Thursday, March 29, 2007
Wii in your face
Oops! There have been a couple of minor Wii remote accidents in my flat so far, but nothing too serious though. Bowling seems to be the main cause of accidents- smacking your hand against things whilst swinging is normal in such a confined space. Well, a few nights ago myself and a few friends were in my room after a night out at the SU. I was stood in front of my TV doing my Wii fitness test while everyone else was sat on my bed. I'll admit I am notoriously exaggereted with my bowling swings (FYI you have to use big swings if you want it to get a strike), tonight was no exception. As I was swinging my arm back Garry, who was sat right behind me, decided to lean forward and as a result, got the back of my Wii remote right in his face, pretty hard... and there was blood, lots and lots of blood. Luckily Garry being Garry was absolutey twatted and felt very little pain, and this didnt actually affect my fitness test score too badly, in fact i still scored a 27- two years younger than the previous day...
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Week 22: GDC
After trawling thorough the endless list of sessions at GDC I finally found one that had a title that I at least vaguely undersand...
"Know Your Players: An In-Depth Look at Player Behaviour and Consumer Demographics"
This session looks at who buys what and why? What is the difference between a casual gamers choice in games and a hardcore gamers? What social patterns define what games people tend buy? How does age, sex etc. determine what consumers will buy?
I'm not too keen on going into specifics on market analysis, typology ang biometry, mostly because I have no idea what that stuff means, so I'm just going to talk a bit about my experiences with different gamer demographics: what games different people tend to buy and why. So here's my not so in-depth look at player behavior and consumer demographics...
I'll start off with casual gamers. I reckon I have a good idea of what a casual gamer is and what games they buy based on friends who aren't as "hardcore" as myself. The casual gamer will tend to buy games that are of interest to them and will not base their purchases on positive reviews in respected video game magazines or their knowledge of publishers and developers. A casual male gamer of a similar age to me will buy games on impulse and often stick to buying three types of games: sports games, war games and of course GTA games.
Hardcore gamers buy games based on their knowledge of good games and have a clear understanding of which games will appeal to them but will also be unafraid to take risks and buy a game if it has sparked wide interest throughout the industry. They aren't intimidated by MMORPG's and the prospect of playing online.
Young children are the worst when it comes to buying video games, anything with the latest disney film on it or one they've seen advertised on the telly during CITV will be enough to justify a purchase. As we all know kids games are by far the worst but seeing as its usually mum (who are often just as ignorant as their child) who pays for it they arent too bothered if its only going to last a couple of days.
And finally I come to the girls. I'm going to concentrate on casual girl gamers with this. From my experience girls are not quite as tolerant of video games as boys, if a game can hold their attention its fine but as soon as they get the slightest bit frustrated or bored they'll be out of there in no time. Simple, pick-up-and-play games like Wii sports, Mario Kart or puzzle games will go down a treat but try to get them into the latest zelda game and they will loose interest pretty quick, after all they have better things to do with their time. Girls arent interested in longevity, they will buy games that they think will be a laugh and ones that they can play with friends.
Well that was my very basic personal insight into the buying habits of video game consumers, I'm sure if I were to attend this conference I would become a little more informed about the whole process of consumer buying trends. But for now I think I have just about summarised the basics.
"Know Your Players: An In-Depth Look at Player Behaviour and Consumer Demographics"
This session looks at who buys what and why? What is the difference between a casual gamers choice in games and a hardcore gamers? What social patterns define what games people tend buy? How does age, sex etc. determine what consumers will buy?
I'm not too keen on going into specifics on market analysis, typology ang biometry, mostly because I have no idea what that stuff means, so I'm just going to talk a bit about my experiences with different gamer demographics: what games different people tend to buy and why. So here's my not so in-depth look at player behavior and consumer demographics...
I'll start off with casual gamers. I reckon I have a good idea of what a casual gamer is and what games they buy based on friends who aren't as "hardcore" as myself. The casual gamer will tend to buy games that are of interest to them and will not base their purchases on positive reviews in respected video game magazines or their knowledge of publishers and developers. A casual male gamer of a similar age to me will buy games on impulse and often stick to buying three types of games: sports games, war games and of course GTA games.
Hardcore gamers buy games based on their knowledge of good games and have a clear understanding of which games will appeal to them but will also be unafraid to take risks and buy a game if it has sparked wide interest throughout the industry. They aren't intimidated by MMORPG's and the prospect of playing online.
Young children are the worst when it comes to buying video games, anything with the latest disney film on it or one they've seen advertised on the telly during CITV will be enough to justify a purchase. As we all know kids games are by far the worst but seeing as its usually mum (who are often just as ignorant as their child) who pays for it they arent too bothered if its only going to last a couple of days.
And finally I come to the girls. I'm going to concentrate on casual girl gamers with this. From my experience girls are not quite as tolerant of video games as boys, if a game can hold their attention its fine but as soon as they get the slightest bit frustrated or bored they'll be out of there in no time. Simple, pick-up-and-play games like Wii sports, Mario Kart or puzzle games will go down a treat but try to get them into the latest zelda game and they will loose interest pretty quick, after all they have better things to do with their time. Girls arent interested in longevity, they will buy games that they think will be a laugh and ones that they can play with friends.
Well that was my very basic personal insight into the buying habits of video game consumers, I'm sure if I were to attend this conference I would become a little more informed about the whole process of consumer buying trends. But for now I think I have just about summarised the basics.
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