Comments on: RPS Interview: PopCap on Casual, Peggle & Valve

By: Jaqie

Jaqie — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:49:01 +0000

I actually fit the demographic for popcap games largest audience, a female at 31 years old, but I have been an avid gamer (of all types of games) since wolfenstein 3D was new when I was in high school. Call me a fluke if you want, but a lot of gamers now are women and many only play the casual games because of the accessibility problem – the learning curve is much steeper with most of the games that qualify as hard core. In that vein, I have introduced many of my (female) friends to HL2 and specifically portal, and most ended up buying the orange box themselves within a week, and I helped them upgrade their computer to be able to play it at higher settings as well. These are the same people that have never played anything in the past but casual games – the only thing my presence changed was the accessibility and learning curve required (they had a tutor and hint-giver on hand when learning the games).

I believe very firmly because of my own experience that the only true separation (besides the said people’s average pc specs before they get into the games labeled hard core) between hard core gamers and casual gamers is how accessible the games are, and changing that is already changing the face of gaming.

By: Rock, Paper, Birthday: We Are One | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Rock, Paper, Birthday: We Are One | Rock, Paper, Shotgun — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:11:46 +0000

[...] We like talking to developers. Eve Online’s Reynir Harðarson. Popcap talk Peggle. Vic Davis, Armageddon Empires designer. Vince D Weller. He’s indie, and angry! Warren [...]

By: po

po — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:34:10 +0000

I love that they’re Mac friendly too!

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:20:04 +0000

PopCap Games are my favorite PC games.....!

By: soothole

soothole — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:36:12 +0000

personally, i hate peggle and love tf but there are rainy days that i go directly to popcap or bigfish to find something to waste time on. i can play bookworm/bwadventures to the point of not knowing where the day went and hating popcap for ruining my life.. just as much as valve for tf.

By: ServiceMaster

ServiceMaster — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:31:17 +0000

HA! I thought you were referencing Look Around You when you said ‘maths’. Then when I saw the Thopcap, I instantly knew and god I’m envious of RPS.

Love you guys, great interview.

By: Arby

Arby — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:41:02 +0000

TIM: It’s not a myth. My mom plays casual games. My grandma plays casual games. Check out the stuff being sold off http://www.bigfishgames.com and then try to tell me that 20 year old males who like blood n guts shooters will also bother to even download “Plant Tycoon” or “Jojo’s Fashion Show”

By: Sensible Soccer « Last day of my life

Sensible Soccer « Last day of my life — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:30:08 +0000

[...] Sensible Soccer 10 most important games of all time Wii Problem Insight/Interview on casual games (Peggle) [...]

By: Mario Grange

Mario Grange — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:00:56 +0000

Great interview, first and foremost.

JK makes a great point about accessibility in regards to gaming; why hasnt gaming followed a similar progression? As far as I can tell its only recently that the more hardcore game developers have realized that gaming that’s easier to get into is more fun.

By: jonny

jonny — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:02:24 +0000

i think a lot of it has to do with age and how much free time you have. when i was young and unemployed, i was a hardcore gamer, had a quake clan, hell i even travelled intercontinentally to play in tournaments… now, i still enjoy shooters, but i dont have the time to be in tournaments and all that. mostly i play SP with occasional FFA in between. in that sense games like peggle or bejeweled fit my life better, in that i can just play a little while and turn it off without becoming attached.

for ex: my wife (who has very basic computer skills) really likes “casual games”, and the other day she tried playing quake 1 (she was a FPS virgin), and she was blown away, she played all her spare time for 2 weeks till she got the controls down and beat it. of course, that meant i was having ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner!

there is room for both kinds of games, to me what really makes a game experience “hardcore” is how much time and effort is required.

By: Butler`

Butler` — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:57:51 +0000

Am I the only one that finds Peggle pretty but utterly vacuous? I can’t stand these luck-based puzzle games. Can’t stand pinball either, for the same reason. Give me something that I have some control over, even if it requires time to master.

Not meaning to be pedantic, but there’s people that have become so good at it they can see 6-7 bounces ahead — and can clean an entire challenge with one ball. Luck barely plays a role in Peggle, unless you let it.

By the way I’m another one that plays peggle a lot and also plays TF2 a lot.

Since when has TF2 been synonymous with “hardcore” guys? It’s fundamental gameplay revolves around accessibility, pretty visuals and a class for every taste. It’s hardly CS!

By: Henry

Henry — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:29:05 +0000

So, because of Peggle, we can’t hate them for releasing clone after clone and claiming other peoples ideas as their own? Interesting.