Flicking through the Casual Games Market Report for 2007 yesterday, Screen Play was drawn to a graph listing the Top Reasons to Play Casual Games.
"Stress Relief" topped the list by a wide margin, followed by "take a break", "challenging" and "bored" responses.
When Screen Play asked hardcore gamers "Why Play?" last year, typical responses included "for fun", "sense of achievement", "to experience new things", "enjoy stories", "challenge", "escape", "explore" and " to socialise". Only one Screen Play reader mentioned stress relief.
Screen Play wonders why casual gamers play for such different reasons to (typically hardcore) Screen Play gamers?