Saturday, October 27, 2012

Casual game defined by medium?

I'm not sure exactly when it was announced, but Rockstar Games is celebrating its tenth anniversary of GTA: Vice City, therefore they announced that they would be releasing a iOS and android version of the game for mobile phones. I'm not sure if GTA is considered a real video game, but this brought up a couple of questions that circulated around "casual games".

I remember in class we sort of discussed what casual games were, and I remember one of the definitions being pertained to the medium of the system that the game is played on. Therefore I guess I was wondering, if legitimate competitive video game, were formatted for a mobile phone, would it still be considered a video game?

Rockstar Games claims that their formatted version of the game will have the "full gamer experience", although I'm not sure what they mean by this because many of the games that I have seen formatted haven't lived up to those expectations, but if it were to have been formatted to a mobile phone, could it still carry the legitimacy of a "real" video game and not a casual game?

The article about Rockstar Games' announcement. I'm pretty sure the video clip is not footage of the formatted game but rather the PS2 version:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/gta-vice-city-coming-to-ios-android-6398957

1 comment:

  1. I don't think that the medium of a game determines whether or not it is a casual game. Modern phones and tablets have the capability to deliver in depth experiences that require more time and skill than a casual game should. The Mass Effect game for iOS even features a complex storyline and an upgrade system. At the other end of the spectrum, I can play casual puzzle games such as Bejeweled on my Xbox through the arcade.

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