[casual_games] Origin of the term "casual games" (Milt Michael)

[John Szeder]

I was about to comment that the hunt may wind up being for the "Casual
gamer" reference instead of the "casual game" reference since one may have
followed logically from the other.

The next genre of games should arrive in 2008 by my calculations we have had
enough of a separation from the "Serious games" and "Casual games" genres.

Although who ever invented "Serious games" was about a year early and
probably caused a loss of opportunity because people are still trying to
wrap their head around casual games.

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Billy Cain
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 12:22 PM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Origin of the term "casual games" (Milt Michael)

It's interesting you bring that up, Kevin, since when I was at EA (pre-'98)
there was a great talk of broadening the market to bring in more of the
'casual gamer' by providing options in games that allowed (say for instance)
flight simulators to be piloted by non-hard-core players and the like. 

Like you, I don't know if that is a distinction (game vs. gamer), but I do
know that they were keenly aware that there was a bigger market to be had.

Let the pigeons loose!
bjc

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Kevin Gliner
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 1:51 PM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Origin of the term "casual games" (Milt Michael)

Scott Kim makes reference to "casual gamers" as far back as the 1998 GDC
(http://www.scottkim.com/thinkinggames/cgdc98.html).  That refers to players
and not game types, although that might be a minor distinction given his
area of expertise.

I also have a vague recollection of a thread about casual games on the old
GEnie JCGD Roundtable (forum), which would have been sometime between 1992
and 1995 I'd guess.  Only I can't remember if they were called casual games
or light games or what.  I couldn't find an archive of the forum via a quick
google search, but perhaps one of the regular contributors saved those
discussions.

  Kevin
 

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Kim Pallister
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 11:22 AM
To: casual_games at igda.org
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Origin of the term "casual games" (Milt Michael)

I've heard Chris Early (our GM) get the attribution (blame?) for coming up
with the term,  though I'm not sure what that's based on. He's certainly
been in the business a while.

Not sure he'll be happy about my posting this if it's turning into a
torches-and-pitchforks hunt for a scapegoat on which to blame the "what does
casual mean" debate! :-)

Kim Pallister

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