We all hate that term, however, companies like WildTangent and PopCap have made their living off of it. But why do we hate it? Do we in fact hate it at all, or has the rampant superstition of fanboys started to get to us as a culture? If you're here looking for a new critique of why they're ruining the industry, you're in the wrong place.
I mean, yes, I don't like most casual games, mostly because they're nothing more than an expanded mini-game harkening back to the golden age of the arcades and Atari. However, even though they do so, they have some qualities in them that are even better than when they're done in larger scale games.
Farmville at first glance is a Harvest Moon clone lacking story and with no point save to rack up money, and well, it is. However, that leaves you the chance to form your own story for why your character is doing all this. Mine inherited the land from her late, rich great uncle, who left it to her along with ten million dollars, if she could make the farm a success. Stupid I know, but it's enough to keep playing it. The fact that it does farming better than Harvest Moon though is rather sad.
Then there's Peggle, Zuma, and Bejeweled. PopCap's trifecta of puzzle games. The fact that their all just variations of Yoshi's Cookie, Bubble Bobble, and Breakout gets lost, but if we call them by those names, we hail them as classics. I can understand the frustration that this almost blatant plagirism can cause, however, name a game built entirely from the ground up that's come out in the last year.
Then there's Fate and Torchlight, two fairly awesome games in the vein of Diablo or World of Warcraft. However, while those two games are massive in scale, Fate and Torchlight are streamlined to make the game enjoyable in chunks, not requiring the gamer to put in a long term investment into the game, and they can always figure out what to do next easily, even if they haven't played it in months.
So as I've made mention to, most casual games are rehashings of classics that we love. Bringing them back and giving them a face lift to appeal to newer audiences, or older audiences even. isn't really a bad thing.
Then again, I've never understood the fear of mom's being gamers, as my mom is a gamer, and she'll kick your ass on Halo or World of Warcraft. She's the one who wanted Ocarina of Time at my house, as I'd barely begun to discover Zelda beyond the first one yet.
And keep in mind, if we generate this stereotype now that parents can't be gamers with us...what are you going to do when you have kids? Stop playing altogether? So maybe casual games aren't all that bad if they get games to everyone rather than just a juvenile market, don't you think?
Let me know.
-Sara
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