Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Casual Gaming: An Interesting Parallel to MMORPGs

One of the latest fads to hit the internet is the rise of the casual gamer. Casual gamers are those who play small games, usually flash-based, that take up between 5 to 15 minutes. These game span in genre from traditional adventure/RPG to arcade-style minigames. If traditional MMORPGs are like novels, these casual games are short stories and vignettes.

The website Kongregate has been active for several years now and bridges the gap between hardcore and casual gamers.

The site hosts tons of flash-based games, inside of which the webmasters of the site code achievements. An account can be made to keep track of things like which games have been played and what achievements have been garnered. There's even a system of experience point per achievements and a gamer's "level" is displayed next to his/her name. Rounding up the full experience is a window next to the actual game that allows the player to chat with other account holders regardless of which particular flash game they are playing.

1 comment:

Sam Chan said...

Oh, that's interesting. I actually og on this site when I don't want to get too involved in a game for a long expanse of time (read: longer than half a day). It can get addicting fast though, especially when the game is a series... x_X