Nintendo Switch - Happy Switchmas Everyone!

[Kav]

I've played and loved Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Smash, Mario Maker, NSMBU, Mario 3D World, Starfox, Bayonetta 2, Pikmin 3, Yoshi's Woolly World, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Captain Toad, Hyrule Warriors, Wind Waker HD, Super Luigi U, Kirby, Mass Effect 3, NintendoLand and Xenoblade on my Wii U, so no, Nintendo-only gamers are not by definition casual gamers as you seem to bizarrely suggest.

 

People who buy a PS4 for the sole purpose of playing 1 or 2 games repeatedly and exclusively are by definition casual gamers. Just as people who play Candy Crush every day non stop and not much else would qualify themselves as casual. Ditto, those who played Wii Sports or Wii Fit and not much else.

 

You might play a decent number of games, but there'll be plenty others that don't. Those that just pick up Mario, Mario Kart and Smash.

 

When people are investing such time, and in many cases money - DLC, on games then you can't really call it casual. It's more than a casual interest in gaming at this point.

 

And anyway, where are your facts and figures to back up the suggestion that some people only buy the console for one or two games? How do you know they're not buying more?

Edited September 27, 2016 by Kav

[Ronnie]

Of course this goes into my previous of being in little echo chambers - but the majority of people I know on here didn't buy a PS4 for Fifa or CoD, nor do I see many of the people on my friendslist playing them

 

Funnily enough, people who frequent a gaming message board every day are unlikely to be casual gamers, and so are similarly unlikely to be the ones who buy a PS4 for a couple of games and not much else.

 

You might play a decent number of games, but there'll be plenty others that don't. Those that just pick up Mario, Mario Kart and Smash.

 

Then yes, those that pick up 3 titles on a platform and play nothing else are likely to be casual gamers. Hence my point.

[Sheikah]

@Ronnie would you call EVE online players who only play EVE, with Microsoft excel open to track their objectives, casual players? They're only playing the one game.

[Kav]

Of course you ignored the part I've just bolded though @Ronnie

[Ronnie]

@Ronnie would you call EVE online players who only play EVE, with Microsoft excel open to track their objectives, casual players? They're only playing the one game.

 

If they didn't play any other video game apart from Eve then yes, I would call them hardcore EVE Online players first, casual gamers second.

 

Just as I would call someone who played Wii Sports every day for a year and nothing else a hardcore Wii Sports player, but a casual gamer. Ditto Candy Crush.

 

It's more than a casual interest in gaming at this point.

 

It's more than a casual interest in that one particular game, yes. It's total indifference to the rest of the gaming industry and the millions of games at their disposal, of which they have no desire to play.

[Pestneb]

Yeah.. seems bezarre to call it casual. Casual in my mind is how I game on my phone.. on the odd occassion I might open a game, play 3 minutes and that's it. I've had two such sessions over the last 5 years that I recall. It is very casual.

 

As for my Wii U, I sink hours into it each week, but tbh I've only played splatoon with the odd mk8 session thanks to the league - but if the mk8 league didn't exist I would only be playing splatoon. My time on splatoon is in no way casual - even if does represent 90% of my gaming time week in week out.

Just because you don't like a game, or a game is played by a lot of people (by which standard surely Splatoon and MK8 are the most casual games on the Wii U, right?) doesn't make people who play it casual gamers... it makes them gamers with main stream tastes/tastes that don't match up to your own....

 

But fine, I'm a casual gamer in your definition obviously, as I don't own a PS4/X1 and have a total indifference even to the majority of the game library that is available to me on the Wii U...

[Rummy]

Of course you ignored the part I've just bolded though @Ronnie

 

And of course only part quoted my point and ignored the 5 examples of non-regular N-E members I mentioned, as well as discounting himself. I think it's clear where this 'conversation' is going - pretty much nowhere and yet wildly off the already off topic as half the points are ignored

 

Didn't we have some sort of casual vs hardcore thread somewhere before anyway?

[Ronnie]

Just because you don't like a game, or a game is played by a lot of people doesn't make people who play it casual gamers... it makes them gamers with main stream tastes/tastes that don't match up to your own....

 

What are you talking about? This has nothing to do with my personal tastes in games?

