It’s a well-known fact that one of the best gaming info sites on the web is www.operationsports.com . I’ve always liked the guys over there, and have a great deal of respect for them. Shawn Drotar wrote a really good editorial over there, and I think it’s a must-read titled "Strategery" and "misunderestimation". Shawn talks about the fact that EA smartly makes “arcade football games with “mostly” realistic physics and a “sim” veneer.” He also points out that despite EA’s many football critics (many of whom are on the Operation Sports forum boards, and our own forums as well) that EA is responding to what its main market wants. Statistically speaking, that’s the 18-24 male gamer.
I can’t fault Shawn’s data- or his conclusions- one bit. He’s dead-on. EA is reacting to a what a majority of is gamers want by keeping things more “general” and less “hard core sim”. Its smart business, and they do make quality games that are fun- and sell tons. The EA critic would be wise to take notice of those facts.
However, there’s a catch...
I think what people are starting to get irritated about is a carry-over of EA’s success in marketing to the 18-24 year olds. There’s an entire market that EA is inadvertently creating- and it’s a market they have yet to take advantage of- or react to. There’s a growing number of gamers who view EA’s football games (as they are currently) as a bit too “remedial” for them. These are mostly the people who grew up with Madden, some of whom were once early adopters of the series on Genesis and/or SNES. It goes without saying that these are older gamers above the age of 24. (I put myself in this category at the ripe ol’ age of 32, incidentally). Many of us older guys grew up with Madden/NCAA, and Madden/NCAA grew with us- at least for a while. Eventually, there comes a time when we have played it so much, known the ins and outs of the AI, and grown tired of the “Same-ol small playbooks” that many of us feel alienated. We “grew up” but the games didn’t grow with us. The games just stayed aimed at the 18-24 crowd as we hit age 26….27….. 28….. 29…. Etc… etc…
So I think there’s a growing sense of disconnect with the “Old Guard” Madden gamers and the newer crop who don’t know all the fineries of zone blocking, where to throw against a cover 3, why a quarters defense “should” be an awful run-defense scheme, etc. Of course, many of the younger gamers who simply love Madden are going to think “Well, you old codgers who complain about Madden should just shut up and stop playing then”, however that same kid that would say such a thing will probably end up being on the other side of this argument in 5 years. (No, of course they don’t realize that now… but you watch- it will happen.)
Gone are the days when many of us hang up our controllers at 25 and forget about gaming, particularly sports-gaming. The over-25 sports gamer legion will only grow exponentially as the video game industry further evolves and permeates modern life. EA would be wise to at least acknowledge this fact, and find some way create a product that either addresses multiple needs or splits into an alternate sim product altogether. Plus-something else is happening. The young, 17 year-old bubble-gum chewing kid with fast reflexes is learning the fineries of the vanilla playbooks and vanilla gameplay even faster than the game companies would like to admit. Those kids may tire of the “slow, merely incremental game updates” quicker than us older gamers did. Then you have diminishing returns on excitement and interest, as long as there’s no product (or products) to fill that gap.
However, rather than chastise EA for their rather small targeted age-range of given products, I think that a fine opportunity exists for EA themselves to create other NFL products that would fill the needs created when the Madden/NCAA “experts” get tired of throwing Hail-Mary’s three out of four downs against their buddies. Because of the way this industry is growing and evolving beyond such a set, young age-bracket, I think EA can’t help but eventually take notice of the disconnect between what the “old guard” and the 17-24 year olds expect in a game. (Those 17-24 year olds will eventually be 28, and feel the same way.)
And somewhere in that “need” is the desire for either a more multi-tiered football product of varying levels of simulation, or a secondary product altogether to address what will be an ever-growing legion of people who "grew up" on Madden and want something more. I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not EA “will” see the need to address this, but rather a matter of when “they” will. As the “Graying of the Gamer” continues, and as the original game culture ages, more “flavors” of a given genre will obviously be needed. We can see it now looking back at Tecmo Super Bowl- which was a huge, awesome game back in 1991. Even to the 17 year old gamer, Tecmo Super Bowl- if played by them now- would be considered something akin to the current “Backyard Football” – a kids product.
Now, I’m not saying EA’s football games are akin to “Backyard Football” by any stretch, but what I am saying is that what we once considered to be an advanced, current football product with Tecmo Super Bowl when we were 17 years old would now be considered something for toddlers- not because of its graphics so much, but more because of its simplicity, lack of competent AI, and small playbooks. In 15 years, the average skill of the average gamer has increased. A 17 year old person playing today’s games is far more adept at mental multitasking, more advanced strategies, handling more buttons/commands, and bigger degrees of difficulty. Even the controllers on the given consoles have evolved to be mult-button monsters to accommodate the expected dexterity (and we still may need a few more buttons.)
As the games have evolved, so have the gamers, and the degree of challenge they can handle. EA wants to make games focused on the 17-24 age statistic, but are they perhaps under-appreciating what skill and knowledge a gamer in that age-range really has? I think they may be doing just that. As today’s gamers continue to evolve and adapt to more challenges, the games would be wise to follow suit.
That’s the tough concept EA will eventually have to address.
”What do we do if gamers continue to adapt, and grow at a faster rate at even younger ages- how do we keep them interested?”
Or, better yet…
“Can we make a product to address this.”
Only time will tell. But Shawn Drotar is right, EA has been very successful catering to the 18-24 age bracket, and nobody has done it better in terms of sales and success. The question is, will the 18-24 year olds always want more simplistic, arcadey gameplay- or have they been playing since around the age of 9, and ready and willing to handle a bit more?
Time will tell.
Quietcool72
|
