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In the “golden age” of computer gaming, it was no coincidence that the majority of games were “adventure games,” which usually involved players solving a series of puzzles while following a particular story line. These games were generally combat-free, due to both the restrictions of the hardware/software at the time, as well as on the audience. Simply put, as computers weren’t ubiquitous and weren’t deemed necessary household items, the only people who owned them were business folk, the wealthy, or the obviously nerdy.

The console industry saw similar days, albeit with many titles requiring better reflexes and simpler puzzles. This is where “console RPGs” were born, what with their turn-by-turn directives and more combat-influenced segments over the puzzles offered by the genre’s PC counterparts. Yet as computers became more mainstream, and as video games themselves seeped into popular culture, the gaming audience had clearly changed. As Luke Plunkett at Kotaku recently reported, the label “gamer” is too general these days, because the gamer audience is too vast to sum up so easily. Video games are no longer just available on computers and consoles, but on mainstream devices like cell phones, and rather than seeing a slew of adventure games or arcade games, there are numerous genres that some people exclusively prefer: adventure games, first person shooters (FPS), platformers, real-time strategy games (RTS), roleplaying games (RPGs), simulations, et al.

With so many gaming genres aside, one other important thing has changed: the gamers of old have grown up, and they, as well as their previous non-gaming counterparts, are now gaming on a smaller scale. This is why the “casual” label is increasingly becoming important, because many gamers simply don’t have the time to invest in games that they once did; it may have been easy to spend upwards of 20+ hours a week being entertained by Sierra’s Quest series of games, but these days, most of us have jobs and families, and so we’re being pushed into the “casual archetype”. Sadly, this label is unfortunately being abused by many, in that many critics of casual games consider the label synonymous with “childish,” or unserious.

Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go: a casual game is one that can be jumped into, enjoyed, and ultimately turned off approximately 30 minutes later. After those 30 minutes, the player should still feel a sense of progress. A “hardcore” game, on the other hand, has nothing to do with the game’s complexity, graphics, story, control scheme, etc. Rather, a hardcore title is one that cannot be picked up by a plater for merely 30 minutes, if the player expects to make a fair degree of progress.

For example, most massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are “hardcore” on account of the fact that the game’s quests generally take a degree of time to complete that could easily exceed 30 minutes. In fact, games like World of Warcraft (WoW) often involve travel that takes five to ten minutes before the location of an objective is even reached. As a game like WoW progresses, it becomes even less casual-friendly: instances and raids are time-sinks that usually require hours until the encounter is learned, and this is inherently impossible for purely casual gamers.

On the other hand, we have a number of serious games that are almost ideal for casual gaming. Take the Diablo franchise, in which players can easily teleport their characters to locations they progressed to before, still collect massive loot and experience, and generally lose little time between play sessions repeating the same content. Similarly, a game like Counterstrike is ripe for casual gamers: players can jump into a game, and even if a round hasn’t started yet, by the time it does, the player is more-or-less on par equipment-wise with players who have been online for hours. Neither Counterstrike, nor Diablo, are the types of titles most people think of when the term “casual game” is thrown around, but they are among the best examples of well-done casual games, that are just as friendly to “hardcore” gamers. I fact, the flexibility of these games, in their ability to cater to both casual and hardcore gamers, is one of the primary reasons these titles were so successful.

Similarly, one of the primary reasons WoW is as successful as it is, is because WoW caters to both casual and hardcore players initially. One of WoW’s greatest criticisms, however, is the fact that Blizzard focuses primarily on the hardcore game at the end, throwing casual gamers a few nasty bones by giving them a bandaged PvP system and repetitive “daily” quests that do little but inflate the game’s economy.

The casual game landscape is a new one for the industry, because for the first time in the industry’s experience has there been both an influx of new gamers now that “gaming” is not as derogatory an idea, and also a whole segment of the market composed of former hardcore gamers that are now transitioning to a more casual hobby. Developers are undoubtedly taking notice, and will need to bring future games to a point where they are just as friendly to casual gamers as WoW is to new players. Fortunately, that’s something everyone can look forward to.

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