Gaming Blog

Casual Games

Casual Games Heart Social Networking

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casual gamer
No one can deny it – social networking sites are one of the most popular things on the Internet today. Heck, even the head of my company has a Facebook account! In fact, he got one way before I got mine! Indeed, social networking sites are something else AND casual gaming companies are not slow to catch on to that fact.

We all know that casual games are not in anyway losing momentum with gamers. From age 5 (I have even heard of 3 year olds playing casual games!) to 65, casual games have become a hit and will continue to do so in the future. This kind of gaming is definitely strong in the market today. Yet with the connections that the casual gaming sector are making with the social networking sites, they are set to experience more success.

Mike Snider of USA Today reports:

By playing nice with social networks such as Facebook, expected to hit 100 million users by year’s end, the casual game category can only increase the stakes, says CGA President Jessica Tams. “The introduction of platforms which create opportunities for accessible and family play have raised the awareness of the fact that games are played by everyone, everywhere,” she says.
In the past two months, two new online gaming hubs, Cafe.com and Mytopia, have launched with features that let players connect with friends on the Web and through various social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, as well as Bebo and Hi5.

Ahh, I could name more than a few friends who would be happy to know that more casual games would be available on Facebook!

When Kids Play GTA

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boys playing GTA
We had two boys aged 7 and 12 – I never knew how creative you had to be in order to keep little boys occupied for 2 days! Anyway, it was kind of a good thing that we have several toys – gaming consoles and computers, that is – that the boys loved.

There were moments of uncertainty for me, however. I had not finished GTA IV then (yes, I have finished it now – I finished it yesterday, to be exact!) and really wanted to play. I tried to avoid it but just couldn’t. So it was not really surprising that after watching me play for a while, the boys were clamoring to be able to play.

GTA IV for kids? I don’t think so! It is not only about the violence and sexually explicit content, really. Following the dialogue and completing the missions are quite complicated activities in themselves. But I gave in – ok, boys, each of you can play for 30 minutes and then go back to the GameBoy or the PC.

Boy, did they have fun! At first they had difficulty controlling the cars. After a while, they were able to do a decent job out of it. Of course, they didn’t really follow the storyline. All they wanted to do was to drive around, get nice cars, and shoot people.

So should kids play GTA? I think that it’s not all that bad. You just have to explain to them the difference between reality and the game. And I really didn’t even have to explain that much – they themselves stated the difference. The only thing I am slightly worried about is that they might become desensitized to violence.

Girl Gamers On The Rise

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girl gamer
We have to admit, stereotype dictates that gamers are mainly male. As with most stereotypes, however, it is not really an accurate depiction. Ask the people in Australia – it seems that the number of girls playing video games is on the rise out there. I don’t really need a formal report to believe this – I have always been a firm disbeliever of that stereotype – but for those who want hard proof, check out the article which was recently published on Digital Life.

The report says:

The average gamer in Australia is now 28 years old, up from 24 just two years ago. And despite being largely ignored by the game industry, 41% are female.

Women and older Australians are the fastest-growing audience for computer and video games and if trends continue, by 2014 the average age of Australian gamers will be the same as non-players – 42 – with an equal number of male and female players.

Trends are similar in the US, where 38% of gamers are female, spending an average 7.4 hours a week playing, according to the Entertainment Software Association.

Do you need more proof? I surely do not. This comes as no surprise, really. If you take into account casual gaming and other types of video games, you would see that many of them are targeted towards the female population. And even those games that are not really for females (from whose perspective, I don’t know) attract them. From the sports video games to GTA IV – I know quite a large number of females who love playing these games.

Cooking Up A Storm With Hot Dish

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Who says casual games are way too easy and have no story line at all? If you think this way, then you haven’t played too many casual games at all. I think that one of the more task oriented casual games that I have played is Hot Dish. I just got a copy from a friend a few weeks ago and I was immediately hooked.

As the name implies, you get to pretend that you are an up and coming chef. You go through several different restaurants – from Italian to Asian to French. The hard part is managing your time when you have to make 3 dishes at the same time. The game play is quite complicated, simply because of the way you have to manipulate your mouse.

