The Casual Games Industry Sucks, Two?
Same problems, different year.

GameZebo has a fun little rant entitled, "I'm Mad as H@#%, and I'm Not Gonna Take It Anymore." An excerpt:

"The industry needs to stop resting on its laurels and take casual games to the next level where it deserves to be, on the same level of traditional video games. That may sound bold, but in the past 5 years, we have grown an industry from $0 to $500 million a year, gotten millions of people who would never touch a gamepad to play games, and influenced the latest round of consoles (Nintendo Wii, Xbox Live Arcade).

According to the latest studies, as many people play casual games as go out to the watch the movies. But casual games are defined as games that can be played by everyone. We should not rest until every single person in the world is playing casual games."

Well, okay then!

Though I cannot let this go without a little bit of commentary. Those of us who are deeply involved in any particular industry (or hobby, or activity) tend to move and expect movement at a much more rapid pace than everyone else, and we tend to notice details ignored by others. It can be easy to get disillusioned or frustrated.

I used to wonder about this as a kid when film critics panning films that I loved. I'd see an enjoyable story with cool characters and great special effects, and they'd see a "tired formula with hackneyed characters, thinly disguised by distracting special effects." The difference was that I'd seen only a few dozen "grown-up" films in my life (this was in the days before VCRs had become as common as televisions), whereas they'd see that many in a month. So while the critics were frustrated with more of the same crap coming out of Hollywood, it was all novel and fresh to ME.

We kinda get the same way about games. We're coming off of this great "discovery" of casual games and an untapped audience and an explosion of old ideas becoming new again and... just wow! Those who have been observing it for several years may be seeing how innovation is slowing down, but there are still new players discovering these games every day (who don't even realize they are becoming "gamers") for whom it is ALL very fresh and new. They encounter some match-three Bejeweled clone without ever hearing about the original.

Not that it makes these kinds of rants any less true (or less entertaining). But a little perspective helps.

Labels: casual games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:00 AM (Permalink)