I think Phil is on to something, but by focusing only on FPS he may be seeing the trees, but ignoring the forest. There are a number of hugely popular games out there that are aimed at the "Other than geeky male, 15-25" market. Here are the top selling games of last year according to Wiki
1 World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
2 The Sims 2: Seasons
3 Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
4 The Sims 2: Bon Voyage
5 Supreme Commander
6 The Lord of the Rings Online
7 The Orange Box
8 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
9 BioShock
10 The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff
I would argue that WOW is probably pretty evenly balanced between men and women, and that the Sims games are largely targeted at a female audience.
My point is that I agree, the FPS genre is pretty much the domain of young male gamers, but so what? The nature of these games attracts a certain type of player, and different genres attract different demographics.
I find that it's often possible to get new insight by turning the question around, so lets try another question. What would it take for the Sims developers to attract more men 15-25 to their games, and could they do it without alienating their core audience? I would argue that they probably could not. Different demographics like different things in games and this is not necessarily a bad thing.
I do agree that it would be nice to see more adventure / exploring type games. Stalker is a great example of how this can work. A lot of the enviromental elements in that game are there not because they are necessary to drive the plot forward, but just to give the player something else to check out. It gives you the option to play straight through on the main quest, or to wander around almost limitlessly finding new randomly spawned loot and such. The problem with this style of game is that it is very time consuming to create all those spaces, and you run the risk that the massive space you created will never get visited by players because they have no need to go there to complete the game.
I also see the MMO market fulfilling the exploration / adventure niche. MMO worlds are very large and open by their nature and allow for a wide variety of play types. A MMOFPS based on the HL2, Stalker, or Bioshock worlds seems like it could be incrediably popular. Stalker in particular seems like it would lend itself to this as it already has the map in place, and the factions are already created and it already has a ranking system even. A few tweaks to the engine and I think they would have a winner.
I wish I had the mad modding skills to show off to the world, but truthfully, although it was good by the standards of my class (marked the highest) I wouldn't want to invite the public ridicule it would surely generate.
It was just three small levels with some puzzles involving lights, levers, transporters, destructible objects and a handy Gravity Gun. I only scratched the surface of what the Source Engine is capable of.
My Mod only stood out because it tried to be different.
It was still Myst-inspired, so you could argue that it wasn't even original (getting quite difficult with the enormous back catalogue of 30-something years of video games). It was nowhere near as good, or as inventive, as Portal. Or even just the IDEA of Portal!
But it was quite challenging to create - Hammer can be a capricious bitch at the best of times. I salute thee who have successfully imported models into Hammer! You deserve a beer.
I think that truly original games need to be cheap and digitally distributed to overcome our (gamers) reluctance to take a punt on what could turn out to be a turkey. When you are looking to spend lots of $₤ you want to know you are getting something worth the money. You'd be willing to risk a small investment.
GTA IV was always going to pay off big, so a pre-order at a high price was a safe investment. Portal was not, and got bundled with The Orange Box.
We whinge a lot about the high prices of games (quite rightly, IMO) and getting ripped off over games that promise (by the marketing dept) and don't deliver (Driv3r anyone? - I got bidden by that one!). Prices are already high because of our technology demands (we want realistic graphics and physics) directly relate to development time and/or cost. But that doesn't really begin to explain the epic train wreck that is Duke Nukem Forever. You have to wonder how many hundreds of $₤ that's gonna cost us!
If you start developing to narrower niche markets, you will make the targets of that market happy but either the prices for the games will rise or the technology used will plateau or fall (It's cheaper to develop on an old/established platform - smaller teams, less development). Narrower market = less income = less profit = unhappy publisher = unhappy investor. Unless a publisher is willing to target niche markets with cheaper independent developers. Rockstar couldn't survive on niche markets (although Rockstar Table Tennis was a shock).
But if you gamble on a good idea, trust your instinct, you could hit the Jackpot. Valve did with Portal. And I think Maxis will with Spore.
I think the game portal touches on an area of gaming that hasn't been truely realised as yet. The thinking persons game. More often than not MMOs and FPS rely on combat as the focal point of the gaming experience. Those quests or objectives that try and move away from the combat focus tend to be very dull i.e courier jobs, escort person A to point B etc.
Maybe games which require you to think your way out of a situation rather than fight your way would appeal to a more broader base of player. Possibly girls would be more interested in FPS type games if combat was more sparse and served as a change from the intellectual challenges, as oppose to the current opposite.
The variety of puzzles and challenges that could be incorporated, would keep the game very fresh. Why not make the challenges educational aswell? Requiring people to research a topic on the web to find the answers.
Intellegent thinking is rarely rewarded to same level that combat does in first person games and MMOs. Maybe it's time to swap the chaingun for the brain gun.
The only game I play now or ever is Armed Assault (before that, OFP), in my opinion no other even comes close the depth, realism, teamwork and vast scope of this beautiful game, which still has so much more to give. Which is why I'm baffled when there are only 400 ArmA servers world wide and there all empty, compared to several thousand COD4 servers all packed to the rafters. I must be part of a dying breed of aging gamers who crave realistic, challenging, team oriented game play. Not that I'm a snob or anything, I used to get a kick out of BF:2, but I can only stay focused on that kind of repetitive, arcade style gameplay for half an hour before I get completely bored. I can play Armed Assault for hours on end each night and still crave for more. Horses for courses I guess..
