Or in laymans terms why core gamers get all the developer attention whilst casual and hardcore gamers get left with the scraps. Forget what you think you know about the casual gamer, hes a lot harder to please than most which is why developers follow the path of least resistance to the bottom of the Uncasual Valley.

Whats a casual gamer?

A: Someone whom you will probably find struggles to care any less about gaming whilst still falling within the bounds of the definition gamer.

Whats a core gamer?

A:  A regular gamer. Taste here doesn't really matter, all that counts is that the person regularly partakes in gaming.

Whats a hardcore gamer?

A: A hyperactive or niche core gamer. I.E. One or a combination of; buys a tonne of stuff, has strange tastes, devotes his/her life to it or anything else you might think of.

Obviously

Obviously its a range of values, everyone doesn't fall into one of three identical groupings. Also people move between groups depending on what they are doing and its possible to have been all three within the space of a 3 month period.

The Uncasual Valley, What is it exactly?

Its the land where you find the most formulaic, run of the mill games. The games which require the least development creativity and/or talent which make up most of the formulaic games. Its game making by numbers really if you count all the different successful games a particular game draws on as inspiration. This is your bread and butter core gamer land. Its quite simply because its the easiest group to target, the core gamer gets a disproportionate quantity of developer attention. As water runs down hill to the lowest point, so do developers.

• Its a shooter/RPG hybrid
• Its a shooter but the player can go back in time.
• Clone of X
• Sequel 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 etc.

But what about them casuals?

They are the most unpredictable and hardest gamers to please. Theres no set formula to target such a wide and diverse group of gamers and the developers themselves have the hardest job of them all. Not only must they deal with a group which may be incompetent in the mechanics of gaming, they must also fight apathy because these people could just as easily do something else entirely.

Hardcore is still hardcore?

Yes definately. A hardcore gamer is a gamer who knows what he/she wants from gaming. They can be very hard to please, but a developer has a chance to at least target whatever applicable niche they want because unlike casual gamers they will actively seek out information about games and genres that interest them.

I skipped all that what does it all mean?

The core gamer is the least demanding of all gamer types. The core game is the easiest game for developers to make because they are more derivative, formulaic and uninnovative so therefore require the least development effort. Its the core gamer who eats up the majority of the sequels and whom buys GTA, Call of Duty, Halo, etc in droves. The unwashed masses of 'casuals' are infact core gamers and aren't casual gamers at all.

The modern "Hardcore Gamer" is last gen's "Casual Gamer".  GTA, annualized sports games and console FPS used to be the realm of the casual gaming massmarket.  

Hardcore = Niche

I said that!

What you describe as core gamer should be instead called mainstream gamer.

And i disagree that casuals are hardest to please yes it's a bit random what becames hit among them but the quality or anything doesn't really matter once you do. And they are victims to similar sequelitis as other groups (nintendogz, sims anyone?)

mainstream = core.

Anyway if anyone is regularly playing games then they are a part of the core market. Quality as always depends on who is asking the questions. Theres no effective difference between a Halo gamer and a Sims gamer. They are both core gamers.

I am a core/hardcore gamer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uh, yes it does. If the quality isn't up to their standards, the game doesn't take off.

Once the game starts spawning sequels, like The Sims 2, The Sims 3, they're already part of the core. That is, core gamers are buying those Sims games (by Squilliam's definition). The uncasual valley, is what he called it...

The hard part is making that first breakout hit - The Sims, Wii Sports, Brain Age, Just Dance, etc.

That was a intresting read squilliam.  I liked the part when you said in a period of 3 month you can have been all 3 type of gamer lol. I think thats a really good pointe. Especialy cause the's words get thrown arround alot.

Im definitly happy it looks like having games for  all 3 groups will be the new standard in this  industry. 

There are alot of People that are now 25-35 of age that use to have a Nintendo as a kid that have not played video games in  15 years. They are coming back to the industry.  and some have kids.  So that may be the Wii's targueted user base

New gamers are small kids, that never played video games in there life.  If by the time they are 35 they never played video games, the chances of them buying a consule at that pointe are next to none, even a Wii.

your typical new market gamer could well be in fact Old returning gamers from the Nes, Snes, Generation.