Yesterday, I defined a casual game as one designed to appeal to a wide audience, including non-gamers. Clearly this includes Angry Birds.

Except, I just got the following achievement:

True Angry Birds Fan: Angry Birds played for 15 hours

What's more, I got that achievement while playing the same level for over an hour (on company time, fortunately). No joke. Level 6-6 from Danger Above is a pain in the ass:

You have a single green bird with which you must hit the back of that top cannon-looking structure, causing enough debris to fall and detonate the lower cannon.

Here it is done right:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dms3OyB_E4c

The problem with this is that getting this to happen is pure luck.

The green bird is a pain to use, but with practice, I can properly hit the top cannon 80% of the time. However, the debris falling properly is entirely up to chance. I just had to keep making the same shot, over and over again, until the planets lined up and I got my three stars.

Besides venting about this awful level, the point is that spending an hour straight to beat a difficult spot in a game is not in line with casual gameplay. Looking up strategies online is not casual. These behaviors are more what you associate with Call of Duty or Dark Souls. So what's the deal?

I think that there are casual games and hardcore games. However, I think gameplay is what you make of it. Someone can take a simple game, and dedicate enough time and energy to create a hardcore experience. Angry Birds is a casual game. Getting three stars in every level of every episode is hardcore.