Today, we begin a new series of articles here at Co-Optimus. You might have noticed that Co-Op Classics went to Fridays biweekly during the holiday news frenzy. It will keep that schedule, and now, we'll have a new column for you on the off-Fridays. This column will be dedicated to Family and Casual gaming. In true co-op fashion, we want your input into the name for the column! We'll even give you some swag, but more about that later...
Two separate though closely related types of gamers will be the focus of this column: the casual gamer and the young gamer. The rise of the casual gamer is fairly well documented at this point in video game history. Additionally, those of us who grew up during the early days of video gaming are having kids now, and it's only natural that we want to play with our kids. Co-op is a great fit for both of these types of players. Working together, and not as opponents, is more desirable in these situations. Playing Deathmatch in Halo 3 with your wife is not likely to keep her coming back. Similarly, no kid wants to get defeated by their parent over and over in Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Playing through these titles in co-op mode, though, will be more enjoyable, both for the hardcore gamer and the newbie.
Let's discuss what we mean by 'casual gamer'. To put it succinctly, we're talking about the Wii crowd. Those who own only a Wii, that is, not a Wii in addition to other systems. A grandma who plays PopCap games would be an example of a casual gamer, too. Maybe this person plays solitaire on their computer at work. They don't know what a FPS or RPG is. Puzzle games and party games are going to be very appealing to these people, due to their easy learning curve. The "training" genre of games for the Nintendo DS are appealing to this type of gamer, too. They may not play many different games, but they get a lot of use out of the ones they purchase.