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    Your Elvenar Team

"Casual"...the new slur?

Vergazi

Well-Known Member
In all sorts of places online I have noticed that the word casual has become a new slur word. Players proudly crunch numbers, endlessly talk strategy, promote tactics and debate best vs worst of this or that thing. After they have gone on at length about what is best, how they are best and how all others are #2 or below....they all seem to share one thing in common. Eventually they end their judgmental critique of other players choices by saying the magic words..."Of course, everyone has their own playstyle..." This to my mind all too often comes off as meaning - "Of course, some people are bad players, stupid and don't listen to their betters."

Having said all this, I was wondering. Has anyone else been called casual, called others casual or do you consider YOURSELF "casual" and why and/or how so?

I consider myself casual because I put fun and socializing before performance. I guess this has much to do with what I find fun, so others will vary of course. However, I can be competetive as anyone in events if I get my fire up or if an actual rivalry is involved. To compete actively I seem to need a personal element to get fired up. Just competing for a spot on a board with names of strangers does nothing for me.

So, yeah, I'm a casual and proud of it. :D
 

Daiman Rahl

Active Member
I too am a casual player.
i could crunch numbers too but I know I'll never be a number 1 and I don't want to. Been there and done that on other games. It is always a bother, people hate you and you loose interest in playing anymore, because there is only more points and why bother. LOL
I play for the challenges now. That's one of the reasons I enjoy this game. there is lots to think about. Plus always something to do, even while waiting.
So Yes I'm Casual and proud of it!!
 

mucksterme

Oh Wise One
I remember when the worst thing you could call some people was "noob."
There is always that group that considers themselves elite.
They take themselves and their games way to seriously.
I wish I could believe they were all teenagers, but sadly many of them are much older than that.
 

CrazyWizard

Oh Wise One
In all sorts of places online I have noticed that the word casual has become a new slur word. Players proudly crunch numbers, endlessly talk strategy, promote tactics and debate best vs worst of this or that thing. After they have gone on at length about what is best, how they are best and how all others are #2 or below....they all seem to share one thing in common. Eventually they end their judgmental critique of other players choices by saying the magic words..."Of course, everyone has their own playstyle..." This to my mind all too often comes off as meaning - "Of course, some people are bad players, stupid and don't listen to their betters."

Having said all this, I was wondering. Has anyone else been called casual, called others casual or do you consider YOURSELF "casual" and why and/or how so?

I consider myself casual because I put fun and socializing before performance. I guess this has much to do with what I find fun, so others will vary of course. However, I can be competetive as anyone in events if I get my fire up or if an actual rivalry is involved. To compete actively I seem to need a personal element to get fired up. Just competing for a spot on a board with names of strangers does nothing for me.

So, yeah, I'm a casual and proud of it. :D

There is nothing wrong with being casual.
Like with everyting there is a large group that has other interests than the the minority of hardcore players.
 

DeletedUser25004

Guest
I want to be more casual, but most of the times im not. i want to be relaxed about playing but i end up doing EVERYTHING i can to do better anyway. And i seek the same from my fellowship. i think i relax the most knowing we do the best possible. I often need to tell myself that there are other ways to play the game, but thats never in a negative way, i might not understand their way, but i understand we all have our own way.
 

AtaguS

Well-Known Member
This is an interesting idea. What is casual? Can casual feel like one thing to one player, and something else to another? Crunching numbers and seeing your fs name on a leader board, even debating tactics and game styles may feel like a casual way to pass time for some players for whom that level of intensity comes naturally. I think I fall somewhere in the middle...this is a game and at the end of the day the only really important thing about how I play it is that i'm enjoying it. I like the competition at times and couldn't care at others. Everyone does have their own playstyle and I like this game because it gives space for those differing styles. Calling a player "casual" as some sort of demotion to a lesser catagory of player would be as short sighted as calling a player with the passion and drive to make it to the top of the leader boards a maniac (not saying you did this).
People do take games too seriosly at times @mucksterme . I'd extend that to include all of life but that would take us off topic, lol lol
 

The Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
Trying to turn something like Elvenar or FoE in to a hyper competitive almost e-sport is beyond laughable... the points are basically meaningless, since they're completely arbitrary, and many times supposedly 'top' ranked cities are actually less efficient than other types of builds. (ie: 'Blue' cities full of magic buildings tend to over produce, but can lack other benefits like some AW's and/or hyper efficient event buildings, etc...)
Not to mention, since the game is constantly 'evolving' changing with every single event and/or new feature, while also gaining new players all the time, it's just impossible to put in any kind of actual game balance that would allow for a more proper & fairer competition to take place.

