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Casual Gaming the Real Next Gen?
The Guardian Gamesblog wonders aloud about the ramifications of casual gaming; could it be that the wave of casual and mobile games is the real next generation of gaming? Author Keith Stuart interviews Matt Spall, of UK studio Morpheme, for an insider's perspective. From the article: "People buying the DS to play Brain Training, and Nintendogs are probably not even aware of Metroid or Advance Wars which kind of suggests this might be a one-way street — the hardcore aren't likely to buy these 'ultra casual' titles in great numbers, because they're fairly simplistic, and don't offer a great deal of depth for a hardcore player. Hopefully though, some people who would never normally play games now own DSs, and may 'graduate' to more advanced titles over time. Having said that, the fact that the DS market can support things like Electroplankton, which can keep anyone charmed for ages, is already encouraging."
I liked several of the games on the DS and saw its promise (my roommate has one) but decided the oddly shaped and tough to pocket system was not for me... the DS Lite, however, is a different matter. Before, the games may have appealed to someone but the system proved to be a bit of a turn-off -- now the DS Lite opens doors to give the good games a good platform and it all equals a good opportunity for Nintendo. Now... as soon as they release a black one in the US, I will buy it.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
Casual gamers are less likely to purchase all of those lovely extras for their games, thus generating less money. I do not know many super casual gamers who are out buying the latest SLI pair of graphics cards or multiple expansions to enhance their "Electroplankton" experience. This is a bigger deal for computer games instead of portable or consol games, but it is still worth noting. I do not see casual gaming becoming the "Real Next Gen," as TFA asserts.
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casual gaming has always been huge. just look at the crossword puzzle in the papers. i wonder how many millions of people in america do the daily crossword puzzle in their local paper. or how many sudoku books have been sold.
this is just porting that popularity into a medium where someone can pay a reasonable price for unlimited access to lots of different types of activities and iterations of these activities.
No no no no no no no. This is just wishful thinking on the developers' part.
Look at the greater casual game industry in general, which is far older and more mature than what we've seen on the DS thus far. Even after years upon years of casual gaming, the vast majority of users are *still* playing their Bejeweled clone #5758, and *still* doing the Solitaire thing. I have seen *very* few casual gamers get into even slightly more complex games.
IMHO there's a real ache in the industry for casual-hardcore games. Games that reach beyond the mindnumbing luck/repetition of card games and match-3 gameplay, but appeal to real gamers, but at the same time are less time-consuming and can be produced at the budget level. I for one (as both developer and player) am sick of $50 games that are more shiny bumpmaps than gameplay. Where are the games like Darwinia and Gish? Why isn't there a larger market for these guys?
It seems to me that the executives of companies are on the verge of finally discovering a way into the mainstream with gaming. Sure, they are creating games for the 'hard core', which IMO seems to be the 20-something sect with alot of free time on their hands and not alot of money, or the slightly younger group that still live at home, with lots of free time, and daddy's wallet.
What some companies are discovering, Nintendo comes to mind, is that games do not have to take hours to become proficient in, and many many hours to complete. Those of us in our thirties, the ones that grew up on Atari 2400's and Pong attached to our TV's through RF splitters, don't have that kind of time anymore to set aside for gaming. But we still like to occasionally sit down (stand in line, etc.) and play a little here and there. But our kids have lots of free time.
Instead of targeting a console or handheld at the 'hard core', make it appeal to both the young and old. There is nothing wrong with having the latest 'OMGL33T' game on the same console as something that takes little time to play.
As to TFA, I think that they are mistaken in their assumption that someone playing a non hard-core game is going to 'graduate' to a more advanced title. I imagine alot of us have 'graduated' outside of the more advanced titles and are looking for something with a little more depth that doesn't take away from the lives that we live in terms of time.
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel...
Oh wow, a company is releasing games that can be played in 10 minute intervals. Clearly this is the next generation in gaming!
It's like the people who come up with a new genre of techno music for each song. It's called variety, people.
In terms of big money, casual gaming is undoubtedly the future. Just as "family" movies consistently dominate more audience specific movies at the box office casual games will eventually start to dominate hardcore games.
:) but the real size of the market is everyone - men, women, and children - not just young males. If you can sell a game to a good percentage of everyone you can and will make a shitload more money than someone who sells a game to a huge percentage of young males.
As time goes by, a larger and larger percentage of the population plays video games. Yes, there is the young male crowd (including some older ones who continue being "hardcore"
Note: I'm not saying that there aren't hardcore female or old gamers, just that based on statistics many of the most "hardcore" gamers tend to be young and male. Gamers in general are actually getting much older.
