@Kolanaki@t3rmit3 The linked article is using "casual" to refer to a number of different traits - competitiveness is one of them, but also how demanding they are for your time and attention. Casual was probably the wrong word to choose, since it already has a different meaning for most gamers, but the thesis is more about the return of low-stakes FPS games that you can pick up here and there to goof off without being milked for every minute and dollar you can spare.
An old guard of life-consuming live-service games remains a vibrant and popular part of this genre, but they're once again sharing the space with—and even adopting the attributes of—a more casual breed. Games that don't mind if you only play them once in a while. Games that let you make your own fun, encourage cooperation, or earn our respect by not bombarding us with ads.
The new Hong Kong 2097 is a “mind-numbing” twin stick shooter in which protagonist Chin makes a comeback. This time, he’s tasked by God to wipe out the population of the fictional country of “Amurikka” and establish a utopia. The sequel promises a more solid gameplay experience than its predecessor, but with an equally inappropriate and tasteless story.
I'm sure all the gamers who insist Call of Duty isn't political will agree that this is a fictional country that says nothing about reality, right?
@theangriestbird
In addition to ego (which I'm sure plays a role) I think I would find myself reticent to lower the difficultly to "Easy" for a couple reasons
The default difficultly, which is typically "normal" is often the intended experience, and if I can play like that, I see value in it.
Related to (1), difficulty settings are often poorly thought-out; it's quite common for hard mode to simply make enemies bullet sponges or for easy to turn them into cardboard cutouts, which is a disappointing experience.
@HawlSera I do recognize that tomboys, buff women, etc are worth representing, (and we should push for their inclusion) but that's not what I'm talking about - I mean people who look like "men" but use pronouns other than he/him.
@HawlSera@chloyster I mean, I absolutely know people who use she/her but present very masc, and vise-versa. They may be relatively uncommon, but so are trans people in general and we're still worth representing. Not to mention non-binary people who have relatively binary gender presentation. Your experience is absolutely not universal.