The Core Gamer a Myth?

Next Generation explores the possibility that the 18 to 34 year old 'hardcore' male gamer, a coveted demographic, may not actually exist. Research from the NPD Group indicates that most 'heavy use' gamers are younger, between six and 17. From the article: "Frazier explained ... 'The segments were determined by examining player behavior, rather than defining segments demographically. While it's easy to talk about the 18 to 34 core gamer, it's not necessarily accurate. The industry has been in need of much more nuanced information that can be used both when developing and marketing content. In all, 10 behavioral attributes were used to determine the segments, and they fall into four primary areas: ownership of systems, use of systems, frequency of use, and purchase behavior. Segments emerged by minimizing differences within clusters and maximizing differences between the clusters." Is this yet another sign of the 'greying gamer' phenomenon, or simply evidence indicating the marketers have had it wrong all along?

Comments

What?

[Enoxice]

Certainly the demographic exists. Whether it is as large or important as previously thought is another question entirely.

Saying it doesn't exist at all is akin to saying that no 10-15 year olds are interested in programming. I'm sure there are some, but the demographic isn't deemed important enough to cater to most of the time.

Re:What?

[whyrat]

I agree this demographic exists, I'd argue it's how they define it that's the problem.

18-34 is (imo) the wrong age range. When looking at heavy gaming they need to look at college age (18-24) and filter out the age most people become working professionals (24-34).

I know from my experience (which is not a very sound statistical tool) my play time dropped significantly around the same time the paychecks started rolling in. Skipping class/study to play games is not the same as skipping work to play games (people notice when I skip work...)

To back this up with more sound statistical reasoning... amount of time playing video games is likely directly related to the amount of disposable time a person has. Anyone can tell you a college student has more disposable free time than a salaried employee (at least as a general rule of thumb). Grouping these two catagories together is sure to give you measurement bias in your results... which means the conclusion they come to in the article are not sound sicne it is based only on this one measurement.

I find as I get older

[linzeal]

The gamer friends of mine are either relatively stable types who enjoy playing as a form of entertainment or social outcasts who have become "addicted" to games like World of Warcraft.

It seems to me that the "core group" they are referring to do exist and in my experience play many more hours per day, with some playing the whole weekends away. They exhibit classic signs of addiction like only associating with people who play the game on a daily basis and hiding the "playing of the game" from family and friends who do not partake in it.

Re:I find as I get older

[fotbr]

No, they won't leave your demographic alone until you become another brainless automaton enjoying $pop-star-of-the-week's canned music and bragging about your stupid acts with everyone else on myspace.

Until then, you make great fodder for studies and research grants for psychology students.

The real core group

[CopaceticOpus]

The core gaming group is more like 14-22 years old, from the time they have actual money to the time they get out of college. (Some will continue for a bit after college, but there's going to be a rapid fall-off.)

The other big group is parents, buying games for their 6-16 year old kids.

the core gamer

[aleksiel]

the core gamer is a high school through college student, whatever the age. they have much more free time per day.

real life drags core gamers (like myself) down to the level of casual gamer.

so, i suppose that would make the core gamer 13-22 or so.

Re:the core gamer

[CastrTroy]

This is the thing, the 18-34 year old gamers are just single men with no families. So, between 18 and 24 there's probably a lot of hardcore gamers, but beyond that, the numbers really start to dwindle. I have a family, and between that and my job, I don't have that much time to which I can devote to TV, Movies, Games, Sports, programming for my own interests, hanging out with friends and any other recreational activities that I may want to spend time on. Gaming simply doesn't come that high on the priority list. I suspect that it's the same for most people in this age group. The only people I know who spend a significant amount of time on games are single people.