GTA is not a "casual" game!

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ookaze said:

I strongly believe that GTA series is not casual at all, and I strongly believe people that say it is do that so that they can downplay the real reasons they play these games (insecure behaviour).

Is there another supposedly "casual" game that is Adult Only, 18+ (or even 16+) ?
Seriously, people!

I read someone made his daughter play GTAIII: so he made his daughter (implying she's But I'm not surprised. Then again, I just came back from visiting two videogame stores, and I saw a boy that sure enough isn't 18 (and lied about his age to the sales clerk) with his mother, that came to buy GTAIV. His mother didn't bat an eyelid at this. It's not new, it was like that with GTAIII. These people clearly are the ones that played GTA III, and weren't mature enough to play it. One of my cousin which isn't even 10 years old was playing one of the GTAIII, killing innocent people and running them over, endlessly. So these people became fans, are hardcore player in the 15-30 young male demographic and of course love GTAIV, typically they are the hardcore crowd.

Sorry, but this is not a casual game. No doubt some casuals will buy it, but they don't buy it this soon after it's released. Mostly hardcore people buy games so soon after release. That's why the true casual titles start with few units sales compared to hardcore games, but they stay steady throughout the game's life. That's why Halo is not casual either. Casual titles don't see 85+% drop off after their first week of release. Several even go up in sales compared to their first week of sales.


Finally, what I find interesting, is not if GTA is casual or not, I couldn't care less. It's why hardcore players are so eager to call it casual, when they use that term to qualify poor games.
I have my guess as to why that is the case, and better understand now that the gaming industry was indeed headed to a serious crash (I'm convinced it will happen now), now that we have such a game that we can now attest will have a 10 average score. The spiral down has started now.

So, what has age rating have to do with a game being "casual" or not? Most of the "casual" gamers are beyond 18.

First you describe how GTA3 was played by kids in "casual manner", then you point out that today those kids are 15 and "hardcore", but you didn't point out why they would play the game any differently than back then and how suddenly the 10 years olds today would be any different than the ones 5 years ago?

GTA was originally even designed to be a casual game. Let's say that in the next ten years Wii Sports gets numerous sequels and the core of the game still remains the same, the difference is, that it looks better, and you can get uranium medals as an ultimate proof of skill for the "hardcore", and these Wii Sports gamers are talking about how Wii Sports isn't "casual" at all because of the uranium medals, that are too hard for the casual to get.

And the "casuals" buy the games just like "hardcore", if the game interests them. It's all a matter of hype and advertising. Game without any hype or advertising selling a million on day one would be a proof that the "hardcore" is interested in the game, but having one of the biggest advertising campains in the history of gaming for the biggest franchise of last generation of consoles, kind of disproves the point that only "hardcore" would be day one purchasers.