[casual_games] Origin of the term "casual games"

[David Walls]

Whoever made it up (and I certainly think Gabe should have the honor before
Joel says he invented it), it is indeed most certainly better than the
previous term "Downloadable, Try Before You Buy. No, Not Shareware, Sort Of,
But Better. You Get From Web Sites. No Not Flash. Computer Games That Your
Mom Would Like." Which of course was catchy, but alas was a rather lengthy
acronym.

 

 

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Juan Gril
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 6:22 PM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Origin of the term "casual games"

 

The first time I heard the word "casual games" was in a meeting with Gabe
Zichermann while he was at Trymedia (now Macrovision) and I was at Yahoo!,
back in april/may 2003. I was using the term "coffee-break games"
internally, and Gabe mentioned "casual" as another possible term to name the
downloadable games we were offering. 

Gabe, do you remember where you first heard of? 

I think at the same time Joel Brodie heard it from somewhere else.

Hope this helps!

Juan



On 2/27/07, Wade Tinney <wade at largeanimal.com> wrote:

 

An histor ical/etymological question that a writer recently posed to me;
what is the origin of the term "casual games "? When was it first used to
describe this particular industry/genre? Perhaps some person or company on
this list w as the first? Did we simply borrow it from the console/retail
side of the business?

Note that the last thing I want to do with this question is provoke a
discussion about the definition of casual games, or how it 's not a great
name, et cetera. Beat that horse if you must, but I can assure you .it 's
already dead. 

Thanks!

Wade

 

p.s. If someone from Google is on this list, this might be a good project to
spend your abundant free time on. C reate a tool that would allow someone to
find the first time a particular word/phrase was cataloged by Google. I
would totally use it right now. 





Wade Tinney

partner, game designer

Large Animal Games, nyc

http://www.largeanimal.com

212-989-4312


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