[casual_games] surprising stats about casual gaming

[Adam]

Runescape is a great example of casual gaming - the overriding design principles were that everything must be achievable with a single mouse click - no menus - and be implicitly 'obvious'; and to start playing all you had to do was type a username - no software installation.

(this went even to the extreme of orugunally not collecting email addresses)

You have always been able just to drop in and out at will.

FYI there were originally many fewer levels - Andrew massively underestimated how much time people would choose to spend grinding! It was *meant* to be more casual than that...

Adam
(from PDA please forgive typos)

-----Original Message-----
From: "Adam Johnston" <adam at bamtang.com>
To: "'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'" <casual_games at igda.org>
Sent: 26/07/06 18:39
Subject: RE: [casual_games] surprising stats about casual gaming

I'd say that this is a different demographic.  Is it not the Runescape crowd
that is involved with Fate?  This is hardly casual gaming!  My nephew has
been on Runescape for hundreds of hours and still does not make the top 1
million user list.

While casual gamers are 35 to 50 year old women, I imagine that these online
RPGs are probably 12 to 28 year old males.
The only thing they have in common is that they are online.

- Adam

-----Mensaje original-----
De: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] En
nombre de Shimeran at starband.net
Enviado el: Miércoles, 26 de Julio de 2006 12:33 p.m.
Para: casual_games at igda.org
Asunto: Re: [casual_games] surprising stats about casual gaming

I'm tempted to say it's that fact I can play as much or little as I want and
still get roughly the same overall experience per unit playtime. 
There is and end game, but it's optional and doesn't really have much of an
effect on most of your play experience.  If fact, I mostly see it as "When I
get that far, I'll just pass on ther heirloom and try a new concept".

As a side note, I definately like dynamically generated content.  I find
it's a real useful way to create things like levels (which Fate may do) and
other nifty things without detailing eveything out ahead of time.

-David Cary

> I don't know anything about 'Fate.' What makes it a casual game? How 
> do you know that it appeals to a casual game audience, rather than a 
> traditional one?
>
> -austin
>
> Austin Haas
> Pet Tomato, Inc.
> http://pettomato.com
>
> Dave Selle wrote:
>>
>> Can't resist jumping in on the subject of Fate. It is indeed 
>> performing very well.
>>
>> I think Fate's impressive success is indicative that a significant 
>> number of casual gamers are willing and even eager to eager to 
>> embrace a game that offers--but does not demand--a long play session 
>> and that a "traditional game" theme/tone can resonate with this 
>> audience