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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?
Game Publishers aim at the 17-34 hardcore gamer because they -purchase- most of the games.
The NPD study is weighted heavily by -use-.
Is anyone surprised that K-12 kids have more spare time and fewer entertainment alternatives than college students and young professionals?
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
Is this yet another sign of the 'greying gamer' phenomenon, or simply evidence indicating the marketers have had it wrong all along?
Probably the latter.
I'd say it's more likely a little bit of both.
I am one of these "greying gamers" you're always reading about. I grew up with the Atari 2600 (my cousins had it) and my first console was the Mattel Intellivision. I went for a period in the 1980's and 1990's where I was totally hardcore, and owned all the current systems and just had to buy all the latest games as soon as they came out. (Well, not *all* of them, but all the big ones.) I was at that age where you basically just give in to peer pressure, and I wanted to be able to talk about all these games with my friends in high school and even the first part of college. Then, when I got a job, I suddenly found myself flush with all this cash I never had before.
I even eventually got nostalgic and built up a pretty sizable game collection (link from my link at the top here). This is still sort of a hobby.
But then, reality started to sink in. Once you get married and buy a house, everything changes. If and when I have kids (and we're already at the age where we seriously need to decide one way or another pretty quick), I can't imagine ever having time to play games. Even just managing my household, doing various gardening chores and repairs on weekends, I haven't had time to even hook up a system since we moved 6 months ago. I do play with my DS on the commute in to work, but I haven't actually bought a game in 3-4 months for any system.
I think my life is pretty typical of middle class people. I was a hardcore gamer, but then I got older. Life catches up with you.
So I think there are hardcore gamers, but most of them probably do eventually grow up. I don't think gaming is something you "grow out of" as much as it's just something you lose time for. And once you're sort of outside that hardcore community, you start to look a lot more critically at the games and genres that everybody else is going so nuts over, and I, for one, have realized that I just don't have a lot of interest in many of the popular titles right now. From what I've seen, this isn't really unusual.
As for the age cutoff, I think 17 is a little too young. When I was in college, I probably had more friends than ever into video games. We even had semi-organized NHL Hockey tournaments in my dorm. So I do think there definitely are 18-34 year old hardcore gamers, but there are probably a lot more closer to 18 than 34. (I'm 34 right now.) But it wouldn't surprise me if there have always been *more* 6-17 year olds that are hardcore gamers, just because a lot of people probably start to drop off in their gaming as they get up closer to the top range of the 18-34 demographic.
This man speaks truth. You can't pack in big blocks of straight gaming as easily when you work mon-fri 9 to 5. There's lots of gaps in college class schedules and study times could be shifted at will.
Now that I'm working, I play maybe 1-1.5 hours a night. Game time got cut by at least half or more after college. Due in part from the work hours, and the rest due to commute time since I'm not at college where everything and everyone is nearby.
Even reaching college changed my playtime though. My highschool was pathetically easy, no study necessary, and the occasional homework assignment could be done in about 1-2 hours. I could commit large blocks of time at will to RPGs and RTS games which tend to require large blocks of time to get real progress. After hitting college, I stopped playing these kinds of games. My highschool years saw the heaviest amount of gaming. I've got disposable income from part-time/summer work to buy games, I get a car to go buy games when I want them, and few responsibilities.