Rockstar’s Dan Houser said f— it.

Nintendo said it doesn’t exist.

And whatever it is, EA said that “The Sims” isn’t it.

So what is “casual gaming”?

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of “casual” is something “occurring without regularity,” “occasional,” “employed for irregular periods, “met with on occasion and known only superficially” and “lacking a high degree of interest or devotion” or “done without serious intent or commitment.”

However, in gaming, the term “casual” is used to refer to a genre of games. But what really defines a “casual game”? Is it the core audience that plays it? Is it the kind of gameplay a title offers? Or a game’s wide-spread appeal?

When Nancy Smith, Global President of “The Sims” at EA, was asked about the label “casual,” she said, “I don’t think of ["The Sims"] as casual. We were one of the first games that started to attract a broad audience. We were one of the first games that bought in women.”

Meanwhile, Nintendo Europe’s senior marketing director Laurent Fischer told CVG he thinks the idea of the casual gamer is a myth entirely: “For me, you are a gamer or non-gamer… I think most of you know that you can spend ten or twenty hours on an internet flash game and have not realised. The guy who plays these games regularly - he’s a core gamer.”

As for the word “casual,” he said, “I don’t like this word casual so much. Because people consider that casual needs to be something easy. If you’re good at any game you can play at a high difficulty level. There is no casual gaming. There is just a different way to play.”

Clearly, casual games are booming. Why are publishers suddenly uncomfortable with the “c” word? What do you think defines a “casual gamer” or a “casual game”? Should the term “casual” be embraced or tossed out?

I consider myself a feminist and a gamer. And you know what? I love playing “Grand Theft Auto.”

But some articles calling the game misogynistic have inevitably cropped up.

Samhita, a writer at Feministing.com, thinks “GTA” promotes the idea to young men that “it is cool to be violent and kill prostitutes.” She asked, “Where does this put young women gamers? How do they feel when playing video games with such violent representations of women?”

It didn’t help matters that IGN made a video called the “Ladies of Liberty City,” which was a collection of clips showing lead character Niko Bellic having sex with prostitutes and then killing them (it was pulled down following an inquiry from Multiplayer).

I was appalled by the IGN video; I was turned off by the disturbing montage and felt it presented the game grossly out of context.

So why do I like this game?

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“Grand Theft Auto IV,” like its predecessors, is rated “M” for “Mature.” That means that the game’s content is only “suitable for persons ages 17 and older.”

But we all know that won’t prevent everyone under 17 from getting their hands on the game.

I recently talked to three teenagers who have owned and played “GTA” since well before the age of 17 — with and without their parents’ permission — about their past experiences with “GTA” games.

One 15 year-old told me his parents don’t allow him to play M-rated games without their approval, and “GTA” is strictly off-limits. However, he acquired “San Andreas” though a game-trading website, and they don’t know he’s been playing it:

“They would probably be more upset that I didn’t listen to them first, and about the content second. In my defense, I feel that going to high school has prepared me for the content in M-rated games.”

Read on to learn how these teens got their “GTA”s, what their parents do and don’t know about it, and whether they plan to acquire “GTA IV” later this month…

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On the left is a painting of “Grand Theft Auto IV” protagonist Niko Bellic spotted in a doorway in Brooklyn.

How’d it get there?

A popular song about New York begins, “Start spreading the news…”

And that’s just what Rockstar has done, across New York City.

With Rockstar’s headquarters located in New York and the new game set in a city almost identical to the Big Apple, I spotted a few pieces of guerilla marketing for “GTA IV.”

Have a look at more sightings below (and click the images to see a bigger version).

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Yesterday, Stephen Totilo and I received special packages from Rockstar.

Joy! It was “GTA IV” swag.

But when we discussed the loot, we were surprised that we received different items.

His package included a large “Swingers” baseball jersey (with the number four emblazoned on the back), a “Swingers” ball cap, a license plate with “N1K0″ on it, foam fingers in “Shocker” mode (try explaining that to Totilo), a mousepad and two “GTA IV” stickers (one the size of my hand, the other bigger than my face).

Meanwhile, I received a small “GTA IV” sticker, the foam fingers and an XL “Burger Shot” T-shirt.

The only other outlet we’ve seen receive a package thus far was UGO; it looks like they just got the foam fingers and a white “GTA IV” T-shirt.

So why the difference in swag? And is Rockstar trying to tell me that I’m fat?

Click onward to view our “GTA IV”-related items with the real-life Liberty City as the appropriate backdrop…

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Today in a conference call held by the Take-Two Interactive to discuss financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2008, the company revealed that “BioShock 2” will be released in 2009, courtesy of a team that’s not quite the one that made the first “BioShock.”

Ken Levine, lead creator of the original will have a hand in 2009’s “BioShock 2.” Primary development of the game, however, won’t be done by Levine’s team at 2K Boston, but by the newly formed 2K Marin.

“Ken is a terrific asset in the company,” CEO Ben Feder stated. “He’s a brilliant game developer. We’re really excited to have him. He will be working on ‘BioShock 2′ and he will be working on a new IP. A lot of the work will be done at 2K Marin, but that’s not to say that Ken is not involved. We think he’s critical to ‘BioShock’ and he’s critical to new IP in the company.”

On 2K Boston and 2K Australia, the studios behind the first game: “They’re working on another game.”

Other news from Take-Two’s earnings call, including bits about Rockstar and the EA buy-out attempt follow…

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