casual-gaming
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The Summoner's Guidebook: Playing LoL's new ARAM mode
Many of you already know what ARAM is -- it's a phenomenon that is hardly exclusive to League of Legends, and even in MOBAs where there isn't a map built for it, ARAM matches are played. Before the 3.6 patch, I tended to play ARAM matches either before or after my normal play sessions. I typically played a couple of games of Classic or Dominion, with a game or two of ARAM either before or after. As I've mentioned in the past, I enjoy ARAM as a way to unwind and practice without stress. Patch 3.6 changed this by removing the Proving Grounds, replacing it with the Howling Abyss, and making ARAM a dedicated gametype with its own matchmaking. Now I play probably twice as many games as before, typically 8 to 10 ARAM games with no other matches. As it turns out, even I'm vulnerable to casual fun. The 3.6 patch also added in quite a few cool features that make ARAM much, much better than the pick-up custom games. I think that it's a great addition to League of Legends, especially for those who aren't particularly hardcore.
'Casual content' might account for only a small part of gaming industry's revenue
Monetisation of online games has been a hot topic for the past few years, fueled by the rise of the free-to-play business model and the undeniable accessibility of mobile gaming. At the Digital Game Monetization Summit in San Francisco, developers shared insights into the source of their revenue and recent development trends in social gaming. Rumble Entertainment CEO Greg Richardson argued that only 10% of the $50 billion spent on games last year was spent on "casual content" like social and mobile games. He believes that the tricks early Facebook and mobile games used to spread themselves virally may no longer work and that as a result, the future profit lies with people who self-identify as gamers. Online gaming website Kongregate revealed a detailed breakdown of monetisation and performance stats from its games, noting that its top games get the majority of their revenue came from people who spend $500 or more. Commitment was noted as the key to having successful game, with 84% of revenue coming from dedicated fans who played a game 50 times or more. [Thanks to Segun Adewumi for the tip!]
Green Day make cameo in Angry Birds Facebook offering as mascara-wearing egg thieves
Punk's not dead, it's just diversifying its portfolio. Having already conquered Broadway, East Bay pop-punkers Green Day are hitting the world of casual gaming with a new episode of Facebook's Angry Birds Friends that features pig opponents "inspired by band members Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool." The offering also features "Troublemaker," an exclusive song that is most likely a tribute to the hard living ways of porcine egg thieves. Asked to justify his pro-swine stance, Pinhead Gunpowder member Armstrong answered, "We're all fans of Angry Birds. It's such an addictive game that when we first started playing it we couldn't stop. Go Team Green!"
The Daily Grind: Is Ubisoft cashing in with Silent Hunter and Anno Online?
Last week's Gamescom saw publishing giant Ubisoft dip its toe into the free-to-play browser game market. It did so with a pair of titles based on ancient, beloved franchises. First up was Silent Hunter Online, a riff on the submarine sim that's been playable on your PC since 1996. Ubisoft followed that up with Anno Online, a simplified version of the long-running Anno real-time strategy series that debuted in 1998 (if you've never heard of Anno, you might be an American who played it under the Dawn of Discovery moniker). A cynic might say that Ubisoft is looking to milk the nostalgia factor by taking a couple of complex titles and turning them into accessible MMO-lite affairs. An optimist might say that this is the logical next step if franchises are to remain relevant in the age of casual gaming. What do you think? Is Ubisoft cashing in, or will Silent Hunter Online and Anno Online be worthy of their names? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Big Fish Unlimited lets gamers resume play on mobile, PC and TV, stay distracted at all times (update: HTML5 explained)
The perpetual crisis of casual gaming is that need for just one... more... turn. After all, those 29 levels of progress aren't coming with you to the office, are they? Big Fish Games wants to ease our consciences (or at least our egos) with Big Fish Unlimited. By using HTML5 to constantly save progress, the cloud service remembers exactly where a player was and ports it to the next device: it's possible to hop from a Android tablet, to a Roku box, to a Windows PC's browser without having to replay anything. The nature of the streaming games themselves won't give OnLive players second thoughts, but their lighter footprint won't demand as much from an internet connection, either. Most of the intended audience will appreciate the price -- the now active service costs $8 a month for access to more than 100 games from the full catalog, and free play is on tap for 20 of the games as long as you can endure periodic ads. Whether or not coworkers can endure another round of your hidden object games is another matter. Update: We've since talked to the company directly, and it turns out that the HTML5 is more for the cross-platform support; it's the server that tracks progress whenever you quit a given app.