I too am currently undertaking a games development degree under a professor who on the other side of academic life studies the social side and effects of gaming.
From what I can understand from my studies is that their is plenty of originality out there but not much backing for original games in terms of studios and financial investors willing to bank on unproven ideas.
I suppose that rehashing on old and proven ideas is the sine qua non of the modern gaming industry.
There is plenty of opportunists willing to mkae new and original games but from a marketing point there is not much call for those games. At the end of the day as long as customers are still buying the games theres not much impetus for change.
Sorry to dig up this old article but its something Im familiar with.
Comments 26 to 32 of 32
1 World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
2 The Sims 2: Seasons
3 Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
4 The Sims 2: Bon Voyage
5 Supreme Commander
6 The Lord of the Rings Online
7 The Orange Box
8 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
9 BioShock
10 The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff
I would argue that WOW is probably pretty evenly balanced between men and women, and that the Sims games are largely targeted at a female audience.
My point is that I agree, the FPS genre is pretty much the domain of young male gamers, but so what? The nature of these games attracts a certain type of player, and different genres attract different demographics.
I find that it's often possible to get new insight by turning the question around, so lets try another question. What would it take for the Sims developers to attract more men 15-25 to their games, and could they do it without alienating their core audience? I would argue that they probably could not. Different demographics like different things in games and this is not necessarily a bad thing.
I do agree that it would be nice to see more adventure / exploring type games. Stalker is a great example of how this can work. A lot of the enviromental elements in that game are there not because they are necessary to drive the plot forward, but just to give the player something else to check out. It gives you the option to play straight through on the main quest, or to wander around almost limitlessly finding new randomly spawned loot and such. The problem with this style of game is that it is very time consuming to create all those spaces, and you run the risk that the massive space you created will never get visited by players because they have no need to go there to complete the game.
I also see the MMO market fulfilling the exploration / adventure niche. MMO worlds are very large and open by their nature and allow for a wide variety of play types. A MMOFPS based on the HL2, Stalker, or Bioshock worlds seems like it could be incrediably popular. Stalker in particular seems like it would lend itself to this as it already has the map in place, and the factions are already created and it already has a ranking system even. A few tweaks to the engine and I think they would have a winner.
And expose myself in public?
I wish I had the mad modding skills to show off to the world, but truthfully, although it was good by the standards of my class (marked the highest) I wouldn't want to invite the public ridicule it would surely generate.
It was just three small levels with some puzzles involving lights, levers, transporters, destructible objects and a handy Gravity Gun. I only scratched the surface of what the Source Engine is capable of.
My Mod only stood out because it tried to be different.
It was still Myst-inspired, so you could argue that it wasn't even original (getting quite difficult with the enormous back catalogue of 30-something years of video games). It was nowhere near as good, or as inventive, as Portal. Or even just the IDEA of Portal!
But it was quite challenging to create - Hammer can be a capricious bitch at the best of times. I salute thee who have successfully imported models into Hammer! You deserve a beer.
GTA IV was always going to pay off big, so a pre-order at a high price was a safe investment. Portal was not, and got bundled with The Orange Box.
We whinge a lot about the high prices of games (quite rightly, IMO) and getting ripped off over games that promise (by the marketing dept) and don't deliver (Driv3r anyone? - I got bidden by that one!). Prices are already high because of our technology demands (we want realistic graphics and physics) directly relate to development time and/or cost. But that doesn't really begin to explain the epic train wreck that is Duke Nukem Forever. You have to wonder how many hundreds of $₤ that's gonna cost us!
If you start developing to narrower niche markets, you will make the targets of that market happy but either the prices for the games will rise or the technology used will plateau or fall (It's cheaper to develop on an old/established platform - smaller teams, less development). Narrower market = less income = less profit = unhappy publisher = unhappy investor. Unless a publisher is willing to target niche markets with cheaper independent developers. Rockstar couldn't survive on niche markets (although Rockstar Table Tennis was a shock).
But if you gamble on a good idea, trust your instinct, you could hit the Jackpot. Valve did with Portal. And I think Maxis will with Spore.
Maybe games which require you to think your way out of a situation rather than fight your way would appeal to a more broader base of player. Possibly girls would be more interested in FPS type games if combat was more sparse and served as a change from the intellectual challenges, as oppose to the current opposite.
The variety of puzzles and challenges that could be incorporated, would keep the game very fresh. Why not make the challenges educational aswell? Requiring people to research a topic on the web to find the answers.
Intellegent thinking is rarely rewarded to same level that combat does in first person games and MMOs. Maybe it's time to swap the chaingun for the brain gun.
From what I can understand from my studies is that their is plenty of originality out there but not much backing for original games in terms of studios and financial investors willing to bank on unproven ideas.
I suppose that rehashing on old and proven ideas is the sine qua non of the modern gaming industry.
There is plenty of opportunists willing to mkae new and original games but from a marketing point there is not much call for those games. At the end of the day as long as customers are still buying the games theres not much impetus for change.
Sorry to dig up this old article but its something Im familiar with.