Casual Gamers

Ive spent a fair share of time lurking/posting on various forums at various gaming sites in my day, likely in the same fashion many of you have. And in that time Ive noticed a few trends. One particular seems to be a disdain for the 'casual gamer'. These are the people that buy Madden NFL ever year, and almost nothing else. They play WoW, and nothing else. Maybe they bought a Wii, and have yet to take Wii Sports out of the system yet.

Casual gamers are blamed as the force behind many annoying realities of the games industry. When a game is critically praised but has low sales numbers, its because casual gamers didn't buy it. And yes, I'm talking about Psychonauts, but that's not the only example. Okami and Shadow of the Colossus stand out in my mind as well.

On the reverse, when a game that is regarded by reviewers as mediocre or worse but has good, sometimes great sales numbers, its because 'casual gamers' eat that kinda crap up, especially if it has a famous movie or celebrity attached. (See 50 Cent: Bulletproof, Scarface: The World is Yours, and Superman Returns).

The truth of the matter is that yes, casual gamers didn't buy Psychonauts, which is a great game. And yes, instead of Psychonauts, those casual gamers bought copies of Superman Returns, which is a horrid game.

So would we be better off without these so-called cretins, blind to innovation and quality gameplay, slavishly buying the next Madden, Need for Speed, World War II shooter, or movie tie-in game.

No, we wouldn't. We, the 'hardcore' gamer, cannot support the gaming industry alone. We don't have enough numbers or spending power. Casual gamers however, do. There are millions of them, and they spend millions of dollars pursuing their casual gaming hobby. It's those millions that drive profits, and its those profits that can then allow a company to take a risk and make games like Psychonauts or Okami.


So, next time you go to Best Buy or Gamestop and see a guy buying a copy of Madden NFL or Spider-man 3, don't mumble something nasty under your breath. Shake that man's hand, and thank him for playing those games so you don't have too.

-g