Casual gaming. That's a pretty popular term being thrown around especially given the recent success it's had. Casual gaming has generated billions of dollars recently and introduced millions of consumers to the games industry who would not other wise play games. Systems like the Wii and free mahjong games have created phenomenal success in this space. The success has been so great that many of the big publishers are now jumping on the bandwagon with divisions dedicated to this genre. It's counterpart and most popular till recently has been traditional gaming. Before we get into the depths of this discussion a description of casual and traditional gaming is in order.

Casual gaming has always been around. Simple card games like solitaire were played in non-digital form for hours to pass time by. Casual gaming is the all-inclusive activity while traditional gaming is the exclusive activity. The very nature of casual games are in their simplicity and accessibility, a novice can be competitive against a master. Traditional gaming is geared toward experts in that field. Traditional gamers have played games for years and are more in tune with the intricacies. The controls and the games themselves are usually more complex. They are much longer and require more effort to succeed. Example, RPG's versus card games. In a traditional RPG there will be minutes of dialogue and movie scenes accompanied by hours of game play before the player can truly become acclimated, thus this is geared for a narrow market. With games like café mahjong, almost instantly the objective is known, the player wastes no time in non-essential areas, can play for as long or as little as they want and still feel a sense of accomplishment. This as mentioned earlier has opened the door or floodgates to many consumers. Women and older individuals (35-50) who do not traditional play games have entered the fray due to the accessibility of casual games.

Casual games file sizes tend to be much smaller as well. This is crucial for the everyday user whose hard drive may be filled with other important files other than online games or pc games. While traditional games file sizes are significantly larger, increasing loading and install time while also taking up valuable space. Because the scope of casual games is usually smaller in terms in size (not in ambition though) the costs to develop and purchase casual flash games for example are lower. Just take a look at your local retailer in the new releases, $59.99 for a game. Even the bargain bin has ceased to be just that. With casual games you can go online to Jenkatmedia.com and purchase café Mahjong, for a few bucks. Then you could look for the many other types of download games, ranging from puzzle games to arcade games, all for a fraction of the cost of a traditional retail game. If costs are still an issue you can take the cheapest route thanks to the Internet. Free. There are many Free download Games available.

As the industry continue to evolve traditional gaming will always be around, similar to independent films, but the real movement is in casual gaming and it's here to stay. It's a natural fact of business, in order to survive you need to adapt and grow. This is the very nature of casual gaming. It brings in new players, and because of the innovation in casual games there is something for everyone.