Casual gamer gets serious prize

By Tim Surette, GameSpotPosted Sep 11, 2006 4:09 pm PT

$1 million prize awarded to "World's Best Casual Gamer" at inaugural WorldWide Web Games.

All the talk about professional gaming has focused largely on who can race the fastest, who can frag the most, and who can fight the best. That may all change now, as a prize of $1 million was given to the gamer who could break the most jewels, play the most cards, and bust the most bubbles over the weekend.

Kavitha Yalavarthi of Odessa, Texas, was crowned World's Best Casual Gamer by Fun Technologies at the first-ever WorldWide Web Games, held in Hollywood, California. Three games--Bejeweled 2, Solitaire, and Zuma--were featured in the competition, which took place over 12 hours and featured 71 contestants.

Casual games, called so because of their appeal to the nongaming crowd, have garnered a lot of attention in recent years because of their revenue potential and low development costs. Many industry experts believe the sector is due for considerable growth domestically over the next five years, with some pegging it as a billion-dollar industry by 2011.

73 Comments

  • BigBangWiscite

    Posted Sep 19, 2009 7:43 am PT

    She's only 650,000Killionire, IRS got at that dow.

  • _Sam_

    Posted Sep 14, 2006 4:04 pm PT

    Wow, I didn't know about this

  • Reetesh

    Posted Sep 14, 2006 11:59 am PT

    WOah she is an Indian! Great!

  • anamnawshad

    Posted Sep 13, 2006 10:23 am PT

    Oh SHE's a lucky Indian!

  • faizali86

    Posted Sep 13, 2006 6:11 am PT

    thats a typical indian name

  • Jerrymiru

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 7:31 pm PT

    I now feel just as cheap as the games buy learning of this. ~shakes head~ Game companies aren't going to put in the effort to make a truly great game if they can just release these. Sure some are fun to play, but to make a contest out of games that you play on your cell phone while you're on the toilet is sad.

  • cmhawk

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 6:23 pm PT

    1 mil is too much

  • ffgothic

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 4:39 pm PT

    lucky. when do hardcore gamers like me get $1 mil

  • Igwababa

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 4:24 pm PT

    Bet that guy is pretty happy and probably spent half of it on cars already etc

  • s151990

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 11:54 am PT

    dam, I wish I could get a million, I want a sweet car.....

  • cjcr_alexandru

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 11:10 am PT

    1 MILLION $!!! That's a lot of money...

  • StillWingless

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 10:39 am PT

    sweet. there's hope for my bejeweled addiction after all.

  • watsonphys

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 10:02 am PT

    I don't think it's a good idea to pay people to play games, I thought that they are for fun.

  • BohemianCoast

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 9:33 am PT

    I think the key distinction between 'casual' and other games is not playtime, or seriousness of players. It's the ease of picking up the games. It doesn't make sense to sit down and plan to play Oblivion for ten minutes, whereas ten minutes of Bejewelled is fine. The fact that you then go on to play for five hours is neither here nor there.

  • Dax207983

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 8:52 am PT

    People and governments already give millions of dollars every year to poor people all over the world. The problem is that most of that money is stolen by kleptrocratic dictators and very little makes it to those who need it. Also, throwing money at chronically poor countries won't bring its citizens out of poverty, only sustained economic development will (obviously). Many countries, particularly in Africa, have yet to embrace capitalism.

  • Drachman

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 8:36 am PT

    Woo, something I'd like to be in.

  • bizsumpark182

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 8:23 am PT

    casual gaming

  • TintedChimes

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 7:10 am PT

    Sounds contradictory. If you're a casual gamer, you'll never play enough to win in a competition. But if you train advidly, then you'll....aww heck with it...LET THE CHALLENGE BEGIN!

  • wenbin09

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 7:10 am PT

    Bejeweled 2 is extremely addictive!!

  • Berserker_2

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 6:46 am PT

    Hey Sk8nNotH8tn,

    How much do you give to the poor?

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