"Casual games" are a wonderful thing, aren't they?

Well, they aren't. They are a disgrace to gaming. But actually, this thread isn't so much about games per se, but more about the term "casual games" itself. When Nintendo regained the lead in the home console space, their success had to be explained somehow and suddenly the term "casual games" got thrown around all the time.

Of course sooner or later third parties, like the parasites they are, would attempt to find similar success as Nintendo and began to make their own "casual games". The important difference is that Nintendo doesn't think of their potential consumers as being stupid (at least in most cases) while third parties do and it shows in their dumbed down games.

Over the course of the past few years it became clear to me that "casual games" is really only a nice way to say "retarded games for retarded gamers" and since quite some time whenever I see this term popping up in an article or a post I read it exactly that way. At times it's quite entertaining, but sometimes it's a little bit irritating.

Nowadays when I play a bad, boring or unchallenging game like Dirt 2 or Dead Space Extraction (both on Wii), I start to think of it as "casual game". "What a stupid and dumb game this is. What were they thinking?"

I don't think that I am alone with this line of thinking. I am also pretty sure that many people use the term "casual games" deliberately to direct an insult towards someone else without it coming off as an insult. Stealth trolling so to say.

How about you? What does "casual games" mean to you?

Arcade games are way too hard to be casual games.  Things like Street Figtther, Tekken, Mortal Kombat etc are not casual games either and those sorts are what keep arcdes alive (where they have not died).  Thats like calling Megaman 9 casual because someone can play any 1 level and die after not long, thats the arcade experience.

Whack-a-mole, there is your casual arcade game.

LOL.

The bosses in Wii Sports Resort are way more difficult than Shang Tsung or M. Bison. Waggle/button mashing doesn't work in WSR.

  Even if true it's only so because of the lack of controls. No doubt playing Forza with Kinect is a lot harder than a steering wheel with force feedback and a nice set of pedals. (which mean you have to dumb down the gameplay for it to work) With Wii Sport you are limited on what you can do and have to rely heavily on the AI/program . Example; in table tennis the AI moves your character so it takes some time to learn how to hit the ball in order learn the pattern of how AI moves both characters around.  I felt like I fighting against the controls more than the game itself.

"Casual games" are a wonderful thing, aren't they?

Well, they aren't. They are a disgrace to gaming. But actually, this thread isn't so much about games per se, but more about the term "casual games" itself. When Nintendo regained the lead in the home console space, their success had to be explained somehow and suddenly the term "casual games" got thrown around all the time.

Of course sooner or later third parties, like the parasites they are, would attempt to find similar success as Nintendo and began to make their own "casual games". The important difference is that Nintendo doesn't think of their potential consumers as being stupid (at least in most cases) while third parties do and it shows in their dumbed down games.

Over the course of the past few years it became clear to me that "casual games" is really only a nice way to say "retarded games for retarded gamers" and since quite some time whenever I see this term popping up in an article or a post I read it exactly that way. At times it's quite entertaining, but sometimes it's a little bit irritating.

Nowadays when I play a bad, boring or unchallenging game like Dirt 2 or Dead Space Extraction (both on Wii), I start to think of it as "casual game". "What a stupid and dumb game this is. What were they thinking?"

I don't think that I am alone with this line of thinking. I am also pretty sure that many people use the term "casual games" deliberately to direct an insult towards someone else without it coming off as an insult. Stealth trolling so to say.

How about you? What does "casual games" mean to you?

I don't like to use the term 'Casual Games' coz it has no significant definition for me.

This whole mentality of for example, Wii Sports being a 'Casual Game' is just rubbish. I would call it a Party Game where friends and families can get together and play the game.

And then there's the fanboy terms where they call the Wii "The Casual Console". I mean... WTF... So then how are games like Mario Galaxy, Mario Party, etc all so called "Casual"? Is it because there's no blood and shooting other humans invovled and not hardcore and hence it's "Casual"??? Rubbish I'd say...