[casual_games] Re: What is a Casual Game?

Fri Jan 6 14:42:58 EST 2006

Hi, everyone:

This is a good discussion, especially the part that doesn't try too hard 
to "define" casual games, but instead tries to grasp the varying appeal 
of the many kinds of these things.

I can't resist offering the following quote from the famous philosopher 
Ludwig Wittgenstein, who once happened to think about this very problem. 
  Here goes:

QUOTE>>>>>>>>  "Consider for examples the proceedings we call "games." 
I mean board-games, card-games, ball-games, Olympic games, and so on. 
What is common to them all?--Don't say:  "There must be something 
common, or they would not be called "games"--but look and see whether 
there is anything common to all.--For if you look at them you will not 
see something that is common to all, but similarities, relationships, 
and a whole series of them at that.  To repeat: don't think, but 
look!--Look for example at board-games, with their multifarious 
relationships.  Now pass to card-games; here you will find many 
correspondences with the first group, but many common features drop out, 
and others appear.  When we pass next to ball-games, much that is common 
is retained, but much is lost.--Are they all "amusing"?  Compare chess 
with noughts and crosses [tic-tac-toe].  Or is there always winning and 
losing, or competition between players?  Think of patience [solitaire]. 
  In ball games there is winning and losing; but when a child throws his 
ball at the wall and catches it again, this feature has disappeared. 
Look at the parts played by skill and luck; and at the difference 
between skill in chess and skill in tennis.  Think now of games like 
ring-a-ring-a-roses; here is the element of amusement, but how many 
other characteristic features have disappeared!  And we can go through 
the many, many other groups of gmaes in the same way; can see how 
similarities crop up and disappear.

"I can think of no better expression to characterize these similarities 
than "family resemblances"; for the various resemblances between members 
of a family:  build, features, colour of eyes, gait, temperament, etc. 
etc. overlap and criss-cross in the same way.--And I shall say:  "games" 
form a family."  <<<<<<<<UNQUOTE

The excerpt is from Wittgenstein's book called _Philosophical 
Investigations_, 1951 (published posthumously).

Happy New Year -- and here's to many brave attempts to carve out 
audiences (if that's the term) for a wide variety of casual games!

Hal Barwood

Phil Steinmeyer wrote:
> I think what Joe was trying to stop was an argument over semantics.  
> Those are boring.  What are casual games?  Can games be art?  What is a 
> clone? Blah, blah...
> 
> But I think you're touching on something interesting.  Why do certain 
> games that *look* like they should be casual games (i.e. Oasis) not have 
> substantial commercial appeal to the audience that we generally deem to 
> be the casual audience (i.e. people who try and buy games off the 
> portals - who skew substantially female, older, etc than the average 
> 'core-gamer'.
> 
> Regardless of the label - why do some games succeed in this market and 
> other games, actively targeted at this market, fail?
> 
> I liked Oasis, too, as did a lot of other 'core-gamers', including many 
> of us developers.  It won GameTunnel's 2005 game of the year, and was 
> the IGN winner in 2004.  But it didn't resonate (apparently), with the 
> 'casual gamer' crowd.
> 
> Another game I liked that also featured a deductive minesweeper mechanic 
> was 'Betrapped!'.  That game also appears to have been a commercial 
> dissappointment.
> 
> Clearly, there is some level of strategy and forward thinking in some 
> casual hits (Bejewelled and it's ilk, etc), but I think the key is that 
> it doesn't go TOO far, and that the game still appears to contain a 
> substantial element of luck (i.e. to grossly stereotype - Aunt Sally can 
> play the game while half-watching a soap opera and still succeed).
> 
> It's frustrating to me, and perhaps to others on this list, because many 
> of the mechanics that appeal to me personally, don't seem to appeal as 
> much in the marketplace.  Some of the biggest hits (Collapse, 
> Bejewelled, even Zuma), feel overly simplistic when I play them and I 
> quickly get bored.  But I'm not a good representative of my target 
> demographic.
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Szeder" <john at mofactor.com>
> To: "'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'" <casual_games at igda.org>
> Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 1:04 PM
> Subject: RE: Re[2]: [casual_games] Re: What is a Casual Game?
> 
> 
>> I think that minesweeper is more of a "core gamer" game.
>>
>> Using deduction to determine where to click is not intuitively obvious to
>> many people.
>>
>> I don't consider Oasis, which is among my favorite games, to be very 
>> casual
>> either and it is inspired by minesweeper.
>>
>> Judging by the volume and frequency of posts to the leaderboard, I 
>> think the
>> reaction of the consumer marketplace speaks to my statement. The 
>> reaction of
>> the penny arcade people, who are very "core gamer" oriented also seem to
>> support that while the game is "downloadable", it is not really "casual".
>>
>> It looks like people are trying to derail this topic just as we are 
>> about to
>> explore a boundary condition so I will defer to the wishes of the list 
>> and
>> shaddup accordingly.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org 
>> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
>> On Behalf Of Aleksey Linetskiy
>> Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 8:29 AM
>> To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
>> Subject: Re[2]: [casual_games] Re: What is a Casual Game?
>>
>> I would disagree. In my opinion, both are casual games - they're just
>> for somewhat different players.
>>
>> -- Aleksey Linetskiy
>> -- http://grumpytech.blogspot.com
>>
>> Friday, January 6, 2006, 2:43:49 AM, you wrote:
>>
>>> That doesn't say anything about accessibility or game style.
>>
>>
>>> I think most people would say that solitaire is a casual game, and
>>> minesweeper isn't.
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
>>> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
>>> On Behalf Of Adeo Ressi
>>> Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 7:38 PM
>>> To: casual_games at igda.org
>>> Subject: [casual_games] Re: What is a Casual Game?
>>
>>
>>> I have a simple definition for a "Casual Game" that I always use:
>>
>>
>>> "Casual games have a short duration of play and are easy to learn."
>>
>>
>>> As a result of these two dynamics, casual games are a mass market
>>> phenomenon. To some extent, it does not matter what we, as an industry,
>>> think. It matters how we define ourselves to the end user: short and 
>>> easy.
>>
>>
>>>         Adeo
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
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