Casual To The Core

Casual games have taken over. I think it makes sense. People seldomly sit down behind a computer and say to themselves: "Right, now for a few hours of gaming." Only people that really enjoy games would do that. A casual game allows you to sit down for a quick game. Sometimes you end up spending hours there anyway, but the thought of dedicated a section of your day almost to the activity of inactivity is a daunting concept. 

That's World of Goo. I've been playing on and off for a few weeks now and it's always engaging. Casual games can be described in 3 words: Simple, repetitive, challenging. These elements, when present in the right quantities, will deprive you of hours of your day. And the hours that you don't spend playing, you spend thinking about the challenge you stopped on and how to defeat it.

But as much as I enjoy simple, addictive games something happens to me after a while. If I spend too much time playing these simplistic games, I begin to crave the depth, detail and immersion offered by larger titles. I want that imaginary world with its folklore and cultures. I want to feel like I'm in control of someone's destiny, that my choices have purpose other than the completion of an arbitrary task. I want to play something that will suck me in and keep me interested like a good novel on a sunday afternoon. As much as the gamer world thinks casual games are taking over, there will always be a market for the core gamers. There will always be lonely teens that need something to keep them busy over a weekend.

Just look at console games. A console used to be simple, addictive games with the occasional racing title thrown in. These days all the big genre games are coming out on console, catering for the "pop it in and play" crowd.

Like they say, the devil is in the detail...

Words:
"Not even halfway, but in the beginning it's like 'Oh there's Rosco Street Station! Oh there's those jittery bums, you know on the bench. There's the valkeer stuff painted on the... exactly like it is in the game.' You're like 'Alright the got the tone down! We're set to go!' And so it happens. He like shoots the doors open and then... you know... raises his voice..."
- In-Game Chat 27 October 2008, comparison of Max Payne movie with original games.