I just flipped on the Rachael Ray show and she had super B actor Skeet Ulrich on. She was just all too excited to get him over to the monste screen to play a little Wii Play with two Zappers. She called it the greatest game ever. Casuals are taking over guys, and now they're your crazy talk-show-hosts-soon-to-be-crazy-cat-ladies of the world like Rachael Ray. They were playing the Duck Hunt imitation shooting game, so yes there is at least one person in this world that not only thinks Wii Play is the greatest game but actually wants to use the Zapper.

Next-up? Wii-Fit on Oprah! Mark my words! 

^it will happen and it will be huge...i mean look at her book club.....

all she has to due is say this book is great....it jumps in sales in a few days

huzzzzzahh!

wait, Rachael Ray called it Wii Play "the greatest game ever"?

Well, that settles it, GOTY is given. Everyone else needs to SHUT UP!! IGN, Gamespot... clearly have NO IDEA about anything regard gaming.

Sarcasm aside, Yes, casual gamers are taking over, but it doesn't mean I will convert. Being a gamer is already a 'niche' hobby, I don't mind being a 'niche' gamer either.

Convert? Are the casual gamers doing a crusade against hardcore gamers or something? I missed those news, please post a link.

Some of the casual gamers will convert to hardcore gamers later, not the opposite.

go wii

That's completely true. That is how most hardcore gamers were to begin with. They were once casuals.

Wouldn't it be a more savoury victory if the games sold fantastically without the aid of these hundreds of talk show hosts?
Its hardly a mark of quality if Oprah or Rachael Ray like things (books for instance), rather a mark of popularity.
I'm not saying that these games won't do well on their own, I just wish people would think for themselves, do we really want the gaming industry to focus mainly on such fickle audiences?
I understand that the biz wants to tap into casuals for more sales and increased profits, but I pray that these casuals won't help destroy the industry quality-wise and make it stoop to movie and music levels.

Am I afraid of the casuals? No, but I can see the future game libraries riddled with even more trash and low budget and quality titles.
As long as the PC market remains stable, I won't complain, but sales of games like The Sims do raise my eyebrow questioningly.

Crusade in the mediveal sense? no, but in a 21th century captialist way? yes. Overrush of casual gamers will most likely prompt overflow of casual games, which in term will make developers rushing in to make cheap, halfassed mini-games that can generate high profit.

The result? hardcore market gets left-out with mininal support.

Yes, some will convert to hardcore gamer, but will that be greater than the number of hardcore gamer quitting gaming altogether from lack of good games for them? Well, that's what the question will be in 4-5 years.

not true at all

a) many hardcore gamers will have less and less time for games as they grow older, have families, etc and thus will convert to casual gamers

b) many hardcore gamers left en masse after snes and are just now coming back, but they are now casuals

so u'll see plenty of h ardcore gamers converting to casual gamers later...we have for decades and will continue to in the future as well