Gaming: Blurring Lines Between Casual and Hardcore

Emerging Trends in Gameplay:The Blurring Lines Between Casual and HardcoreJon Radoff, CEO, GamerDNAGDC Austin 2009

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Agenda

What is changingabout players?

What is anonline game?

Are there betterways to

Segment audiences?

Casual vs.Hardcore?

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historyquizzes

stories

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Gamer Stereotypes of the past…

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Games are not a media category.

Games are played by everyone!

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OF TEENAGERSPLAY GAMES97%

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Couplesplay

games

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Familiesplay

games

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People of all ages

play games

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What Twitter can tell us about gamers

Almost 1 million tweets/month tracked by TweetMyGaming about games

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Heatmap of Game Twitter Conversations

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Rock Band overwhelming game conversations 9/9/09 – at Wow’s expense

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Casual gamesvs.

(Hard)core games

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Casual gamesvs.

(Hard)core games(AKA, The Most Stupid Dichotomy Ever Created in the Game Industry)

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A core game from 1978

A “casual” Flash game from 2009

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What are better ways of categorizing the market?

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What is an online game?

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World of Warcraft

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Madden NFL 09World of Warcraft

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Guitar Hero IIIMadden NFL 09

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Web-based, easy-to-play, collectibleDuels, Warstorm, Planet Storm

Browser based Strategy GameIn May 2009, the Travian website is more popular than the World of Warcraft website (430 vs. 540 on Alexa)

Web-based and iPhone30 million daily active players in Sept 2009

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Social gamers vs. Experience Gamers

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But it isn’t just guilds – games with any social components are more

successful

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Daily Players of Rock Band vs. GH3

Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero 3

Why did Rock Band command high daily attention levels?

Q:

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Grand Theft Auto IVDaily attention from launch day

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Call of Duty IVDaily attention from launch day

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Segmentation based on thematic (rather than

gameplay-type) genres

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Bioshock – What are they also playing?

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Every game has its own distinct segmentation

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“Heroic” Map Pack - 42% Increase

GTA IV Released - 59% Drop

“Legendary” Map Pack – 46% Increase

“Bungie Day” Free Map - 65% Increase Title Update – 95%

Increase

“Mythic” Map Pack – 62% Increase

Concurrent Halo 3 Players

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Halo 3 Audience Segmentation

Initial Market

Genre Loyal

Brand Loyal

Initial Market

Genre Loyal

Brand Loyal

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Competitive Set Analysis

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Top 10 other games played by World of Warcraft Players

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Top 8 Games played by MMO Players

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Since 5/31, 7.6% weekly compound growth in tweets about games

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Conclusions

Larger, more diverse audience than ever

The definition of “online game” has evolved

Don’t get caught in “casual vs. hardcore”

More helpful segmentations: social vs. less social players, thematic tastes, brand-loyal vs. genre-loyal, competitive sets

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Thanks!

Jon Radoff, CEO, GamerDNA

jradoff@gamerdna.comGamerDNA: tarinth.gamerdna.comTwitter: jradoff