News-Video Game Market

Business

Having intuitions about the evolution of video games is good.
Confirming these intuitions with precise studies is better.

These studies are carried out every month by the company NewZoo, which specializes in research on this very lively, very evolving and very specific market.

And since this interests Altair, Altair is interested in NewZoo’s work.

Here is the news that we received today – and that I share, because it is particularly relevant to the Altair project.

The study focused on gamers’ expectations regarding video game content.
So, it hurts, anyway.
It seems that more than half of the gamers are tired of always having the same thing to do, infinitely declined, I agree, but always the same thing anyway: fight – travel – work – fight – travel – work…..

So the study proposes other choices – and there – no, I promise you, I didn’t laugh.

Studies show that the profile of the gamer has changed significantly: everyone plays, there are no age, gender or cultural limits.

Well, you’ve noticed how fashions are violent and make people think they’re definitive – fashion now is all about diversity – even if no one really knows what that means.

So this is our study, which acknowledges the boredom of gamers – and offers them possibilities for evolution: would you like games that are more based on changes in society, that would represent you as characters, etc.?
As there is no other choice, the players’ answer is yes, by a majority.

Now – except for a few very very targeted games – we are talking about characters to play.
But you only have to play yourself to have noticed that for several years now, games have been offering each player the opportunity to “build” their character – and for companies this is a nice reserve of quick cash and secondary quest items.

You can start building targeted scenarios – but then you take the risk of losing all those who are not in the target.
Look at the reviews of the latest Watch Dogs: Legion to get an idea of the perverse effect of this kind of positioning, in terms of audience. If you don’t want to identify characters clearly, you no longer have a story – it’s silly, but it’s inevitable. And the side: we’re going to exaggerate the bad guy, it’s not too over. The story of this game – which wanted to open up its characters and allow more identification of the players – did not convince. And that, given the price a game costs, is a shame.

Why am I getting into this subject?
Because it allows me to giggle, it’s true.

But at first glance, this subject is out of my scope and out of Altair’s framework.
What do I care about socializing a game?

Nothing at all.
It’s the question that led me to want to “socialize a game” that interests me. Why should I do that?

Basically, I see it as a mistake in reasoning:
we have the data: the players are getting bored, it’s always the same games, always the same game mechanics…
and we deduce: let’s change the characters – let’s propose to our players to be able to identify with their character.

This deduction is a bit fast, and based on not much.
With that, it goes completely against what has made video games so successful: being a badass boy when you’re a girl is fun; being an alien, an extraterrestrial, a cat, a robot, a bunny with weird ears: yes, that’s fun, not being who you are.
No one forces a girl to play a ‘dominant male game‘ – and when she plays, she has fun – otherwise she doesn’t play. I know, I am a girl – and I play.
So this is a case of “social policy” being invited into this area, we don’t know why – yes: it’s fashion. It’s currently super cool – so …okay.

But it won’t change anything deep down.
Basically, we have to bring air to the game mechanisms.
Bring in anything – creativity – surprise.
And then the players won’t be bored anymore.

That’s the whole concept behind Altair: to offer entertaining, surprising, amazing, or counter-intuitive contents in video games.
To be successful, we have to draw from those who know how to do it best, from the world of entertainment. No ? Yes, obviously yes.

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Featured Image : by NewZoo – it was a very serious post tonight, didn’t you find ? I can be serious too – but I’ve avoided the tables, the numbers, the percentages. The link is enough.