Nintendo should learn to cater to us after game of the year awards.

[Erik Aston]

Grampy said:

Ah the sweet arroganant self importance of the self appointed hardcore keeper of the faith. The problem is that you are the only ones that take you seriously and for good reason.

• 88.5% of game developers are male
• Games are tested by and marketed almost exclusively to males HS-College
• The only group that statistically has indicated in surveys that they intend to spend less time on video games  is males HS-College (trend predates Wii by the way)
• 52% of the world's population are female
• 39% of gamers are female although almost no effort is made to develop games with them in mind
• The demographic group that spends the greatest amount of time per weeks playing games (of all kinds) are female age 40 and up (you wondered whyWii Fit sold so well?)
• Most surprise runaway hit games have been games that were designed to be attractive to females. This includes MYST and, believe it or not PacMan.
• No console has ever become the leader by catering exclusivly to the "hardcore". That was the intent of the GC for example.
• Serious attempts to create good cas-core games that can appeal to both groups by being easy to learn  but difficult to master have been limited in success because newcomers are made to feel unwelcome by hard ass types who are more interested in humiliating newbies that in supporting games and platforms that they prefer.
• Hardcore gamers tend  to support a narrow selection of games and belittle new and more experimental games creating a industry that is primarily sequeal driven and so narrow based the the games tend to cannibalize their own sales (a trend very apparent at the end of the last year).
• There is very little real evidence that "neglecting" the hardcore is a particularly risky strategy unless Metacritic scores really matter to you
• There is no evidence that a console is endangered by having a library that includes a lot of casual and even poor quality games. Study the PS1 catalog sometime
• And as far as the wasting times on the little kiddies, guess what, in a couple of years they will be the new hardcore having cut their eyeteeth on motion controls and you will be on your way to being just another old fart telling us how great gaming was in the good old days when real men wiggled little sticks around and they'll yawn and say whatever you say Dad and wait for you to fall asleep so they can play in peace.

The truth is that everyone pays you far more attention than your numbers or your money actually justifies but as much as I think that you should be able to get the types of games you like; the sooner you realize that the gaming worlds sun does not rise and fall out of your your ass, the better it will be for all concerned.

 

I actually read all of that and it was pretty good. B+

It could have been an A, but the term "cas-core" made me dry heave a little bit.