Over the last at least month or so I have heard the phrase “casual players” over and over. I played season 7 and found more people then any other season just grouping up. None of them seemed casual in a sense that they all took what ever activity we did seriously. So I would just like to know what some of you all consider casual and why these players are bad or good?
I’ve noticed definitions vary to the point of being a significant source of debate if there’s a contentious topic being connected to the word.
Hope you’ve got your popcorn 
Imo it’s pretty relative to people’s world view in whichever game they’re playing. Relative around self/group think concepts like time/achievement levels.
I think for my part I tend to avoid labels, at least of that kind, and if there’s something to talk about it’s going to more about the specific features, actions etc. I’m going to be watching what I want to write after saying that now and see if my theory holds true 
2 Likes
It’s just somebody who doesn’t play much. I never thought of it as unskilled players or players who don’t take it seriously when they are playing.
Casual players are just players. Some like things others don’t. They’re just as good or bad for the game as the players who grind 16 Hours a day.
2 Likes
(( 
))
Casual gamers are playing as a hobby. They are not in an E-Sports Club and dont travel to competitions on a regular basis. They are not wearing team-jerseys 24h and are not locked away in gaming rooms not shown on any map where they are forced to improve their skills and new sportsmen are being hatched.
Keep in mind that casual players can still be better than e-sports(wo)men.
1 Like
Like anything, it’s a spectrum.
Goes from “a guy who doesn’t want to learn the game enough to make a potent build himself without a guide”
to “anyone who doesn’t even try to reach Torment 3 or 4”
through “anyone who plays less than 100h per season”
or “anyone who doesn’t try to climb the pit at all”.
2 Likes
Then I’m “casual” in S7. I have half that.
Yet I’m at Pit145, and fully cleared Journey (as of yesterday, wooo!).
I might play maybe another 10hr before Season is done, just to try for Pit150 clear. I have no Mythics I’m wearing, and I feel getting Heir and/or Shroud will put me over the 150 mark.
Simply put a casual gamer does not care about game difficulty and plays video games for only a couple hours a day and most of the time not everyday but maybe will play longer on a day off
1 Like
For me are casuals who spend minimal time on the game, their skill level has nothing to do with it.
I know players who just started and instantly good at the game (not a surprise the game is easy and the dude is very intelligent irl) .
Aaaand I also have players on my friendlist who play the game since launch pretty much everytime I’m online they are too and whenever they hopped in my game they are less than useless, I’d call them noobs, who are not new yet still bad.
1 Like
TBH the word is used in any so many different ways that’s it’s meaningless.
But yeah, grouping in most games consists of everyone expecting you to follow the meta strategy for doing X as quickly as possible.
1 Like
Yup, for sure some will consider you casual for not playing more than that.
People who have little to look forward to in their personal lives really want to feel they’re in control and a part of something substantial anywhere else. So they pour themselves into a pastime and call themselves Elite and everyone else is a ‘casual’.
The smug elitism is the Bad and alienating anyone who might accidently enjoy themselves is unhelpful. A little gatekeeping to hold back diluting the game to obscurity until we’re back to infinite Paragon and Torment XX difficultly levels keeps balancing and design direction within comfortable boundaries, as long as it doesn’t swing the other way to put up 50-foot smooth iron walls around everything.
If there’s a path to get sweaty and nerdy about stats and not get left miles behind if you don’t religiously commit to a video game, who cares?
Casuals don’t get their panties in a twist if the season starts 5 minutes late. That, and many other things.
2 Likes
Casual is 5 hours or less a week. That is about 60 hours played during the season. Why they are perceived negtively is due to the expectation that they should have all the same stuff as another player who has 600 hours played during a season.
There’s no standard definition, so whoever uses it should add context. If anyone uses it without context somewhere in the thread, just ignore it - they’re probably emoting. People don’t want to take the time to say what they think, and most of the time they don’t know what they think exactly.
Back when I was leveling & gearing up 4 chars at a time, I’d still call myself casual because I meant very short play sessions, scattered throughout the season (so it would take me all season to be “done” with 4 builds).
There are apparently a lot of players who invest points into 5 different Basic skills… enough to get a weary mention from Rod in interviews. They, too, are “casuals” but for totally different reasons.
There are people who do the season journey & buy skins, and they’re done - relative to pushers, these are also “casuals”. There are people who basically only do campaign & season quests, and the rest doesn’t matter… clearly “casual”.
It can mean whatever you want, you just should make it clear to readers what you mean, otherwise you waste their time.
Are you calling me casual??? 
I am hArdCoRE!!!
OP it is a stupid label nerds use to make others feel like they should think the nerd is special. Feel free to ignore it. The term comes from competitive games and it is STUPID there. So even more stupid here, in a non-competitive game.
1 Like
Soon to trickle in some competitiveness… in… 2 distinct tiers, which Brent Gibson was having a hard time describing (even more than the rest of the items on the list)… and then added that they’re still figuring out what it is & how to do it.
One is “make casuals feel good” tier… pretty sure he used the term “casual”. So it’s an industry term now.
1 Like
I think when devs say it they say it in terms of time people can spend gaming.
But when people on the forums say it, it is the new “noob”.
Either way it is a meaningless label. There is nothing normal about playing 17 hours a day.
People should just recognize others for having an interest in the same things and help them out when they need it without the ego trip.
It is almost as stupid as “hArdCoRE” in a noncompetitive game, everytime I hear that I picture this:
1 Like
I’ll 
defend the flexibility of language & say it has its uses (meaning it carries useful meaning in context)… if even PR-trained Gibson reaches for it, that speaks to its usefulness. The association with the more toxic uses (ego-centric) doesn’t affect that IMO… otherwise all words would be labelled too toxic to use. 
Because if any demographic can come up with toxic uses for ordinary words, it’s gamers™.
lol stop embarrassing yourself.
2 Likes
I don’t know if this qualifies it for anything.
Especially when the usage is not in the same context. He is talking strictly about hours played.