[MUD-Dev] Article: The Ascendancy of Mass Market Gaming

[Bruce]

Saw this at http://www.avault.com/articles/getarticle.asp?name=massmarket:

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The Ascendancy of Mass Market Gaming

Written by: Bob Mandel
Published: May 24, 2001

There is little doubt in this new millennium that the future belongs
to mass market gaming. Every survey exploring the demographics of
today's gamers reveals that a larger and larger proportion of them
fall into what is commonly called the "mass market" consumers; not the
hardcore crowd which has dominated personal computer recreation for
such a long time. As computers spread to a wider and wider array of
people, and as they realize that these machines can be used for far
more interesting purposes than just e-mail transmission, word
processing and Internet access, new players are getting hooked on
gaming every day. It is quite clear that this trend has required a bit
of business adjustment and console offerings appear to have adapted
far better than personal computer releases. This article explores how
we define the mass market, what functions it serves for players, what
companies cater to it, what genres focus on it, what game
developers/publishers and hardcore gamers think about it, and --
perhaps most controversially -- whether its growth constitutes a
positive or negative trend.

Turning to the definition first, the notion of mass market gaming is
fraught with ambiguity. Many choose not to define it at all, or follow
the counter-analytical approach of declaring, "I know it when I see
it." But the most reasonable characteristics to associate with a mass
market title appear to be as follows:

  * Low minimum system requirements
  * No need to download patches or updates to get
    game to run
  * Solo play option for those without a stable
    online connection
  * Fast or nonexistent learning curve, no manual
    reading necessary
  * Simple and clear rules and tangible down-to-earth
    concepts
  * Intuitive interface using a small range of possible
    inputs
  * Likelihood of receiving positive feedback early on
  * Probability of having a satisfying play session
    in a half-hour
  * Little if any gratuitous sex or violence against
    humans
  * No gore or blood-and-guts splattered on the
    screen
  * Positive emotional theme devoid of dark or
    satanic content
  * Appeal to the whole family

The justification for these characteristics is pretty
self-evident. The low system requirements, irrelevance of software
patches and updates, and solo play option are because many people in
this group lack high end computers, don't know how to obtain and
install patches or updates, and either lack a fast reliable Internet
or LAN connection or do not know how to use them properly. The speedy
learning curve, simple clear rules, intuitive interface, presence of
early positive feedback, and short gratifying play sessions are
because many of these folk have little patience to wade through
manuals or online tutorials, deal with abstract or complicated
concepts, manage counterintuitive input schemes, tolerate repeated
failure, or play for hours on end without moving on to something
else. Finally, the rationale for the absence of gratuitous sex,
violence and gore (generally signified by an "Everyone" ESRB rating),
coupled with the presence of positive emotional themes and family
appeal, is that these people are often not single adolescents but
rather members of families where recreational play would be most
permitted and enjoyed if players of all ages could join in or at least
watch.

What does the casual consumer want from this kind of recreation? Based
on my conversations with such people, they desire simply a relaxing
break from their daily grind. They are far less likely than hardcore
players to use games as a means of proving prowess or virility or
competitive edge, and far more likely to use them as a means of joint
activity among family or friends. They are also less likely than
hardcore types to use game releases as means of showing off the power
of their computers or the neat connection to fancy home entertainment
systems, and as a result care far less about audiovisual
bells-and-whistles. They generally seek the same kind of instant
gratification one would expect by going out to eat at a fast food
restaurant or going out to a movie -- nothing too fancy or innovative,
just an expected and at least temporarily satisfying experience that
leaves them with a vaguely happy feeling afterwards.

Despite the huge sales racked up by many mass market titles, few
retail computer game companies have made this audience a major
focus. Perhaps the king of this broad niche has been Hasbro
Interactive, at least prior to its recent acquisition by
Infogrames. It has in the last few years unabashedly released a whole
slew of offerings (under both Hasbro and Microprose brands) falling
into this category: these include Atari remakes like Centipede,
Breakout, Pong, Frogger, and Missile Command; re-creations of board
games such as Clue: Murder at Boddy Mansion, Battleship: Surface
Thunder, and Risk II; and the fabulously successful RollerCoaster
Tycoon. Remarkably, despite different developers, most of these have
been extremely polished high-quality products.

The runner-up in production in this area is Sierra Attractions, with
its mass market titles largely developed by Dynamix. Since the
mid-1990s, Dynamix has moved from a producer of combat games into one
primarily concentrating on family entertainment. This company's
releases span the action-oriented 3-D Ultra series, including 3-D
Ultra Pinball, 3-D Ultra Minigolf, 3-D Ultra Cool Pool, and 3-D Ultra
Radio Control Racers; the hunting genre represented by the Trophy Bass
and Trophy Hunting series; the puzzle series of The Incredible
Machine/Contraptions; the re-creation of classic pastimes through the
Hoyle line of board, card, casino, and word games; and the You Don't
Know Jack line of trivia games. Like Hasbro's products, these have all
been highly entertaining and largely successful in the marketplace.

There is also a small group of retail computer game companies who
create titles largely aimed at children yet still fall into this mass
market category (here I consciously exclude companies whose products
are "edutainment," using gaming features just to conceal deceptively
that their primary purpose is education). The major children's
oriented PC game companies are Lego Media and Mattel Interactive, both
of which draw extensively off of their successful toy lines: Lego has
produced a wide range of offerings including Lego Island and Lego
Island 2, Rock Raiders, Stunt Rally, and Alpha Team; while Mattel
Interactive has largely focused on Barbie and Hot Wheels computer
titles. Of the two, Lego has been far more ambitious, and it has
created a number of releases deserving of adult play, but it has yet
to achieve the level of success with the over-12 crowd that Hasbro and
Sierra/Dynamix have attained. New entrants are moving into this
cluster of children's game companies seeking to expand into the adult
market all the time, perhaps most notably Disney Interactive.

