Gamespy ran a nice piece on hardcore gamers. This is pretty relevant to WWIIOL in that we have a lot of grognards. Grognards to me are a lot like hardcore gamers but they are specific about the games they play. In reading the article I think all of the participants missed the boat in defining the hardcore games as someone who buys a lot more games than everyone else instead of realizing that hardcore gamers play a lot more than anyone else, even if they play only a few games each year. This oversight is probably because no one asked was speaking from a MMO view point, although Bioware did throw this out:
Ray Muzyka: ... relevant to BioWare's types of games -- RPGs and MMOs, "
I don't seem to recall playing a Bioware MMO..hmm...you? Well, OK, they did recently open a studio in Austin and they did hire my all time hero Rich Vogel. His Production presentation at AGDC is probably the highlight of my year. Those cats are gonna be up to something amazing I have no doubt.
Anyway, read the article. I really like the flavor from the different departments.
Managment says "I don't really understand much of this so here's the comapny line, hardcore am good, dem buy stuff and dem talk stuff".
Marketing says "Not enough hardcore gamers to matter" which should read "Harcore gamers are a cynical bunch who never fall for my marketing tripe".
Developers say "Harcore are a great sounding board but don't let them run your design". Developers tend to be a pretty smart bunch.
Media says "..." Ok, I already forgot what the meda guy said. Probably what the Managment guy said only backwards (add a fnord or two in there to boot as media guys are, like, all hip and cool and junk).
Huh, well maybe you don't need to read it after all. Nah, go on, Greg and Ray are freaking brilliant any way you slice them.
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