more stew than man

The average Sims player plays for like 12 hours per session it's the most hardcore crowd there is

And 10 of those hours are CAS.

"casual" as a label for games, rather than players, is an aesthetic; it neither describes depth (like, it's possible to be TERRIFYINGLY good at Tetris or Bejeweled or w/e) nor level of commitment

The Sims and Dwarf Fortress are the same fucking game the only difference is that one of them is marketed to people who enjoy playing with dolls and the other is marketed to people who have strong opinions about VI vs. Emacs

It makes sense when you realise "casual" just means "for people other cishet male nerds who are so insecure they constantly need to prove they are good at the big boy games". I figured this out when 1 of them tried to call Bioshock Infinite a casual game because girls liked it.

"Casual" games are essentially just games that have very simple, easy to understand and play gameplay. Something like the Sims or Plants Vs Zombies fits this. It doesn't mean it's bad.

you either play the sims for 12 hours a day, or forget it exists for 6 months, there is no in-between

unfortunately the publishers (EA) know this and that's probably why it's so bad about being stingy with content and gating simple things like extra clothes and decorations behind $40 expansion pack paywalls.

it costs, like, multiple hundreds of dollars to actually have all of the content for Sims 4. it's absurd.