Massive or Casual? the evolution of video-game consumption
Recently, besides the “Sterlingian-inspired” elucubrations about the future of the European politics and the potential role the ambitious french president will play in, the now traditional “parallel-monologue” sessions with F. Kaplan are mainly turning around the entertainment industry. It made me think about the evolution of the video-game industry these past 5 years. I came to the conclusion that the subtle change in the industry and video-game consumption can be characterized by a polarization of the game consumption in terms of pace and duration. On one hand, there are the massively online games with their loads of hardcore gamers and the never ending game experience. The model here is to create addiction in order to justify monthly billing of subscription to sets of online services. World of Warcraft, Age of Conan and the highly anticipated and recently released Warhammer online, fall in this category of games that place their bet on long lasting session of game consumption behaviors.
On the other hand, there is this emerging tendency assembled under the umbrella reference of “casual-games” where the pace of the consumption has shifted to the other extreme, emerging and evolving in a close relation to the way the new generation consume all sort of media, as well as the new model imposed by the social-networking services.
Melissa J. Perenson from PC-Word, puts it as follows:
“Five years ago we didn’t have Facebook, MySpace, YouTube. [Kids'] consumption of entertainment has changed–their tolerance is shorter and shorter and shorter. Their whole world is a screen,” Olin says. “Game makers are trying to reflect the world around them, and as such, they’re creating online play patterns that fit the short rhythm of today’s world.”
For example, not everyone is willing or able to commit 25 minutes to scale a virtual hill and reach another. So some game developers set up shorter tasks, or set a sequence of smaller actions that lead to the hill. “That reflects the immediacy of the real world.
She extends the reasoning by saying that this model of casual games is changing the shape of the gaming industry, especially the console games that are more and more designed in a “parceled” way, allowing in the mean time casual gamers and regular gamers to experience the game according to their own rhythm. I strongly believe that this scalability is the Key to adapt to the broadest range of consumers and fully exploit the wealthy trend the gaming industry is experiencing these days: “cherishing the geek as well as the casu”
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
