Casual games is good for gaming (read OP please)

[Bluecast]

Casual gaming last few years has earned this reputation of not real gamers or some 99 cent game on IOS. Or Wii Sports. While the "Hardcore" go play "real games". Been given this rep as it's killing the industry. No what hurts the industry is shovelware and AAA games that put more graphics than gameplay into it(Crysis 3)

Well I am going to list a few games that are casual. Call of Duty or any FPS multiplayer. Mario,Sonic,Sports games,Street Fighter many download games. Now before you freak out. Casual gaming is a game that you can pick up and just play have fun either by yourself or with friends. The gaming industry was founded on casual experiences. Pong,Pac-Man,Donkey Kong. Atari,NES. These systems many of the games were meant to be picked up and just have fun right away. You also had games like Ninja Gaiden,Mega Man,Final Fantasy that took more effort and time and skills.

I can invest hundreds of hours in a RPG but also turn around and pick up a Kart racing game or Pinball. Shovelware and Casual are not the same thing. Shoevelware can ever be a bigger budget series but released every year to milk every last drop. Still the same game for the most part and using a graphics engine it first used 7 years ago. Games like Wii fit are kind of a gray area to me. Fitness games been around since the 80's. I can see where it would fit in. I can also see where people lump it with Shovelware. Havest Moon is a 20 year old series and very casual while also investing time and effort into but a very relaxed and simplified type of game, Same as Animal crossing. Farmville is the shovelware for stealing a concept and making you pay real money and a bad clone to boot.

I don't really care for the labels gamers brand one another. Just that I feel casual gaming itself is fine and gaming was founded on having fun and the primary goal of most casual games is to relax and have fun.

[Segata Sanshiro Jr.]

I think social games are kinda up there too. The whole idea behind a fighting game isn't really Vs PC but rather against a player. the closer the comp to your skill level the more fun you have and that requires some social engagement.

The media really spins things in a weird way, they don't really understand what they're writing about.

[OL]

I dunno, it's just a question of personal definitions, but I feel like some of the games listed can be casual, sure, but they can also be incredibly hardcore under the right circumstances. Yeah, anyone can pick up Street Fighter, tap away at buttons, and have a grand ol' time. But put it in the hands of experienced players who are serious about it, and it becomes incredibly non-casual.

I agree with the overall point that casual experiences should be completely welcome in the industry.
I'm just saying that pigeonholing some of these games as simply "casual" is a bit of a discredit to their potential as serious competitive experiences. It's kind of like how you can have a few guys casually playing football in a school field, and compare that to a professional team playing in front of millions. The whole dynamic and attitude is switched by context.

[Bluecast]

I think social games are kinda up there too. The whole idea behind a fighting game isn't really Vs PC but rather against a player. the closer the comp to your skill level the more fun you have and that requires some social engagement.

The media really spins things in a weird way, they don't really understand what they're writing about.

Biggest social games in the early 90's Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. Biggest Social games of the late 90's,Goldeneye and Mario kart. Today it's World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. So yeah I agree. Social gaming been around forever.

[OL]

^^I'd add in just about every arcade experience of the 80s too. Playing for a high score was like competing against everyone who ever played a particular arcade cabinet, and everyone who ever would later.

[MiTT3NZ]

I love how you seem to have these amazingly insightful opinions on games you've never even played.

The blatant stab at CoD and FIFA games is kinda pathetic too. Well done, you referred to CoD as a "good-for-the-industry" casual game... before turning around and indirectly calling it shovelware. And why? Because they use a yearly iteration franchise model? So, that makes every game the same, right?

How about you do one of your videos where you compare the difference between sequels? CoD to Black Ops. FIFA 10 to 13. AC II to Revelations. GTA III to Vice City Stories. Mass Effect 1 to 3. SMB to NSMB. Sonic 1 to &K.

You'll notice that games in a series only ever go through major or significant changes when there's been a fairly long period of time left between them (eg Deus Ex, Hitman, etc.), as far as the industry's concerned at least. And even then, they run the risk of bein too similar (absence makes the heart grow fonder, but nobody wants to wait six hours for fish n chips), whilst at the same time they could end up being too different and end up pissing off the fans.

So yeah, thank you Superior Gamer/Collector Ryudo for telling me that I'm not ruining the industry by playing Solitaire as I wait for Photoshop to install, but next time you try making a point like that, don't use a blunt pencil.

[Crimson Ryan]

I'm past the phase of spending launch prices on games. If it weren't for these cheap small games I wouldn't be playing games at all..

