Nintendo Europe's senior marketing director Laurent Fischer says the casual gamer is a myth and that there are only people who play games and people who don't.
"For me, you are a gamer or non-gamer," he told CVG at Nintendo's German HQ yesterday. "I think most of you know that you can spend ten or twenty hours on an internet flash game and have not realised. The guy who plays these games regularly - he's a core gamer."
But what about Brain Training, we hear you scream? And we really did hear that. "Someone who is fifty-years old who only plays Brain Training, but plays it like a core gamer is a core gamer," Fischer added.
"I don't like this word casual so much. Because people consider that casual needs to be something easy. If you're good at any game you can play at a high difficulty level.
"Take Tetris. There is incredible gameplay, it's very simple, very easy to understand, but it's also very different. I think a game can be a light enough to enjoy and for all gamers to become a core gamer on it."
Fischer concluded: "There is no casual gaming. There is just a different way to play." Look out for more from Fischer later on today.
Sad fact is some people resent that video games are part of the norm now. This, frankly, sad act of calling yourself a hardcore or worse a "real" gamer is just being a snob. Anyone who owns and plays games on a games console, handheld or a PC is a gamer, the days of it being a closed off hobby are long gone so grow up and get over it.
I disagree, with you and especially Nintendo. I think this is a stupid statement from them. You can't say that someone who farted on a DS while Brain Training was in the card slot as much of a gamer as those of us who have been doing it for decades. There is definitely a distinction that should be made. Stroking a Wiimote does not automatically lump you in with a group of people who have been playing thousands of games across tens of systems, following industry news daily for decades, sampling every genre known to man and buying new games almost weekly. That's like calling someone a professional racing driver the first time they get into a car.
I actually find it slightly disrespectful, Nintendo's complete disregard for their traditional fans lately. Who were they selling to before the Wii came along? Not casual gamers. Who kept them afloat when the N64 and Gamecube weren't exactly runaway successes? Not casual gamers. The people they are talking about likely never bought a Nintendo console before. They probably never played the NES, the SNES, the N64... gamers did, but Nintendo seems to be no longer concerned with what used to be their entire market.
But I guess we're all the same. Everyone's a gamer! By Nintendo's logic, someone who played Nintendogs for 4 minutes on the bog last night could come to this site and just dive right in. They'd know exactly what we were all talking about... then when they get home from work later maybe they could tackle Ninja Gaiden, or maybe a spot of Ikaruga. I'd consume my own headgear if they'd even heard of those games, not to mind possess the ability to play them or the general knowledge of what games are, that is required to even truly appreciate them. I'd expect a quick try, the loss of one life, and the controller being put down. There's hours of incredible gameplay in there, but they wont be bothered to find it, because "it's too hard", "the controller has too many buttons", "I'm a retard" etc etc. Why anyone would want to play something like Ikaruga totally escapes the casual. They just like shaking the paws of virtual puppies. Awwww look at the little puppy! That counts as gaming these days?
In my opinion: Casual gaming means games are played only every now and then, just as a last resort, something-to-do sort of activity. Little time is invested, the games are basic and provide quick-fixes and easy, obvious rewards. Real gaming means the exact opposite.
Once again my post blankets half the bloody thread... sorry!
Clearly he's confusing casual gamers with casual games.
A casual game just means you can pick it up and put it down without worrying about the fact that you're still only 10% through a 30 hour campaign. You may well still end up playing for hours or for just 10 minutes, but this on/off approach appeals to a much wider audience than games that reward long-term devotion.
I would agree that a person who plays Brain Training every day for hours on end could be considered a core gamer. But the fact is, by its very nature the game itself is casual. People who have no interest in busting the game wide open can still pick it up for 10 minutes every now and then and have fun with it.
Those people are casual gamers. If there really was no difference, casual gamers would be playing Oblivion, at which rate they'd probably still be playing it in twenty years' time!
Of course, to argue that they are always constant and mutually exclusive would be silly, but there is definitely a divide in playing habits that can be defined as core and casual. As to what games these groups play? I would say core gamers will play anything and what they do play - and enjoy - they will play quite thoroughly. Casual gamers tend toward instantly accessible games that forgive sporadic bouts playing. By their definition therefore, the games that appeal are rarely first-person shooters, rpgs, and other time and control-intensive genres.
So forgive me Nintendo, if I understand (actual) gaming more than you do these days!
I disagree, with you and especially Nintendo. I think this is a stupid statement from them. You can't say that someone who farted on a DS while Brain Training was in the card slot as much of a gamer as those of us who have been doing it for decades. There is definitely a distinction that should be made. Stroking a Wiimote does not automatically lump you in with a group of people who have been playing thousands of games across tens of systems, following industry news daily for decades, sampling every genre known to man and buying new games almost weekly. That's like calling someone a professional racing driver the first time they get into a car.
I actually find it slightly disrespectful, Nintendo's complete disregard for their traditional fans lately. Who were they selling to before the Wii came along? Not casual gamers. Who kept them afloat when the N64 and Gamecube weren't exactly runaway successes? Not casual gamers. The people they are talking about likely never bought a Nintendo console before. They probably never played the NES, the SNES, the N64... gamers did, but Nintendo seems to be no longer concerned with what used to be their entire market.
But I guess we're all the same. Everyone's a gamer! By Nintendo's logic, someone who played Nintendogs for 4 minutes on the bog last night could come to this site and just dive right in. They'd know exactly what we were all talking about... then when they get home from work later maybe they could tackle Ninja Gaiden, or maybe a spot of Ikaruga. I'd consume my own headgear if they'd even heard of those games, not to mind possess the ability to play them or the general knowledge of what games are, that is required to even truly appreciate them. I'd expect a quick try, the loss of one life, and the controller being put down. There's hours of incredible gameplay in there, but they wont be bothered to find it, because "it's too hard", "the controller has too many buttons", "I'm a retard" etc etc. Why anyone would want to play something like Ikaruga totally escapes the casual. They just like shaking the paws of virtual puppies. Awwww look at the little puppy! That counts as gaming these days?
