Videogames for Everyone?

There’s no secret that Nintendo has established market dominance in this generation of videogame consoles. That dominance is due, in large part, to Nintendo’s efforts to broaden the scope of their consumers. Whether or not everyone who owns a Wii or DS is using it the same amount, the systems have sold and continue to sell games. This development has caused many new questions to be raised with respect to who is playing games and who’s money will determine the future of the market. While I’ve spoken to hardcore vs casual issue before from a purely financial perspective, I’m going to put down a few thoughts here about other factors.

First, I’d like to tackle the concept of the female gamer. Leigh Alexander posted a great video on the topic by Daniel Floyd which she helped compose. Not only is it funny, but the messages expressed therein are pretty solid. It’s best to watch the video rather than for me to attempt to create a synopsis. I agree that getting more women into gaming is a great idea, and the industry needs to acknowledge that the way to do that isn’t simply to make Halo easy to pick up and play, but rather to make games appeal to women. I don’t think anyone can really complain if more capital is being put into the system, especially since it may give us more innovative games such as Braid, Flower, and Mirror’s Edge.

I think that ties into another aspect of the changing demographics: casual gaming. I know a lot of people think that is a dirty term these days, but we need to recognize that there are some pretty distinct camps when it comes to how people game. I would consider myself part of the “hardcore” demographic. I read about games on a daily basis, play about an average of two hours a day, and know a good amount about most games before I get into stores. The same cannot be said for my girlfriend. My girlfriend played Super Mario Bros. back in the day, and she enjoys playing Rock Band and Zuma these days. What gets most of her attention, though, are free-to-play titles on the net. The reason? Near as I can tell gaming is disposable for her. She’ll go through a game in a day or two, and that doesn’t mean she’ll beat it. She just looses interest. I loaned her my old DS phat with a copy of The New Super Mario Bros. a while ago, and that seemed to catch for about a week, but after that she was done. And she’s not alone. There are a lot of people who game this way. They’re part of the reason that free-to-play is as predominant as it is. The argument I’ve made before (see above) is that these gamers won’t support the market financially in the long term, but they’re still people playing games, and perhaps one day they’ll start caring about release dates. It’s for this reason that game publishers are changing the types of games they’re producing to try and broaden the market.

These changes in demographics are causing quite a reaction amongst many gamers who see gaming as “theirs” (I went looking for examples, but failed to find anything quickly, you’ll have to take my word for it). Most “socially well adjusted” gamers deplore these comments as ignorant and immature. Who are these people attacking? How can the growth of our industry be bad? I think what people are missing is that to many “hardcore” gamers, gaming has always been a place they could escape the rest of the world. There’s a lot to be said for the appeal of a niche market, like videogames or D&D, as a way for people who are different to avoid feeling different from others. All of a sudden, however, this little niche which many gamers felt was their own, is opening up to their moms and the jocks they wanted to avoid in the first place. Of course they’re going to be protective, and I’m not sure we should give them too hard a time for it. I’m not advocating offensive language or attacks, but I think it’s okay for some people to be upset or disappointed because they feel like they don’t matter as much in the one area of their lives they felt like they did.

Where does this leave us though? We’re left with an industry struggling to find itself. I for one am confident that given enough time we will find an equilibrium which will suit all parties. Hardcore gamers received a buffet of awesome at this year’s E3. Publishers will realize soon enough that the iPhone and shovelware bubbles are going to pop and begin hedging their bets with a better proportioned spectrum of titles. And women gamers? My experience has been that given a decent foothold, women will find a way to make their own space in any area where they were a minority before. I just hope everyone can play nice until we get there.