Casual Game Addiction

Casual games are also addictive, and sometime even more immersive than those serious games such as Final Fantasy, Zelda and etc. Not because of realistic visuals or complex storylines, but due to their casualness and fast-feedback-loop mechanics.

Earlier casual games, such as Mine-sweeping and Solitaire on Windows are simply and straight forward, once the player stop playing, the game will pause until the player starts again. However, newer casual games, especially online ones, start to introducing the concept of ‘achievement’, the longer you play, or staying online, the more you will get or progress, or, in another word, achieve! For example, FarmVille on Facebook.com is one of this kind. These games have very simple graphic design, sometime very abstract, and most of them are in 2D format. With your level goes up, player will be rewarded with more access to other items, resources or content.

Social connects are vital to addiction to these games, once they made these games online, they are no longer merely a game, they more or less become a social communicating tool.