In my opinion: Casual gaming means games are played only every now and then, just as a last resort, something-to-do sort of activity. Little time is invested, the games are basic and provide quick-fixes and easy, obvious rewards. Real gaming means the exact opposite.
Once again my post blankets half the bloody thread... sorry!
Of course there are casual gamers - Nintendo just call it "the expanded audience". Now, I'm not saying these people aren't gamers - they certainly are, but don't patronise them, or disrespect the traditional audience by lumping us all in the same category.
There have been so many developer comments - some from Nintendo themselves - that are so contrary to what this bloke has said. Square-Enix "dumbed down" Dragon Quest Swords because, to paraphrase, "Wii owners would find a traditional game too complex". The same reasoning was behind Resident Evil: UC, which was why it was made on-the-rails. Several months ago Reggie said that Nintendo would have a big xmas game that would appeal to the core gamer (read hardcore) and the expanded audience (read casual). It has to be defined in those terms, because without that structure how could you possibly target your audience?
Generally, I look at gaming as a variety of niches - some are big niches, some are small niches. The causal audience could arguably be looked on as a niche, and there are clearly games that target it. However, the truth is a great many games that the "hardcore" gamer relish (and I am generalising here) are either too complex, so as to put the "casual" gamer off, or are otherwise repugnant to them.
There's not necessarily anything wrong with having casual/non-gamers gamers. As long as games continue to come out that cater to my tastes, I couldn't give two hoots.
why does it matter? I disagree with the terms "hardcore" and "casual" gamer but does it make any difference whatsoever to anybody to have these classifications of gaming?
I could of put that a little better, clearly people who have poked a DS a few times is not a gamer but everyone who plays games starts somewhere, people may very well buy a DS or Wii just for brain training or because its a must have but alot of those people buy other games, they start to play for the same reasons we do. To stick a label on em and say "your not a gamer and but i am cus ive been doing it for donkeys years" is being a snob.
I could of put that a little better, clearly people who have poked a DS a few times is not a gamer but everyone who plays games starts somewhere, people may very well buy a DS or Wii just for brain training or because its a must have but alot of those people buy other games, they start to play for the same reasons we do. To stick a label on em and say "your not a gamer and but i am cus ive been doing it for donkeys years" is being a snob.
A mum was buying Donkey Kong racing for Wii, I was talking a guy about the Nintendo Wii how its good for my kid but I dont play it much, he said same about his daughter, the mother buying the game turned around and said (now get this):
'Nintendo make the Wii?'
Immediate bursts of laughter from game staff and other customers...I mean, she is a buying a Nintendo game, has bought a Nintendo console, ummm, dont you read the box you got the Wii in? Dont you see Nintendo written over the game you just bought?
Tis a funny ole world
skidz
So she is a core gamer who is clueless about who makes the system she is buying games for, absolutely no idea about games.....and about Nintendo, and this is their market now!
Saying there is no such thing as types of gamers who treat gaming with differing levels of seriousness is just as thick as claiming one type is somehow better than the other.
Geez people get there bottom in there hands a bit who cares how long they play games as long as there buying and playing them. The mainstream hardcore gamer that love there online first person samey games that are slowly but surely with space marine 1 followed by number 2, 3 and 4 thats whats ruining things for me not the so called casual gamer that opens it all upto new people and new experiences.. I been gaming since atari days when gaming use to be fun which i feel isnt the case as much any more and regardless what people think of nintendo and the Wii Family computer is the word thats what they have always been about everyones a gamer thats wants to be the single sign of a great Game is that it can be picked up and played by anyone ..
so the question becomes this - what defines a gamer vs a core gamer? years of gaming or time per day/week of play time?
I guess if its years of gaming, I have anyone under the age of 30 beat as to my L337 status.
I think that regardless of the game, if people play fairly regularly, they are gaming. Remember, until the era of Playstation, there was no such thing as a "gamer" in the videogame world. "Gamer" used to be only for people who played D&D tabletop in their basement.
So, yes, people are gamers if they regularly play a game. But are they are "core" if they either play to the point that they have no life beyond their games, and are "true" gamers if they've been playing games since the late 70s/early 80s?
Also, isn't it possible to casually play a hardcore title? What of the guy who plays COD4 online maybe once or twice a week? Id say that's casually playing a game.
so the question becomes this - what defines a gamer vs a core gamer? years of gaming or time per day/week of play time?
I guess if its years of gaming, I have anyone under the age of 30 beat as to my L337 status.
I think that regardless of the game, if people play fairly regularly, they are gaming. Remember, until the era of Playstation, there was no such thing as a "gamer" in the videogame world. "Gamer" used to be only for people who played D&D tabletop in their basement.
So, yes, people are gamers if they regularly play a game. But are they are "core" if they either play to the point that they have no life beyond their games, and are "true" gamers if they've been playing games since the late 70s/early 80s?
Also, isn't it possible to casually play a hardcore title? What of the guy who plays COD4 online maybe once or twice a week? Id say that's casually playing a game.
Totally agree with you there, my girlfriend likes to occasionaly have a go on COD4 and GRAW (but amazingly can't get to grips with the controls on GTAIV) but she doesn't include gaming as one of her pastimes! Again this is a case of one the suits openeing their mouths without actually thinking before they speak.
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Yeah, ok Nintendo we believe you. Lucky for you, you seem to appeal to both so I dont know why its bothering you.
