Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Not so 'casual' when it's addictive
I'm no avid hardcore gamer. I've tried my hands of Call of Duty, Gears of War, even NBA Live... and I'm pretty much hopeless. So i stick to simple games, and in this course's case, casual games. I play games on my phone when I'm bored, i play with my DS, play on the computer etc. They're simple 'no strings attached' kind of games, but yet i find myself sort of addicted to them from time to time. I remember i played tetras on my DS for more than an hour... and when i stopped playing... those tetras shapes were still moving in my head. So... here's something for you to think about... are casual games really casual? Just because it's more simple in nature, does it mean that they don't have the same effect on us as those more complicated games?
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I was thinking the exact same thing in class today. Casual games may be characterized by being short, not time sensitive and so on. However, my sister would stay up beyond 4am many nights over the break to play Internet sudoku and she's not at all a "gamer". Actually, she's a kin student who has really harsh criticisms about video games and their influence on obesity haha. Also, today in class we mentioned The Sims as a casual game. When I used to play The Sims I would play for hours and hours.
ReplyDeleteI guess, based on this discussion I want to ask. What is the objective of the casual gamer? To design a game that can be played casually? Or to design a game that is characterized as a casual game, that is so addictive it is played for hours? After all, I think many in class today mentioned that they found themselves consumed by their favourite casual games at one point.
interesting thoughts, Many and Katrina. You're distinguishing between the name, 'casual,' versus the intensity of time (spent) and visual images (after-images).
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