Silent Hunter Online

mookiemookie · 04-28-12, 09:29 AM

My guess is that it has to do with the increase in popularity of games in general. It used to be that the audience for PC games was smaller and more... tech savvy? (I'm guessing here.) This crowd appreciated in-depth games with steep learning curves....games like simulators, the Ultima series, A Bard's Tale and all of the other D&D titles...things that required patience. Game companies could afford to indulge the niche category players because that's all there was. You weren't going to increase your audience substantially by dumbing down...excuse me, streamlining....your games, as there wasn't much of audience as a whole to gain. The entire market was a niche.

As video games grew in popularity, the audience grew bigger and less sophisticated as a whole. Stuff like shooters and hack and slash and fast twitch games appeal to someone who doesn't want to think, but just wants to play. By getting rid of the hardcore detail-oriented parts of your game, you could appeal to these players and gain more of this growing audience. If you restricted yourself to niche type games, you're only ever going to sell to the niche type market, which comprises a smaller percentage of the market as a whole than it did 15 or 20 years ago. And when it comes down to it, unit sales are the only real metric that matters, so anything that limits your sales is out of the question.

Pure speculation and I have no evidence of any of this other than what I've pulled out of my butt. But it makes sense to me.

04-28-12, 09:29 AM	#23
mookiemookie Navy Seal Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 9,404 Downloads: 105 Uploads: 1	My guess is that it has to do with the increase in popularity of games in general. It used to be that the audience for PC games was smaller and more... tech savvy? (I'm guessing here.) This crowd appreciated in-depth games with steep learning curves....games like simulators, the Ultima series, A Bard's Tale and all of the other D&D titles...things that required patience. Game companies could afford to indulge the niche category players because that's all there was. You weren't going to increase your audience substantially by dumbing down...excuse me, streamlining....your games, as there wasn't much of audience as a whole to gain. The entire market was a niche. As video games grew in popularity, the audience grew bigger and less sophisticated as a whole. Stuff like shooters and hack and slash and fast twitch games appeal to someone who doesn't want to think, but just wants to play. By getting rid of the hardcore detail-oriented parts of your game, you could appeal to these players and gain more of this growing audience. If you restricted yourself to niche type games, you're only ever going to sell to the niche type market, which comprises a smaller percentage of the market as a whole than it did 15 or 20 years ago. And when it comes down to it, unit sales are the only real metric that matters, so anything that limits your sales is out of the question. Pure speculation and I have no evidence of any of this other than what I've pulled out of my butt. But it makes sense to me. __________________ They don’t think it be like it is, but it do. Want more U-boat Kaleun portraits for your SH3 Commander Profiles? Download the SH3 Commander Portrait Pack here.