Rovio marks one billion downloads, untold pig casualties across Angry Birds games
Yeah, yeah, we all knew that Rovio was doing gangbusters with Angry Birds series, but here's a little number to put it all into perspective: one billion. That's how many times the slingshotting birds have been downloaded, when you add up all of the titles and all of the platforms. Naturally, the company made a video to celebrate the accomplishment. You can find it after the break. [Image credit (McDonald's Sign): Alexis Bea / Flickr]
Is there such a thing as casually hardcore?
Once upon a time, I was an MC raider back in vanilla WoW. I raided six nights a week, three to four hours a night. My off night, Friday, was spent gathering plants in Felwood and other materials for potions and flasks. We busted our butts on completing progression content before anyone else on the realm, and if we couldn't manage that, before anyone else on our side of the faction fence managed to do so. Somewhere in the midst of AQ-40, the guild fell apart. People were just burnt out on way too much raiding and all the preparation involved in getting that raiding done successfully. These days, I raid three nights a week, three hours a night or so. To me, it's far, far more casual than what I used to do. I don't spend a ton of time on farming materials, and I don't spend a ton of time on other things unless it happens to be in game holiday time. I don't usually run random instances unless I'm after something specific, and I don't really do PvP at all. I'd call myself casual, simply based on the time that I play and what I do with that time. Yet there are still plenty of people out there who fling the hardcore title at me. When I look at how I used to play and how I play now, I can't understand why anyone would think what I'm doing now is anything but casual, and I'm confused as to why anyone would say differently.
EA-BioWare acquires KlickNation, rebrands it BioWare Social
All the cool kids are into social gaming these days, so it should come as no surprise when some of the bigger gaming firms start testing the waters. BioWare looks to be next on that list according to a report at GamesIndustry.biz that details Electronic Arts' acquisition of KlickNation. KlickNation operates social games including SuperHero City and Six Gun Galaxy, and while the company's monthly active user base has declined from 1.3 million to 400,000, EA and BioWare see it as a growth opportunity. KlickNation's expertise in building innovative and compelling RPGs for social platforms makes them a seamless tuck-in with the BioWare team at EA," says Ray Muzyka. The new unit has been renamed BioWare Social, and thus far the company has not announced any concrete plans relating to new or existing titles.
Richard Garriott predicts the death of consoles as a gaming medium
Considering his influence on the realm of MMOs, many gamers would argue that it's hard to dismiss Richard Garriott's thoughts on development out of hand. A recent interview with the man includes him predicting the fall of traditional console gaming in favor of portable devices, and the end of MMOs as a major market share compared to social and casual games. As Garriott puts it, the era of MMOs was chiefly between 2000 and 2010, and the explosion in social gaming is now a new part of the overall game development cycle. Naturally, since Garriott's current company, Portalarium, is targeting specifically that demographic, he might be just a little bit biased. But he's hardly the first industry insider to claim that modern games need to be easily be picked up with little to no up-front cost. Take a look at the full interview for more, including Garriott's thoughts on how present designers are lazy and his self-comparison to Tolkien.
Richard Garriott blames Blizzard for ignoring the social gaming field
Richard Garriott, who heads up social games outfit Portalarium, publicly put the screws to Blizzard and other major MMO companies for overlooking the casual gaming space. In fact, he says that World of Warcraft's biggest challenger won't be from another AAA title, but from the "Zyngas of the world." Talking to Industry Gamers, Garriott accused Blizzard and EA of dropping the ball when it came to social gaming, which Zynga has since explored and exploited. "The only reason Zynga exists is because people like EA, people like Blizzard, failed to step in," he said. Garriott sees these small start-ups as having great potential in the near future. "I think within a few years, you'll see that's not really the case," he said. "I think you'll see that the quality level that comes up through the casual games will rival the quality of traditional massively multiplayer games and then, because it's not something you have to subscribe to, because it's something that virally spreads, and especially because, as people churn out of a big MMO they've got to go somewhere." Garriott's Portalarium is currently working on an upcoming project that is "much more like Ultima Online than people might expect."
