lmao how can people even seriously say that games are going to shit when we've had a huge resurgence in niche indie games since like 2010.
"muh casuels runnin vidya ;~;" is pure bs. there's a small niche audience who thinks games are art, sure. sure, it's much more profitable to make games for the masses. but note that as long as people think games are art, they will make niche games for a niche audience.
and this is true for literally every form of art, ever? there are more music genres than pop, even if pop is the most popular. same for movies. same for TV series. same for anime. people don't just make games to make money. they make games because they want to make games.
Most people right now believe games are art, at least that is my inference. That isn't REALLY the issue.
Mostly it is that Casual Gamers are new to gaming (well SORT OF) and for the most part don't want anything too difficult or too deep (That was how I played games when I was a child. I'd put it on the easiest difficulty everytime and didn't care
) mostly because their primary focus is just playing a game immediately and having fun without too much of a learning curve. Against Marketers who believe that Casuals REALLY don't want anything too difficult and that they HATE depth.
Who now outnumber "gamers" (people who game as a hobby) significantly so now they are the primary demographic. So almost all games now are filtered through the lens of "Will the everyman like it? Will the everyman understand?".
As for "Niche Indie games" big huge freeken MEH! The cream rises to the top and a lot of indie developers are proud to coast along mediocrity because trying would be "too hard". Meaning that the vast majority of indie games are blander then uncooked tofu. It makes standouts few and far between.
But as much as I am making that sound bad... I am honestly glad that indie is making a resurgence. I am just saying they aren't the saviors of videogames anymore than Telltalegames was the savior of point and clicks (which is a shame because I wanted them to be >_>). Though maybe I should be giving both of them more credit.
The best definition for gamer is probably a person who identifies as one. I'm pretty sure somebody who sometimes plays Candy Crush Saga on their phone when they have to wait for their bus wouldn't identify as a gamer, for example.
Ehh I personally treat it as someone who has gaming as a hobby.
It is the difference between someone who read all the Harry Potter Novels (and Twilight) versus someone who just reads in general.