Tuesday, February 17, 2009

"Not everything is made for you"

That's John Davison, former 1up editor, currently writing at whattheyplay.com. John was on Rebel FM podcast episode 6. The group which also included MTV Multiplayer's Patrick Klepek.

John was talking about how gaming now has to cater to two separate audiences. The argument was that the two main groups in gaming, casuals and the hardcore, have to understand that not all games are going to be made for them. John likened his idea to how not all movies are made for one group, books and music as well. I think this is a natural progression of video gaming as a real, viable, mainstream media. Why is it so difficult to accept? Gaming has been such a niche area of social media that when something is developed that isn't hardcore, it's a little hard to swallow.

Suddenly the oft-alienated core-gamer crowd are struggling with the fact that gaming is no longer only theirs. I should hope that gaming and the projects developers work on become more and more varied, filling more niche interests. Let's not stop at fitness games. What other areas can be used to reach an even larger audience? Wouldn't the hardcore accept a publisher putting out a few titles that were easy (and cheap) to develop in order to finance their large "hardcore" masterpiece? Not only do those more casual oriented titles help to budget the "hardcore" games, but they also keep developers employed.

I know I would much rather that business model, but I don't want those hardcore games so few and far between.

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