than her friends (they have the scores posted because the game is connected to facebook accounts. So its like the score board in arcade games). She complains to me about messing up her strategy and how she could have gotten a higher score, and she plays it to relax during the day. It sounds like some of the same things that "hardcore" gamers care about.

The definition is also not concrete. I use "casual" to describe a type of game that appeals to a specific demographic, but as you just pointed out, it can also be defined by enthusiasm levels.

Is a person who plays Candy Crush 24/7 and competes with the entire office more "hardcore" than a person (like me) who plays Tales of Vesparia for eight hours every Friday night and has absolutely no interest in competitive multiplayer?

What about those people who played Pacman and Pong in the days where the games were known for being ruthless and you didn't have the luxury of save files?

I would call these people "Retro" "Casual" and "Core" without linking them to enthusiasm levels, which means a person can also be a Hardcore Casual Gamer? or even a Casual Core Gamer?.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Games meant to immerse you and ones best enjoyed in long sessions. Games with high skill limit requiring lots of time to be invested. Games with extremely nuanced lore thst is integral the core engagement found therein. I'd say they all qualify as core games.

But the creator's intent is irrelevant.

Bethesda and BioWare could've created Skyrim and Mass Effect as core experiences (and I'd ostensibly disagree with 'em), but both can be played in a casual manner. Is it a core or casual game? It depends how it's played - and most games can be played in a variety of ways.

Street Fighter requires insane levels of skill and experience to be good at. But any chump can pick up a pad and have fun with it. So you have the totality of core and casual, in one game; a five minute blast, or a five hour online session honing technique and strategy.

 

[Windcaler]

Like with all words in language it depends on the context its used. I would call certain games casual games since they allow a player to drop in and drop out at any time. Many games can be played both casually and hardcorely (example: Warframe where I can jump in and out of missions at any time or hunker down and play a ton with my clan). Sometimes a hardcore player can even play a certain aspect of a game casually (example: I play neverwinter quite a bit but a casual PVP and a hardcore PVE runner).

Casual as a descriptor of a person is often a catch all term thats to often used in a deragatory manner and really thats just people being jerks. The simple answer is seperate yourself from the jerks

 

[Church185]

I don't think there is such a thing as a "hardcore" or "casual" games. I know plenty of people who have played Farmville and Animal Crossing to an unhealthy degree.