This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
Editor’s Note: I’ll admit, I used to be somewhat weary of casual games, but not anymore. Hell, I mostly play them nowadays: Plants vs. Zombies is my new favorite brain-teaser. And I’ve been playing Crossword DS for a good month or two. And don’t get me started about how much I adore Cooking Mama and Order Up. To be honest, I think this petty “hardcore vs. casual” battle will eventually die via a Peggle ball to the head. Because, in the end, who the hell cares? More people playing games means more games for us. So why fight when we can all play along? -Michael
With the advent of the Wii and the “new” casual gaming market (most people, for whatever reason, don’t seem to realize that casual gaming has existed since the ancient, black-and-white days of Spacewar!), there’s been an ever-growing rift between the self-described “hardcore” gaming community and the outsiders: the old folks, “moms,” non-gamers, and other dangerous folk who threaten our wonderful and exclusive hobby. If the History Channel has taught us anything, it’s that you can’t appease these people. If you do, bad things happen involving tiny mustaches.
Anyway, it started innocently enough: Gamers, angry with what they saw as bad games selling well, raised their voices in disgust (who couldn’t get behind that sort of righteous anger?). However, it’s taken a turn for the worse over the past couple years, becoming so bad that certain segments of the “hardcore” gaming populace have drawn battle lines in the sand, refusing to share the title “gamer” with those who play games less often or with less passion than they do — despite the fact that these people, y’know, play games like the rest of us.
I don’t really want to bore you with my gaming history, so I’ll make this quick: I’ve been gaming since I was two-years-old, which means I’ve got 20 solid years under my belt. Some people have double that; others don’t have nearly as much exposure to the medium. But you know what? It doesn’t really matter. We’ve all held a controller, stylus, mouse, or cell phone in our hands at some point, so shouldn’t that be enough? Do we really have to shun people over some insignificant ego trips? Can’t we just play our games, be happy with them, and know that other people are happy as well?
Sadly, there’s an indescribable criteria for what makes someone a “real” gamer these days, and I’d go so far as to say that even the people waving the “u casual n00bs suk” flag don’t even know what that criteria is (though they’re more than happy to enforce it). Part of the problem stems from a false sense of fear, thinking that all the games we enjoy are going to be placed in the back of GameStorePlace while the evils of Cooking Mama and Wii Fit get big sales signs in the front. The nightmare scenario — and indisputable truth — is this: If casual games (or whatever we want to call them) sell well, then it’s quite possible that we’ll never, ever see future hardcore favorites like Gears of War 3 and Halo 4.
Riiiiight.
Even EGM — a magazine I’ve always held in high regard and have immense respect for and hope returns one day (please?) — kind of fell into this sad state of affairs in the magazine’s last years of life. We saw games like Endless Ocean receive their own, separate spot in the reviews section, which never did make sense to me. If you don’t think it will appeal to your audience, then don’t talk about it. If you’re going to put it in your mag, though, don’t fuel the division that permeates the gaming community. Though to be fair to the EGM guys, we’re still not sure how to critique games properly, especially ones we can’t quite understand.
[Editor’s Note: While it is true that EGM put certain casual fare into a section entitled “Electronic Non-Gaming Monthly,” it was mostly intentionally for laughs. Plus, in most cases, it was the only way for us to cover games we would have otherwise ignored, so we meant no harm. So to all you Endless Ocean fans out there — we apologize!]
I’m talking about good casual games here, by the way…stuff like The Sims, Tetris, and Animal Crossing. I think a lot of people confuse those titles with the shovelware and licensed garbage that make up such a large portion of the Wii’s library right now — and thus, why casual gaming gets its bad reputation (and without the bad boy appeal, sadly). However, it’s not the fault of casual gaming, or non-gamers, or whatever boogiemen we come up with: It’s a lack of quality control on the big N’s part, simple as that. Instead of lashing out at people who don’t deserve it, we should all be grouping together in perfect harmony to verbally destroy terrible games, no matter what labels they fall under.
The “hardcore vs. casual” stuff needs to stop and the sooner the better. This way of thinking does no one any bit of good, and the only thing it really accomplishes, in the end, is making us all look like fools. We waste all our time and energy fighting battles that never needed to be fought in the first place, time and energy we could be using to flail our arms around and looking like asses in Wario Ware. And if you ask me, the latter sure seems like a hell of a lot more fun.