The Politics of casual gaming. is this the end?

"I get less concerned aboutgame reviews because the casual gamers don't read any of those things," EA Casual president Kathy Vrabeck tells Next-Gen.biz

"They're not swayed by a low score on IGN or a low score out of one of these gaming sites," she continues. "It's a little bit amusing, in that it's people reviewing games against measures that are important to core gamers yet are not important to casual gamers."

so in other words, casual gamers will buy crap. she is basically laying all the cards out on the table here. very gutsy.

what do actual gamers think of this? and when i say actual gamers i mean gamers who:

care about quality
care about originality
care about design
care about gaming as an art/hobby

should we be worried?

EA Casual?

I think people worry about this way too much. Casual gamers have always been around (Get Rich or Die Trying sold over a million copies you know). Nintendo just successfully realized that money can be made by marketing directly to them, and now other companies are strating to figure that out as well. But that will never stop the flow of good games. The worst case scenario is there will be more crud to have to sift through to find the good games.

The bottom line is a great game generally sells very well. If you look at the top 20 selling games of the past 10 years, most of them are very high quality games. Sure there's a Harry Potter game or two mixed in, but the majority are still great games. And yeah some great games don't get recongized like Okami, but that's no different than any other medium. Fantastic movies, books, and tv shows tank just as often.

So don't be scared of casual gamers. If anything they will make the marketplace even better, as more casuals realize just how great gaming is and cross over to the darkside.

One of the things you must take into account with casual gamers is that they are in fact...casual gamers. Walk into any Best Buy or GameStop and just wait around for a few minutes, you're bound to seesome poor schlub making game decisions based on box art and screen shots.

There is a whole new wave of "wanna be" gamers entering the market and they are gobbling up a bunch of games that no one else will buy because they need to build their library. Now that gaminghasbecome "cool" everyone and their mother, literally, is looking for a Wii or can be found shopping for games. I can't count how many times I've seen completely confused mothers shopping for games for their kids, and being suckered into shoddytitles by sales reps. Scary....

Bottom line is that the casual gamer has always been around and they will always be around. Will it hurt the development of quality games? I don't think so. Will it help 3rd and 4th tier developers make a little money off of quickly developed niche games and movie tie-ins? Definitely.

Dude, the games that really sell are usually awesome games. I might not be a fan of Madden, and I personally don't think the game is very good, but I would be lying if I didn't say that game was really complex and scary for new players with way too many plays to choose from for somebody who doesn't know the difference between any of the backs that don't start with quarter.

Even on the Wii, you have games like Zelda, Metroid, and Mario still selling. Yeah, Wii Play is always up there, but remember that it is a $10 game as most people get it just for the controller.

EA Casual?

rsiedelmann

EA splitted into four different department. EA Sports, EA Casual, and I don't know what the others are but I think they are EA Online Sims and EA online.

"They're not swayed by a low score on IGN or a low score out of one of these gaming sites," she continues. "It's a little bit amusing, in that it's people reviewing games against measures that are important to core gamers yet are not important to casual gamers."Escobahr

Sims and the original Simcity games were casual. They all reviewed fine. She's just excusing lack of quality in some EA titles.

It's dangerous because great games won't be able to sell. You put it that way when you said casual gamers who buy games and don't care about creativity nor qaulity nor art style, are helping crappy games to sell and therefore this will increase the numbers of crappy games and there'll be no room for good games!gamingqueen

That's really a worst case scenario that isn't likely to happen. Most of the big selling games that targetcasuals have a license attached to them. It's a game from a big movie or a rapper or something like that. And licensed games have pretty much been bad sincethe conceptwas invented. The only recent example of an originalgame of questionable quality that has gathered strong sales that I can think of is Cooking Mama, and that was only for the DS. The Wii version didn't even sell 100,000 copies.

Casuals = common sense.

Casuals = paycheck and more games.

I don't see anything wrong with them, and welcome them all the better. Catering to the casuals is not exclusive to catering to hardcore players...and each action done to cater to the casuals is probably also catering to me to a lesser extend...so....

WIN/WIN situation. I like the casuals. Bring more of'em!

PS: Many casuals may not read reviews, because they rather talk to peoples who read them/play the game. But the impact of these reviews is indirect, but very potent, on the casuals as well.