[St. Elmo's Fire]

I dunno, it's just a question of personal definitions

Think I'm gonna have to go with this. A lot of buyers of casual shovelware COD are actually incredibly hardcore when it comes to that game, and will devote many hours online to becoming good at it. I think I'd describe myself as a casual gamer, since I don't really follow gaming too closely anymore, outside of these forums (though this place is pretty informative!), so tend to buy latest big releases that take my fancy. I've attacked some of these games in a pretty hardcore fashion though, switching up the difficulties, making all their base are belong to me, crafting stupendously great and expensive weapons/armour, trying to get the hard achievements, etc.

[lavrentis]

I don't think games like FIFA and COD are hurting the industry. i think it is to do with a percentage of the people that play them. That ONLY play them games. I have a friend who is just like it and i tell him all the time he plays games that are not games. More as banter but he knows what I mean. It just seems like a wasted console if all he plays are those 2 games.

[Axm]

It just seems like a wasted console if all he plays are those 2 games.

If you only drive too and from work is that a waste of toyota corolla? ;)

imo shovleware are games no average gamer cares about. Only small children and moms who think they will enjoy an exercise game but never play it more than once.

Casual games are games that can be played, but not limited to casual gamers who play Fifa, CoD, Madden, GTA, even Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
There are still "hardcore" that play it till their fingers fall off though and its not fair to label them in the same category as a preteen girl with My Little Pony.

Actual Hardcore gamers are nerds like us trying to define other gamers by calling ourselves "hardcore" because we reached some BS higher plain of cognitive gaming existance.
It just means we spend too much money on games.
Games which every company who develops games could only hope it becomes massively successful and becomes "casual" one day.

[Axm]

Casual gaming is a game that you can pick up and just play have fun either by yourself or with friends.

So every game then?

Seriously I hate this casual/Hardcore label bullshit that goes on now days.

[Bluecast]

See some people taking it the wrong way as they have been filtered by modern labels. Why I stopped reading mitts post after he got mad . He misunderstood. Was not a jab at all. And I am not calling any games "hardcore" so I am not labeling anyone. It was more a compliment and a positive look on it and some freak out because they have this knee jerk reaction to one word. Casual. Also no one has been called a casual gamer. If I did then I called myself one. No person is being called anything. The point of the topic (and in the title itself) is why it's good.

Also I have played Medal of Honor, Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty 4 and played the demo of MW3. Also you assume. Never assume. Call of Duty can be a good casual fun social experience with friends. Shovelware also does not always mean the game is bad but is being milked. So yes, the series started off as a casual fun and social experience and still is. Mitts you don;t get something can be 3 things at once but not be the worst thing ever made or not even be bad. Still the point is not what it is now but what it started out as and first intentions.

Activision did the same to Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk. If you want another example other than call of Duty then Medal of Honor ot Battlefeild. These for the multiplayer are still casual fun and social experiences. Released on a more spaced out manner.

[Who Really Cares?]

Well I am going to list a few games that are casual. Call of Duty or any FPS multiplayer. Mario,Sonic,Sports games,Street Fighter many download games.

That's labeling.

Yes COD can be picked up by anyone but those will get their arses handed to them by someone who has put in a lot of time and effort to master the game. Same with every other title.

But then as i said i think calling any game casual/hardcore is just bullshit anyways that internet gamers have started using. More often than not they label a game they don't like as casual.

[Bluecast]

Well I am going to list a few games that are casual. Call of Duty or any FPS multiplayer. Mario,Sonic,Sports games,Street Fighter many download games.

That's labeling.

Yes COD can be picked up by anyone but those will get their arses handed to them by someone who has put in a lot of time and effort to master the game. Same with every other title.

But then as i said i think calling any game casual/hardcore is just bullshit anyways that internet gamers have started using. More often than not they label a game they don't like as casual.

But it's not labeling anyone.
You also forget I mentioned Pinball which I am playing on 3DS. Its games are looking for a more simple experience for the most part. Also you did not read the second part how like a game like Mega Man is simple and fun but takes serious effort and skill. So something as simple like that takes more invesment. Street Fighter II sure can be mastered but it's first intention is to be a social game. It's a layered definition. People now have thier heads swiming that casual can only mean one simple thing. It's not. It's multiple layers. Stop taking it as an insult. That's the point of the damn topic. People need to stop feeling insecure at playing games that take less investment. The point is yes there is casual experiences and you can play games with more investment but playing both or either does not make you a certain label of gamer.

As for your comment about fun. I seem to remember a bunch of people on this forum when defending heavy rain they kept saying "it's not meant to be fun" so not every game then according to the people on this forum.

[Who Really Cares?]

Never mentioned fun in my last 2 posts

Also not saying you are labeling any gamer as casual/hardcore but you are labeling games as them and its a poor list at that.