Why is "Casual" bad?

[teebeeohh]

what i associate with "casual" is that those people are not as invested in a medium(in this case games) as others, resulting in their desire to have said medium easily accessible. This is in itself no problem, the problem is when games to being made to specifically entertain this audience and that the easy access is usually achieved by taking away depth. So if you make ridiculous amounts of money by creating simple games for a large audience very cheap, why bother creating some fun, great looking well written game at all?

Thus, casuals destroy the industry

 

[Gralian]

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.

While i too decry the rise of casuals in the gaming culture, i do have to point this out.

It's the same reason i go down the golf club to hit balls down the driving range.

Do i play golf? No. Do i do anything beyond just hitting balls down the range for half an hour to an hour? No. Do i have any interest in getting a set of clubs and learning how to play the game and join a tournament? Not at all. I'm happy with my one driver golf club.

I am what you would probably call a "casual golfer". I have a passing interest in the sport, i like to have a little go now and then, it gives me something to do outside of my usual hobbies and routines and it's a fun little distraction.

Now apply that golf example to your argument. This is how casuals fit into the gaming culture.

 

[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.

While i too decry the rise of casuals in the gaming culture, i do have to point this out.

It's the same reason i go down the golf club to hit balls down the driving range.

Do i play golf? No. Do i do anything beyond just hitting balls down the range for half an hour to an hour? No. Do i have any interest in getting a set of clubs and learning how to play the game and join a tournament? Not at all. I'm happy with my one driver golf club.

I am what you would probably call a "casual golfer". I have a passing interest in the sport, i like to have a little go now and then, it gives me something to do outside of my usual hobbies and routines and it's a fun little distraction.

Now apply that golf example to your argument. This is how casuals fit into the gaming culture.

Wouldn't you be better off if you spent that time in a way that will add up to your actual person? Wouldn't you end up having a better time if you just devoted more time in what matters to you?


If you truly have a passion you wouldn't ever get bored of it, you would never get enough of it either and any ounce of free time would be a grand opportunity to partake in what you love. To bypass such a thing for a passing activity seems like a huge waste to me and only makes sense if you don't actually have a real passion to speak of. (notice how I didn't once mention "hobbies", a passion can also be your hobby but not all hobbies are more than casual activities)

 

[hannan4mitch]

Go watch The Game Overthinker on YouTube and ScrewAttack and you'll find out why they're actually quite important. And why some people think they're the scum of the earth.

 

[hannan4mitch]

Crap, Double post

 

[Gralian]

Wouldn't you be better off if you spent that time in a way that will add up to your actual person? Wouldn't you end up having a better time if you just devoted more time in what matters to you?

We all need distractions from our daily grind. Variety is the spice of life, as they say, as well as one can always have too much of a good thing.

Let's say you like eating chocolate. You're told you can have chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sounds great, right? It sure is after the first couple of days, but eventually you'll grow sick of it. You'll be begging for pea soup just so you won't have to take another bite of the stuff.

Another way to look at it is people who go into retirement. It's commonplace for us to long for the day we can retire so we can do everything we ever wanted and didn't have the time to do, but people actually miss work. They miss the change in their life. Retirement ain't all it's cracked up to be.

If you truly have a passion you wouldn't ever get bored of it, you would never get enough of it either and any ounce of free time would be a grand opportunity to partake in what you love. To bypass such a thing for a passing activity seems like a huge waste to me and only makes sense if you don't actually have a real passion to speak of. (notice how I didn't once mention "hobbies", a passion can also be your hobby but not all hobbies are more than casual activities)

Humans crave new experiences. It's how we learn as a child and it's how we continue to develop as adults. While an experience doesn't have to necessarily be new, as long as it's breaking up the monotony of day to day life it can seem fresh enough to feel new and break up the homogeneity of day to day life. A passion can be just that; but it does not have to be soul-consuming. I devote my private time to my passions to learn, improve or indulge. I do not hit balls down the driving range to improve my game. I do it to give my mind a brief distraction, to restore my sanity and to break up the daily grind. It's a moment of disassociation where i don't have to be bound by my obligations or my passions. Something i do not have to care about winning, losing or improving. Just relaxation and diversion.

Think on it; when a casual plays a casual game, that's what they're doing. They don't necessarily care about winning or improving. It's a neat little distraction. A time-passer. Not a passion, not a hobby, but a past-time that does not take up much of their time away from the things that do matter to them.

If we went through life without these distractions and the constant pressure to improve and engorge ourselves in that which we love, we would be exhausted.

 

[EmilShmiengura]

I know finding your mum in front of the PC playing Zuma for 3 hours is weyrd. I know we are all afraid of the day when World of Farmville comes out. But as long as we keep buying the tiles we love there shouldn't be a problem for some games at least. I agree that beacause of this new trend the next Civ (it ther will be one) will feature Cuddly Sheep Mode or something like that. If they tapped in to this new huge market it;s not likely that they'll let it go to soon.
Still it's kinda hard to have a problem with casual players when at the other end you have cosplay and people hurting each other with game weapons replicas or fighting because game items.

 

[Fishyash]

Now I may not be the OP or consider myself a casual gamer but I do wanna respond to this. I'd rather not quote the whole thing at once and just do this response bit by bit.

I have a question for casuals.

Why play games?

You must have enjoyed them mustn't you? THAT is the reason why people play games, because they enjoy them. There should be no other reason.

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?