I don't think there is anything to worry about. I haven't took the time to check out any stats but most games that sell well seem to be of high quality and ones that have received excellent reviews across the board. Halo 3 recently did massive sales and set records, Gears of War sold bucketloads, Bioshock did incredibly well, Oblivion also sold incredibly well, Mario Galaxy and Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition seemed to have also done quite well for themselves. Some of the most hotly anticipated games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Ninja Gaiden 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Gears of War 2, Starcraft 2, and Devil May Cry 4 are certainly not casual games by any means and all these games are pretty much garaunteed to be of very good quality.

All this worrying about 'casual games' ruining the industry seems to be much ado about nothing to me. Everybody has different tastes so if someone simply enjoys these 'casual games' then they have every right to be catered to as anyone else and some of these 'casual games' look to be pretty darn good as well. I always found it quite enjoyable to have a diverse collection of games in my collection at any given time. Having been a long-time gamer from the Atari 2600 era I think we are getting some of the best stuff ever and next year is looking just as good and dare I say may be even better.

I don't think there is anything to worry about. I haven't took the time to check out any stats but most games that sell well seem to be of high quality and ones that have received excellent reviews across the board. Halo 3 recently did massive sales and set records, Gears of War sold bucketloads, Bioshock did incredibly well, Oblivion also sold incredibly well, Mario Galaxy and Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition seemed to have also done quite well for themselves. Some of the most hotly anticipated games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Ninja Gaiden 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Gears of War 2, Starcraft 2, and Devil May Cry 4 are certainly not casual games by any means and all these games are pretty much garaunteed to be of very good quality.

All this worrying about 'casual games' ruining the industry seems to be much ado about nothing to me. Everybody has different tastes so if someone simply enjoys these 'casual games' then they have every right to be catered to as anyone else and some of these 'casual games' look to be pretty darn good as well. I always found it quite enjoyable to have a diverse collection of games in my collection at any given time. Having been a long-time gamer from the Atari 2600 era I think we are getting some of the best stuff ever and next year is looking just as good and dare I say may be even better.

Archangel3371

And it really depends on what one means by "casual games" For instance, I find some of the games you listed there to be tres casual and generic. What I'm worried about that some great games are becoming "casual" games only to sell more despite of the fact that they were better in their old form. I don't want to list games but it's the truth. Those games change according to the new fad...

I will have to not agree with the idea that casual gamers will buy crap. I think, if anything, the casual gamer might research a game a little more then some hardcore gamers do just so they know they are getting something they will like, and is worth their time/money.

A hardcore gamer might be more willing to just buy a game "just because" and if it's crap then they toss it in their pile of other games.

I will have to not agree with the idea that casual gamers will buy crap. I think, if anything, the casual gamer might research a game a little more then some hardcore gamers do just so they know they are getting something they will like, and is worth their time/money.

A hardcore gamer might be more willing to just buy a game "just because" and if it's crap then they toss it in their pile of other games.

rbreckel

Yeah I tottaly agree with your post... After all causals still have the idea about games being cartoonish or platformers and 2D and for kids and all the stereotypes and they don't buy them very often as gamers.

And it really depends on what one means by "casual games" For instance, I find some of the games you listed there to be tres casual and generic. What I'm worried about that some great games are becoming "casual" games only to sell more despite of the fact that they were better in their old form. I don't want to list games but it's the truth. Those games change according to the new fad...

gamingqueen

Yeah that's a very good point as well. I think the term 'casual' has been skewed and used as a term by some people just to define a game that is very popular or something they don't like. There are alot of games that one can play casually here and there online or with friends once in awhile and never touch the offline portion or ever finish it's storyline or single-player aspect but I wouldn't necessarily call them casual games.

I agree with your sentiment on being concerned about game franchises changing their formulas too much to try to catch on with the casual market. I don't have a problem with developers wanting to shake things up so to speak and try to widen a game's audience after all it takes money to make games and with hardware getting more and more powerful then maybe the developer actually has some cool new directions that are now possible to take a franchise in although that is different then just throwing something in because it's the latest fad.

I don't know maybe it's because I'm so easy going with gaming that I haven't ever really had a problem with the direction I see the game franchises that I play go in unless it's a 2D fighting game going to 3D or even 2.5D. :P

Oh yeah:P Well don't worry because I think it plays the same as every SF game... even the background reminds me of the china level from SFII!

Well many games which I once considered to be my favourite games of all time were changed and some even think of them as "perfect" games cough*resident evil4*cough!

Oh yeah:P Well don't worry because I think it plays the same as every SF game... even the background reminds me of the china level from SFII!

Well many games which I once considered to be my favourite games of all time were changed and some even think of them as "perfect" games cough*resident evil4*cough!

gamingqueen

I hope you're right. Yeah the background is a great homage to Chun-Li's SFII background. I love the look of the game even if Ryu isn't as 'cute' as he once was. :P

Resident Evil 4 is a fantastic ... action game but I missed the horror element that 1 and 2 had.

