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Casual and hardcore games...are they really two separate markets? Or simply two outdated ways of siloing gamers? This also contains some really great heatmaps showing the type of games people are talking about on Twitter.
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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
[email protected]: tarinth.gamerdna.comTwitter: jradoff
