Nurb said:
Casual games are Bejeweled, the farm game on facebook, and stuff like that... people who play games casually, not like the people who own systems and keep up on the latest sequel to a long running francise. Your aunt playing farmville on facebook is a casual gamer, and I don't think she'd sit down to blast through Halo 4.
You're looking for the term "lowest common denominator", which is the fratboy demographic
No, you're wrong. I'm a casual gamer. I spend less than an average hour a day gaming, I own fewer than 30 games. I don't play multiplayer. I'm your middle-aged facebooking mom's age and gender.
But I'm not a casual Halo fan-- I own all the novels, collector edition for two of the games, read fanfic (and would write it, if I were a bit less incredibly lazy), have played up to my body's tolerance of difficulty and keep playing and playing these games.
Don't equate casual in gaming terms with casual in fannish terms, they're two totally different axes. Hell, the biggest Halo lore geek I know *has never played the games*, just watched them played by her husband, who loves the multiplayer and couldn't give a damn about the story.
Now, on to the game... 343i, you walk among landmines, so step carefully. I'm also a Star Wars fan, so I know what it is to love a franchise and be badly burned by it. Has to be familiar enough to fit but innovative enough to matter-- hard road to walk, but I'm with the "fresh eyes could be good" people. I also think DS9 was the best Star Trek and KOTOR and NJO were the Star Wars I waited decades for, so I'm not without my biases when it comes to franchise reboots.
I remain optimistic until proven otherwise. I think it's overall a fairly well-handled franchise lore-wise, a few bungles but nowhere near as bad as SW. I've always thought this world had a ton of untapped worldbuilding potential, and I've been wanting that damn H3 cliffhanger resolved since I played it. Just fix Cortana, please. If you kill her off, I won't be happy.