Casual Gaming the New Hardcore

The Guardian Gamesblog has a post up discussing the reality that the realm of the casual gamer now has its own element of the hardcore about it. From the article: "Traditional hardcore gamers need only pop along to [a] Game [store] to get their latest fix. Either that or they can head over to an importer like Lik-Sang and take their fill of Japanese 2D shooters. Casual gamers must trawl the web for reliable shareware sites or friendly communities of like-minded chess fans. There are very few magazines addressing their needs, no one is interested. Now that is hardcore."

Comments

But...

[atezun]

I thought the defination of a casual gamer was someone who played games merely for a few hours of enjoyment each week on any genre. A hardcore gamer whose speaciality lies in puzzle and logic games is nevertheless a hardcore gamer. since did one have to play an FPS to qualify as a gamer?

Do they not get it?

[RM6f9]

As a casual gamer myself, I drift from game to game, site to site - it's not about being hard-core anything, it's not about finishing the latest FPS release faster than anybody, it's about passing an hour or two with some distracting entertainment.

Period.

The only thing remotely hard-core about it is a stubborn refusal to commit to anything more than finding a fun game and playing it for only as long as it remains interesting.

A really good (read:attempting to be objective) central reference site to sites/games worthy of trying out would probably be a worthwhile addition to the bookmark list.

Re:Do they not get it?

[bugbread]

Do they not get it?

The only thing remotely hard-core about it is a stubborn refusal to commit to anything more than finding a fun game and playing it for only as long as it remains interesting.

Yes, they get it. In fact, they wrote a whole article about just that. It's helpfully linked to at the top of your screen.

Re:Do they not get it?

[RM6f9]

So because I'm not some m4d l33t-5k1llzd sheeple slavishly buying and beating every cart for the console recommended by some self-styled critic gomer, I'm hard-core?

Somebody needs a dictionary, and I sincerely hope it isn't me.

Gamers that read

[gamerdave]

"There are very few magazines addressing their needs, no one is interested."

I cover "casual" Web games from time to time, but, while hordes of people play them, relatively few have any desire to read about them. Once they've found Pogo or Yahoo Games, what do they need a magazine for? Are they going to follow the development of the next version of Bookworm the way MMORPG players followed the development of World of Warcraft? I don't think so. Are they going to read a review of Bookworm, or simply play it for themselves? It's not like it's going to cost them anything or even require a large download. I'm doubtful that a publication which concentrated exclusively on this sort of gaming would be very successful, unless maybe it was supported by a site like Pogo.

"hardcore gamer"

[ZephyrXero]

The term hardcore seems to be in a phase of shift. Originally, when games weren't quite as popular, it was fairly easy to assume someone who spent lots of time and money playing video games was a "hardcore gamer". Now that the causal gamer market has exploded, this is no longer a valid metric. "Hardcore gamer" now tends to mean people who are conisours of gaming. People who play games because they are fun and of a high quality level rather than the latest marketing fad. The term "harcore gamer" is now more akin to the term "film buff".

Confessions of a casual gamer

[mwvdlee]

It seems to me, these hardcore people just don't get the casual gamer (just like us casual gamers mostly don't get the hardcore people).

The writer of the article actually seems to believe casual gamers go scour the internet for new casual games, this is in fact completely opposite of the truth. An average casual gamers does not have the same need for new games that a hardcore gamer has.

A casual gamer will just play a particular game until in bores him, if in the meantime he hasn't stumbled upon new games by accident, he just goes to do something non-game instead.

The average casual gamer does not go looking for the latest game thrill, simply because the concept of "the latest game thrill" holds no value to him.

Luckily enough, most succesful casual game developers know this, so they publish freely playable webgames making it possible for friends to mail/msn each other "hey, let's play this game I heard about from a friend". Word of mouth is their primary marketing channel, since these casual gamers just don't look at the common gaming marketing channels.