casualgamers
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Study supports Nintendo's casual gamer opinions
It seems Nintendo's opinions on older folks wanting to play games may not totally be without merit. While chances are should you shove a DS in front of your grandparent's face and demand they play, you'd only receive a puzzled look before said grandparent went back to their game of bridge, this new study shows that it's likely your grandparent already owns the DS and game, and is playing bridge online.This new study, conducted by PopCap Games, shows that 66% of the estimated 150 million consumers that play casual games are over the age of 50. The study shows that these new breed of casual gamers enjoy playing titles daily for a mental workout, stress relief, and even pain distraction. We know shouting "brew" at our DS at the top of our lungs is a painful distraction all its own.[Via Joystiq]
Rob Pardo and the Success of Warcraft
Joi Ito has a post up about Rob Pardo and the success of World of Warcraft as a casual game. And, while a lot of people (myself included) believe the game stops being so "casual" when players hit level 60, the experience up to that point is much more casual and accessible than in other games of this nature. And even at level 60, the raiding experience can be casual as well - if you can find, or build, the right type of guild.
Casual Gamers and The Burning Crusade
The recent announcment of the Hellfire Citadel componant of the expansion (now up on the official site) has started me thinking about the casual, non-raiding gamer, and how they'll fit in to the new content. While some forum-goers are already calling out the expansion as bad for casuals (due to the fact that hard-core raiders will have a gear advantage in tackling new content), the two instance dungeons announced thus far make me wonder if it will be as bad as the early doomcallers predict. Previously announced Karazhan is designed for 10 players and Hellfire Citadel is a 4-wing dungeon - three wings are capped at 5 players, and the forth is designed for a full raid. While this both of these do require group play, they're small groups, which seems to leave an opening for more casual players who can't fit a 40-player raid into their schedule.
