Pharra

Thursday, March 29, 2007

What are Hardcore and Casual Gamers?

Folks assume that the hardcore is all that matters, or that the hardcore is all that can support the videogame industry, but the changing market tells us this isn't so, as well as some basic math and common sense. Avid moviegoers do not outnumber casual moviegoers, nor can our numbers save movies we love (Serenity) compared to the all powerful might of the masses. This same truth of human nature (obsessives versus casuals) is true in gaming.

Games Sorted by Score on Metacritic

  • Wii 9 bad, 28 okay, 8 good.
  • PS3 2 bad, 12 okay, 20 good.
  • XBOX 360 9 bad, 80 okay, 80 good. (Odd, same number good and okay, but I double checked, and that's accurate)
What These Figures Mean
I find it interesting that the XBOX 360 has racked up as many bad games (listed in Metacritic) in 16 months as the Wii has in 4, and that the PS3 (which has been out almost exactly as long as the Wii has) has 60% more good games than the Wii, and 22% of the Wii's bad games amount.

My theory is that game developers are having an easier time grappling with familiar (traditional) consoles, and that the casual games coming out for the Wii are ill received by hardcore gamers. Basically, developers are still figuring out how to use the Wii's control scheme to make fun game and nobody has made a Wii game that can keep the Hardcore Enthusiasts happy, except Nintendo with "Zelda: Twilight Princess."

Now the inevitable question comes... "If the Wii is doing so poorly with its games, why does it continue to sell so well?"

The Answer Is:
The answer isn't "People are stupid and they'll wake up soon and the Wii will die." The answer is "Because there are so many more casual gamers than hardcore gamers like to think, it really doesn't matter. They are legion, and they will crush you."

The Reason Behind The Answer Is:
Casual Gamers are those that buy 4-6 games a year on average. Hardcore Gamers are those that, as soon as they beat one game (which takes them little time), they buy another, and so they buy 12 or more games a year. If you buy this much, you are hardcore. If you would buy this much but you have to eat, you are hardcore. If that really seems like a waste of money, but you love a good game, you are casual. If you can spend 100 hours on one game you love, but you don't bother reading about every new game that comes out, you are casual. If you read exhaustively everything about games even if you don't own a system (or exclusively read about every game for "your" console), you are hardcore.

Wake up, my fellow Hardcore, we are only about 15% of the gamer population.

Hardcore Gamers versus Casual Gamers... Casual Wins:
Lets take 100 gamers. 15 are HARDCORE, and 85 are casual. Over the course of the year, assuming each HARDCORE gamer buys 12 games, and each casual gamer buys 5, what do we have?
  • 15 HARDCORE gamers out of 100 total gamers will buy 180 games in one year.
  • 85 casual gamers out of 100 total gamers will buy 425 games in one year.
  • HARDCORE gamers account for 34% of all games bought in one year. Casual gamers account for 66%.
The Myth that there are More Hardcore than Casual Gamers is a Lie Because:
Now, my math is fictional. I don't have the exact ratio of HARDCORE to casual gamers. But think of cars - some people are seriously freaked out about their cars. They buy chrome parts, wash them and take them to shows, read car magazines, collect car memorabilia and watch car shows. Most people just drive their cars, or love the one car they are in. What is their percentage versus the car enthusiasts?

Human nature stays constant over the course of our short lives - evolution takes longer. It follows that gamers show a similar trend of obsessive gamer and casual gamer as car lovers follow a similar trend of obsessive and casual car lover (versus people who, you know, drive something). Most people who love their cars don't subscribe to car magazines, let alone anything else.

Hardcore Gamers is a bad term, we are Obsessive Gamers:
We aren't hardcore, we are obsessive. That is what we do. Hardcore just sounds cool, and casual doesn't, hence my homo-italics. By definition, the obsessives of any product industry are not the majority, we are the overly vocal minority. Up until now (the Wii), most game systems have completely catered to the obsessive gamers, and now they have figured out that casual gamers make money too.

Does this spell DOOM for the obsessive gamer? Not really, because games casual gamers like, obsessive gamers also tend to like; however, an obsessive gamer needs deeper layers in a game to keep him busy and coming back for more, but both appreciate an approachable game.

Summary:
Hardcore Gamers are really obsessive gamers, and Casual Gamers outnumber them. We are witnessing a changing market, and no matter what vitriole we spew out, it's going to keep changing. I hate to use the pun, but the revolution is here, and now that companies have seen money, it's not going to stop.

3 comments:

David said...

My friend Kevin in the UK e-mailed me this, in response to this post:

Yeah quite a nice read. I personally hate the term "Hardcore Gamer" these days because it seems it doesn't represent someone that likes to investigate and play as many different games as possible. It seems that currently means someone who plays a hand-full of genres obsessively... which seems like misrepresentation to me.

I think some one which truly loves games should have no fear in trying out a dance mat game or waving their Wii remote like a loony or trying something completely fresh ideas. I like to play FPS games, RTS games etc as much as the next guy BUT I like to keep broadening my boundaries too.

I also find the term "casual gamer" is one with a rather bad stigma. And as you mention I believe you can have casual games that entertain the so-called hardcore. The main problem is that there is fear to try these games and, in a sense, our hardcore gamers are hardcore wussies, unwilling to try something new.

David said...

I responded:

Yep. And the real fun thing? World of Warcraft is, on the outside, a casual gamer's dream come true in MMO form, but it has many layers to keep the casuals who get hooked on it busy, as well as the obsessive gamers who would otherwise move on quickly if the game lacked depth.

Yep. WoW is a casual gamer's friend.

Now what is a casual game? Those seem to be defined as games ONLY casual gamers like - card games, puzzle games, and games you can play for 5 minutes and get bored of quickly. This is incorrect, because these games don't keep casual gamers playing either, there's just a myth that's what casual gamers do because few people understand what they really are - they think it's their cousin who plays Deer Hunter and Bejeweled, and nothing else. He probably buys less than 4 games a year, so he's more of a non-gamer.

David said...

I also posted this:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/hardcore/are-you-hardcore-248795.php#c1199444

Unfortunately nobody realizes what a Casual Gamer is, nor a Hardcore / Obsessive Gamer:
http://davidbeoulve.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-are-hardcore...

Human nature stays constant over the course of our short lives - evolution takes longer. It follows that gamers show a similar trend of hardcore / obsessive gamer and casual gamer as car lovers follow a similar trend of hardcore / obsessive and casual car lover (versus people who, you know, drive something). Most people who love their cars don't subscribe to car magazines, let alone anything else.

This means that casual gamers are defined not by how much they play a given game ... they often find a game they love and then play it for long hours ... they are defined by how many games they play in a year and how much outside reading they do about games in general.