As you may have guessed I'm quite passionate about games. Ever since my Atari I've been interested in playing, analysing, changing, tweaking and discussing games, and this wonderful thing called the Internet has brought all of these aspects together for everyone, and for the better I feel. We get information straight from the developers and designers now, and it's one of these statements that I'd like to talk about in this update.
Earlier this month GamerZines quoted Stephen Toulouse, Microsoft's Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox LIVE, regarding 'hardcore' gamers. I won't quote the entire article as it's a very quick read, so hop on over and read what he had to say.
I'm not going to start a diatribe about the softcore/hardcore gamer divide (if such a thing exists in general), but I am going to express my concern about what this statement might actually be saying.
Firstly, the hardcore gamer is a bit of a misnomer, having technically qualified for the label myself twice. The first time was during my nine to ten year stint playing QuakeWorld as a member of various clans (teams), participating in leagues and cups, running a few of my own competitions, hosting LAN parties, that sort of thing. The second time involved my lengthy enjoyment of World of Warcraft, which I still load up now and again. At neither point would I consider myself a 'hardcore' gamer, but rather, a passionate gamer. There's a difference.
The impression perceived when you suggest to someone who doesn't really play games that you might be a hardcore gamer, is one of superior skill or ability, or perhaps even sponsorship. If you were to suggest you're a passionate gamer, the impression would be that you care a lot about games, and desire to get the best out of them. I propose they're one and the same thing; a hardcore gamer is a person that cares much more about a game (or games) than the average person, and demonstrates this in not only playing the game, but also contributing to the community, helping other players into the game, building modifications to the game, perhaps extra levels, maybe even converting the game completely. You wouldn't consider most of these symptoms as qualifying someone for the 'hardcore' label, but the chances are these people know more about the game than someone who solely plays it. He or she may not be as good at the game, but then skill is only one measure of dedication. Thus, the hardcore gamer is in fact the passionate gamer, and is arguably one of the best fans of a game you can have.
Swinging back to Mr. Toulouse's statement, we see that hardcore gamers have in fact been wrong for the last ten years, and have been mostly wrong about market trends over the same period as well. I don't think this is a correct interpretation of what's happened, and I'd wager Mr. Toulouse is trying to highlight that the market Kinect is aimed at is not going to be as 'hardcore' as previous console milestones. That's Microsoft's choice of course, and they're perfectly entitled to make that decision. Given that the Wii has carved a huge market for itself in the last few years it's no wonder than Microsoft want to use Kinect (and Sony with Move) to barge into this market and reap the benefits. I don't think anyone saw the Wii coming, nor expected it to utterly dominate the video gaming market for a year or two, and it doesn't necessarily indicate the way the market is going in general. The Wii may simply have just created and immediately filled a niche, which if anything demonstrates perfect product design and marketing.
No, I'm going to go with the fact that Microsoft are risking a large investment in an unproven technology (the E3 videos are less than inspiring) in a very well serviced market. If this couples with their apparent attitude toward hardcore gamers and I'm correct about their complete misunderstanding regarding what that actually means, then the Kinect will suffer. You simply can't discard the opinions and desires of the hardcore crowd, as they're the most passionate about what they involve themselves in. They are the ones that spread the word of mouth recommendations, they're the ones that provide ongoing community interaction, and they're the ones that are ultimately returning customers. If you don't give them something to be passionate about then they'll look elsewhere, and Sony's E3 demonstrations at least hand a hint that perhaps, just perhaps, the more dedicated amongst us will get a system that makes our effort worthwhile. Sony may take advantage of this and steer their marketing towards the more advanced, deeper interaction with motion control. If they jump on the chance to reflect the "passionate gamer" angle into a few of their press releases I'm sure they'll gain more than Microsoft. Either way I just wish both companies would ditch the hardcore label and instead acknowledge that many gamers consider their games as more than just home entertainment.
Luckily, we won't have to wait long to find out how things go. Kinect hits the shelves in November with fifteen launch titles, and Sony's Move arrives much earlier in September. I eagerly look forward to seeing whether either product is deserving of the benefits the more dedicated gamer crowd can bestow, given half a chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment