Comments on: The old man gamer acquiescence. http://xiigames.com/2006/09/26/the-old-man-gamer-acquiescence/ Now in grayscale! Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:43:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: Dr. Zaiss http://xiigames.com/2006/09/26/the-old-man-gamer-acquiescence/#comment-1274 Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:23:20 +0000 http://xiigames.com/2006/09/26/the-old-man-gamer-acquiescence/#comment-1274 This article came across my desk today too, and I was going to write about it before you beat me to it! I guess it resonates more readily with Old Men Gamers. =P I hear what the article is saying (didn't you make this point two months ago, V?) but it's mostly just whining. Two important points to come off of the article. One, I don't think the difference is age. It's having a career and a family (with kids). That's why hardcore gamers are less prevalent outside of the 6 - 17 year old range, but they still do exist (-cough-). Ask the wife of any World of Warcraft player. The larger point, though, is that nobody's needs are being met in the status quo. The hardcore gamers want longer epic games, whereas the softcore gamers want something that supports the short bursts of time that they have. It seems that, in trying to cater to both groups, the game design industry is failing at both counts. So the real question becomes one of strategizing how to meet the markets separately. That, and, measuring the size of the softcore gamer market to make sure it would be profitable to tap. But to prevent the softcore gamers from coming after me in droves, might I suggest <a href="http://docs.blacktree.com/virus/virus" rel="nofollow">the future of passive gaming</a>? This article came across my desk today too, and I was going to write about it before you beat me to it! I guess it resonates more readily with Old Men Gamers. =P

I hear what the article is saying (didn’t you make this point two months ago, V?) but it’s mostly just whining. Two important points to come off of the article. One, I don’t think the difference is age. It’s having a career and a family (with kids). That’s why hardcore gamers are less prevalent outside of the 6 - 17 year old range, but they still do exist (-cough-). Ask the wife of any World of Warcraft player.

The larger point, though, is that nobody’s needs are being met in the status quo. The hardcore gamers want longer epic games, whereas the softcore gamers want something that supports the short bursts of time that they have. It seems that, in trying to cater to both groups, the game design industry is failing at both counts.

So the real question becomes one of strategizing how to meet the markets separately. That, and, measuring the size of the softcore gamer market to make sure it would be profitable to tap.

But to prevent the softcore gamers from coming after me in droves, might I suggest the future of passive gaming?

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