I finished a book recently about casual games. A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players. It had lots of interesting stuff in it, including how casual gamers are different from the "casual gamer stereotype," plus some trends in the industry and interviews with casual game developers.

Here's a sample of some of the ideas in it:

What Distinguishes Casual Games

1. They tend to have more positive fictions (they don't tend to have fictional universes involving war or science fiction)

2. They have useable designs so new players don't have to spend time learning complex gaming conventions/commands for each game

3. They are "juicy" -- they give frequent positive feedback

4. They are easily interruptible so that the gamer can get back to real life

5. They do not force the gamer to repeat identical sections of the game -- they are much less "punishing" than hardcore games -- gamers don't have to do a lot of rote learning or constantly replay exactly the same sequence of events to finally achieve victory -- even if the gamer does make several attempts at a specific "level," the sequence replayed is often something slightly different each time

6. Overall, they are more flexible

Another idea from the book that explains something I've wondered about concerning hardcore games -- repetition, death, and dying became a standard part of hardcore PC and console games because these games have roots in the old arcade games, where an incentive had to be provided to make the gamer keep putting tokens in the machine -- making frequent failure lucrative for the game developers/arcade owners.

I was just curious if anyone else has read the book, and what they thought of it if so.

In regards to your first point, the few times that a darker toned or more mature themed casual came out, there is always an outburst of sorts of shock that a casual would do that. Even the majority of casual gamers feel they should not involve a grim theme. I for one have enjoyed the "darker" games when they came out, it gives a new flavor to the games.

Ana

I haven't read the book but it sounds interesting. I tend to play casual games for the reasons you listed Becky. I do like adventure games but often have trouble doing action sequences and I don't like the dark themes. Thanks for sharing about the book, I'll have to look for it.
Kathy

I think I started playing Casual games when I didn't have any Adventure games to play, then when an AG would come along, I would put down the Casual stuff and play the adventure. Now, I sometimes find myself putting down or waiting to play an adventure game until I have finished a Casual game. I really don't know where I belong at the moment...and it is sometimes moment to moment that I decide on which to play. I must admit though that I have been spoiled by some casual games that then for a short while take away my pleasure on Casual so I go back and play an old adventure game that I have loved, but NOT picking up a new adventure game that I own.

Good topic Becky, thanks for bringing it to our attention...

Jody :winter:

Hi Becky,
I haven't read the book, but its title is very interesting. A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players just happens to be exactly where my mind is going these days. I keep reading all those thoughts about adventure games just not measuring up to the good golden oldies these days and some seem to be even thinking that maybe the adventure genre is doomed, to put it in harsher words than they actually use. The idea seems to be that we need to encourage game makers and developers to make more adventure games and encourage new gamers to play them. I don't really see this as ever happening though. What I think will happen in the future is for casual-type games to get more adventure-like and find new players for adventure that way. In other words, not so much a revolution as an evolution of the adventure game/genre into something that more and more players will enjoy and play and buy!

I see myself as a died-in-the-wool adventure gamer first and forever, but I also like casual games that have adventure elements in them. I think it wouldn't be too farfetched for both type of games, casual and adventure, to sort of merge together with the best of both in one game and more gamers enjoying them. It will, in the long run, depend on what the young players decide they like and will support, rather than us old-timers.

Very well said, Sierra. Thinking back may not be the way to go...whereas with newer players AND us oldies who are not "satisfied" or who have turned to casual games to fill the void between, might find a new genre made up of a combination that would, at the very least, satisfy and would be economically more feasible for the developers and producers.

Thanks for adding that dimension to the thoughts.

Jody

Thank you, Jody, I certainly appreciate your comments on this.

Thanks too to you, Becky, for bringing this subject up as I have been thinking about this for some time. Bringing up the book made some of my thinking clearer to me. That was very interesting about how action, console games have their roots in the arcade games. I never saw that conection but it explains a lot.

I find the ideas in the book most interesting. I'm relatively recent to adventure games - 2004 I think it was - and very new to casual games - only 2 months ago.
My experience, therefore, is limited but from the glitches forum I have become increasingly aware that even experienced computer users with reasonably specced computers are having to jump through the most extraordinary hoops to get modern adventure games to play properly.
We are all having to become computer whizz kids.
Playing the casual games is a much less nerve-racking experience, much more akin to when I first started playing adventure games when you just put the disk in the drive and the game played.
Some of these casual games are every bit as challenging to play from a puzzle point of view as the large file adventure games. But they seem to play seamlessly and the saves are automatic.
Their stories are becoming increasingly sophisticated to rival those of large file games.

I do feel that the Adventure game developers have adopted a rather cavalier attitude to the playability of their games in recent years, with myriad glitches and specification demands that are way ahead of what most adventure gamers can cope with easily on their computers.
I think the genre could die and be overtaken by the casual games unless the developers wake up to this.
Personally I think it would be a shame if the two genres merged completely. The hybrid is likely to be not as good as the two seperate elements (when those elements are operating at their best).

I think it was in one of the interviews in the book, it was mentioned that many casual gamers play the games with their children or their grandchildren, which partly explains why they prefer positive fictions. But I suspect that, as the casual game audience grows, games with darker themes will become somewhat more common.



We're already seeing something of this fusion -- I've played partway in to Return to Ravenhearst and Drawn and the Dream Chronicles, and in those games the two genres are merging to some extent. I agree that younger people are the future, but we more "mature" players are going to have a huge influence too, just because of sheer numbers, time to play games and our willingness and ability to buy them.



Hardcore adventure developers are more likely, I think, to take risks and to push the boundaries of what the genre and what the hardware can do -- I think we're seeing that in games like Dark Fall: Lost Souls and Memento Mori, for instance. We need that too, or games will stagnate. What I see in a place like Big Fish is a stronger emphasis on really getting out the glitches than I see in more traditional publishers -- who place their disk versions in brick and mortar stores -- maybe because the portals like Big Fish want their customers to purchase from them continuously!

Hmm, before a game can be sold, it has to be made, and there's Jane Jensen, a legend for the Gabe Knight series, with Gray Matter being a work in progress. Except where is the progress? Jane Jensen seems to be busier making casual games instead and very good ones too, I might add. In the meantime adventure-only gamers have to go on waiting, give up, or add casual games to their list of games to play! I don't like waiting and I'm not giving up, so I'm not only going casual gaming, but also NintendoDS-ing. I might be too busy when Gray Matter is finally released, what irony. However, that's why I think the trend is toward some kind of a merging of the two types, thereby attracting more gamers who like mixing the old and the new. The story and interactive adventure parts making one work to solve puzzles, while the hidden object parts give one a time to relax while seeking the inventory part needed to get on with the game. For adventure gamers that will be the *new* and for casual gamers the story and interaction will be their *new*!

After reading the first few pages, I am about to order this book.

Are there any other adventure gaming books out there worth the read for someone whose main association with the word "code" is Mr. Morse's invention?

8dog -- the book is more about casual games, and mentions adventure games only a couple of times.

As for books about adventure games -- if there are any, I'd be curious to hear about them too.

There are a couple of books out about game writing by designers who have designed adventure games: Character Development and Storytelling for Games by Lee Sheldon and Writing for Video Games by Steve Ince.