I really hate to do this in the first place but I am going to talk about something I find highly frustrating to think about on a base level, the Casual vs. Core war. I have read quite a bit of people’s reactions to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo’s presentations at E3 and everyone had their gripes and graces for each of the big three and their showings. Anyway, let’s get down to it: Nintendo while putting on a much better show than last year still got a lot of criticism for appealing too much to the casual gamer and not catering enough to long time fans and the core.

While I was reading something or other I got an image in my mind of the core as a kid that grew up mostly as an only child, getting used to receiving most of the attention.

While I do not think this necessarily holds true since the casual market has pretty much always existed but is just discussed and more apparent today than in previous years, I am going to run with that image...mostly because everyone just assumes or acts like the masses got interested in gaming over the past few years.

So there is this only child that gets most of his parents’ [the industry] attention, but after he has enjoyed this system for many years they have another kid and the parents start fawning over this new child, and the older brother starts acting out because of no longer being the darling and centre of attention.



That is sort of how I see the gaming industry right now. Whenever a game comes out that does not interest the core gamer and is targeting this new audience, rather than getting ignored it gets heaps of shit tossed its way regardless of the quality of the title itself. Take this back to Nintendo’s E3 and while there was many a title targeted towards Nintendo fans and the core audience, I heard a lot of grumbling about Wii Fit Plus, Sports Resort and the Vitality Sensor.


Maybe I am just weird but usually when I am not interested in something I tend to ignore it and spend my time focusing on things that do captivate my interests. I really do not mind other people getting things that they want; especially if I am getting things that I want at the same time. So Wii Fit and Sports are getting sequels? They were both immensely popular games that there is definitely an audience for that I am sure is clamouring for more.

Do they appeal to me personally? No, not really, but I don’t particularly like Basketball or Urban music either but I don’t run up the streets of Los Angeles claiming that the Dodgers and Bad Religion are far superior and the Lakers and Snoop Dogg need to GTFO.



My only rationalisation for it is that core gamers feel threatened and want to put up an opposition and smear campaign before their beloved hobby is completely overtaken by the casual market. I can understand why the attack dogs go after Wii Fit & it has massive sales so it is obviously the flagship for casual gaming, but oddly is also fairly well received by critics. Why not go on a smear campaign against shovel-ware instead of decent titles that have an audience? Live and let live.