Casual Gamers (ARE GREATER THAN) Core Gamers

T'was a quiet, Saturday night. Dre was sitting at his computer after a botched attempt at trying to get tickets to the late show of Fast and Furious.

Long story. Anyways, so here I was. Bored, and lurking a game forum that I consider my usual watering hole of lurkery, when suddenly I came across a comment that read something along the lines of "teh casual gamerz 4 teh lozeeee lawllll". That triggered something within me and I was inspired to create a thread called Casual Gamers > Core Gamers.

I submit to you, my brain child. A product of a Vin Diesel-less Saturday night and clique rebellion.



Casual Gamers > Core Gamers

It's time core gamers start to acknowledge that fact. If you're in this forum posting now and than or even just lurking, odds are you're a core gamer. I'd define this more specifically as a person who considers video gaming a primary hobby and immerses themselves in the culture of it. Me and, like I said, probably you.

That said, the vibe across the general populace here and most other gaming enthusiast forums is to be butthurt over the recent surge in new casual gaming experiences and players. But let me pose a question to you:

The Xbox 360 has sold roughly 30 million consoles worldwide. Now, how many of those people do you think fall under our "core gamer" category? The same question can be asked of every console. However, no matter what you might think, the core gamer is not the majority, here. Fair weather gamers dominate sales charts every time.

It's something I've come to call the Inner Circle Effect, where we go on forums, we talk to our friends on Live, we read Gamespot and these EGM and what we've done is build ourselves a network. In all actuality, this network might only consist of 10 000 people, perhaps. However, not actually knowing this number, we build ourselves up as these high and mighty powers behind the video game industry. We consider ourselves important to an industry that is rising as the most popular means of entertainment.

But in all actuality, we're not important. In reality, we probably make up a small piece of the sales pie. It's casual gamers. People who don't reach out into our network and just play games now and than for fun. They've always been there and without them, this industry couldn't exist, or at the very least, would be nowhere as huge. I'd bet that anywhere between 75 - 90% of console owners would consider themselves a casual.

You, reading this blog, are undoubtedly more intelligent than the numb skulls I interact with on that forum. Your opinion is actually valued here, so I'd like to know your thoughts on the matter. Leave a comment.