Social Gaming

One topic that I am very vocal about is social gaming. As a gamer who tries to stay up to date with the latest news and developments in the industry, it has become clear (and rather annoying to be honest) that the mass media has, as they have always done, been ignorant and short-sighted when spamming me with all of their redundant and repetitive claims concerning “what gaming has become” and “where gaming is going.” These claims always involve the typical “Apple has taken over the market” and “no one wants video game consoles (whether they be home or handheld)” because of all of the smartphones and tablets that have seemingly become all the rage lately. I am tired of people who aren’t gamers talk about “what the video game industry has become” when all they do is repeat what a previous mark said months ago in some other article. All they do is copy and paste the same old shit. Yes, I am perfectly aware that social gaming has taken up more than half of the market as far as revenue goes, but I am also perfectly aware of how easy it is for so called “analysts” to overlook some very basic, common sense facts that most people just don’t seem to get.

#1

Everyone has a cell phone. Not everyone wants or needs a smartphone, but more and more people are getting them as older models are becoming obsolete and no longer sold. In the very same essence, no one really needs a tablet, but everyone wants one since it is, more than anything, the current “trend” and “fad” product on the market. These products change with the times. In the mid 2000’s, it was the DS. Before that, it was the laptop, before that, the PC, and before that, the television etc. etc. There’s always something that we materialistic bastards want.

#2

Because smartphones are not dedicated gaming devices, many people who were not originally gamers are becoming what we can call “social gamers,” “cheap gamers,” or people who just play games but don’t consider themselves gamers. I wouldn’t consider them gamers either, but nevertheless, they are spending money in “micro amounts,” which has allowed companies like Zynga to become billion-dollar giants within the short span of 4 years. However, people seem to forget that the majority of these people with their smartphones and tablets (and who have no desire to play “traditional” games) are most likely not the same kind of consumer as a “real” gamer is. I am talking about the gamer who has played video games since he/she was a kid, who grew up on the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, Playstation, etc. So therefore, rather than seeing social gaming as “taking control” over the video game industry, I see them as expanding it. I do not see social gaming as catering to the same kind of consumer who would purchase a PS3, Xbox 360, or Nintendo 3DS for example. One of the reasons why the Wii was such a success was because it expanded the market to “casual gamers,” who we now call “social gamers” because these are people who do not normally play video games, at least not “real” video games (as I like to call them), or rather, “traditional” video games. And of course, there are those who are dumb enough to spend more than $20-50 a month on these social games for dumb virtual items that help demonstrate how dumb they are. That’s enough money to buy an actual game, so these dumb consumers aren’t really saving any money. They are just finding a different way to spend it.

#3

A real/traditional gamer will always prefer sticking to their dedicated gaming console(s) as opposed to fully converting over to social/casual gaming. Of course, every gamer is different, and many of what I would call the “new generation” of gamers, which mainly consists of kids or adults who never really played games, find their cellphones/tablets to be all they need. However, analysts who really know nothing about the gaming industry simply because they are not gamers (or at least, not real gamers) would do well not speak for us actual gamers. I am sick of reading statements like “most gamers no longer see a reason to own a dedicated gaming console or handheld” when quite frankly, that is not the case. You have to distinguish between the real/traditional gamers and the casual/social gamers, because quite frankly, they are two different types of consumers. Most people who spend all day playing Angry Birds, Farmville, or whatever else is out there were never gamers to begin with. They don’t care to spend $100-300 on dedicated gaming devices and $20-60 for each game because they simply lack the interest to invest their funds in something they are not wholly interested in. This is basic common sense. They did not buy video games before, and there is no reason for them to do so now. Instead, they have now been given an alternative, which is social gaming. These games are cheap, these games are simple, and these games are far more accessible to everyone. However, these games also don’t cut it for people like me, the real/traditional gamer, and the person who despite what the analysts have said, is still willing to spend money on dedicated gaming devices and actual games.

Only when they are on sale, at least.

I will probably further discuss this topic later at another time, but for now I think this pretty sums up most of my thoughts. If anything, it offers a different perspective from the redundant analyst spam that keeps popping up everywhere on the Internet.