Why is "Casual" bad?

[BanthaFodder]

its mainly how a lot of casual games clog up the market and for every 50 or so copies of "Petz: Kooky Eldritch Terrors" or "Imagine: Sammich Maker" sold, there's maybe 5 copies of GTA China Town Wars. it's the pandering kiddy tripe that dilutes the market and makes good games harder to find.

 

[Gralian]

I think it might be related to why there's a rip on the wave of so-called 'anti-intellectualism' lately. Let me break it down for you.

You don't see fine art being celebrated on the television. You don't see weird, Lynchian-inspired auteur films hitting mainstream cinema and scoring big at the box office. You don't see people recite Shakespeare and poetry by Miur on the nine o' clock news.

You see 'backwards' shows like Two and a Half Men and My Name is Earl. You see another sensationalist news story about something that probably didn't deserve to be reported on in the first place. You see films like The Expendables and The A-Team. One dimensional comedy shows appealing to stereotypes (the promiscuous male, the lovable rednecks, the trailer-trash ex-wife) and brainless action flicks. You see a story about an autistic kid who got labeled a cheater by microsoft(i read somewhere it had been reported on Fox news, i think that's the American news network), rather than the next great poem by our generation's young Tennyson or Keats.

Casual games versus 'core' games is, essentially, the same. We're losing our Wuthering Heights and our Charge of the Light Brigade for, dare i say, the video game equivalent of the Twilight franchise. As games become less about story, characterisation, artistic design and 'auteur-ism' they end up becoming noving more than mainstream drivel, degenrating into such games as Farmville. I think a lot of core gamers fear this, and so they defend their core games to the death in the hopes our Bioshocks will never be dumbed down into the likes of Kinect Adventures. Casual gaming, is, in essence, the 'anti-intellecutalism of the gaming industry'. Simple, derivative games aimed at no particular audience except for the ones that can pick up and play within the space of five minutes, as opposed to a 40-hour epic where you learn about characters and their struggles through careful interaction and dialogue.

'Casual is bad' is simply so because of the fear that it may change the industry - indefinitely. As companies see the far more lucrative markets of housewives, children and the elderly as opposed to the niche core market, they may shift their business model to cater primarily, and eventually, solely to that demographic, the core audience will feel betrayed, hurt and confused that they have lost something that primarily belonged to 'them' as a culture that only they identified with.

 

[Capcom4ever]

Casual isn't bad, unless you make it exclusive.

I'm plaing the easiest difficulty on Bioshock currently because I can mess around with things I couldn't on the hardest difficulty.
I can create a 'wrench' build, for example, who is pretty much immune to all damage and can kill most enemies in one hit the wrench.

Except that I had to use a wrench build to get the brass balls achievement...

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I like casual gaming. I hate having to get dressed up for anything. If I have to wear anything more upscale than jeans and t-shirt, I'd better be getting laid out of it.

Casual as opposed to what?

Semi-Formal gaming, Formal gaming, Black Tie gaming and so on.

 

[Son of Detroit]

Because videos games are a sophisticated hobby, and as such, anything that doesn't appeal to the culturally refined minority e.g. motion controls, Halo, COD, etc... shouldn't exist. We can't ignore it, leaving it be tarnishes societies perception of our medium.

I don't believe anything I've just typed, but a certain show on the escapist encourages this kind of attitude.

 

[Yureina]

I like some casual games... (Plants vs Zombies! ^_^)

Not many though.

Beyond that, I don't really pay attention to this sort of stuff. I just want to play some fun games.

 

[Snork Maiden]

I like some casual games... (Plants vs Zombies! ^_^)

Not many though.

Beyond that, I don't really pay attention to this sort of stuff. I just want to play some fun games.

PvZ is as hardcore as it comes. Well, it's certainly a hardcore time sink for me Even watering plants in the garden thing is addictive!

 

[Wolfram23]

IMO, casual isn't bad. It's fine. I think producers need to cash in a bit.

However, casual gaming isn't going to push the boundaries of where games can take us, as an experience. If the market for niche and/or "hardcore" and/or "risky" titles dies completely, we're doomed to shovelware for life.

Luckily I think indie developers might step up and fill the void but we'll see.

 

[Yureina]

I like some casual games... (Plants vs Zombies! ^_^)

Not many though.

Beyond that, I don't really pay attention to this sort of stuff. I just want to play some fun games.

PvZ is as hardcore as it comes. Well, it's certainly a hardcore time sink for me Even watering plants in the garden thing is addictive!

I really should play that game again. It was fun! ^_^

 

[Fr]anc[is]

Because when I'm talking to a girl and she says she plays video games I get excited, then she starts talking about farmville and a tiny piece of my soul dies.

 

[Irridium]

Because people feel ALL developers will start catering to them. Even though thats stupid since to do that developers would have to abandon all the millions of core fans. That being said, games are getting a bit too "streamlined" these days. Not really bad, but just annoying.

Casual isn't bad, its the people like Zygna that make it a heinous, heartless money grab.
Casual gamers feed these people, earning the loathing of people who want the loving developers to be the ones to make millions.

Who are the loving developers who deserve to make millions?

CD Projeckt Red.

They run GoodOldGames.com [http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/], a website that offers old games with no DRM for $10 and under, and optimizes them for current operating systems.

And they're releasing The Witcher 2, a PC exclusive thats a stat-based RPG aimed at the old-school RPG crowd. Complete with a branching story that evolves based on your choices. And they're releasing it with a shit-ton of extra stuff [http://www.amazon.com/Witcher-2-Assassins-Kings-Pc/dp/B003VJNPPE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296594937&sr=8-1] and releasing it with little-to-no DRM.

