like they totally don't!

No. They just don't want to be immersed in the game. They want intuitive and addictive gameplay.

space invaders is extremely addictive to anyone, and hard, just like SMB and tons of games that sold to "casuals"

I find the opposite is true.

In fact, people who often buy games that are deemed 'casual' also buy other types of games, such as RPGs, shooters or sports games. Whereas people who consider themselves 'hardcore' gamers are more likely to keep from buying a game if they deem it is 'casual'.

Plus, its usually those people who consider themselves 'hardcore' gamers who call a game 'casual' in the first place. People playing a game like Nintendogs or NSMB don't even make a distinction between games aside from their genre.

I would say most console games are dumb down to appeal to more casual gamers. Even a Hardcore PC game like IL-2 was seriously dumb down to appeal to casual gamers.
RPG are also dumb down especially after PS Vagrant Story failure/ low sales.

Rol.. why is every thread you make so brilliant?

I'm guessing it's years of practice on "casual" forums.

I wish people would stop trying to quantify "casual gamers" as some sort of other species. This species is implied to have mental and or physical disabilities that prevent them from being "hardcore" and don't care about challenges and so on. Casual gamers are gamers who have other things in their life to do. If something doesn't provide sufficient entertainment, or ends up being too frustrating, they will move on.

"Casual gamers are gamers who have other things in their life to do. "
Hardcore gamers also have other things in their life to do so that statement doesn't really defines "casual gamers."

Casual gamers like to play something that is easy to pick up and play for a few minutes like Tetris for example.

As I said "other things to do".  Gaming isn't a dominant way to spend time for casual gamers.  It is something they do while waiting in line, or needing a short break.  A casual gamer isn't going to organize their lives around gaming.  Gaming is just one of several recreational activities they have and can do.

Games can't be that fun if you are constantly getting your ass handed to you but on the other hand you do need some challenge in order to get better, and hence open give you more options in terms of game experiences.

I'd just like to point out that everyone here started as a casual noob at some point and got better by playing hard games. Adults seem to forget they were kids once, the 'hardcore' seem to want to forget that they were crap at games once too.

I'll bet you that guy from the NYT will be writing an article this time next year about how Nintendo's newest franchises is too casual and too easy for him because of the mad skillz he gained while playing NSMBWii.

Well it's a Rol Thread. Though I will comment anyways. This is so much a comment on Rol thread, but the subject itself.

Bejeweled by the "Hardcore" is a casual game. Considering the fact that their are Bejeweled players that get insane scores and play for hundred of hours. It would be hard to consider the idea that "casual gamers" don't like hard games. Yes "casual gamers" do like challenging games.