[casual_games] Origin of the term "casual games"

[Todd Sawicki]

Oh no!  The dreaded what's a casual game debate sneaks it way in ;-)

 

You just never know when the Spanish Inquisition will show up.

 

- Todd

 

________________________________

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Dave Rohrl
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 3:47 PM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Origin of the term "casual games"

 

Let's not confuse the casual space with the download space.  The two
have significant overlap, but the casual space includes a variety of
delivery mechanisms and revenue models and there are plenty of core and
near-core games available by electronic software distribution.

 

Even PopCap, my current employer, built its original business on
advertising supported web-based games (not to mention Pogo, my previous
employer).

 

- DaveR

 

________________________________

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of David Walls
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 3:41 PM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Origin of the term "casual games"

 

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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