 

I define a casual gamer as someone who either spends very little time playing games, or plays very few titles and nothing else. Neither of those two examples have any interest in the gaming industry as a whole, like hardcore gamers such as those who frequent message boards like this, do.

 

And of course only part quoted my point and ignored the 5 examples of non-regular N-E members I mentioned, as well as discounting himself. I think it's clear where this 'conversation' is going - pretty much nowhere and yet wildly off the already off topic as half the points are ignored

 

Didn't we have some sort of casual vs hardcore thread somewhere before anyway?

 

Sorry for not replying to your point that you know 5 non forum members who bought a PS4 for more than 2 games.

[Rummy]

I think ultimately it's very clear that you're just exceptionally hardcore at being casual @Pestneb. Or maybe exceptionally casual at being hardcore? Either way, it's very clear.

 

VERY.

CLEAR.

 

(also that totes made me think of this webcomic about type As and Bs)

[Ronnie]

So by this message board's definition, those who sunk hundreds of hours into Wii Sports, Nintendogs or Candy Crush and nothing else, aren't casual gamers? Interesting.

 

A very OTT response to me suggesting those who buy a PS4 just to play one or two games are casual gamers. I somewhat doubt I would have got the same reaction if I'd suggested some people bought a Wii for a couple of games only are casual.

 

A mate of mine did just that a couple of years ago, bought a PS4 just to play GTA and FIFA, and he doesn't really use it for anything else. I would in no way call him a gamer.

[Pestneb]

What are you talking about? This has nothing to do with my personal tastes in games?

 

I define a casual gamer as someone who either spends very little time playing games, or plays very few titles and nothing else. Neither of those two examples have any interest in the gaming industry as a whole, like hardcore gamers such as those who frequent message boards like this, do.

 

 

 

So I am a casual gamer, as I play splatoon and a tiny bit of MK8, right?

yet I frequent these boards and have an interest in the gaming industry as a whole....

 

As way of demonstrating how casual I am

September: Splatoon: 54 hours, Mario Kart 8: 2 hours.

August:Splatoon: 85 hours, Mario Kart: 3 hours.

July: Splatoon: 18 hours, Mario Kart 3 hours.

June: Splatoon: 24 hours.

 

So in 4 months I played 181 hours of Splatoon and 8 hours of mario kart. Not very diverse at all.And I haven't neglected other games in my list... (not counting art academy or wii fit as games)

Edited September 27, 2016 by Pestneb

[Ronnie]

So I am a casual gamer, as I play splatoon and a tiny bit of MK8, right?

yet I frequent these boards and have an interest in the gaming industry as a whole....

 

You've never played anything else? Literally no other game on any platform ever apart from Splatoon and MK8?

[Rummy]

As far as I'm aware "this message board's definition" doesn't exist in such a context and has led to this current discussion as the point/view was trying to be clarified. I think as time has shown, the definition of the lines of hardcore/casual etc have been and probably always will be rather blurred especially in a constantly changing landscape of gaming. Plus a lack of any solid or official decision - what authority exists to make it?

 

Mostly due to all of that, I don't like the terms of words. They do have a place sometimes, but often it's a difficult line to draw. Would I consider someone who's playing 100+ hours of Candy Crush a month on a consistent basis casual? Probably not. Someone who's playing something closer to 10-30 hours? Maybe so. I don't think the game in particular should matter, rather more the gamer's intents and passions etc. Yet whilst I say that - Candy Crush does pop into my head as more 'casual' than most things you'd find on a console. Would this have been the same 10, 20, 30 years ago? Was there a point where the real hardcore would have been PC gamers as opposed to console gamers, or handheld gamers? Inb4 PCMR.

 

What of someone putting in the same amount of time as the 'hardcore' candy crusher; but across 10-20 different games? Of course Ronnie did address that earlier in calling them 'hardcore' in terms of the games, but casual on the more general level - but that's exactly the problem really. It's saying they're essentially both and keeping them lines blurred! Saying GAF's hardcore; does that imply we are or we aren't? It's all just too binary.

