A CASUAL REVOLUTION REINVENTING VIDEO GAMES AND THEIR PLAYERS JESPER JUUL ACASUALREVOLUTION ACASUALREVOLUTION Reinventing Video Games and Their Players Jesper Juul The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 8 2010 Jesper Juul All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa- tion storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. For information about special quantity discounts, please email
[email protected] This book was set in Scala Serif and Scala Sans on 3B2 by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Juul, Jesper, 1970– A casual revolution : reinventing video games and their players / Jesper Juul. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-01337-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Video games—Psychological aspects. 2. Video gamers—Psychology. I. Title. GV1469.34.P79J88 2010 794.8—dc22 2009009091 10987654321 Contents Acknowledgments vii 1 A Casual Revolution 1 2 What Is Casual? 25 3 All the Games You Played Before 65 4 Innovations and Clones: The Gradual Evolution of Downloadable Casual Games 79 5 Return to Player Space: The Success of Mimetic Interface Games 103 6 Social Meaning and Social Goals 121 7 Casual Play in a Hardcore Game 129 8 Players, Developers, and the Future of Video Games 145 Appendix A: Player Survey 153 Appendix B: Player Stories 157 Appendix C: Developer Interviews 175 Notes 219 References 233 Index 247 Acknowledgments First, I must thank colleagues and students for the knowledge, helpful- ness, and discussions that made this book infinitely better than it would have been otherwise.