3 posts tagged “casual games”
Read this earlier and it's hardly a new issue. I remember wondering how the creator of Snood got away with ripping off Puzzle Bobble for years. At first, the "creator" didn't charge for Snood, but now customers must pay for Snood licenses and much money has been made off Snood spin offs and merchandise. The ancillary stuff wouldn't have sold if it wasn't for the popularity of the "original" Snood.
If you really want some gaming de ja vu, check out Columns. Horizontal, vertical and diagonal 3-matching has been with us since 1989 according to Wikipedia! At first, I thought Puyo Puyo was one of the first games to deliver 3-match, but it's actually based on 4-match. Minor semantic difference, but overall, it's the same match-to-win aspect.
Just thought I'd dig up a bit more history...
By random chance, I glanced across this blog after completing my last post.
Wow. I'm pretty amazed at how people can play stuff that's pretty much the same darn thing over and over.
Yeah, as an unabashed consumer of JRPGs, at least there are a lot of distinct differences in gameplay, mood and how they go about doing things compared to the same ole same ole "Dash" type games and 3-matchers that have glutted the casual world.
It's a pretty fascinating read. Requries Gamasutra registration.
The amazing thing is the high percentage of women that responded to the survey. An astounding 76%...
"Women tend to be more in touch with their feelings and more introspective than men, generally speaking, so it's logical that when they're feeling stressed women would seek out some sort of remedy such as playing casual computer games," said Dr. Carl Arinoldo, a Stony Brook NY-based psychologist who advocates the playing of causal games as a source of both stress relief and cognitive exercise.
House wife stress is not a new thing; remember all those prescriptions for Valium written in the 50s? Video games are certainly not as bad for you, unlike long term barbiturate use. It's interesting that some people use video games as stress relief when games themselves can be considered a source of stress in ways. I'm not talking about being flustered with bad game design or execution either.
As Dr. Kawashima Ryuuta certainly likes to tout, it's certainly a mental stimulus.
