Casual Complaints

My Art Blog My Youtube  I am a Gamer. a very big gamer. I spend more time per week playing games then I do watching movies, watching television and going outside combined. what I'm trying to say here is I play a lot of games. as such, I'm always looking for new games to master. but in the past few years there has been an invasion of what people are calling 'Casual Games'.  Some of them are great! (Angry Birds, Plants Vs Zombies, Bejeweled) I love them, and I can pick them up and play a little any time I want, with no worries about having to commit hours of my limited time to the game. which is kind of the definition of 'Casual'. However, I would like to complain at a turn the industry has taken recently, thanks in no small part to Zynga and the Facebook Gaming Community.What I would like to complain about is the sudden obsession games have with telling you how long you can play, and how long you have to wait until you play again. for an example, look to any game that employs the 'Energy' system. the game gives you a certain number of points you can spend doing a certain number of actions, and then you have to wait for the energy to rebuild. while you're waiting...there's nothing left to do in the game, because EVERYTHING takes energy.of course you can always earn more energy by paying REAL MONEY to regain energy. the only other option is waiting an average of 5 minutes for every point of energy. so you leave the game to go do something else, and continue playing tomorrow. but oh no, your crops are now withered, kingdom is invaded, wife is stolen, dog ran away, and your animals are dead all because you didn't use your energy in time. so you fall into a cycle of going into the game a few times a day to keep up with it. but if you miss an appointment, you lose progress. At this point, this game is no longer casual, as it claims to be. it is a fragile relationship that decays if you don't pay enough attention to it. Suddenly you find yourself distracted and worried when you are not playing the game. "Did I start the 3 hour job, or the 2? did I remember to water my flowers? I wonder if my horse has enough energy to race again?" GAMES SHOULD NOT CAUSE STRESS. Playing should relieve stress. that is the point of gaming. because these games Force you into these cycles, it creates an imposed addiction that has you compulsively checking the game every few hours. like game Crack. What is that you say, Hypothetical Blog Reader? I should just avoid those games if I don't like that?Ok, let's try. I'll leave facebook which is bogged down with those games, and go play on my ipod. Oh Look! Sims came out with a free game! "Sims Freeplay" I love the Sims! Sweet Gaming Freedom, here I come! what's that? My sim is sleeping, come back in 4 hours?EA.....I hate you. -_-  Developers, I'm really not asking much. I just want to actually play the game you made, when I actually have time to play it. instead of being told when and how much I can play. or if you really want the energy or timed feature, at least add other content I can play with while waiting for things to grow/recharge/whatever. don't mask the shallowness of your game with a timer. Please. I would write more, but it's time for me to check and see if I have more energy in Castleville. Curse you, Zynga. got me addicted again. >.<Someone save me, PLEASE! GEEK, OUT!
My (slightly more serious then this) Art Blog

My Youtube, where I keep all of my attempts at Animation and other cool things.