Gameplay wise it has a strong casual appeal, there's xp for everything, but those other systems seem mostly there for those keeping score.

And I salute anyone who can stay awake long enough to max out crafting.

A game being casual friendly doesn't equate to fewer areas of content. WAR, so far, as a newbie, is relatively easy to get into - find something to do - and get out if you need to.

That's what casual is all about, bang for your time buck. Not fewer things to do.

I don't think that's what he means by casual-friendly. He's probably referring to the fact that you can pick up and play any time and even if you just play for 10 minutes, you can generally get something out of it.

You don't need to farm mats all week so that you can raid, then spend an hour organizing the raid, then another 5 hours raiding for a chance at a piece of loot.

Just about everything in WAR simply involves logging in, choosing to solo or join an open party, and just play until you feel like stopping.

You can do that in WoW, but a lot of the time you end up getting practically nothing out of it unless you join up for a lengthy gaming session (i.e. raiding) and stick it out for at least a couple of hours.

I know it's not that black and white, and that there are quicker things to do in WoW, etc, but I think there is still a distinction there between the two games in terms of the general approach.

I still love WoW, and plan to raid in Wrath, but I also really like WAR's pick up and play, no strings-attached feel.

Like a casual gamer would care if it takes him longer than a hardcore gamer to reach the endgame. As long as it's fun, and not a waste of time (ie. finding groups, etc.) or have long commitments like 6 hour raids: then it's indeed a good casual game.

The reasons you give are partially the reasons why it is for the casual gamer...

There is so much to do and ways to do it.
And most of the things that made WoW so tedious and boring have been removed.

I consider myself a casual gamer and I'm happy with all the stuff I can do while still getting something out of the game.
I'm tired of quests? I'll go PVP and level up...
Tired of PVP? I'll go do some quests... Maybe I'll spend some time in the local PQ areas...

So far the game fully lives up to Paul Barnetts enthusiasm... :-)

You do realize a casual gamer won't be trying to be max level. Hence the word casual in his description. They just want to have some fun. Which you can do in WAR from a very early level. At level 10 you can do lots of open world RVR, keep sieges, PQ raids, there's a TON of stuff for the casual player throughout the whole leveling process, much more than any other game has delivered.

As a casual gamer, yeah, I like Warhammer so far. Now, I'm a casual gamer, I've only managed to get an hour or so of game time in, maybe it changes later, but right now the major win for me is I don't spend ages wandering lost around the map wishing the quest NPC gave clearer directions. Not only are the directions actually clearer than WoW's IMHO, you get "around here" indicators on the map. Secondly, the giant book of achievements means I'm achieving something regularly, even if not levelling.

Will I ever see the end of the game? Probably not. Last MMO I got to the end of was CoH, and really that's not because I haven't tried others. However I have countless hours of non-tedious gameplay ahead of me, from the looks of things so far.

I believe you are an idiot.

Casual players want to have fun. They are not so concerned with "TEH LVL CAP!!!ZOMG"

WAR is probably one of the best games for the casual MMO player I have ever seen. Scaling PVPand public quests all let you jump right into the fray and actually let you have an impact, regardless of what level you are. Kill quests can be completed without even gettign the quest first, and quest markers point you in the general direction of where you want to go, minimizing "I can't FuCkiNg find "Bobo the gnome killer" time.

In summation: U'RE DUM