Casual/Social Games as a Genre

The genre that changed how gaming is viewed by all of society is that of Casual or Social games. What was once a passion for dedicated individuals who were known as “video game nerds” has now become part of everyone’s daily lives because of this genre. When you look at certain statistics, they show that over half of gamers nowadays are mobile gamers, and over half of them play casual or social games. This has completely changed the face of the industry. But why?

The point isn’t that all casual games are mobile games. In fact, some of the most popular ones like Animal Crossing are console-based even though many casual gamers by the new definition would never purchase a console. This rise was also helped by the barrage of web-based games that came out around 2009, specifically through Facebook. Games like these were so accessible because they offered the same sense of accomplishment as harder games, while also being easy to pick up and put down.

Sense of Accomplishment

Any game developer will tell you that a successful game is very aware of when and how they offer their dopamine hits; their sense of accomplishment that makes the player feel good. Dark Souls is famous for allowing the player to struggle and suffer for much longer periods than an average game, but the gamble paid off when players beat their first boss. That dopamine hit was harder than anything they’d felt in a long time because they earned it.

But not everyone has the time or the skill to earn a long-awaited dopamine hit. Many people who love the casual genre do it because of the mini accomplishments they can frequently earn. Clever casual developers will offer reward after reward, consistently making the player feel like they are doing a great job. Yet, after a time, those accomplishments will feel forced and the player will become jaded if they require no effort. Casual games start to slow down how often they allow the player to win but rarely do they change the difficulty of the accomplishment. It still needs to be accessible to the player, but less frequent. This is how a casual gamer can eventually reach Dark Souls levels of thrill despite the consistent state of play.

Brief Playtime

The other thing a casual/social game needs is to be very easy to pick up and put down. A casual gamer may not necessarily want to put the game down, but they don’t feel tied to it nearly as much as a game with levels and story arcs. Basic match-three games often have a gameplay loop of only a handful of minutes. Knowing this gets the player into a very comfortable loop. If you play, you won’t be trapped, so play. Then play. Then play. But you can stop whenever you want because it's so short. So, keep playing.

That isn’t to say this is some scheme to trap players, but it is an interesting take on why someone who is willing to lose dozens of hours on a casual game would balk at the idea of someone else playing games for hours. It just doesn’t feel like dozens of hours.

Not only should the gameplay loop itself be short, but the reason to come back is also a major factor in casual games. Your average casual game tends to tell the player that it is okay to stop playing and that they have done all they can for the day, but that they should return the next. This means that players always feel like they are on top of their goals, and excitedly await the next day for things like build times for more energy.

Great Examples

A great example of this style of gameplay in action is obviously Animal Crossing. By no stretch of the imagination is this franchise considered a lazy cash grab, yet it still follows the previous definitions of a good casual or social game. The player’s sense of accomplishment comes from the little things they do, like the chores that are offered at the beginning of the game, but then slowly pulls back the consistency of these accomplishments as the player gets better at the game. Once again, this isn’t a ploy to addict players so much as a way to make accomplishments remain meaningful.

They also have a great gameplay loop. The player has a list of objectives that they have every desire to want to accomplish in a day, but they never feel they have to. These objectives are very basic on their own, such as finding the daily money rock or talking to villagers, but with all of them combined they make for a full gameplay experience. It never feels like an hour-long commitment because each task can be completed so easily. Then, once the player has completed everything for the day, they know it will all be available again the next day, giving them a reason to return.

Not So Great Examples

Rather than a specific game, a bad example of this style of game is the sea of Facebook games that came out at the same time. This isn’t to say they were all bad. Having not played it myself, all I know is that Farmville was wildly successful, and people loved it. “True gamers” may say that it was mindless and a waste of time, but that seems silly when talking about any video game. Video games are meant to be an escape and if Farmville was someone’s first introduction to that feeling with games then more power to them.

No, the real issues were the games that all had exactly the same gameplay loop and all demanded that the player advertises for them. You remember the ones, when each game had a “message 10 friends harassing them to play the game so you can unlock another item.” That item often had very little value in the actual game, and all the accomplishments simply came from paying real money to advance or waiting around for automatic builds. While these sorts of mechanics can be engaging, the thin sheet of effort draped over these cash grabs were so apparent that most of them have already disappeared into obscurity.

They also had a very forced timer on them. Rather than games like Animal Crossing that have a soft cap based on how the world just naturally is, these Facebook games had blinking timers and warnings that if you didn’t pay you couldn’t keep playing. They didn’t understand the nuance of casual games, so they just copied the basic mechanics and monetized them.

Overall

Casual and Social games may not be for everyone, but they certainly aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. I think, as both a developer and a game enthusiast, we should be ecstatic by the emergency of new gamers. The industry has been under fire by non-gamers for a long time because they simply didn’t understand. Going forward, with more and more people playing games, I believe the image of games will change. Much like movies went from a niche form of entertainment to a staple in our society, hopefully games, casual or otherwise, will start to become a normal conversation piece. You can talk about your favorite movie to almost anyone, why not your favorite game? Best Fiends and DOOM Eternal alike.

If we are to go down this road, the hope is that we do so responsibly. Games are coming under a different fire nowadays because of the way that casual games are being handled. They know that they are becoming increasingly popular, so just like the video game crash of 1983, the genre seems to be suffering from a never-ending stream of shovelware. If we want to see a future where everyone enjoys games, we need to improve the quality of the introductory genre, or forever have them remembered as shameless cash grabs. That future is dependent on the developers and the consumers.