They also treat their customers like actual people instead of potential pirates with lots of money.

So yeah, they're practically saints of the gaming world.

Thats my example for "loving developer that deserves millions".

 

[Juk3n]

The casual gamer isn't a bad guy, but the 'casual gaming scene' is bad. Want an example. Deus Ex is Core, thought provokingly complex and we loved it. Deus Ex Invisible War was an attempt to let go complexity in favour of including a wider audience, not content to simply supply the geeks who made the game a success in the first place.

 

[zehydra]

Casual isn't bad, its the people like Zygna that make it a heinous, heartless money grab.
Casual gamers feed these people, earning the loathing of people who want the loving developers to be the ones to make millions.

Who are the loving developers who deserve to make millions?

Anyone who's not Zynga, lol.

Zynga's mission has been stated before that workers are supposed to copy what others have done, and make it addictive as possible, so that people will pay money for it. They don't care about the games, they don't care about the gamer, and they certainly don't see games as a potentially artistic industry.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Deus Ex is Core, thought provokingly complex and we loved it. Deus Ex Invisible War was an attempt to let go complexity in favour of including a wider audience, not content to simply supply the geeks who made the game a success in the first place.

Deus Ex: Invisible War is a prime example of what happened when PC game designers were first faced with having to design with consoles in mind and overcompensated for the limitations of the hardware. Warren Spector himself said that many of the claimed 'consolisation' problems in the game were a result of him not appreciating what consoles were capable of and, as such, should be considered 'poor design choices' rather than 'limitations of the platform'.

 

[bojackx]

I think it might be related to why there's a rip on the wave of so-called 'anti-intellectualism' lately. Let me break it down for you.

You don't see fine art being celebrated on the television. You don't see weird, Lynchian-inspired auteur films hitting mainstream cinema and scoring big at the box office. You don't see people recite Shakespeare and poetry by Miur on the nine o' clock news.

You see 'backwards' shows like Two and a Half Men and My Name is Earl. You see another sensationalist news story about something that probably didn't deserve to be reported on in the first place. You see films like The Expendables and The A-Team. One dimensional comedy shows appealing to stereotypes (the promiscuous male, the lovable rednecks, the trailer-trash ex-wife) and brainless action flicks. You see a story about an autistic kid who got labeled a cheater by microsoft(i read somewhere it had been reported on Fox news, i think that's the American news network), rather than the next great poem by our generation's young Tennyson or Keats.

Casual games versus 'core' games is, essentially, the same. We're losing our Wuthering Heights and our Charge of the Light Brigade for, dare i say, the video game equivalent of the Twilight franchise. As games become less about story, characterisation, artistic design and 'auteur-ism' they end up becoming noving more than mainstream drivel, degenrating into such games as Farmville. I think a lot of core gamers fear this, and so they defend their core games to the death in the hopes our Bioshocks will never be dumbed down into the likes of Kinect Adventures. Casual gaming, is, in essence, the 'anti-intellecutalism of the gaming industry'. Simple, derivative games aimed at no particular audience except for the ones that can pick up and play within the space of five minutes, as opposed to a 40-hour epic where you learn about characters and their struggles through careful interaction and dialogue.

'Casual is bad' is simply so because of the fear that it may change the industry - indefinitely. As companies see the far more lucrative markets of housewives, children and the elderly as opposed to the niche core market, they may shift their business model to cater primarily, and eventually, solely to that demographic, the core audience will feel betrayed, hurt and confused that they have lost something that primarily belonged to 'them' as a culture that only they identified with.

You hit the nail on the head.

 

[Fishyash]

I personally think the term shouldn't exist at all. I hate the fact that some people try to seperate themselves from other gamers with terms like 'casual' and 'hardcore'.

Also you made me rethink of this: http://malstrom.50webs.com/birdman.html

It's a long read but pretty interesting.

 

[theriddlen]

Why is casual bad?
Have you heard of any mothers shaking their children to death or letting them drown while playing Half Life?
Nope, it was a time-consuming "casual" game that caused it.

 

[Giantpanda602]

Casual games aren't bad, they just aren't normally as good as...traditional games. Yea, for a little bit they are fun and are great when you're bored, but have you ever actually felt anything about Peggle other than, "Thats a peg. I shoot the peg. I shot the peg good. Yay points!"

Its kind of like getting into a fight with somebody and using a branch off of a tree or a solid, wood baseball bat. Yea the branch is good and I guess it'll work fine, but you're just not going that good, wholesome power that comes from a baseball bat.

 

[Popido]

Dumbing down and cutting corners sounds bad so we rather call it "casual friendly".

Not that there is anything wrong with casual gamers, but we just have to keep doing these "casual friendly" moves on games as long as there is "piracy" or we'll be "out of business".

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I have a question for casuals.

Why play games?

You're casual about games, sure, I get that, not everyone needs to be serious about everything. You DO have something you're serious about though, don't you? Why not JUST do that? Why not just devote your time to what actually matters to you? Why the need to take away time from important soul-defining passions to just have fun with something you don't care that much about?


My problem with casuals is this; they seem to not have ANYTHING they're serious about, they spend a lifetime of unspecified time, being casual about absolutely everything and serious about nothing, which to me is a waste of time, life, resources and potential, which greatly annoys me fundamentally. I believe people should find what they really love, their passion, and do that. This way we're all better for it since we all have counterparts in our own fields we can actually communicate with on a deeper, more meaningful than the "uhh...i just played that for like 2 hours dude, i don't remember the guy's name" level.