Every few weeks, the team at GV HQ dedicates an afternoon to playing and critiquing games. It's fun, educational, and helps generate new ideas that will continue to make Gamesville the best place to play free online game shows for real cash prizes. 

At one of our recent meetings, we started looking at games that were really innovative or special in some way. Braid topped my personal list--not just because of its unique play mechanic of manipulating time, its unique visual style and musical score, but also because of how the developers structured The Wall.

The Wall is the point where need to pay to continue playing. In most casual games, that's an automatic 60 minutes into the game. Braid was more refined. The Wall concept was actually woven into the story, at just the right point, in just the right manner, to make me reach into my wallet and pull out my credit card without hestitation. That is no small feat.

I mentioned the story. A large part of why I bought the game was because of the story, because of the unique aura of loss and longing threaded so skillfully into the game. Braid is not a depressing experience--but it is definitely a moving experience.

Will we see a lot of Braid wannabes soon? Probably. Any time a casual game is popular, the market floods with tons of clones. But does it have to be that way? Don't we deserve better? I think we do.

Today, in an editorial for DailyGame.net, I put forth the idea that casual gamers deserve a Bill Of Rights, just like their PC-gaming cousins.

Think of it as a series of guiding principles that will hopefully encourage innovation and continue to grow the casual games industry. These are also the kinds of qualities you should expect from Gamesville as we move ahead into a bold, new age of online game shows.

Casual Gamer's Bill of Rights:

1. The right to games that keep things clear without being condescending or pandering.
2. The right to appropriate feedback, to understand whether or not I'm succeeding.
3. The right to games whose price points equate logically to the games themselves, not the genre to which the games belong.
4. The right to customer service that is both prompt and courteous.
5. The right to games that innovate more than imitate, and push my boundaries without breaking my spirit.
6. The right to games that help me understand the world and my place in it.

This six-point Casual Gamers' Bill of Rights is by no means complete, and questions, comments and suggestions are definitely welcome. I'm really interested to know what you think. Because this is really just the start of the conversation. Where it goes next is, in large part, up to you.

Sincerely,
Chris Cummings
Manager, Gamesville.com
GV: chriscummings101