Casual gamer - what's your definition?

[Euan]

Had a little mini debate with Biggy (again) and we phail to agree on the definition of a casual gamer actually is.

Biggy thinks a casual gamer is simply someone who doesn't play games regularly, only on weekends etc.

I also believe this is partially true, but I think it extends further. I also think it depends on what genre's of games you play, what games you buy etc. A casual gamer that I know (a CG of my definition) said he "wouldn't play older games", and by this he doesn't mean NES, SNES et all era - he means games that are more than a few months old. He won't play games that have storylines because he thinks they're unimportant, and will only get the best game graphically.

What do you think?

[bignds]

OK, casual is stupid term to begin with, but heres my take.
You can be casual at a certain genre and hardcore at another, its just crazed fanboys who label people "casuals" no matter how hardcore they play games.
You can be hardcore at platformers but casual at puzzelers, "but teh racin games casual n teh suxx0rz" not true, its just someones preference like yours may be adventure. Fact is you cant label someone a casual if you simply odnt agree with what they are playing, at the end of the day its preference.
I'll write more tomorrow.

You can't necessarily be "casual" to a genre and be "hardcore" to another. Casual gamers are just that - they don't play the long games / put in the long hours that us "hardcore" gamers do. They may play the Madden's, and the movie-based titles, etc. But, completion is what draws the line. The term casual itself is quite misleading, however, and is generally used out of context for labeling purposes.

The word "preference" is more descriptive to this whole "hardcore to one, casual to another" debate. A casual gamer may prefer football (American) games to basketball games. They may enjoy puzzle games more than baseball games. This is what's known as preference.

However, let's say someone enjoys playing Madden to death. Sure, it's a mainstream game. However, he is hardcore because of the fact that he puts in an ungodly amount of hours to complete the game / achieve the best scores. Casual would mean that he simply enjoys playing a quick game now and again, and doesn't really care for completing goals and the like.

And that, my friends, is what I think of this whole matter. All IMO, of course. Feel free to rip my definition apart.

[Euan]

So you are kind of a mixture between the two meanings, DSD?

I think there are certain genres which are more 'casually' than others. For example, sports games, racing games and GTA (not a genre, but hell, it has more buyers than the whole RPG genre put together), which 'everyone' seems to get. They don't pick up Lumines do they? Dark Chronicles... nope. Oh look there's an uber rare Chrono Trigger for $5... they walk straight past it!

[ShadowMarth]

I agree with DSdude. Casual gamer depends most on how much you play, but casual gamers do tend to play certain genres.

[Dave]

I agree with alot of the points...

my personal feeling is that casual gamers tend to choose the most popular/coolest console and play either movie cash in games that are heavily promoted, or the big deal games such as Half Life, Halo and GTA games. Of course, sports games as well.

Casual gamers miss out on alot of new ideas like the DS for example, and tend to avoid hidden gems of games like Animal Crossing... or simply not hear about it.

[Pilot_51]

I agree with DSdude and Dave, it depends on both how much they play and how much they dig into the less popular stuff that looks like a possible failure. They tend to go heavily for the games and consoles that "everyone else" likes, and same goes for the other side where they hate the games and consoles "everyone else" hates. Most of their information comes from media (TV, magazines, newspaper) and friends, but they usually don't look further into it once they hear "it's crap" and they're very unlikely to think of trying it out.
Maybe this describes more the common "worldly gamers" while "casual gamers" are better suited for people that simply don't have the time for countless hours of gaming regardless of how much they know about gaming.

[theONE]

i think casual gamers miss out on all the hidden gems that arent advertised like castlevania and unlike mario kart and metroid

[RYGR]

What about Nintendo's definition of the casual gamer? After all, that is their main audience in the next generation. They're definition of casual gamer is basically someone who picks up a console controller every now and then to play a game. Every now and then as in maybe 2 times a week. Each time they pick up the controller, they won't play the game for too long (ie. hours on end). Same goes for PC.

[Pilot_51]

Yeah Nintendo is aiming at least to a decent level for the casual gamers under the definition at the end of my last post, but it's going to be really tough for them to pick up those "worldly gamers" that believe Nintendo is 100% for the kids (I could name a few popular tech people that said that, and I've heard it countless times all over the web).