Yeah change isn't always bad and usually has redeeming qualities, of course I never did play DMC2 so I have no comment on that one. I think sometimes some hardcore gamers can become too set in their ways.

So what if garbage casual games sell? Minigame collections/puppy raising games and full games are very different beasts, so one doesn't directly impact the other. 2007 has been an awesome year for hardcore gamers and 2008 looks to be even better. So long as the hardcore game market is healthy (and it is very healthy outside of Japan), hardcore games will continue to get made irrespective of how well casual games do.

I think they're putting the cart before the horse a bit.

The real question as I see it is this:

Will casual gamers buy games at all?

Sure, there are tons of people who are buying a Wii for Wii Sports or a DS for Nintendogs or Brain Age, but I know a good many people who haven't bought anything after those titles. They buy the system for that one game and that's what they play. They don't play it often enough to be considered fringe-hardcore, and they don't read game forums or magazines, so they don't know a whole lot about what else is out there.

I think that's the real problem -- romancing people who are gaming fence-sitters (read: people who own a system but still don't play it religiously) might be a lot tougher than it sounds.

EDIT: I think the EA rep is spot on when she mentions that they don't read up on games, but is that due to being casual or just not interested enough to do so? Where's the fine line drawn?

Ah, poop. I just remembered that Carnival Games sold pretty well on the Wii last month. Perhaps it's not as hard as I think.

Still, I know a four people who have owned a DS for a year and only own one game for it, because the only time they hear about a game is when it breaks out into the mass consciousness of the general public, and how often does that happen? I know two people who have only Wii Sports in their Wii library. That's it -- no Carnival Games, no Rabbids, no Big Brain, no Mario Party. They bought it for Wii Sports and that's what they use it for. I'd wager that they don't even know the games I listed are out.

I think many casual participants rely on store personnel or just the back of the game packaging to give them information and help them make buying decisions. When it comes to casuals buying games the decision making is usually made on the spot at the store at an almost impulse like level.

I think many casual participants rely on store personnel or just the back of the game packaging to give them information and help them make buying decisions. When it comes to casuals buying games the decision making is usually made on the spot at the store at an almost impulse like level.

juradai

That would be the very definition of casual. Relying on impulse.

Somewhat unrelated: We got our eldest daughter a Wii for this christmas, and I asked my wife (who actually picked the system from the store) to get Galaxy as well, since Wii sports wasn't really gonna be enough. Thing is, Galaxy was out of stock on the store, but the clerk told my wife of these other cool game that everyone and their mom was buying and talking about.

[spoiler] [/spoiler]

Impulse, on the spot purchase decision.

[QUOTE="juradai"]

I think many casual participants rely on store personnel or just the back of the game packaging to give them information and help them make buying decisions. When it comes to casuals buying games the decision making is usually made on the spot at the store at an almost impulse like level.

SteelAttack

That would be the very definition of casual. Relying on impulse.

Somewhat unrelated: We got our eldest daughter a Wii for this christmas, and I asked my wife (who actually picked the system from the store) to get Galaxy as well, since Wii sports wasn't really gonna be enough. Thing is, Galaxy was out of stock on the store, but the clerk told my wife of these other cool game that everyone and their mom was buying and talking about.

Impulse, on the spot purchase decision.

Hey that's just as good. . .*snicker* No really it's great *snicker* You'll love it.

Hey that's just as good. . .*snicker* No really it's great *snicker* You'll love it.Robio_basic

I know! I had to return next day to get my money back, and to slap the clerk a couple of times for selling my wife a steaming turd. Then I got Galaxy at another store.

I did buy Cooking Mama, however. But I bought it for my wife and daughter.

No, really.

No, the end will come when Halo casuals/teens rule the gaming landscape.Video_Game_King

What does this have anything to do with anything?:|

[QUOTE="Video_Game_King"]No, the end will come when Halo casuals/teens rule the gaming landscape.MarcusAntonius

What does this have anything to do with anything?:|

People are always saying that casuals are the end of gaming, that companies will start to cater to casuals and casuals alone. I was denying this and stating that spoiled teens who lounge around and swear nonstop during Halo will be the downfall of the industry. And it said "is this the end?", I was responding to the question.

No, the end will come when Halo casuals/teens rule the gaming landscape.Video_Game_King

Wait, so everything will be as good as Halo 3 in the future? Sign me up!