 

 

 

(Also totes for the record if this was anywhere else I'd be saying for it to be getting more back on topic than it currently is - but with lack of NX news for discussion it's a bit difficult and I can see a tangential relevance to it in terms of market etc; depending on how/where it goes)

Edited September 27, 2016 by Rummy

[Pestneb]

You've never played anything else? Literally no other game on any platform ever apart from Splatoon and MK8?

 

So if when I was 5 I played chuckie egg on the dragon 32, I can be hardcore?

 

looking at dictionary definitions, casual as a noun =

a person who does something irregularly.

 

By that definition, a casual gamer, by my understanding, would be someone who doesn't regularly play games.

 

Your definition seems to be including diversity into the equation. I really enjoy splatoon at the moment, but if all my friends only played CoD or FIFA, I would be playing those games instead. Personally for me it is the playing together element that is more important than the game really, although yes there is a minimum level of quality I demand for a game in order for me to enjoy it!

 

I think "mainstream" might be a better term for what you are trying to define, because games like FIFA and CoD are regularly top sellers in their generations. Something us Nintendo only fans haven't been able to be this generation :P

 

So.. NX should be announced around the time I go on holiday I hear...

[Kav]

What we're trying to say @Ronnie, is that it's not how many games the person is buying that makes them casual or not. It's the amount of time they're investing in the games themselves... and still doing so!

 

It'd be casual of them to play a bit and then not play for a while, but they're playing the games a hell of a lot. There's nothing casual about it.

 

EDIT: there we go, @Pestneb with the definition of the word itself. Now do you get what we're meaning?

[Glen-i]

It'd be casual of them to play a bit and then not play for a while, but they're playing the games a hell of a lot. There's nothing casual about it.

 

That's exactly it. In fact, I have a perfect example of a casual gamer in my family in the form of my little sister. She plays games now and again, but never more than an hour at a time. She'd probably play about half an hour of some game she thinks she'll enjoy, not touch it for about a week, and then do the same thing at a random point for no real reason other than she just felt like it.

 

In fact, despite her having her own DSi, I don't even think she's spent more than 10 hours on one particular game. (With the exception of Pokemon Black, which Big Brother Kecleon got her for Christmas, she loved it and finished it, she was so excited once she caught her Reshiram, really put a smile on my face seeing that.)

 

Now that's a casual gamer.

[Sheikah]

If they didn't play any other video game apart from Eve then yes, I would call them hardcore EVE Online players first, casual gamers second.

 

Just as I would call someone who played Wii Sports every day for a year and nothing else a hardcore Wii Sports player, but a casual gamer. Ditto Candy Crush.

 

Herein lies the problem; your criteria are ridiculous.

 

A person who hardcore plays EVE Online and nothing else is not a casual gamer.

[Ronnie]

A person who hardcore plays EVE Online and nothing else is not a casual gamer.

 

I disagree.

[Serebii]

Casual games. Hardcore games. That's just the selfish perception of people. True gamers play their favourites.

[Kav]

It must simply be that Ronnie doesn't actually comprehend the meaning of the word casual.

[Sheikah]

I disagree.

 

Why? Someone who is casual about something does not take it seriously. They are your Wii gamers who bought a cheap Wii and played the games while they held their interest and it was the in thing, then they moved on to other things when times changed. They're probably the people playing on mobile games right now.

 

A person can be a hardcore gamer even if they play just one game, so long as they are significantly invested in it. In fact, they can be so invested in it that they have little time for anything else.

 

The idea that they need to play some arbitrary number of games to be considered hardcore gamers is very silly.

 

We can complain all we like about labelling people but it's very easy in my view to differentiate people with very different interests and approaches to gaming. Neither is right or wrong, just different.

[Goafer]

I probably have more games and consoles that any of you here (probably more Nintendo consoles than most people here too), so I think I can speak with the highest authority when I say you're all twats.

 

As you were. #ivorytower #filthycasuals

Edited September 27, 2016 by Goafer

[Serebii]

I probably have more games and consoles that any of you here (probably more Nintendo consoles than most people here too), so I think I can speak with the highest authority when I say you're all twats.

 

As you were.

 

Pssh. Lies

[Goafer]

Pssh. Lies

 

Do handhelds count?

[bob]

I have twelve Gamecubes in a pillowcase by my bed.