How CityVille Sucked In a Hardcore Gamer

The online city-planning game CityVille is meant for “casual gamers,” and there are plenty of them: 92 million active monthly users, to be exact. But such simple gameplay and basic graphics would turn off any sophisticated player, right? Wrong—as JP Mangalindan, writing in Fortune, found out. A lifelong “hardcore traditional console gamer,” he tried out the game to research an article; now he’s completely hooked, playing “at least an hour a day.”

That may be “embarrassing” for someone who takes gaming seriously—but the fact is, “without my knowing it, my priorities had changed. I don't have the same free time and patience” required for console play. But “CityVille in all its simplicity lets users wade in at their leisure, no manual or tutorial required, for a few minutes, then walk away feeling like they made some serious headway,” Mangalindan writes. “It's so much more accessible—oh, and it's free.” Read the full column here. (More free online games stories.)