MontanaHatchet said:
Well, define casual gamer. Is a child a casual gamer, just because they don't buy Zelda?
Are you saying that games for kids are not casual games?
I read your post, just forgot Warioware. And are you saying that casual gamers haven't existed until now? If casual gamers are the "new audience", then why have accessible games sold so well in the past?
Or are casual gamers simply a large group of gamers who have never been recognized until now and are just belonging to an incredibly stupid buzzword used by corporate drones?
I think the real problem is defining "casual gamer". Honestly, is it possible that someone could purchase the occasional Madden, Mario Kart, or Mario Sports title and still be casual? Or would purchasing something other than Wii Play make them a hardcore gamer? |
Dude, it is not that easy. The whole problem about casual/hardcore dicotomy is that people do not agree about their definitions. Le me try and make some educated guesses.
Casual Gamers have been around since the Atari, I believe most players today are casual. The problem started when Nintendo disrupted the market and expanded it. What Nintendo have done with Wii and Ds is bring some new gamers (people that had never played before) and lapsed gamers (those who stopped playing VG for some reason). The casual label is used to look down upon these new audiences. Some immature gamers feeling threated by these new groups try to make them look like people that do not care about "true" games at all and may leave the market as soon as they get bored with it. They call themselves hardcore gamers, but they are niche gamers (linked to specific game genres).
I can not define what casual is with just one sentence. the best I can do is stablish limits to its definition.
Casual gamers do
1) play diverse game genres (sports, racing, shooters, RPGs, mini games, platforms), but individually they only play a few genres
2) play just a few hours a week (school, work and other activities come first)
3) do not care about game market or news about it (that means they usually do not post on Gamefaqs or VGC)
4) may be a fanboy (everyone like to say that the brand of his car/clothes/TVs is the best)
Hardcore gamers
1) play more than five different genres of games and have no big prejuces against genres that he dislikes or do not play
2) games always come first (may even play for a living)
3) never owns/plays only a gaming console. A hardcore would never tie himself to a single brand or genre.
4) may be a fanboy, but would still play and enjoy the games on his least favorite system.
5) has a gamind record and history. This one may be a polemic one, but I think every hardcore must have played through at least 3 generations and finished 100 games (minimum).
6) know all about the gaming industry, release dates of games, name of developers, history of VG franchises.
&) care so much about video games that may make a fool of himself (like writing a angry letter to a company about a feature he disliked in a game or making a blog about his love/hate about a game)
