CHEGheads Blog

Why are Casual Games so Compelling?

Lyman Abbott

A century ago, the journalist, pastor, and social reformer Lyman Abbott wrote: “I frequently play solitaire as a brain rest, and I recommend the game to the brain-weary. In playing I have to study the relation of each card on the table to the other cards and take time to determine what my play shall be.”

Anyone who enjoys casual electronic games can identify with Abbott. Casual games engage us without overtaxing us. We line up stones in Bejeweled, help Flo wait tables in Diner Dash, stack shapes in Tetris, or load up Solitaire on Microsoft Windows. We start casual games when we’re slightly stressed, bored, or perhaps just plain brain-weary. They stabilize our spirits and reinvigorate us to face the challenges of everyday life.

When I’m tired, I don’t want to learn a lot of complicated rules. I also don’t want to have to wait to begin playing. And I certainly don’t want to devote half my life to the effort. A good casual game is easy to learn, quick to start, and short in duration.

Windows 3.1 Solataire

As Abbott’s quote suggests, casual games, whether traditional or electronic, have entertained us for a long time. And yet, in recent years, casual games have become an increasingly important part of the video game market. Why is this? I think the key reason is ease of access. Consider what makes Solitaire—the type you play with a physical deck of cards—such an appealing game. The rules are simple, the game mixes chance with a modicum of skill, and, most importantly, you can carry the deck of cards around with you for instant play. When Microsoft bundled Solitaire with Windows 3.0 in 1990, millions of computer users gained instant access to a game right from their startup menus.

Plants Vs. Zombies

Today, the Internet and mobile technologies make it easy to launch a game almost instantaneously. Flash-based games on sites such as Pogo and PopCap take seconds to load, and a universe of iPhone games like Paper Toss and DodgeDot attracts thousands of players. As computing power grows exponentially and becomes ever more transportable, casual games will only gain in popularity.

I know I’ll keep playing them. Lately, I’ve favored Mr. AahH! on my iPhone. Online I tend to play whatever my kids are enjoying—recently it’s been Canyon Defense and Plants vs. Zombies. But my favorite casual game right now is Wii Sports Resort’s Table Tennis. I battle the computer for best out of five, and when I’ve won (or lost) three games, I’m done and ready for the next task at hand. For me, it’s the perfect remedy for a weary brain.

So what casual games are you playing?

Serious Gaming is Serious Business

Tactical Language & Culture Training System from Mike Elgan

Two American soldiers stand guard on a street corner in a remote village as a Black Hawk helicopter circles overhead. Onlookers, many of them armed, gather. Additional soldiers arrive, and the situation deteriorates rapidly. Something must be done—quickly. You hold your breath and step forward to address the man who appears in charge.  

Now, you might be speculating that I’m describing a scene from the hit game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I’m not, however. This is a hyper-realistic scene from a high-tech military simulation (a war game) that enables soldiers to hone their decision-making skills prior to deployment to actual combat situations. The military began using video games for training long before Call of Duty appeared.  

Battlezone Screenshot from Cornell Student Project

Atari released their 1980 cabinet arcade game Battlezone, a vector-based product viewed through a 3-D first-person perspective. Its highly realistic play became a smash hit and quickly caught the attention of both gamers and the US Army. Could a video game be used to train American tank crews during the height of the Cold War? Soon the army took an unprecedented step and commissioned Atari to design and build a combat simulator for gunners manning the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Although Atari’s effort yielded only a few prototype systems, their work planted the seed for future use of electronic military training aids.

While virtual training does not replace actual field training, the military believes serious gaming is a useful educational tool. Over the past decade, the American armed forces have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advanced gaming technologies that allow military trainers to embed soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines in increasingly realistic environments. Computer-based simulations such as the Tactical Language & Culture Training System incorporate foreign language instruction and cross-cultural communication skills. Trainees practice both routine and atypical real-world mission situations in a multiplayer, networked convoy training simulator called DARWARS Ambush! As a former instructor on active duty in the US Army, I can attest to the fact that soldiers learn valuable skills through these highly interactive serious games.

The military relies heavily on the commercial gaming industry to produce these training aides. Professionals in many fields outside of the armed forces, including medicine and engineering, also use serious games to train and educate personnel. These uses, along with the 2010 Serious Games Summit and the dozen or more sessions on serious gaming at the concurrent Game Developers Conference, illustrate the importance of this game genre.

3-D or Not 3-D?

Three-dimensional games proved the hot topic at this year’s Game Developers Conference. Attendees experienced a plethora of 3-D technologies on the exhibit floor and participated in various  3-D related sessions. I’m not referring here to three-dimensional renderings of graphics in a two-dimensional display, the quality and prevalence of which have risen since 5^th-generation console games ushered them in during the late 1990s; rather, I’m referring to stereoscopic technologies used most often for 3-D movies. My unofficial count at GDC revealed a dozen vendors selling fully developed 3-D game titles,   3-D game development engines and renderers, and various systems, including a wide variety of 3-D viewing technologies, all of which required glasses. 

In their session, “3-D Game Creation on PlayStation 3,” Ian Bickerstaff and Simon Benson of Sony Computer Entertainment spoke about both the technogical aspects of 3-D game design and what is making 3-D gaming in the home a reality, especially high definition (and high frame rate) LCD monitors and the new HDMI standards.

Photo from Underground3dmovies

The rise of digital cinema and 3-D movie production is also fueling the movement toward stereoscopic game design. During my younger years, 3-D cinema existed only in a limited capacity supported by inferior technologies, and I came to view 3-D as a marketing gimmick for otherwise horrible movies—titles like Jaws 3-D and Amityville 3-D immediately come to mind.  Such exposure to bad 3-D technologies may explain why many gamers of my generation are skeptical about the new trend. In addition to gimmicky, in-your-face 3-D movies, many of us also experienced the gaming industry’s early forays into 3-D games, such as Nintendo’s Virtual Boy in the mid 1990s. Only 800,000 copies shipped worldwide, but today it’s a strong collector’s item—ICHEG owns several originals.

After attending GDC, I have a renewed hope for stereoscopic gaming. I’m also excited about the 3-D movies I’ve been watching with my daughter. They display a new artistic and tasteful use of stereoscopic technology. James Cameron’s recent 3-D masterpiece, Avatar, which became the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, is lending unprecedented credence to this film technique. The Avatar game by Ubisoft already allows for 3D effects over the HDMI standard, and from what I’ve seen you can expect many game releases to follow suit over the next couple of years.

Photo from Graham Young

We’d love to hear your thoughts and predictions about stereoscopic gaming. Will this be the next breakthrough in gaming? A short-lived fad? A technology that will enhance the overall game play and immersive experience? Or a technology that will distract from good game design?

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International Center for the History of Electronic Games^® • Strong National Museum of Play • One Manhattan Square • Rochester, NY 14607 • USA