In Defense of the Casual Gamer

By Samantha Tynes

As a whole, I like to think that us nerds and geeks are pretty accepting of each other. We recognize and respect that everyone has their own flavor of nerd. Yeah, we do break off into mini-groups to celebrate our favorites, but we always come back together for things that are important. Like bad movie adaptations or banding together to protect the less socially-accepted subcultures of our group from the “normals”. But there is one sub-group within the nerd culture that still has a lot of haters.

The Guild is © Knights of Good Productions (watch here).

Casual gamers.

When players are accused of being “casual,” the connotation is nearly always negative. As if they are less worthy of being included, like they lack some fundamental aspect of being a nerd. Some feel that casuals don’t even qualify as nerds or geeks in the first place. Casual gamers are treated as impostors in gamerdom. They are talked down to, teased, raged at, and trolled relentlessly.

Thankfully, this attitude is mostly confined to video games (I’m looking at you, comic geeks). You will be hard pressed to find this sort of behavior in things like miniatures gaming, or tabletops. Even if you don’t pump in as many hours as the most hardcore of participants, it’s implied that these hobbies already require a certain level of dedication to be involved in the first place.

When serious board game geeks are faced with the incredibly casual player or newcomer, I have very, very rarely seen any of them sink into that blind rage that flows freely through League of Legends forums and PMs. I have been witness to and participated in countless chats about board games when people find out I play. “Oh, you mean like Monopoly?” “No, more like Risk. But with better rules and more pieces.” These conversations usually end with “Here, let me show you,” rather than the “Lrn2play! GDIAF!” and obscenities shouted over Mumbles and Ventrillo servers.

A long, long time ago, in a basement far, far away, I was a hardcore raider.

Artifact Gear > Sleep (image by Glenn Batuyong)
World of Warcraft logo, etc. © Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

I played World of Warcraft for years. Hours and hours of my life dedicated to crafting and leveling and striving for that last piece of armor or epic weapon that would help bring my DPS to #1 on the meters. I spent the evenings when my guild wasn’t raiding optimizing my rotation, practicing timing to the tenth of a second, playing with specs and talent combinations, and doing far too much math to eke out an extra hundred or so more points of damage.

At some point I realized that serious raiding had become a second job (EVE players, you know what I’m talking about). It was probably after I had yelled at my roommates to get off the internet because I was raiding. They were eating up my bandwidth and I couldn't deal with those lag spikes - I was a little busy. I no longer had the endurance or willpower to play a game for hours on end every night to get that little bit of progress. It doesn’t scream “fun” to me like it used to (if I ever, really, called it “fun”). Video games are supposed to be fun. They’re a way that people choose to relax and take a break from the real world.

By no means am I saying that serious or hardcore gamers aren’t having fun, or that they’re doing it wrong. It just wasn’t my thing anymore.

Yes, overall, casual games are could be called fluffy. As a genre, they’re games that you can pick up for a little while, put back down, and come back weeks later and not have missed much or gotten behind. There aren’t usually steep learning curves or complicated sequences to follow. There isn’t a right way or a wrong way to play them. You just.. do it.   But if a game has a “casual” label slapped on, it does not always mean that it can’t be complex or time consuming. I’ve met grannies that are more of a hardcore gamer than I am. Seriously, FarmVille can get to be some involved, time consuming shit.

A valid point, Gabe. If these invites to Candy Crush Saga are any proof.
(Penny Arcade © Penny Arcade Inc, Mike Krahulik, and Jerry Holkins)

Casual gamers can and do play regular games. They play League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, DOTA 2, whatever. Unfortunately, sometimes they don’t stick around long enough to learn and enjoy, being yelled at for being in the wrong lane or standing in the poison or not knowing the intricacies of their chosen player character.

“But Sam,” you say, “They’re playing it wrong and we shouldn’t have to lose because they’re newbies! They must pay and be shamed for upsetting my win ratio!” Don’t do it. Don’t give in to the inner troll. If you’re playing and you see your teammate is in the wrong lane or blatantly using units wrong a la caster tank, give them a helping hand. “Hey, I see you are doing x. Try doing y instead.” They aren’t doing it on purpose, they just haven’t learned yet. And being on the receiving end of an angry tirade is not the most conducive to learning better.

At best, alienating new players will rid your RTS and battle arena games of inexperienced players and discourage newbies to come in and foul things up. It will also stagnate your player base and competition. And isn’t improving the challenge what it’s all about? So be nice to the casuals and newbies. Let them have their few hours of gaming to have fun their way.

Geeks and gamers are a community, and we are only as good as our worst parts. One of the most exciting things is finding someone new who is just getting started in your interests. However, if the anti-newb gamer stereotype persists, fresh players will stop coming. So you may get to enjoy going the SWTOR free-to-play route, and enjoy your servers being flooded with literally millions of new players.

Oh, and one last note, if you still think casual games are a waste of time keep in mind that Tetris is being used to help prevent PTSD in veterans.