Somewhere between Popcap's rise to power and Spore's retail release I've found myself both enjoying and being annoyed by the rise of casual gaming. The word "casual" is at best prescribed to games like Peggle or flash-based web games of higher quality. At worst, it's a buzzword, a fallacy and often a crutch. It's because of this that whenever a developer says their game is targeted at more casual audiences, my internal alarms go off in a big way.

As a buzzword, "casual" has served its users quite effectively. Labeling a game as casual creates the fallacy that it's designed in such a way that it's easier to play and thus more fun for everyone to play. We know this isn't true, otherwise we'd all love Spore regardless of the fact that each of its stages feel about as deep as a .99 cent bag of Lays chips.

I don't blame publishers and developers for trying to make money. It keeps people employed and making games, which is the whole point. I do, however, fault them for trying to make said money by aiming for the broadest target simply because they think it's easier and more profitable. When it's not solely about profit margins then it's about what a developer thinks is best for their game. When this goes awry we end up with a game that's needlessly stripped down and thus just plain bad or so very mediocre that nobody really wants to bother with it.

Creating a casual-friendly game isn't about pulling out all its parts until you end up with a flat experience that goes nowhere fast. Rather, it means designing a game so that it's more intuitive and accessible while stealthily easing the player into an increasingly more rewarding gameplay. Often times this gameplay is also increasingly more complicated or difficult. The trick is allowing players who desire it to stay within the realm of simpler gaming if they so choose.

World of Warcraft is a good example of how to design a game that starts off simple and gradually evolves to become a very complicated affair. Here's WoW's trick: It takes so long to reach the complicated aspects of the game that anyone willing to get to those upper echelons have long since become more than casual players. If players want to experience the simpler days they can always create another character as well. Another example is The Sims. Both The Sims and its sequel start off relatively easy and grow to become a micromanager's fever dream wrapped in player-driven storytelling that's helped make the original title the best selling PC game of all time.

I'll be the first to admit that these aspects of WoW and The Sims alone aren't the only reasons behind their critical acclaim and huge sales numbers. There's a vast amount of design and laborious work that went into both titles and that's my whole point. The concept of "casual" shouldn't be a crutch for developers to lean on when creating a game. Instead it needs to serve as a reminder that all genres can and should evolve in creative and insightful ways to remain relevant to gamers both new and old alike.