Pitfall! creator: FarmVille and co. 'give the 'casual' market a bad name'

Opinions on Zynga are like butts: Everybody has one. (Even we do.) The latest to express thoughts on the king of Facebook games is David Crane, the creator of Atari classic Pitfall! and co-founder of Activision, one today's most prominent game publishers. And, like many, Crane doesn't seem as if he'll praise the FarmVille maker any time soon.

"If you ask someone what they thought a casual game was a few years ago, they might have said something like Angry Birds," Crane told Game Informer. "Now they'll probably say something like FarmVille. I don't like to lump those social games in with casual games. I think it's those Zynga-like games that give the 'casual' market a bad name."

Crane made the comment during an interview at the Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, and the topic, of course, was casual games. To the Pitfall! maker, he has always developed casual games purely by definition: "Games are about diversion; that's very casual." I guess, if you put games like FarmVille next to iconic classics such as Pitfall!, then they might not stack up. But is that even a fair comparison?

[Via Digital Spy]

Do you agree with Crane's sentiments on social games? Are social games not as high-quality as casual games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.