Is Casual Gaming Destroying Hardcore Gaming?

You might have heard about the casual gaming revolution. It's been going around for some time now. You might have heard people talking and blogging about how much money cell phone gaming rakes in, and how middle-aged women who live in the suburbs love to play games when they aren't watching Oprah. Many gaming companies like Nintendo have declared that it is a priority to capture as many of these "non traditional" gamers. Is this the future of the industry?

With kids getting into gaming at younger and younger ages and over 25 years of interface and game design evolution behind us, today's games don't necessarily isolate people from playing them; especially when high quality graphics are more likely to attract people than intimidate them. Go online with Madden or Halo 2 and you'll see that is not just kids who are saying that games need to be easier and more accessible.

It seems that older generations of would-be gamers see time and efforts as a barrier to game play. Even when I want to play an RPG like Final Fantasy, it's hard to find the time to commit 40 hours to move one step forward in the game. But there are ways around this with the right save systems and game play pace.

Apart from financial reasons, I'm not sure why we would want to turn to older generations for approval. Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry that makes big waves in the "kiddy pool." But if "non-traditional" gamers have too large of a say, it might cause trouble. Do you think teenagers in the 50's wanted their parents to like Chuck Berry? But as young gamers become old gamers, they'll still be gaming and creating an older demographic for companies like Nintendo and Sony to tap. The Legend of Zelda: Twlight Princess is a perfect example of how you can create a game that appeals to a broad range of ages and skill levels. It serves everyone by patronizing no one.

If you want to incorporate more casual gamers into the mix, then a good tutorial mode, intuitive controls, and a balanced learning curve are important tools in helping casual gamers become accustomed to "hardcore" gamers. But many "hardcore" gamers can lend a helping hand too. Next time your brother, sister, mother or father sits down next to you and watches you play, instead of brushing them off as too stupid to understand the controls, invite them. Explain the controls and let them play. Think of them as playing a sport for the very first time. Instead of being impatient and snatching the controller away, let them make mistakes and enjoy themselves. No one likes to be patronized.