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• Katamari Christmas - Rediscovering the Cosmos... Twice

  December 23rd, I'm home for the holidays, as are both of my sisters. I am just finishing my self-appointed task of the morning by clearing 100% of the Chroma Dam in de Blob when my elder sister asks what the gameplay is like and if she can learn. I begin to describe and then compare the feeling to that of Katamari Damacy. She is intrigued. I hand her the case to the original Katamari Damacy for Playstation 2. Her eyes light up as she pages through the manual. "Can I play this one?" "Sure." I turn off the Wii and go to make some tea. "Can I play it now?" "Oh, um...yeah, okay!" A bit of background very quickly. My sister is not an avid gamer, but she is also not a n00b. She is at present the typical "casual" gamer. She plays Brain Age, Wii Fit, Guitar Hero and Scrabulous, but to the best of my memory she has not touched a traditional platformer since the original Super Mario Bros. And now here she was, playing a cult-hit Japanese game that required not one analog stick, but two! Read More... Posted Jan 07 2009, 06:30 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: derrick sanskrit, wii, playstation 2, casual, katamari damacy, iphone, namco, christmas

• Wii Are Not Amused

  We've witnessed the hardcore gaming community's dissapproval of Shigeru Miyamoto's latest creation, but what of the general public, the casual gaming families that Nintendo is apparently catering to these days? What do these average non-gamers think of Wii Music? Luck smiled upon my query as the Nintendo World Store decided to host a Wii Music launch event this past weekend. I've been to several of these events now and generally know what to expect: large crowds, territorial teenage gamers, rambunctious youth, a cacophony of noise, and a general sense of enthusiasm followed by fatigue. What I found this weekend was... different. Read More... Posted Oct 21 2008, 03:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, derrick sanskrit, casual, wii music

• What Games Actually Appeal to Casual Gamers

  Some time ago I had a thought after musing for a bit on this “casual gamer phenomenon”. The thought came and like many things I don't write down, went. However, Nadia Oxford in her recent post brought that lost thought right back to me. Ever since games for non-gamers became the perceived goose that laid golden eggs, developers have been trying very hard to cash in. Considering the scatter shot success rates and the growing numbers of pissed off core gamers in deathly fear that 'their” games are being simplified to appeal to casuals, me thinks many developers do not know what makes a good casual game. I do. Read More... Posted Oct 15 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: casual, amber ahlborn, game design

• Ranty McRant Rant: What the Hell does Casual Mean?

  I read comments sections. I probably shouldn't because they contribute to my slow slide into misanthropy, but just as rubberneckers stare at a gruesome auto wreck, I have a hard time turning away. On the “positive” side, they do serve as blog fodder. The target of my ire this week is the word “Casual” and its occasional associate, “Dumbed Down”. I'm sure these words and phrases were valid once upon a time, with recognizable definitions, but these days they've been co-opted by the angry hoards to mean whatever the hell is stuck in the craw of the angry gamer of the moment. They've taken on a sort of amorphous existence of fluid definition and get applied left and right as a sort of catch all derogatory, appropriate or not. Language tends to break down and fail when words lose their meanings and that really annoys the piss out of me. Read More... Posted Oct 10 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: mario kart, casual, amber ahlborn, rant

• By Any Other Name

  With Nintendo’s meteoric rise back to dominance in the games industry, certain language has become ubiquitous in referring to both videogames and gamers. “Casual” is used to describe games with simple interfaces that don’t require a significant investment of time to play while “hardcore” typically refers to games with more complex interfaces, the mastery of which takes practice and often hours of play time. A “casual” is someone who is a new or lapsed gamer unfamiliar with the medium’s tropes and who plays relatively few games. A “hardcore” is typically a prolific gamer with a taste for more action heavy fare. While these words are certainly useful and their meaning is clear, I sometimes wonder if they’re doing a disservice to their subjects. Both have taken on certain derogatory connotations within their respective communities, “casual” being used to delegitimize and “hardcore” to stigmatize. I think that perhaps the continuing and rampant growth of gaming in our culture would be better served by different sorts of classification. Instead of casual, marketing firms might be better off saying “new” gamers considering they want that audience to continue to be engaged in their products. And maybe instead of hardcore, just plain old “gamers” would better describe people who play games of all types. Why draw lines where they don’t have to be? Read More... Posted May 20 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, hardcore, casual