Casual gaming: the New Hardcore

The Guardian Unlimited has a nice blog entry on Casual gaming: the new hardcore which talks a bit about a recent flamewar between casual gamers and hardcore gamers, and some of the insights this generated. The main point is that somehow, casual gamers find casual games on the internet, even though there are no publications and media emphasis on them like there are for the commercial titles that you see on shelves at your local game store. Does this mean that casual gamers are just as motivated to play? Would responding to the online casual gaming audience generate more traffic for a small developer than trying to develop a boxed game?