Gaming is King of Online Entertainment

A study done by the market research firm Parks Associates shows that online games are the biggest draw for internet-based entertainment. Online games, including MMOGs, casual games, and free-to-play virtual worlds, had a bigger draw even that social networking sites or YouTube. Some 34% of US internet consumers played online games at least once a week in the second quarter of 2007. "Furthermore, the number of people playing games online seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. Parks' research found that the year-over-year growth rate for frequent online gamers was 79 percent, which easily trumps the growth rate for users of social networking (46 percent). That said, the growth rate for frequent users of video streaming sites was a whopping 123 percent, and that 'could pose a significant challenge to the gaming industry in capturing the online leisure time of Internet users,' Parks cautioned."

Comments

Casual vs. MMO Gaming, Please.

[Rachel Lucid]

I want to see the breakdown between Casual Gaming (like Miniclip) versus MMO's (Warcraft). I don't see hardcore gaming being as big as Youtube, but a quick click game doesn't sound farfetched.

Re:Casual vs. MMO Gaming, Please.

[necro2607]

Well, I dont' know if "casual gaming" would be the right wording, since casual gameplay and MMOs aren't mutually exclusive. I know plenty of "casual" WoW players, who only play maybe a few hours a week. ;)

Re:Casual vs. MMO Gaming, Please.

[pthor1231]

How about casual games then? I think that is more along the lines of what the Parent meant. In wow, and a decent amount of bigger games, you need to play for at least half an hour or longer, depending, to feel like you have achieved anything significant, versus a quick 2-5 minute game on addicting games.

Re:Casual vs. MMO Gaming, Please.

[Fozzyuw]

Well, I dont' know if "casual gaming" would be the right wording...

It's the right word. Like so many words, it depends on the context it's being used. In the GP's post, it was used in the context of "games" and not a style of play in a MMO "game". Thus it means "Flash" games and not "people who play an MMO game less frequently than others".

Cheers,
Fozzy

Re:Casual vs. MMO Gaming, Please.

[d0rp]

Well after just skimming over TFA, it looks like the study was time based, so of course MMO's are going to rank high, as the people playing them generally spend a lot of time doing so. People watching YouTube (in general) are not spending as many hours per day watching video clips as people are raiding to get their phat epic loots.

Re:Casual vs. MMO Gaming, Please.

[tepples]

Thus it means "Flash" games and not "people who play an MMO game less frequently than others". Along with "Flash", you meant to include "Java" and "DHTML", right?

Re:Casual vs. MMO Gaming, Please.

[rtb61]

The other point is of course whether people watching you tube are actually even going to youtube, for my own use by far the majority of youtube watching is just as a video link at another site, often a MMO gaming site, as a humour break from the game. I would think I actually go to youtube to watch a video no more than once a month, and DIVX, VEOH etc. about once a week.

Technically of course this put sites like youtube in a even worse spot, as the add sales people will notice, even though I am watching a youtube video I am still seeing the MMO adds. The only other time video really turns up is as a stumbleupon click and metcafe seems to crop up more often than youtube and MMO games from a wide variety of sites tend not to appear all that often.

Stumble video doesn't seem to have all that much appeal. When it does come to what is sucking up most of my online time stumble upon is leading but that in turn is actually distributed over a wide range of other web activities.

What about Porn?

[Brownstar]

I'd assume that would be pretty high too.

Re:What about Porn?

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe a fair bit of 'video streaming sites' would be pornographic in nature. www.youporn.com anyone? (NSFW)

Re:What about Porn?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't believe the hype. How many people do you know whose primary leisure activity is porn? Do you, personally, spend more time looking at porn than playing video games, or reading books, or watching TV? Can you imagine the sheer boredom of watching porn for the 2-3 hours every single day that most people spend watching TV?

Sure, porn is big business... but the idea that it could be the most popular form of entertainment, even on the Internet, is flat-out silly.

Seems like they left out a major player.

[Wordplay]

I'm willing to bet that once you add porn into the mix, the numbers change.

Re:Seems like they left out a major player.

[MarkovianChained]

And as you speak, somebody is working on World of Porncraft to fill that gap....

