Don't Say the C-Word: The Casual Gaming Phenomenon

Moarpowah's Inverseman writes: With the onset of the Wii, years ago, Nintendo had bottled lightning at the time. The simplified controls, familiar design, and the Apple-esque aesthetic all did something revolutionary; it got mom and dad to pick up a video game. ...[T]he “hardcore” gamer cried out that the Big N had forsaken them for the “casual” crowd. While I do think later in its lifespan, the Wii had so much more potential to offer and is by no means a failure, I want to get to the issue at root, the “casual phenomenon”.

[ShaunCameron]

I like how the author just admitted that video games been "casual" from the start.

The way I see this "casual phenomenon" is more along the lines of video games returning to its pick-up-and-play roots and a time when a person didn't have to be some antisocial loner (read: hardcore gamer) to appreciate video games nor did a person have to be some rocket scientist to understand a game and its mechanics.

[Monstar]

fuck you on about, returning to the roots? Games in the beginning were challenging as fuck, complex and required some effort to either understand or get use too. Games now are becoming the opposite due to the obsession of video games rivalling MOVIES. It's about the cinematic scope and over blown realistic visuals and action..not to mention the insane budgets. Point is, developers are wanting to match what is shown on the big screen due to gaming popularity, it is why cinematic moments are plagued with QTE because the shit can't be down in such a fashion with full manual control. It needs to look cool.

That being said over time, the natural progression is making things more assessable...EASIER so to speak, that way there is a joy and satisfaction of playing. Issue is, developers haven taken the risks of going beyond that or don't think it worth it, rather copy it over and over again...until another winning formula comes a long. COD for example offers all this. Since the casual cover more ground in terms of sales, it's a slow evolution. Video games have simply become so mainstream and acceptable, so another image has been created to likes of ....as said..MOVIES!

[Monstar]

Cunt....yeah i did it.