Regardless of these giant retail company examples, it is indeed ironic
that most of the mass market PC games released today are fashioned by
small independent developers who largely use shareware systems or
online-only sales to get their product distributed. The irony here has
two roots: First, what with the mass market being the fastest growing
consumer segment, you would expect the big companies to dominate; and
second, a sizable chunk of this mass market audience still does not
know how to find, download, and install games that are available only
in shareware or online forms. So many of these mass market offerings
which never make it in pretty boxes at retail software stores die on
the vine and fail to receive the exposure, praise, and sales they
deserve. Perhaps the fastest-growing and most prolific Internet
publisher of such titles today is Real Networks, whose extensive
lineup includes such offerings as the action-oriented Solaris, Space
Haste, and Jetboat Superchamps 2; the puzzle-oriented Tower of the
Ancients, Snood, and Boorp's Balls; and the strategy-oriented Kyodai
Mahjongg and Dweep Gold . The company is quite clever in unearthing
quality games from tiny (often foreign) developers to bring to the
market. While many of these mass market titles are equal in quality to
retail releases, it is still too early to tell how successful Real
Networks' efforts will be in this direction.

As is readily apparent from the illustrations already provided, mass
market computer gaming tends to cluster within certain predictable
genres. The most common ones are retro arcade action, puzzle,
adventure, racing, board game ports, and construction
simulations. Sports titles are in a gray area, where some fit the
bill, but others are becoming (or have always been) just too complex
to understand, too difficult to win, or too awkward to play for many
mass consumers. The only first-person shooter I have ever seen that
would clearly qualify as a mass market title is Hasbro Interactive's
Nerf Arena Blast , and frankly I cannot think of any major real-time
strategy or role-playing games that would remotely fit the bill. Thus
most of the areas where hardcore gamers have the greatest passion and
enjoyment would not seem to be amenable to the mass market
audience. Electronic Arts' recent release Black & White is a textbook
example of how a game appealing to the hardcore crowd can look on the
surface like it might also have mass market potential but in reality
not have a chance: although it has construction simulation elements,
the option of playing on the side of good (white), and a cute
digital-toy-equivalent to raise and train, its high system
requirements, slow learning curve, and long play session expectations
take it well outside of what the casual consumer would generally
stomach.

Game developers and publishers have generally taken a rather
unemotional and business-like matter-of-fact approach to the growth of
mass market gaming. Some have created or acquired "budget" divisions
to release products in this category, often destined to be sold at
places like WalMart rather than software stores. Others are using
profits from these releases to fuel hardcore titles that are more
costly to develop and take more time to perfect. There is a nagging
concern within some developers and publishers, as well as among some
members of the gaming press, that if the developers and publishers
spend too much time on mass market releases then somehow their
prestige will plummet in the virtual gaming world. There are, of
course, other distributors who treat games as if they were vanilla
commodities like toasters, and they could not care less what their
content and approach are as long as they sell.

In sharp contrast, it is probably obvious that many hardcore gamers
are downright furious about this trend, resentful that their favorite
pastime is being taken over by the mass market audience they look down
on as being stupid, simple-minded, and unsophisticated. A case in
point occurred after I wrote a very recent piece on Dynamix, when a
hardcore gamer wrote me a nasty note expressing intense anger that I
would praise the company for shifting from hardcore combat to mass
market family titles; in this reader's view, the company has simply
"sold out." Other hardcore gamers fear that when this much larger
group of casual consumers takes over, there will be fewer and fewer
really sophisticated hardcore titles developed and published in the
future. One cannot help but wonder if in the distant future the
hardcore/casual gamer distinction might not completely vanish.

I just cannot let the stupidity issue pass without comment: Let me
utter a pronouncement that will send some into loud screams of protest
-- mass market gamers are not more stupid than hardcore gamers. Nobody
can convince me that getting through MYST , the best-selling mass
market CD-ROM game of all time, does not take considerable
intelligence. At the same time, it is hard to argue that making it to
the end of Serious Sam , a popular hardcore first-person shooter,
takes much brain power at all. The issue is not smart versus dumb,
rather it is simply a difference in tastes and experience. Indeed, it
is even hard to argue that mass market offerings are decidedly
inferior to hardcore offerings using any truly objective set of
yardsticks.

The most important question still remains -- is the increasing
dominance of mass market gaming good or bad? Well, from the vantage
point of societal critics of computer games, particularly those
seeking to regulate the industry, this trend must be positive because
mass market titles are not the type linked to high school shootings or
anti-social behavior. From the perspective of getting the gaming
pastime to be viewed with more legitimacy, acceptance, and respect,
this dominance cannot help but be a plus. But I must admit that the
specter of seeing certain types of highly absorbing releases,
requiring both considerable patience, skill and high-end machines,
vanish from the horizon would be truly scary.

While in the short-run the hardcore gamers might be right that the
ratio of hardcore to mass market releases might worsen, who is to say
that today's casual newcomers might not be tomorrow's seasoned
aficionados? Although it used to be that high production values were
reserved for the "Triple-A" hardcore releases, over the last ten years
the technical and play quality of mass market offerings has
substantially increased. So while I think it might be better to have
the number of the hardcore and mass market gaming products remain
balanced, the impending predicament is not likely to plunge us
backward into a paralyzing period devoid of innovation and
sophistication in this recreational area. The most important
prescription emerging here is that developers and publishers of mass
market games both need to recognize that casual consumers are not
fools, and that they cannot peddle junk to this crowd with long term
success any more than they can to the hardcore crowd. We can only hope
that the mass market becomes increasingly demanding as quickly as
possible to keep game producers focused on striving to uphold the
highest standards, regardless of audience.

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