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Except the average time to get one of those 60's is what, 250-300 hours of gameplay? That might be 'casual' compared to other MMORPGS, but it's one hell of a time sink compared to Tetris, which is what I think of as casual gaming.
Im not sure if this will be what defines 'next gen'.
One reason is where is the line drawn between hardcore and casual? its not a black and white world folks. I consider myself a casual gamer because I play for about 2 hours a day. Ask my girlfriend though, and Im a hardcore gamer. Ask my other friends who play WoW all day, and im casual. So does that mean people like me will define it? Or people playing brain teaser will define it? There has to have a line drawn somewhere.
Another reason is that this is not something that will define next gen. Or atleast I hope it doesnt. If anything, it should be considered another market to tap. Just like kids games like harry potter are pumped out to appeal to that market, they should also be pumping out games that people can pick up and put down in about 15 minutes. But to say its 'the real next gen' is just saying its black and white world.
I had an informative, insightful, interesting paragraph to respond to this story with... but I'm not going to post it. You see, I'm one of the new, exciting, extreme breed of casual Slashdotter, and I'm just not as into posting to Slashdot.
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"might be a one-way street - the hardcore aren't likely to buy these 'ultra casual' titles ... some people who would never normally play games now own DSs, and may 'graduate' to more advanced titles over time."
My mom, who bought a DS for Brain Age, is not going to "graduate" to Metroid. I have friends that are addicted to Spider Solitaire, they are not going to "graduate" to Unreal 3.
On the other hand, I've seen plenty of my friends, who use to be hardcore gamers, start playing casual games. When you get girlfriends, jobs, car payments, a wife, kids, etc. suddenly it becomes much harder to justify the time and money needed to be hardcore.
If anything, hardcore gamers graduate to become casual games with lives.
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I think there's market room for both. The hardcore can dump a grand on a ps3 and a pile of 3d shooters, and there will be several million of these folks.
There is also an addressable market of several tens of million people interested in spending a couple hundred dollars a year and a couple hours a week on video games.
It's like any other recreation market. There are cyclists who will drop five grand on a carbon-fiber frame, and those of us who like to take a ride around the lake on our three hundred dollar mountain bikes. There is a market for motorists driving quarter million dollar lotus roadsters, but mazda sells a higher total revenue worth of miattas. so on and so forth.
Columnists commonly group gamers into two wildly generalized stereotypes: the "casual gamer" and the "hardcore gamer". Now, for a second, let's forget about the extreme ambiguity of the label "hardcore", and the wide variety of demographics within the "casual gamer" catagory, and ask ourselves, "just really, what are we talking about?"
Are we comparing the amount of time put into video games? Are we looking at how people define themselves, socially, in terms of video games (ie: "I consider myself a gamer")? Are we talking about the TYPES of video games that different groups of people play (ie: Elektroplankton vs. Suikoden V vs. Half Life 2)? Even, possibly, are we looking at how a person views video games as an entertainment genre (is it a ligitimate form of entertainment equal to that of litterature and cinema)?
From a marketting perspective, it's not quite as simple as casual/hardcore. There are many gamers who will never leave the PC world, because of the additional hardware required. There are many people who consider themselves "hardcore gamers" (myself included), that will constantly be drawn to handheld systems because they seem to be more devoted to the roots of video gaming. There are some "hardcore gamers" (like a friend of mine) who are still struggling to embrace gaming as ligitimate, mature, entertainment form, and therefor only play early games, feeling that games are only relivent for nestolgic value.
I find this concentration on "casual gamers" to be very silly and a bit shortsided. There's a good chance that the Wii is going to be a hit all the way across the board, but my suspicions is that its biggest supporters are going to be life-long gamers, the emulator crowd (and the would-be emulator crowd): those that feel that the original ideals of gaming got a bit lost somewhere along the way, and thus the direction of gaming should back up a bit, and then branch out from there. Similarly with handhelds, some of the people I consider to be the "hardest-core" gamers I know are huge GBA and DS fans.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
I recently went to Japan, and the prolifiration of the DS is just crazy there, everywere you see people of all ages. playing with DSs. So i think what is happening is more previously non-gamers are turning into casuals, and more casuals are turning hardcore.
Myself included, I have never owned a console before, but recently i bought a GBA, and a few games and was mostly a 'casual', but then i bought a flashcard (http://www.supercard.cn/) and couldn't stop playing constantly. That has since wore off, and now i rarely play anymore. but now my gf has taking over and is playing like crazy. So i think a lot of people are changing between being hardcore and casuals in different periods of time.
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