CityVille launches on Google Plus
Google Plus' casual gaming cabinet may not be as fully stocked as the Facebook alternative, but one crucial missing piece of the puzzle has just been filled in: Megalithic social monolith Zynga has ported CityVille, their most popular Facebook game, to Google's fledgling platform. The release comes shortly after the end of Google Plus' closed beta, and now that its e-doors are open to the public, we doubt this will be the end of Zynga's extra-Facebook expansion. Seeing as the company just posted a 95 percent drop in profit year over year, developing its products beyond its existing user base is a shrewd move.
Pokemon headed to iOS, Android, Nintendo still doesn't give a Jigglypuff about casual gaming
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata made no bones about his disdain for casual mobile gaming during his keynote at GDC earlier this year. According to the executive, Nintendo will sustain itself with the sort of value absent from the current app explosion. Rovio naturally took issue with the statement and fired back, like so many disgruntled feathered animals. With all of that in mind, it was a bit surprising to hear that a Pokemon card game is headed for the iPhone and Android devices in Japan this summer -- after all, Nintendo does own a share of the popular monster-based franchise. Before you get too attached to the concept of Mario on your iOS device, however, keep two things in mind -- first, Nintendo only owns about a third of the franchise. Second, the company quickly shot down the suggestion of further expansion into the world of phone apps. Those 3DS games aren't going to buy themselves, after all.
Roku brings casual gaming to its internet TV platform starting with Angry Birds this summer
Roku's line of boxes have come a long way from being used only to stream Netflix, and now the company has announced a plan to take its talents to casual gaming. Naturally, the first app out of the gate this summer will be the wildly popular and increasingly ubiquitous Angry Birds. There's not a lot of details available yet and while we're told the gaming experience will be available on a new player launching this summer, whether or not the existing Roku hardware will get any gaming action remains to be seen. Roku CEO Anthony Wood is very excited about the company's gaming prospects saying "Just as we were the first to enable Netflix to stream instantly to the TV, we intend to be the catalyst for transforming the way people play casual games-starting with Angry Birds-on the biggest screen in the home". While we wouldn't bet against the upstart media streamer maker, it may be a bit tougher to compete with Xbox 360, PS3 and whatever Nintendo has up its sleeve on their native turf. Update: Thanks to Dan Rayburn, Anthony Wood has confirmed Angry Birds will not run on existing players. In the inaugural post on the Roku Blog, he mentioned "some of the new games will require more horsepower".
EVE Evolved: Casual gameplay and public groups
I've always held a belief that EVE Online isn't really at its best until I get into a good group. A lot of the most fun gameplay I've experienced over the years has been in a small group of strangers, friends or people who would soon become my friends. The year I spent in faction warfare and the two years I spent on wormhole expeditions with friends were incredibly good times that I look back on fondly. I've even found that the parts of EVE that aren't specifically intended for groups, such as exploration, mission-running, and trading, are a lot more enjoyable if I take a few friends along for the ride. There's no doubt in my mind that EVE is primarily a group game. Two weeks ago, I talked about how EVE is more of a giant social sandbox than a game and that it's EVE's social nature that really motivates people to keep playing in the long-term. The remarkable ability of social communities in MMOs to self-organise when faced with challenges could be a massive asset to EVE's development if used well. When faction warfare was first released, for example, players rapidly organised themselves into fleets. People who had never met each other, many with no PvP experience at all, were soon practicing core fleet maneuvers together as a cohesive unit and facing off against hostile fleets. With nothing but a war declaration, some cosmic anomalies, and a few medals, EVE turned thousands of newbies into four terrifying fighting forces. That is something I'd definitely like to see repeated. In this week's opinion-filled EVE Evolved, I delve into the world of casual gameplay and ask whether new public group activities could dramatically broaden EVE's appeal and keep gameplay fresh.
