On this site and others, I've seen people list Madden as a casual game.  How is this game casual?  The game uses every button on the controller and they do radically different functions depending on...

• You are on offense
• You are on defense
• You are choosing a play
• The ball has been snapped
• You've crossed the line of scrimmage

Sports games in general are some of the most technical games out there.  You can't just pick up the controller and have a good understanding of what everything does.  You pick up a FPS, RPG or some other game, and the controls are basically set and never do anything different.  You can't say that for sports games.  And thats just the controls.  There's also managing the team's training, substitutions, player match ups... and none of that even scratches the surface of just general football strategy like why you shouldn't be in a deep zone defense when the offense is at 3rd and 1.

How on earth is something that technical and complex labeled as casual?

Mostly because of how the game is played or how it can be played. Single games, relatively quick matches (quick for football, at any rate), while the game does have a learning curve, thats the only real time commitment it forces you into.

One game can last you like 40 minutes, how is that different than playing a game where each level lasts 40 minutes?  It's not like if you win one game, you've won the whole season and the credits roll.  Theres like 16+ other games to play, and thats just one season of franchise mode for one team.

So hardcore means that each level takes like 3 hours to complete and isn't based off the depth and complexity of the actual moment to moment gameplay?

It is casual because there are a cadre of people who buy their console for this and other sports games and nothing else. They are not true gamers but rather sports gamers.

Maybe casual might not be the right word -- maybe the proper word would be "niche." But in many cases, the average Madden player is probably not the average Halo player.


Mike from Morgantown

That right there.  Madden is casual... only 16 games?  If you were hardcore you'd play some other sport, like NHL.  82 games, and a best of 7 playoff.  Now that is hardcore.

It may use every button but you do know you can just put the controller down and it will play itself right?

Sports games are generally very casual games.  Yeah, they're more advanced casual games but they're still casual (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Madden and other Sports Titles were casual far before this hardcore casual garbage terminology.

What makes Madden Casual. Most centered(Core if you will) players have a tendency to like graphical or complex in regard to gameplay(debatable if it's complex). However there has always been a sub group that was lumped into this central player group. The Sports Gamer. This is a different breed of gamer than the core, but there purchases was often reflected into the core gamer. The Sports Gamer wants the most realistic sports gaming that they can get. They want to play the best looking graphics(graphics whore) they also want the most deepest and complex sports simulation(central gamer). However often the Sports gamer didn't buy any other game at all. No FPS, RPG, Action.... I have known to many gamers like this in the casual area of gaming.

Can you really call a Sports gamer hardcore when it's the only game they buy? They fall into the consumer behavior of "casual" consumer. Much like women buy Wii for Wiifit. The spending behavior and game usage is the same. The "hardcore" only like to grab the sports game as hardcore because of the sports gamer buys the best graphical machine and play on the best tv which places the same hardware values as the so called "hardcore".

So the truth of the matter is that the casual hardcore thing always existed since the beginning of gaming or still never existed at all. The definitions would be old value vs new value. Power vs Experience. Technical Achievement vs Game play. Complex vs Intuitive.

Dude, have you ever played Madden?  You can put down the controller and the game just plays itself?  I'd love to see you do that on offense.  You'll get nothing but delay of game penalties or end up getting sacked and losing yards on every play that you run and the final score will be like 79 to 0.  Similar to howyou can put down the controller and Call of Duty just "plays itself" and people will run on the screen and start shooting and after a few second "Game Over" pops up.

But my real reply to you is this:  again, how is it casual?  It's very easy to just stand up and say it is casual, but specifically what makes it casual in your opinion?  You said because it plays itself, but that's totally bogus and inaccurate in every way.  From what Madden offers, i'm assuming that you define casual games games with high depth/complexity and steep learning curves... which seems like the total opposite of what a "casual" game would be.

I generally but NCAA every other year and Madden every 3 or so years and I generally do pretty well.  Unless it's a huge game, I'll let the computer play a lot of my plays and I always let the computer play defense. 

It doesn't do a bad job.  Remember, if it's smart enough to make it hard on you, it's smart enough to play against itself.

I still don't even know what the hell "casual" or "hardcore" mean.