[casual_games] who invented the term casual games

[Brian Robbins]

I'm not sure who actually coined the phrase. Looking back at the
IGDA's Online Games and Casual Games White Papers it seems to have
become fairly prevalent in 2002-2003. The 2002 Online Games White
Paper (http://www.igda.org/online/IGDA_Online_Games_Whitepaper_2002.pdf)
only has 4 or 5 references to casual, and it is all through the
description of "casual gamers"

The 2003 Online Games White Paper though has numerous mentions
throughout of casual gamers, and casual games, though even then it
wasn't a standardized term:
http://www.igda.org/online/IGDA_Online_Games_Whitepaper_2003.pdf

In 2004 we struggled with the name and ended up using Web &
Downloadable games as nobody was very happy with the term Casual
Games, but we didn't have anything better. In 2005 it had become so
commonplace that we just used that term anyway.

My best guess is that nobody truly coined the term. Instead it rose
out of descriptions of the various types of players of these games.
You had hardcore players, and you had casual players. Therefore casual
players must play casual games.



-- 
Brian Robbins
Executive Producer and Gaming Evangelist
Fuel Industries - www.fuelgames.com