Breakfast Topic: Casualties of casual gaming
The other day over dinner, my wife and I were talking about a new game on Facebook and how easy it would be for us to game the system. My brother-in-law stopped us mid-conversation and asked, "What the hell happened to you two? You used to be hardcore raiders! Now you're talking about min-maxing a Facebook game!" My wife and I looked sheepishly at each other and hung our heads in shame. This is what it had come to. While we're committed to playing together come Cataclysm, we had now been reduced to the most casual of casual gamers -- playing browser-based games with no real, complex story or engaging gameplay. At least, nothing as complex or engaging as the World of Warcraft. But the reality is that casual gaming is a bigger phenomenon than we can imagine. Zynga's Farmville has over 61.6 million active users -- that's almost six times WoW's 11.5 million subscriber base. Never mind that World of Warcraft is subscription-based and that not all of Farmville's players are paying customers. Forget about revenue for a moment. That's 61.6 million gamers playing one game.
Funcom's Morrison talks MMORPG evolution
Age of Conan game director and executive producer Craig Morrison has something of a reputation for interacting with fans and fellow gamers. He continues the tradition with a post on his personal blog in which he discusses both his favorite MMORPGs as well as the evolution of the genre. "I think when a company is going to sink tens of millions of dollars into a [triple-A] MMO then it is only natural that those games will have a pretty casual friendly approach as they want, and need, to retain more customers than a niche product might. Those types of games though introduce far more players to the genre, and those players end up trying other MMO games too. That's never a bad thing for the genre," he writes. As for his favorite (non-Funcom) MMORPGs, Morrison confesses to both an EVE and a Fallen Earth habit, although he admits that "both will suffer again once the Starcraft 2 beta comes back up." Check out the full article at Morrison's blog.
Brad McQuaid returns, forms new company
Brad McQuaid, the former CEO of Sigil Games and one of the driving creative forces behind Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and the original EverQuest, has announced his return to gaming after a three-year hiatus. Lost amid the hubbub of last week's E3 deluge was an announcement on McQuaid's personal blog that served as both a news update as well as a job recruitment posting for his new company. "After a needed three[-]year break from 11 years of working on massively multiplayer games with the large teams, budgets, and 3-5 year development cycles[,] I think this will be a nice change of pace. I'm also very excited to be involved in a genre that is relatively new to me. I look forward to bringing MMO design principles to casual/social gaming," he wrote. Dust off your resumes and view the full announcement on McQuaid's blog.
WoW, Casually: A spring invitation to students who raid
Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. This week we invite raiders who are in school to join us and try out being a casual. Because our esteemed editor-in-chief was on NPR's "On Point" last week, I gave it a listen. As expected, the show took a few calls from people who are completely incapable of balancing their work and playtime -- people whose lives were "ruined by WoW." There was also the person who said that "you can't do anything without 24 other people," which we know is absolutely not the case. And the one that really caught my attention: the psychologist who gets panicked calls every spring from parents whose teens are playing so much WoW that they aren't going to pass. It fascinates me that this is seasonal and also so last-minute. Additionally, I am curious as to whether there are other activities that get in the way during the spring that psychologists also get frantic calls about. I remember it being so hard to focus in the spring while in school -- even in a climate that doesn't have seasons. Summer is looming on the horizon with vacation, new opportunities and huge life changes. We're just looking for distractions at that time. For graduating students, it's called senioritis and it's been called that long before we had computers in our homes to play games. Regardless, it's an issue. But rather than risk screwing up opportunities for the rest of your life just to keep up with your raiding, it's time to give being casual a try. Here's why and how.
WoW, Casually: Is WoW still fun?
Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win. I'm letting you into my thought process again this week, because I think I'm one of many players with limited playtime asking themselves if they are still having fun in WoW. Me: I hate that video. Stormtroopers are cold, impersonal evil -- they don't dance! Myself: I love it! Yay! I: I don't know. I just don't know. Me: So here we are again. I: Yep. The List is pretty obsolete right now until I do more playtesting and research. Myself: Playing WoW is fun! Me: Is it? Still? I: I don't know. Myself: Yes it is! Me: Prove it.
WoW, Casually: Things to know about upcoming patches
Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win. The above video has absolutely nothing to do with WoW or upcoming patches or even gaming. It's just a feel-good video that is currently at the top of my current YouTube favorites. Besides, everybody's doing it. Now, onward to the actual content... So, rumor has it that patch 3.3.3 will be out either next week or the week after. The PTR seems stable-ish and the downloading of much of the patch has already been happening. So, let's talk about what we have to look forward to in the patches before Cataclysm, particularly 3.3.3.
