Making Mainstream Online Games
from the not-so-easy dept
There is a bit of a stereotype around the hardcore online gamer as being a bit of a geek. While that’s obviously not true of all players, there are many who would say it’s true of a fairly large percentage. With the success of EverQuest and other online games among the hardcore gamers, plenty of other online games are coming to market – and some developers are realizing they can’t focus on just the geeks any more. So, they’re facing the challenge of designing a more mainstream game that (gasp!) even women will like. They even say that they want to design games that don’t require you to play twenty to forty hours a week, but instead can be more casual. The article focuses on Star Wars Gallaxies and The Sims Online as two attempts to go beyond the usual gaming crowd.
Comments on “Making Mainstream Online Games”
no subject
Star Wars Galaxies is an example of a less geeky game?
Re: no subject
Yeah, that was kind of my reaction as well, but I don’t know anything about online games in general, or Star Wars Galaxies specifically, so I wasn’t sure. However, in the article they try to make it sound as though the game really isn’t focused on geeks… But, I would think it’ll be tough to avoid the geeks and even tougher to attract the non-geeks.