Casual gaming gets a bad rap within gaming culture to the point where gamers would use “casual” as an insult or trash talk. In this context, calling someone a casual is saying that they are unskilled in the game or just simply not as good. In reality, a casual game is just a game that’s targeted at a wider, mass market audience, as opposed to a certain niche audience. “Casual games tend to have more positive fictions featuring no or cartoonish violence, require little previous knowledge of games, allow players to play in short bursts and practise excessive positive reinforcement of success” (Eklund, 16). Countless times, I have seen players trash talking to each other by calling each other casuals and that they should just stick to the less competitive game modes in the online competitive games that I play. This type of behaviour stems from wanting to show off the time and dedication some players put into games and could potentially discourage newcomers when they get outclassed by these players who have obviously been playing the game for a much longer time. To this degree I would agree that there is an exclusive club of “hardcore” gamers present in many online competitive and skill-based games. 

Casual gamers are often associated with female gamers because of the nature of the casual game genre. “The term ‘casual’ is furthermore often used to describe a playstyle and this way of playing, with less time investment and dedication is often, both from the game community and industry, connected to female gamers” (Eklund, 18). Because of this stigma, female gamers face scrutiny in bigger competitive gaming cultures and are discouraged from playing at their best. This is evident from the lack of female professional players in many eSports leagues across all genres of competitive play. In an online article, it’s said that the number of women working in any role in esports or playing esports is estimated to be about 5% or 1 in 20 (womeningames.org).  

Ultimately, I believe that the reason behind these problems is the refusal to accept that people can choose to like whatever they want and that these choices don’t necessarily dictate what group of “gamer” you get put into. One of the beauty of games is that there are so many different and diverse genres. You aren’t bound to one genre and are free to play whatever types of games you want. After a sweaty session of “hardcore” gaming in Escape from Tarkov, I choose to wind down in Animal Crossing to water my plants and talk to my villagers. Does this mean I’m casual now? Choosing to like a genre that has more casual elements doesn’t make you less of a gamer. After all, gamers are gamers because we choose to spend our time engaging in this medium. 

Sources: 

Eklund, Lina. Who are the casual gamers? Gender tropes and tokenism in game culture.
Women in Esports. http://www.womeningames.org/women-in-esports/