Guild Wars 2

The rage you see here is equivalent to some people who play a three on three pickup game down at the schoolyard. Most just enjoy playing while getting a bit of a work out but there are a few who think they are in the NBA finals and their team is down by two. They are the ones who yell at the players on their own team for not taking this seriously and doing hard fouls.

Remember, gaming is serious business.

LoneWolfie.1852:

Seems like someone needs an infraction. I suggest you take a trip to the nearest anger management counselor. And the definition of casual, you need to go read it up.

Casual Gamer. Taking the two literal definitions and putting them together:

“A relaxed and unconcerned person who plays a game or games, typically a participant in a computer or role-playing game.”

Now there’s a bit of a grey area here. What does it mean to be a casual gamer? Does this mean you are not allowed to have any concern at all for the game which you are playing? If this is the case, I submit there is no such thing as a casual gamer… or that the only “game” that would support this definition wouldn’t really be a “game” at all.

The game would have to have no objectives, no goals. No motivation to accomplish anything. I cannot think of any way this could be done. It would seem you would need to remove all player interaction all together.

Are you starting to see the vagueness now?

Maybe not.. so let’s continue.

We can be a little more interpretative with the definition.

“A person who plays a game or games, typically a participant in a computer or role-playing game and is generally relaxed and unconcerned about the outcome.”

Ah ha.. now we’re getting somewhere. So now you can play all sorts of games, but the end result doesn’t really matter. You play Guild Wars 2 once in a while. You like killing things but don’t really focus on if you’re in the right area, whether you’re doing quests, or what your equipment is like. Usually due to the level of involvement required with MMORPG’s you won’t see these types of people in the game. They’re usually off playing bejeweled or FarmVille (I’ve never played that so maybe it’s more involved than I think).

Let’s take it another step further.

“A person who plays a game or games, typically a participant in a computer or role-playing game and is generally relaxed and unconcerned about the specific mechanics.”

And here we see probably the most common used definition of the term, the one that seems to have eluded you. Admittedly, I did structure this definition to apply specifically to the discussion, but I believe it remains valid. The concern of a casual gamer excludes only the specific core mechanics of the game. The casual gamer of this definition will not bother to look up specific builds or guides and probably wont be doing any calculations to find out just how much magic find you have. This does not mean they cannot have an interest in the community or the overall sate of the game and how it is evolving.

I hope this helps bridge the gap between your comprehension and the rest of the community.

Cheers!

Calae.1738:

Hardcore players care about game mechanics. They write guides, analyze data, provide feedback, create spreadsheets and make videos for the community to see.
Casual players turn on the game in the same way they turn on a TV or a radio. They use it for their enjoyment and then turn it off when they don’t need it.

People who are vocal about the game actually care about the game; even if their arguments are irrational. Their opinions and feedback matter. Why? Because casual players don’t care.

Casual players don’t post on forums. Don’t talk with others on voip, don’t type anything in chat, don’t write guides, don’t find exploits, don’t abuse game mechanics, don’t provide feedback and just generally don’t care about pretty much anything.

You are one of those poor people that thinks that “hardcore” > casual, and that they must be more “dedicated” (or worse, “more skilled”) than casuals. Sorry, but you are not better than anyone because you can play the game more. The casual also cares for the game, perhaps even more than many “hardcore” players.

By your logic only “hardcore” feeback should be heed, because casuals aren’t dedicated enough to care about any changes. But if they wouls start to cater ONLY to the “hardcore” players, you will hear the complaints forever and many casuals will leave.

There’s a false dichotomy between casual and hardcore-none is necessarily better than the other, is more dedicated, plays the game more “the right way”, nor necessarily knows the game better. Math spreadsheet tables are good and everything, but they don’t make that player superior than the casual.

http://www.cnn.com.sg/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/17/finishing.videogames.snow/index.html

Here’s an example.

And it’s not just dull games that go unfinished. Critically acclaimed ones do, too. Take last year’s “Red Dead Redemption.” You might think Rockstar’s gritty Western would be played more than others, given the praise it enjoyed, but you’d be wrong.

Only 10% of avid gamers completed the final mission, according to Raptr, which tracks more than 23 million gaming sessions.

Let that sink in for a minute: Of every 10 people who started playing the consensus “Game of the Year,” only one of them finished it.

Let me just put it this way. Casual players hardly finish a game. If you think I was pulling some dictionary term without any number support…

Passive aggressive people are fun.

LoneWolfie.1852:

Zacchary.6183:

Calae.1738:

People who are vocal about the game actually care about the game; even if their arguments are irrational. Their opinions and feedback matter. Why? *Because casual players don’t care.

Casual players don’t post on forums. Don’t talk with others on voip, don’t type anything in chat, don’t write guides, don’t find exploits, don’t abuse game mechanics, don’t provide feedback and just generally don’t care about pretty much anything.*

If we met face-to-face, I would put you in the hospital for that comment. I am a casual player and I actually care about this game. I want to see this game work so well that every boast that they’ve made towards this game is true and real. One of the factors that help make this game amazing is the community but that is by a long shot because the recent generation of gamers is comprised of alot of Hardcore.

I could say this same comment about these Hardcore gamers because they are the ones who try to convince everyone that MMOs are about PvP more than the main game. They are the ones who only care about THEIR status in the game and will ruin it to fulfill their own agenda. They will step on people just to get better scores.there might be some Hardcore that care but most of Hardcore only care about themselves.

Seems like someone needs an infraction. I suggest you take a trip to the nearest anger management counselor. And the definition of casual, you need to go read it up.

LoneWolfie.1852:

http://www.cnn.com.sg/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/17/finishing.videogames.snow/index.html

Here’s an example.

And it’s not just dull games that go unfinished. Critically acclaimed ones do, too. Take last year’s “Red Dead Redemption.” You might think Rockstar’s gritty Western would be played more than others, given the praise it enjoyed, but you’d be wrong.

Only 10% of avid gamers completed the final mission, according to Raptr, which tracks more than 23 million gaming sessions.

Let that sink in for a minute: Of every 10 people who started playing the consensus “Game of the Year,” only one of them finished it.

Let me just put it this way. Casual players hardly finish a game. If you think I was pulling some dictionary term without any number support…

The “casual players” I know just take way . . . WAY . . . longer to finish games than “hardcore players”. Or, for some strange reason, they push through on a weekend and do the bare minimum to complete the game and see the end. No 100% completion, no extra achievements unless they’re just hanging there for the taking.

There’s a casual player I know who still hasn’t finished Star Control 2 (the re-release on open source that is). And that game’s hella old.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

The “casual players” I know just take way . . . WAY . . . longer to finish games than “hardcore players”. Or, for some strange reason, they push through on a weekend and do the bare minimum to complete the game and see the end. No 100% completion, no extra achievements unless they’re just hanging there for the taking.

There’s a casual player I know who still hasn’t finished Star Control 2 (the re-release on open source that is). And that game’s hella old.

I have dozens of games I haven’t finished. And others, like various Civilization games, that don’t really have an ending, because every session is different. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy playing them, just that at some point I reached an area I couldn’t progress beyond or got distracted by other things, and just never got back to it.

Nowadays if I want to see the ending(s) to a game I can look it up on Youtube. Hey, one weekend when I was really bored at work I even watched an ENTIRE playthrough of God of War II (or was it III?). It was more fun to watch than to actually play the game.