If this thread is serious it makes me ill. I can't stand class elitism in any social sector.
There's no such thing as a casual game. There may be people who play games casually, but just because a game doesn't have blood, death and gore it does not mean that it is only for "casual" audiences.
The "Golden Age" of gaming ended with the Dreamcast. PS2 killed it.
Sony is most responsible for the "mainstreaming" of video games and consequently the expansion into new audiences, including those which you refer to as "casual". This is not a bad thing.
We are currently in a new renaissance of gaming. There are more games than anyone can devote time to and in all genres. There's everything from 2D to 3D, RPGs to Shooters, Strategy to Action, Platformers to Adventures, Point and Click to Driving, Arcade to Simulater, and so on. Anyone who complains that there are too many shooters because they prefer RPGs is just selfish because there are plenty of RPGs. There's a brand new 16bit style hardcore RPG coming out for XBLA, PSN, PC, and even Dreamcast called Pier Solar. That my friend is proof that we are spoiled as gamers today.
Oh and woman can be as hardcore as the most hardcore male gamer.
