Casual Gamers

Casual Gamers: Do We Need Them?

Article written by -K on 5/26/09
Last edited on 5/26/09

Before we have a crack at this I need to explain what I consider casual gamers, since there is no definite description of either the hardcore or the casual gamer. To me one is a casual gamer if that person enjoys playing games occasionally but has no further interest in the market, the developers, the news or the gaming industry as a whole. A casual gamer also has a limited interest in games themselves, only playing the titles that he or she is familiar with or look pretty on the cover. If you only play Call of Duty and Fifa or Madden, chances are I’ll consider you a casual gamer. Soccer moms and their hellish offspring playing with the Wii who thoroughly enjoy all the non-games also belong to that group. Again, there is no true definition, which is what makes every discussion about casual gamers complicated, but I have a clear view of my opinion on this matter.

So all those people buy Wiis and perhaps another console here or there, they play flash games on the internet, whatever, but they are part of the gaming industry whether they like it or not. And I can’t help but wonder if this development is good for all of us, as consumers. To understand this segment of the gaming consumers better, let me dive back into history.

Before 1994, Sega and Nintendo were heavily competing over the gaming market, a market that mostly consisted of kids, social outcasts and other stereotypes that were all too true. I as a kid got picked on for playing games by older kids, while fellow gamers became friends. Having an SNES wasn’t exactly as hip as having a Wii is today, although that might be hard to believe for those who are too young to remember. But I didn’t mind, I had fun with my games and I had a friend who had a Sega Genesis, so we constantly visited one another to play all the titles we could get our hands on. Developers like Miyamoto were visionaries by claiming that games could tell stories and create experiences, but marketers just advertised their products as toys, keeping the industry strictly in its place, allowing only slow but steady development. And then the first Playstation (PSX) came along.

Sony had experimented with their console for quite some time, trying collaborations with Sega and most prominently Nintendo. Most development was done within those collaborations, but they both ended, leaving Sony with the winnings, though the machine still was very faulty. But Sony focused on two things to get the needed attention to sell their device: third party support and a broader audience. While Sega and Nintendo were quarreling and fighting to get the developers they wanted, Sony bought them out from under their noses. With a line-up secured, they moved on to marketing, and that spawned the first true casual gamers on a global scale.

Sony didn’t display their device as a toy, like Nintendo and Sega did. They sold it as if it was the latest MTV music video that you had to see in order to keep up with your peers. Again commercials show us the development in recent history quite well, and the difference between the different companies is amazing. Look up some old PSX commercials and you’ll clearly see that they’re aimed at a different audience.

They showed teenagers and adults instead of ten year old baboons that yelled of excitement every second the announcer announced something in his deep baritone voice. Some examples of PSX commercials had a guy in a Crash Bandicoot suit in a limo with ‘smoking hot chicks’, or an old couple thanking Tekken 3 for saving their marriage by allowing them to express their aggression, or a therapy group session with adults to promote Bloody Roar. There was even one advertisement in which Crash Bandicoot and a CGI Lara Croft visit a twenty-something (because all teenagers secretly want to be cool twenty-somethings) who’s in the theatre with his girlfriend, watching a movie. Crash asked him “would you rather watch a chick-flick or shoot bazookas?” And of course he chooses to do the latter, dumping his girlfriend for every nerd’s tomb raiding dream girl to sit with him while playing some Crash.

Soon the PSX became an object of desire, something cool to own for the MTV crowd that worries about their social status. You HAD to have a Playstation to be cool. But did these people care about games or the latest development in the industry, something even the hardcore gamer kids followed by reading magazines (due to a lack of internet)? No. They had their machine, their friends thought they were cool, mission completed. Sure, they bought a couple of games and they had fun, but that’s where their devotion to the industry ended.

By the way, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying the PSX is an entirely casual gaming console. It was, however, the moment that the casual gamer (or at least my definition of it) was born.

Back to the present and future now: a lot of so called hardcore gamers that dislike the Wii (and I am part of that group) believe that the Wii is ‘dumbing down’ the entire industry and that is appeals to the lowest common denominator. It does what the PSX did back then but to an even bigger degree. Its goal was to attract a bigger audience, to make gaming a more common pastime than it ever was before. What it really did was creating a different branch of gaming, with different types of games meant for different types of gamers. But who are we to decide what the lowest common denominator is and whether or not certain games are appealing to it. And even if so, is it necessarily a bad thing?

If you ask me, it is for the more hardcore side of the industry, the side that I’m interested in. Many games lack a decent challenge and publishers are often too eager to attract the biggest herd without delivering the quality that the existing fanbase has become accustomed to. Take Nintendo for example. Sure, the Wii is a success and it gets girls to hop and swing around, causing uncle gravity to do its handy work with their jigglies, but they abandoned their loyal fans like a mom who leaves her kids at the park… at midnight… bound and gagged… with lube.

Let’s face it, the first party support that the Nintendo fans crave, has been lacking in every department. Super Mario Galaxy was brilliant, The Twilight Princess was an okay Zelda game, but the list stops there. I only finished Mario Galaxy, No More Heroes and MadWorld, and I own every Nintendo console and nearly every handheld! And the controller is just awful. We all expected it to have real time full motion simulation, but it was a simplified and disappointing version of that. I used to like Nintendo as a company, with all their innovation and great fan support, but they’ve become ‘one of them’, if that makes any sense.

But on the other hand, I’ve dated girls and played Wii games with them, and we had a great time. I know for a fact that I’ve lost several thousand brain cells on nights like those (partially due to the alcohol consumption that goes along with them), but yeah, I had fun. And that’s what it’s about right? Having fun, alone and with others. And in this case I could play videogames with a girl without bearing the stigma of being a nerd. My hatred for the Wii and Nintendo’s lackluster attitude towards their fans will forever taint their reputation, but they’ve made gaming a lot cooler and more common. Or at least, from a non-hardcore gaming point of view. In that respect, attracting a new and bigger crowd benefited my favorite hobby greatly.

But I’m still not certain whether it would be better if the gaming industry evolved with or without the popularity and the attention that the casual gamer brought it. I don’t mind thoughtless entertainment, but I feel the ratio between deep, intelligent and emotionally moving games and the mindless fun has shifted too much towards one end of the spectrum. The end of the spectrum which involves getting drunk while playing Wii Sports with a girl, and receiving carpet burns and hickeys that are impossible to hide without a totally out of place piece of clothing.