Over at Multiplayer, a pretty good point was just raised: How did gaming get so hardcore? We don’t just mean the violence, but the fanaticism as well. How did gaming become such an intense, insular culture anway? Can you even imagine a “casual” gamer anymore?

Anyway, this is the problem Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, has with the direction the industry’s gone in since his heyday. He says it all turned around 1983, with the introduction of more blood, gore, and sex, and the rise of long-form role-playing. The violence turned off the women, and the long form created a culture that was alienating to potential casual gamers.

For any hope of expanding the demo for gaming, Bushnell’s placing his bets on the Wii and its “return to fun games.” (Like, as opposed to the ones that are intensely, awkwardly obsessive and unattractive to your girlfriend?) But there’s also been talk of building more narrative possibility into gaming to attract women.

What do you think? Are there unexpected ways in which gaming might continue to expand…?