Casual Gamers Don't Care About Reviews @ bit-tech.net

I find that unusual actually. I would think the effort required to find and get a 'pirate' copy would be too much for a genuine casual gamer. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't even know where to look since I've never tried to pirate anything!!
 
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None of the casual gamers I know actually buy their games. So the point is moot, no?

They pirate them instead? Seems odd behaviour for casual gamers.

Regarding the tone used by the person quoted in the article, it's actually surprisingly candid for corporate speak. She has a valid point regarding reviews for casual games, however. People who are more "hardcore" in their gaming are a completely different customer than a casual games target audience, and the way the two play games, what they look for and how they evaluate it are as different as night and day at the very least.
But reviews are important all the same as they help get titles mentioned, and as they say, bad press is better than no press. Somebody needs to review these games, and most casual gamers aren't dedicated or intense enough to provide in-depth reviews. So the job falls to the hardcore gamer-reviewer, who will probably be a lot tougher on a casual game. But it's better than nothing, and I think that what's Vrabeck is essentially getting at when she says reviews don't matter to the casual audience yet reviews are still important. It's publicity rather than critical assessment that matters.

As for using data from last-generation platforms, that's generally not how most businesses operate when discussing figures and forecasting. They will use them for comparative purposes, but it's all about the futures not past products.
 
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TheMadGamer, well put and certainly better than my sarcasm. :)

Gallifrey said:
They pirate them instead? Seems odd behaviour for casual gamers.
Maybe he's a teen and refering to sharing games, similar to maybe anyone in there 30s to 50s might recall with records, 8 tracks and cassettes.
Unless in certain cultures that would be called piracy?
 
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I find that unusual actually. I would think the effort required to find and get a 'pirate' copy would be too much for a genuine casual gamer. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't even know where to look since I've never tried to pirate anything!!

I'm not so sure. Downloading MP3's with Bittorrent is very, very mainstream. Pirated games are available from the same sources just as easily.
 
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Speaking of casual games... I just got my first computer with Vista... Can anyone explain to me why Windows STILL ships with exactly the same bloody games (minesweeper, solitaire, etc.) that we first saw with, err..., Windows 3.11 ??? I mean, aren't there any OTHER casual games they could package?

As to the article - of course she is right. People don't read reviews for pulp fiction either. Whats much more worrisome is how few reviewers we have that do serious games justice.
 
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Speaking of casual games... I just got my first computer with Vista... Can anyone explain to me why Windows STILL ships with exactly the same bloody games (minesweeper, solitaire, etc.) that we first saw with, err..., Windows 3.11 ??? I mean, aren't there any OTHER casual games they could package?

As to the article - of course she is right. People don't read reviews for pulp fiction either. Whats much more worrisome is how few reviewers we have that do serious games justice.

That would be because a lot of people don't take games as a serious media. That's why they buy things like Man Hunt for their ten year olds then start complaining that it's too violent.
 
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I thought the idea was that casual gamers are young consolers and mommy and daddy are making the purchase, rather than opening the piracy avenue.
 
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Downloading MP3's with Bittorrent is very, very mainstream. Pirated games are available from the same sources just as easily.
That may be how it is over where you are, but I'd be surprised if any of my friends or neighbors even knows what Bittorent means. I know I had to look it up when I first saw it discussed here, because I only had a vague idea.
 
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I have an idea that the original poster might have meant that a lot of casual games are rented like movies, rather than purchased. In that case, your investment is small and you're more willing to take a chance on something that just "looks good." hence, who cares about reviews, other than word of mouth recommendations.
 
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