Casual gaming is not a disease.
Read this piece over at Kotaku and was, in a word, appalled. Instead Of Laughing At “Casual” Gamers, Try Helping Them! As if the title wasn’t insulting enough, the author has to write things like this:
If you know someone hooked on Farmville, someone you previously thought could or would not play video games, have a chat with them! Ask them what they like about it, why they keep playing, what compels them to log in day in, day out and…water a plant. What they tell you could reveal someone that’s in dire need of an introduction to something a little deeper, like the Football Manager series. Or Animal Crossing. Or maybe ease them in with The Sims. And from there, who knows where they could end up.
I guess I shouldn’t be too strident. Before I studied the mechanics and the market, maybe I would have said the same things. As it is, I’ve had my definition of a “good game” tried and tested and warped more times than I can count in the past year.
Don’t get me wrong, I still think the vast majority of Facebook games are not genuinely engaging. And I think there are a lot of tactics Facebook game developers should be using to craft more meaningful experiences, once they finish running their various cash cows into the ground. But I think it’s a horrible thing to say that Facebook game players, casual or not, are in “need” of something better.
The author also doesn’t seem to realize the importance of casual games’ simplified mechanics and reduced time commitment (per session). Some people genuinely don’t have the time or energy (or… money) to dig into a heavier game with leveling-questing-crafting-equipment-gathering-auctioning-dungeoncrawling-raiding-looting. And having a game that gives you the emergent narrative you’re seeking without all the excess time sink is going to be a godsend for these players.
Hell, these days I frequently have a hard time reading a 800 page novel over a short story anthology, because I don’t feel like investing the energy to understand an epic over a vignette.
