Breaking Down Casual Gaming Misconceptions

April 21st, 2008

casual gaming misconceptions wii fit

You know something that really frustrates me beyond belief? When I am scrolling through an online message board and find gamers whom downright slag out the recent push for casual gaming. This new orientation of gaming has undeniably been receiving quite a lot of heat from a number of members within the ‘core’ gaming crowd. Especially among hardened Wii owners whom are feeling the pressure on their identities as gamers. You see, the truth is a lot of this hate is extremely misguided.

I’ve had this article in cold storage for at least a month now and it was only the other day that another couple of incidents occurred which reminded me of how important this issue is. So I want to tackle this issue head on and hopefully continue to report on and share my ideas on the topic. Please let me know what you think.

What is Casual Gaming?

Casual gaming is essentially gaming made for casual gamers or non gamers, that is people who are new to or don’t play video games on a regular basis. Casual gaming in a way is designed to be the first stepping stone for new players onto the gaming scene.

What Defines a Game a ‘Casual Game’?

It is generally accepted that casual games would consist of at least two or more of the following attributes:

the gameplay is straight forward and easy to understand
the game goes to an effort to make sure that it is understood
the game is ‘approachable’ and accessible
only a few buttons are required to play
generally speaking the graphics are simple
no long term commitment (very dispensable)

But more importantly it has to successfully appeal and be easily enjoyable by new players. To further clarify what a casual game is here are some examples of games that fit this bill: gameboy casual gaming

FreeCell
Peggle
Bejeweled
Diner Dash
Zuma
Wii Sports
Wii Play
Picross

So now that we know what casual gaming is all about lets dive into some misconceptions.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Culture | Comments (7)
Tags: casual gaming, freecell, misconceptions, popcap games, wii, zuma

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