Take A Byte VI

By Tristan Clark

Tristan discusses the narrow view of most games publishers.

In 2004, the video games industry made US $9.9 billion in North America alone. Sounds like a lot of money, but it's apparently not enough - publishers have been moaning for a while now about how they want to expand the audience for games, shifting away from the traditional demographic of males aged 18-25. Apparently, there is a huge amount of people out there who would eagerly become gamers, if only the right game could be made (or marketed) for them. However, despite all of this talk, the industry is still almost exclusively focused on making relatively hardcore games for hardcore gamers. Games with true mass appeal are still the exception rather than the rule, and until developers (or the publishers) start thinking in broader, less traditional terms, this isn't going to change.

As an example, let's consider massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). Over the last few years, this genre has become increasingly lucrative, to the point where a game like World of Warcraft has over two million subscribers, each of whom pay US $15 a month. However, even with figures like that, WoW still isn't considered to have broken into the mainstream. There are several reasons for this. Perhaps most importantly, WoW's fantasy theme wouldn't appeal to everybody - it might ensure that a certain amount of fantasy lovers will subscribe, but it puts off people who are not so keen on the theme. All the grinding necessary to advance your character, and the relative complexity of various aspects of the game, also help to scare people away from trying it out.

I also played the demo of F.E.A.R. recently, and noticed a lot of similar elements that would put off the mainstream crowd. The kind of reflexes needed will not be something that a non-gamer would be able to pick up too quickly, and even the subject matter - clones, guns, killing, etc - would automatically turn away people who don't necessarily enjoy that much violence. Obviously the game is targeted at hardcore first person shooter fans, but that is exactly my point - despite all of this talk about expanding the market, the majority of games getting released are still targeted 'inwards' towards a safe audience. As always, the issue is probably money - publishers might want more of it, but are usually too afraid to test uncharted waters with a truly original game that has wider appeal. That is why a game like The Sims, despite its ridiculous success, is still a rarity.

So what can be done about this? Obviously, developers should be encouraged to create more original games that break away from the usual subject matter of big guns, big explosions, and big breasts. However, this looks unlikely to happen if publishers remain as conservative with their funding decisions as they are now - and it doesn't look like changing any time soon. Perhaps what the industry needs are a couple more breakaway games along the lines of The Sims, to really drive home to publishers that it is worth taking a risk every now and then. If more games can be developed that move away from the narrow viewpoint of the majority, then maybe the market will be greatly expanded, and gaming will become more of an accepted 'norm' within mainstream society.

As it stands, I believe gaming is still on the fringe, despite concentrated efforts by companies like Sony to make it 'cool'. We need more games to be covered in mainstream publications, and that won't happen while the subject matter and philosophy behind them remain as they are. I'm not saying every single game should become acceptable for a wider audience, but that there should be a greater variety of games, so hardcore action shooters will sit on the shelf next to anything from a relationship manager to casual puzzle games.

Speaking of relationship managers, you should all go and check out Facade (www.interactivestory.net). It's hardly a game at all in the usual sense - rather, it focuses entirely on the marriage troubles of a young couple. You are an old friend who has come to visit them, and end up hearing about all of their dilemmas. You do this by typing in what you say, and the couple react accordingly. There are many different endings based on your responses to their conversations – so far, I've been kicked out twice, and the other three times the guy has ended up walking out on the girl. Brilliant stuff.

In any case, this is the sort of thing I have in mind when talking about expanding the horizons of videogames. We have such a fixed view of what games can and can't be, emphasised by all the publishers playing it safe with nearly all of their releases. In order to mature as an industry, games need to constantly be evolving and reaching out to new ideas - and maybe then a new audience can be brought in.

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