The Casual Gamer vs The Hardcore Gamer

When I say casual gamer, I don't particularly mean the gamer that plays games on easy, nor the gamer that only plays games every so often. I mean the gamer that plays casual games.

You know the ones, the oddly addicting ones, yet minimal skill or even attention is required for the most part. Games like FarmVille and Hay Day, amongst many others.

These games are becoming more and more popular and so more variations of the games themselves are joining the shelves. These micro-management, micro-transaction games seem to be opening up a whole new market to people who would otherwise not game at all.

My concern is simple. As there is so much money to be made in these games and they are a 'safe bet' (due to minimal development/creation costs) with maximum rewards. Does this foresee a bleak future for gaming as a whole?

From the onslaught of casual games a few years ago, we have also seen an onslaught of different factors being introduced to our mainstream (more hardcore) games. Things such as DLC and arcade games. The games themselves seem to be a little easier these days too.

The concern is, will the casual gaming market (with its high consumer volumes) have a negative effect on the core of the very gaming industry and 'dumb down' some of the games of the future. For the time being, it's great that gaming is spreading beyond the tight community it once was, but what does the future hold?