Of course, it's not just in these FTP browser games either...
You want to see some real TFG level antics? Please, go check out literally ANY on-line community like say, Fortnite or Halo Online or World of Tanks, etc... or even just actual e-sports like Starcraft, (insert pro league here) 'Sports' game, Smash Bros, or worst of all, (ugh!) League of Legends. *shudders*

And no, it doesn't get any better if you turn to say, CCG's like good 'ol 'Tragic: The Saddening', or table top games like Warhammer 40k or (*hurls*) Warmachine/Hordes...

Basically, nerds in general tend to have a decently sized part of the community who take their games a little too seriously, and will readily turn into raging elitist TFG's just to prove how superior they are to the rest of us filthy, unwashed, "casual at all costs" masses.
Just ignore them, and you'll be much happier for it. ;)
 

shimmerfly

Well-Known Member
I can't call my game style any certain term and don't care for name tags of any kind. What one person calls casual may be a whole different meaning for someone else.
I play for relaxation so I'm not the one who thrives to be the best. I do what I can do with the time I have and that is good enough for me.
I respect the players who crunch the numbers and someone always ends up on top. If that's important to them and makes them happy it fine with me.
 

NightshadeCS

Well-Known Member
As someone who has in fact used the paraphrase "they have their own playstyle," I can assure you it is simply a caveat, not a condemnation.

It is a catch-all that implies, for me, that some people do not want to play in the same way, and that is okay. For instance, I like the look of all of my buildings in neat rows with all the same sort together. And I like to group collection buildings so I can grab them all in one sweep. There are MANY times, though, that I think it would be so much more fun to make it like a real city and make little neighborhoods. Well, fun for a while maybe, and then the grind of collecting would get on my nerves, probably.

For me, the phrase is simply a way to indicate that my advice is based on how I like to play the game and if you like to do it another way, my advice may not be useful to you. That is all.
 

ajqtrz

Chef - loquacious Old Dog
The phrase, "they have their own playing style," seems to me, to be just a caveat meant to weaken the force of whatever harsh or forceful thing that was said.

But, on the other hand, there are "better" and "worse" playing styles once one conceives of the purpose of the game. For instance, if you are a truly casual player it would be a bad playing style to fret over how fast your city grew or didn't grow. And it would be a bad choice to get into a fellowship that cared about such things. In fact, a really casual player might like to limit their visits to once or twice a week for fifteen minutes or less, lest they get really interested and turn into a not-so-casual player. The best thing a casual player can be is serious about being a casual player, in that case! LOL.

AJ
 

Vergazi

Well-Known Member
Recently, I saw a player that said they would love to be a less serious, hardcore player then they could have a prettier, more visually attractive and esthetically pleasing city. I would say that they are a seriously non-casual player in the sense of time investment and efficiency, but mainly efficiencey. They make the choice to have a more efficient city in exchange for accepting a less pleasing to look at city. But on the other hand, one could argue that a efficient, gridlike city layout is more esthetic than a seemingly random spattering of colorful buildings and frenetic activity and movement. There are counter-arguments for any and all opinions on this i guess. Bottom line is what is pleasing to one is not so much so to the next person. RL has in recent months grown very time-consuming as my father's health has begun to fail more and more and I believe my definition of casual is undergoing a change during this time of reduced involvement with the game in terms of time investment. What this new definition is, exactly, has yet to be determined as life is very much in flux atm.
 

Alpha Lyrae

Well-Known Member
Sign me up as casual-ish! I consume all of the advice from number-crunchers and attempt to play efficiently, then I place a building that everyone hates because it's pretty (hello, Coldfire Phoenix, my pretty). :p

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

Enevhar Aldarion

Oh Wise One
To put a more general spin on the term, a casual player would not survive long in any e-sports tournament. The people playing those games to win real money are real hardcore players.

Oh, and "casual" is not a new derogatory term at all. It probably dates back to when online multiplayer in video games became an everyday thing, so it has been used for many years now. And if you want to jump over to physical sports, hardcore fans have put down casual fans for decades now.
 

Vergazi

Well-Known Member
The point was that the term "casual" is now used almost exclusively as a perjorative by players when referring to almost any player outside of their circle of players. I don't care much for e-Sports as I consider them to be a form of "digital affirmative-action" for less physically inclined individuals ( I include myself in this category ). I have never seen die-hard sports fans denigrate casual fans ever. I must just live in a pleasant bubble I guess. It occurs to me, though, that hardcore fans tend to be violent hooligans and the ones who fight with other hardcore fans in parking lots. Casual fans just do their drunken brawling in the comfort of their living room and the only casualtiy is usually the television set. ;)
 

Enevhar Aldarion

Oh Wise One
I have never seen die-hard sports fans denigrate casual fans ever.

Not been around any male sports fans talking down to more casual female sports fans, or nerdy-seeming casual sports fans, as they "try" to explain to the ignorant casual how the game works? It is so common that it became a stereotype and has been used as a punch line in sitcoms for decades now.

And calling someone a "casual" in the video game world has been an insult for decades too, probably as soon as fighting games became the big thing. You know all the moves or you are a casual button-masher.
 
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