Casual Play

I am reviewing yet another book on video games for ACM Computing Reviews. This one is entitled A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players by Jesper Juul. I am only a bit into it. So I cannot comment in depth. But it did make me think about some of the problems that are emerging in video game research. The premise of the book is that the demographic characteristics of the 'typical' video game player are changing. Instead of the hard core gamer in their teens or early twenties, the typical video game player is beginning to look a lot like a normal person. This is largely because there is an endless variety of games available for free download, for phones or just for idle players such as solitaire games. And there are whole new genres of games such as the physically active games for Wii.

This is an interesting point and I am eager to see where the author takes it. However, it poses an interesting problem for video game research. Clearly, the game playing experience of a hard core gamer playing a massively multiplayer online role playing game and the gaming experience of someone idling time away on a cell phone game are very different. Both of these are different, in turn, from the physical experience of one playing a tennis or bowling game on Wii. Since the variety of games produces a variety of gaming experiences, can anything be said which is true of all video games? Or, does the variety of social, gaming, cognitive and physical experiences preclude that?

And, if the variety precludes this, can the variety be organized into genre for which general statements can be made? And if it can, what should those genre be? Shoud we group based upon price, demographics, social expereince, gaming experience, media, game design features or other criteria.

It is truly wonderful that such a wide variety of gaming options are being developed and enjoyed. But if we are ever going to be able to say anything intelligent about video games we are going to have to get our thoughts organized.