Let's Get Casual

So I was thinking that I haven't really played video games since my last Umbrella Chronicles session with Jonnie Whoa Oh, but then I realized that wasn't really true. In fact, I've been playing video games pretty much every day, but in a way that barely registers to me as video game playing. What I've been doing has been playing "casual" games.

Let me start off by saying that this whole concept of "casual" games sort of confuses and frustrates me. It is often used as a criticism of the current trends of the video game industry (and most often, the Wii specifically), and it just seems like a bullshit buzzword. Casual gamers are ruining the industry for the hardcore, I've read. Excuse me? Perhaps I'm wrong, but since when is such a distinction necessary? When I was a kid, the same dudes who were playing Contra and meticulously working their way through Zelda adventures were also playing Tetris. It was the same people, the same industry, and there was more than enough room for all kinds of genres. And these ridiculous, arbitrary terms like "casual" and "hardcore" didn't exist. They were all just video games and we were all just gamers. So the next time you're reading an article or listening to some idiot ramble about how "casual" games are ruining the industry for the "hardcore", bear in mind that this entire issue has just been created by weirdo analysts and PR assholes whose agendas are to fuel this generation's console wars. Don't buy into it.

So what "casual" games have I been playing? Well, I mentioned in my last post that I've unlocked new levels in Picross so I've been working my way through those. I've also been hopelessly fucking addicted to video Boggle. Yeah you heard right, video Boggle. I bought my girlfriend, who is a big fan of word games (Scrabble, for the most part) a cheap little compilation PC game as a stocking stuffer. It includes Upwords, Boggle, Hangman and some other similar little game. The Boggle totally owns me. It's the type of thing where I'll sit down to play Boggle for five minutes and then keep saying, "Okay, ONE more game" until I notice that three hours have gone by. I finally finished all of the game's little "challenges", so hopefully I'll be able to pull myself away from it now.

I also got a new ipod for Xmas (160gb!), and it comes with a game called Music Quiz 2. Now, I always enjoyed the Music Quiz on my old ipod, and thought it was cute how it pulls songs from your own library and quizzes you about them. But the new version takes it to the next fucking level. Utilizing song titles, audio of the songs themselves, album titles and cover images, artists, and release dates, this shit is crazy fun. For example, it will play a Screeching Weasel song, and then be all like "Which album is this song from... My Brain Hurts, Dookie or Enter the 36 Chambers?" Or, in a lighting round, the category will be "BAD RELIGION ALBUMS" and a bunch of album covers will fly by, and you have to click on the Bad Religion ones. It's all in the format of a game show and it's soooo much fun. It's especially hilarious when I get asked questions about my own bands! I've been playing this way too much.

So, video games are pretty much a part of my life every day, even if it's not in the way I normally associate with gaming. That's a pretty cool thing to realize. How much a part of your life are they?