MaxwellGT2000 said:
Hi again Max is back with more thought on the gaming market like always! Todays topic is the blurry lines that we call gamers, what each type is, what they do for the market, and anything else I can think up. First off in my opinion there is no real generalization of gamers, but the general view now is usually two catagories "Hardcore" and "Casual". I'm here to split these two generalizations up a bit more to make more sense of the market and which consoles are appealing to which gamer, I'm going to split them into 4 groups. The Hardcore gamer: (Type 1) (myself)
The hardcore gamer that concentrates on gameplay, these gamers usually could give a crap what a game looks like as long as it doesn't affect gameplay, and love how fun a game is. A game could be 8-bit but as long as that game plays great they love it, these gamers typically have been around when shiny graphics was an unheard of thing and think these kids are spoiled with their bump mapping and havok physics engine, why back in their day you had 2 buttons and a D pad and you loved it. These gamers are typically looking for the next new way to spice up the gameplay to make things more interesting, weather it be an in game innovation, or a shiney new thing-a-ma-jig like the Wii remote. They like the big names in the industry as well as the off the wall and quarky titles that do something different. These gamers buy all the big name titles and the small titles that interests them.
(type 2) These hardcore are in it for the experience, competition, and to show off how 1337 they are. These gamers either entered into the gaming biz through PC, or in the 3D age of consoles. They want everything to be EPIC, from the story, the graphics, to the little hairs on a guys head, those hairs better be so epic and full of win that when he caps you with a sniper rifle he better see those hairs fly through the air. This gamer also sticks to his guns be it PC or console, they don't want much change from their hardware innovations wise just more power and a trustly controller. These gamers love anything they can compete with, be it high scores, racing, FPS, or sports. This gamer buys the big name titles and any small sometimes mediocre games of competition. The casual gamer: (type 1) The gamer that loves games but are not able to play everyday, or may not want to, they enjoy that good few minute rush they can get from a game then its over and they move on with their lives. These gamers either were once apart of the hardcore and they can't live that lifestyle anymore cause of family, or actually having a life, or some came in fresh and just enjoy a quick DDR song or the quick race every so often, usually starting out on the flash games or playing games at a friends house. These gamers only buy a game every so often and its either the biggest hyped game or the mainstream title that they enjoyed in the past and usually are those quick games that you get instant gratification from. They buy some of the big titles, and the DDR, Guitar Hero, racing, or party games, they pretty much like anything thats in style at the time. Even though often looked down upon in the gaming community these gamers make up the majority of game and console sales so often time game devs make sure they can pull in this crowd. (type 2) The newest type of gamer, these gamers came in seeing the new idea of the DS with brain age and a whole new way to play games. These gamers are the ones that never tried gaming before, they don't listen to reviews, they don't come in and see threads like the one I'm making now, in fact most are oblivious to the rest of gaming outside of what they like. Much like the type 1 casual gamer they love short instant gratification games, but the twist with their games are they're usually not considdered real games. These gamers love the new idea of something easy and very mainstream, they love anything that makes them feel smarter, more fit, or anything that might be related to their real life or advertised to be cool and hip for their click. These types of gamers are often confused with the type 1 casual gamer that has always existed since the dawn of gaming but in fact these gamers are the new untapped market, the housewives, the house... er.. husbands (hey it happens), the businessmen and women, and the older crowd that always told those damn pokemon traders to get off their lawns. These gamers will hopefully grow and expand to become the type 1 casual or hopefully even hardcore one day. This type of gamer loves brain age, puzzles, Wii play/sports/fit, and sadly enough carnival games. How these gamers fit into console/pc gaming: Type 1 hardcore pretty much fits into Wii, PC, and sometimes 360/PS3 this console cycle, loving the new possibilities on the Wii front and using PC/360/PS3 to still get their traditional games. Type 2 hardcore fits into the 360/PC/PS3 and looks at Wii as the console to have on the side (sometimes), they want their graphics hardcore HD style and every game to have a budget in the tens of millions so they get the most out of that shiney new HDTV. Type 1 casual goes with the flow and are often, only Wii (if on a budget), Wii60 owners or PSWii. They get their fix out of the party games on Wii and get their traditional sit down and relax for sports/racing on their 360/PS3. Type 2 casual basically owns Wii and either haven't heard of or not insterested in the other consoles. You say to this type of gamer "PS3 and 360 have HD" and they will only reply "I'm sorry to hear that PS3 and 360 have an STD" and then go back to playing their Brain Age. Final Thoughts: To be market leader you have to appeal to the casual market much like PS2 did, and Wii is doing now, they all have their hardcore loyalists, but the mainstream market is what "wins" the generation. It's best not to put down any console cause they all have their strengths and weaknesses, but to ignore this and post nothing but threads upon threads about how you want *insert console here* to fail is just absurd, it's clear which console has which type of gamer, the only new thing about this generation is the nongamer has finally started coming into the market, which will mean more and better sales for the future of gaming as a whole. This was all written to define the types of gamers this generation so far, there's many that still fall between the cracks on my analysis but all I'm trying to do is make the lines a bit more clear, and that there's more then one type of "casual" and to debate over which games are casual or hardcore is nearly pointless as they spread across the gaming spectrum. Lets all enjoy what we have and understand what we mean when we say "casual" and "hardcore" Discuss! |
