Mainstream =/= Casual

[4RM3D]

Gaming has changed a lot the past decade. It went from a boy's past time to a full family experience. Gaming has expanded, diversified and evolved. Also the gaming business has grown more serious and competitive for the AAA segment, while simultaneously it has become more open for indie developers.

A lot of game studios are eager to go mainstream. It's logical, from a financial standpoint, that studios want as big an income as possible. This standpoint will most likely impact the design decisions of the game. I often hear that in order to go mainstream you have to make your game (more) casual. Which let to the notion for some that mainstream = casual. I believe this to be false.

First my interpretation of the definitions:
Mainstream: trying to reach as large an audience as possible.
Casual: making a game as easy and as accessible as possible.

I see 'mainstream' as a target audience, while 'casual' is a tool to reach such an audience.

Which leads to my first question: What do you think mainstream and casual means?

Making games more casual is probably most often used to reach the mainstream. But there are plenty more options to choose from.

Making games more casual seems to leave a bad after taste. Because of the (perceived) negative impact this has on the game design. This does not always have to be the case. For example Fallout 3 had a very good tutorial. You were immediately pulled in the game, but the game's mechanics were still explained in easy to understand bits. This doesn't mean the game has become more casual and that you are being spoon-fed. It just means the game has been made more accessible. A small, but important difference. It beats reading a 100 page manual before you can control your character.

Of course not all games handle these design issues as well and then it's easy lay blame because the studio went 'too mainstream'. But this is turning a blind eye to the deeper, underlying problem. But that is a tale for another time.

My other question: What do you think when a game is going mainstream or when it's going casual?
Or to put it differently: Have games become less the past few years, because they went mainstream?

 

[veloper]

OP's not very different from how I understand these terms.
Mainstream is intended for broad appeal. A mainstream game is often core (for the core gamer audience), which isn't the same thing as hardcore.
A casual game is accessible and simple. The game can have a high skill ceiling, but often does not. Casual doesn't have to imply mainstream. I understand casual as to mean even more accessible to a non-gamer than a shooter like Modern Warfare would be.

I view any big departure from a previous concept within an established game series merely for the purpose of attracting a different audience, as a betrayal to the old fanbase.

 

[TehCookie]

Mainstream is popular, while casual is simple. A game can be both mainstream and casual or one or the other, and neither is inherently bad.

If a game is going mainstream or casual I will hate it for that. Is it so hard to create new games than change existing ones pissing off the fanbase? I play all sorts of games, so I like having my "hardcore" games along with mainstream and casual ones.

Games have changed drastically since they went mainstream, that seems to be why people now distinguish AAA games, ones going for mainstream appeal, as their own category. Casual is now a genre, back in the PS1 days I said I was a casual gamer since I played games casually (and didn't care about that whole hardcore/having to prove myself as a gamer thing). So while it did have a huge impact on gaming, but I don't see how it made gaming any worse. It's more diverse, you can still find games that are like older ones as well. Then gamers will complain about dated overly complex gameplay... they just like to complain.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Which leads to my first question: What do you think mainstream and casual means?

Mainstream means that the game appeals to a larger audience and is well-known. This isn't due to some conscious effort by a company, regardless of their desires to be mainstream, but is instead something that simply happens to a game. There might be certain qualities that aid a game in becoming mainstream, but that doesn't mean that having those qualities automatically makes a game mainstream.

Casual means that it is simple in design. It is something the developers are going for, and the community's reaction and dedication to it has no bearing on it being considered casual, because it simply refers to the way the game is designed.

My other question: What do you think when a game is going mainstream or when it's going casual?

As far as casual games are concerned, I don't have anything against them, but I don't like them. I also don't think it is possible to really make a game in an already established series "casual" unless that franchise was already casual to begin with, or unless it is just a spin-off game that has no bearing on the main series. Consequently, I never concern myself about whether or not a game is going casual, just whether or not a game is becoming more streamlined, but that's not part of the current topic, so I won't go into that further.