Re:Seems like they left out a major player.

[pokerdad]

I'm willing to bet that once you add porn into the mix, the numbers change.

What do you think "play short video clips" means?

Re:Seems like they left out a major player.

[Wordplay]

Heh. Now there's a grind I might not mind.

Re:Seems like they left out a major player.

[KDR_11k]

They call it Second Life.

Re:Seems like they left out a major player.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd buy that for a Dollar!

Avenue Q put it best...

[mark-t]

"The Internet is for Porn" (30-second clip is visually work-safe, but the audio may not be)

Re:Avenue Q put it best...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you get the version that uses WoW animation, does that qualify it as gaming?

Duh. Social networking isn't entertainment.

[EWAdams]

It's mostly just self-indulgence; masturbation by another name.

Re:Duh. Social networking isn't entertainment.

[absorbr]

one could say that entertainment is also self-indulgence. Playing BF2142 while drinkin beer (instant gratification is also a form of masturbation) is certainly self-indulgent!

But you make a good point, using myspace to keep in touch with friends is not what I'd consider entertainment. Just a utility. Although some people do soup up their profiles and spend all that time wasting time.

all this is impossible to track really.

Re:Duh. Social networking isn't entertainment.

[MiharuSenaKanaka]

Well, one could also consider that in an MMO, the player generally accumulates a small network of friends; most MMOs have a mail system or equivalent, and this could make a social networking site redundant for some players. Personally, I use both Facebook and the system in the MMO I'm currently subscribed to, but that's mostly only because I'm the only person at my school who plays the MMO in question. Or so it seems.

Seems questionable.

[Jartan]

That said, the growth rate for frequent users of video streaming sites was a whopping 123 percent, and that 'could pose a significant challenge to the gaming industry in capturing the online leisure time of Internet users,' Parks cautioned."

This comment makes me want to question the entire study. Sure everyone including grandma is watching youtube these days but it's not like people go there and watch 1 minute clips for hours and hours. It sounds like they ignored time spent on an activity completely.

I can't fathom how that would change the numbers but it seems like something they shouldn't of ignored.

Re:Seems questionable.

[Anonymous Coward]

Er, growth rate. That means how much time people spend watching videos online now, compared to how much time they spent watching videos online before.

Furthermore, remember that there's power in numbers. Some extreme MMOers sixteen-hour-run doesn't count for more than 960 minutes; it's equivalent to, say, 192 people investing five minutes of their lives in watching a video clip.

Who knows what is this video as Real Player SUCKS!

[Blahbooboo3]

As subject says, I won't play anything made to originally require Real Player. UGH Yes, I do have Real Alternative installed...

It's all about money

[the dark hero]

I play an MMO (EVE) while browsing social networks, watching videos(myspace/youtube)and instant messaging my friends all at once...ad-free. Besides paying for the MMO or buying the latest expansion for my favorite online games, how do they plan to squeeze an extra penny from people like me?

Re:It's all about money

[crossmr]

I believe the official industry term is "vise grips".

What constitutes a game?

[Anonymous Coward]

I spend most of my time playing games, but none of the ones you pay for. I just play simple browser games like Awakened Lands. These types of games are great for when you want to have fun but don't want to spend cash or invest hours at a time online. Do they even count this type of game, or is it just the games that people know of like WoW?

It's not surprising

[adona1]

It's not surprising, because most online videos are clips, or at best small-screened streaming shows. It's basically a question of time versus availability - I may only have 2 hours a day where I can game/watch TV etc, and if I did want to watch a show that I don't own/isn't on DVD, I'd have to download it on BT, which prevents me using the 2 hours there and then.

It's quite a non-article as well. Games vs short clips & Myspace? Eh. Let the big players allow me to purchase (by microfee hopefully, although I doubt they'd be so generous) the ability to stream and watch something right away, and then measure that against using the net for gaming, and then there might be an article worth reading.

Duh. Masturbation is entertainment.

[Anonymous Coward]

I would suggest you read this book. Masturbation it may be, but as your childhood has proven. Masturbation is very important.