The task windows tells you what you have to do and there are small icons which indicate the action – click, move the mouse up and down, left to right, clockwise motion, etc. Clicking is easy and so are the up-down and left-right motions. What irks me is that I have tons of problems with the clockwise motion (used for stirring, mixing, and grinding). It seems that it’s not only me who has this problem – people at Casualicious had the same problem.

Anyhow, you can purchase recipes as you go along as you will be awarded stars depending on the judgment of the food critic after each meal that you serve. I am honestly stuck on the French level – I just have to finish the last meal and I need 42 stars to get past it but I keep getting only 40 or 38. Help anyone?

Airport Mania Soon To Be Released

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reflexive logo
Another casual game that is set to keep you playing all night long – well at least it kept me up all weekend! Actually, Airport Mania has not yet been officially released. Created by Reflexive Media, the official release date is sometime in April. Lucky for me and you – and the host of casual game enthusiasts out there – there is a Beta version circulating around the Internet. I was fortunate to run across one and have been playing it this weekend.

So what’s so great about Airport Mania? Much like all other dash games, it requires coordination, time management, and strategy. The idea is to manage different airports by landing planes, unloading and loading them, and then making them take off again. In between, you might have to repair planes and refuel them as well. You can repaint planes in order to get higher matching color bonuses for the gates. There are also numerous upgrades which you can buy.

For the Beta version, there is a glitch which will not allow you to pass the second level of the second stage. I had to search for a workaround – it turns out that you have to merely pass the goal (the minimum requirement) and don’t earn any more points. If you do, and you reach the expert goal, the game will simply loop and not progress. Was I glad to have found that workaround! However, I was not able to get past the 6th stage (there are 8 in all). I have not found any solution as most people are saying that since it is a Beta release, maybe it really does not go past that stage. Oh well, for a Beta, 6 stages are good. I just have to wait for the full release.

Casual Game Review: Build-A-Lot

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build-a-lot
Build-A-Lot has been around for quite some time. I think saw it first on Big Fish Games several months ago but it didn’t really appeal to me at that time. For one, real estate has never been that attractive to me. When a friend told me how much fun she had playing with it though, I thought I’d give it a try.

So what is Build-A-Lot all about? It has two game modes – career and free play. I only played the career mode, wherein you play the role of a contractor. Mayors of different towns – each one corresponding to a level of the game – hire you to build up their towns. In each town, you have various sub-levels. For each one, you will be given specific tasks. There are different housing and building types, each of which you have to draft the blueprint first before you can build it. You also need to buy materials to build the houses and buildings. Workers are integral to the game as you need a certain number to build, repair, or upgrade each house or building.

The interface is quite easy an intuitive – as many casual games are. I really like how the game throws challenges at you in mid-game. Sometimes, just when you think you’re done with your goals, you will receive new tasks. Overall, Build-A-Lot is one of the best casual games I have ever played. It is easy enough to play but never boring or TOO easy. If you haven’t tried this yet, I suggest that you give it a chance – before you know it, you’ll be staying up all night to finish it.

Who Plays Casual Games?

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woman on PC
In the last post, we saw the definition of casual games as given by Wikipedia. If you noticed, I mentioned looking more into the line that said that older women tend to play casual games more than any other group of people. Is there any truth to this? I did two things to determine for myself whether the statement is accurate or not.

First, I looked around the web to find out what other people thought of casual gaming and whether or not the main players are really “older women.” What did I find? According to the charts presented at an SXSW presentation (courtesy of Joystiq):

Female gamers spend an average of 70% of their gaming time on computers, versus male gamers’ 56%. Female gamers make up 62% of the casual game audience, and this group, especially those age 13-17, play more sessions per month.

Ok, I can’t argue with numbers. The question is, just how accurate are those numbers? The second I did was to conduct my own little survey. I asked around – who plays casual games? What I found out is that indeed, a lot of women (age does not matter) play casual games. However, this does not mean that men do not like them just as much. I have a friend who is a PS3 fanboy but waits on the newest casual games as well. Another thing is that office workers seem to fall for casual games more – they tend to play while at work! (No passing of judgment here.)

So, who plays casual games? Just about everyone I know who likes video games. So let’s do away with the stereotypes, shall we?