As for mainstream, again, I don't have anything against mainstream games. Sure, I don't play them very much, but that doesn't mean I won't play a mainstream game if I like it. The only time I really have an issue with it is if the developers are trying to make the game mainstream, as, like I said above, becoming mainstream is outside of their control, so all they're really doing is betraying their fanbase while not even guaranteeing they'll get the fanbase they're trying to get. Mainstream games also have the tendency to become more and more streamlined in the negative way, but that doesn't always have to be the case.

 

[suntt123]

Hmmm... If mainstream games were casual, would that make "hardcore" gamers hipsters?
OT:
Which leads to my first question: What do you think mainstream and casual means?
Mainstream simply means that a majority people like or have access to the thing is question.

Casual means to be easy going, relaxed or unstressed.
In the context of gaming, casual would just mean easy games. Those that don't require a lot of skill or effort.

My other question: What do you think when a game is going mainstream or when it's going casual?

If the game's quality dips for no other reason than to try to cater to the majority of people, that's bad.
If the quality does not suffer for it, then there's nothing wrong with going mainstream or casual.

Neither "casual" nor "mainstream" are bad in any sense, including gaming. If the game is still fun, and if people like it, why should I knock on it for being widespread or easy?

Animal Crossing can probably be considered both these things. Personally, I'm not too fond of the game, though I see the appeal.

 

[Tom_green_day]

I see mainstream as something popular to a wide amount of people, regardless of what it is. CoD, FIFA, Skyrim. These all proved mainstream by selling well.
I see casual as 'non hard-core' gamers. I'd consider myself casual- I play games like Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, Bethesda games, CoD, Borderlands. No hardcore RPGs or things that would be considered 'geek culture'.
I think it varies in attitude as well. Most people on this website, probably quite a few being hard-core gamers, subscribe to a limited list of beliefs, such as the beliefs that all MMS are generic, or EA is inherently bad, or Xbox One is a bad console. Being the casual I am, I love EA and think the Xbox One is pretty awesome, and think that it is fantasy games that are becoming the most generic.

 

[Vegosiux]

Oh. These words again. *weary sigh, pulls up a soap box*

"Mainstream" is indeed what publishers mean when they say "broader appeal". It's the stuff that reaches most of the market, and thanks to the human psychology, such stuff has to often cater to the lowest common denominator.

"Casual" is just a word though. A game is a game is a game, the difference between games is genre, not "casual/hardcore". I mean, check this guy for instance. [www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3dqWt1AkMk] Never again will you say that Bejeweled is a "casual" game. Then you have my brother-in-law who just goes giggly into Dark Souls and gets himself killed in a few hilarious ways and calls it a day while laughing his ass off - indeed, he's using Dark Souls as a quick comedy relief.

"Casual/hardcore" is mostly attitude, not design. That's not how games are made, it's how they're played. And let me make one thing perfectly clear.

"How games are played" does not equal "how games are supposed to be played". There is no "how it's supposed to be played" in gaming. All you're "supposed to" do with a game is whatever you damn well please.

 

[4RM3D]

"Casual/hardcore" is mostly attitude, not design. That's not how games are made, it's how they're played. And let me make one thing perfectly clear.

"How games are played" does not equal "how games are supposed to be played". There is no "how it's supposed to be played" in gaming. All you're "supposed to" do with a game is whatever you damn well please.

That's another way to look at it. It's quite an interesting view.

 

[JazzJack2]

Games have soured to unprecedented popularity in recent years, if you told me ten years ago that kids would be singled out by their peers for NOT playing video Games I would have laughed in your face and yet here we are in the situation where pretty much every thirteen year old plays call of duty and it's considered weird not to. Frankly I think this has been nothing but a detriment to the quality of modern games, look how once great series have trashed themselves chasing the mainstream audience. You only need to look to games like Skyrim, Battlefield 3 and Bioshock Infinite to see the damage that this surge in popularity has done.

 

[windlenot]

Yes, this. I like this distinction, or the necessity of the distinction. Call of Duty is mainstream. They're developed in a way that will have mass appeal, which they do. Casual is more like Bloons. Simple to learn, not too deep, but is (usually) designed to be played based on the addictive nature of the simple game mechanics.