People like to waste time. You would be lying if you said you never did that. There is something everyone does that they are not devoted to that they enjoy every now and then. I don't want to spend ALL of my free time on gaming/music, maybe I could be better off, but I know for sure that tending to something you're in to will cause you to burn out if you do it too much when you're not enjoying it.

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.

Where are you getting this from? Nobody is casual about everything. This thread is about casual gaming, so this is unrelated, unless you think 'casual gamers' are casual about everything, which is untrue.

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.

Yes, they should do it so that they enjoy it. I don't spend all my spare time on my favourite things.

I personally feel there shouldn't be a 'casual' and 'hardcore' when it comes to gaming. (repeating myself here, but just want to make it clear that's my stance on this anyways)

 

[Smooth Operator]

Casual is bad because it lowers the quality bar for games, and when they make more money on a quick copy/paste game made for masses it is quite scary to think where that might take the industry.

I'm ok with it as long as it stays in it's grandma money loving corner, but when good games get turned into weekend hit pop stars... I be pissed.

 

[Popido]

-snip-

Gotcha.

Intrude casuals to gaming = Intrude lazy people to sports.

...

Football: Couldnt you just give the ball to me and let me take it over there? On second though, lets just not.

Bicycling: I dont feel like pedaling this thing, it gets a little repeative. Couldnt you just push me until we get there?

Marathon: Oh wow. I rather walk. We need to walk how long distance now? You know what, I know this good chinese that just couple blocks away, so you call the taxi while I take these shoes off.

And the best thing is that their taking part on national level.

 

[Gralian]

-snip-

Gotcha.

Intrude casuals to gaming = Intrude lazy people to sports.

So, what has hitting balls down a driving range got to do with being lazy?

For all you know, i could run several miles around the block each day. I might play football competitively. I might hit the gym. That's a gross generalisation that completely bastardises my point. Golf isn't exactly, you know, physically enduring. Hell, constantly swinging the club down the range is probably more physical that hitting the ball once, then casually walking over to hit it once again.

Maybe i can't be bothered to learn the rules, maybe the game itself doesn't interest me. Maybe i just like to hit the balls and don't care for the point or hole system.

And the best thing is that their taking part on national level.

...What?

 

[Klopy]

I agree with some statements on this forum...

GOOD games are hard to make, and will be judged by people who actually know good games.

CASUAL games are easier to make. All you gotta do is make some sort of innovative gameplay mechanic and repeat it for 9002+ levels, getting more and more difficult over time. Like Peggle.

The reason why I hate casual games, is that GOOD games don't come out as frequently because of them. Many people buy casual games because they are easy and fun... I don't really enjoy that. I enjoy a sense of satisfaction from overcoming obstacles and being told an amazing story along the way. If more casual games come out, the chance I'll lose these increases slowly. Eventually, developers will change to one of the following, then the gaming industry will be mainly CoD, CoD clones, and Casual games... Ugh. I hate all of those.

 

[Thespian]

Because it is a known FACT that the people who were gonna play games such as APB left due to Farmville ads on their browser.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Either

1) Youre talking to Elitist, in which case youll never win an argument.

2) Gamers see you not as something lesser then them, but a stage below them in the growing up section. Youre like the child that gets into something but isnt dedicated to it. Something quaint and cute and reminescent of their youth, but if they were to go back to now it would be somewhat of a disgrace in a way.

ALso, in a sense you kinda look like posers, since you talk about games, but not in the sense that "dedicated" fan does.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with casual gaming or gamers, just when it makes all games like Peggle or any of the -Ville games. I myself enjoy big games, like Persona 3/P3 Fes.

 

[MasterOfWorlds]

Clearly it's because we don't feel the burning urge to teabag everything we kill and be number one at everything in games because we don't feel the need to project into a videogame world the superiority we're clearly lacking in the real one.

I'm mainly looking at WoW players here because I can't tell you the number of times I've heard, "I'll beat the shit out of you...no, in the game." or something similar to that effect.

...Sadly, I'm not joking.

 

[squid5580]

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.

Why is Zynga bad? Why are they any worse than any other company that makes a game and sells it to make a profit? Did Zynga kill your favorite pet because you wouldn't pay the ransom? Thing is about Zynga games is, now hold onto your hat here, you can play them for free. You don't have to invest a single penny if you don't want to. Sure you might have to pay for the cooler looking outfit if you want it. Or if you want to buy your way through a mission instead of earning it. And I guess a little known fact is you can earn the Zynga bucks ingame. Meaning eventually you can earn enough in game to buy an item that would cost you real money otherwise. Just because gamers want to pay them money for a game they enjoy playing they must be evil huh.

Zynga has a fanbase of how many millions? A fanbase they make happy by providing games to them. Isn't that the whole purpose of gaming no matter if it Farmville or COD? Aren't games supposed to make the people playing them happy? Or is that logic only applicable when it comes to AAA hardcore mainstream games?

 

[Loki Cain]

I'm a peaty casual gamer until i get a certain game (fallout 3, mass effect, half-life 2, portal) then ill sit and play all day until i realize wow i'm REALLY hungry... portal 2 is going to be the next one.

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

i have no issue with casual games as not a scam like Zygna's repeatative and unoriginal bullshit games.
what annoys me the most about Zygna is it does not even try to make there games fun or original. it soul purpose is to addict people to there skinner box and then drain money from them while the fools believe there having fun. There pure evil. The moment the people realize they have wasted there life and manage to escape the box they will probably never touch a game again.

i have played mafia wars for a few months to i has experienced the evil first hand. The two thing that don't apply to me is i never gave them money and i still play REAL games. On a positive note now i hate Zygna and all other social network games