Gamers. Difference of interests

There are many articles on the Internet on the topic: What games are interesting for girls? Are people playing normally 10-20 hours a day? Why computer games have become so popular? etc. There are a lot of articles, but as it seems to me, all of them ... are biased. You say that only schoolchildren are being slaughtered at Dotka? You will immediately be called many examples of old gamers. Do you think girls are only interested in Sims? Say it to those girls who are chasing in a machete for "seasoned warriors" in Battlefield. In this article I will try to classify computer gamers by types / gender / games. So who plays what?

By game genre:

This is the simplest category. Game genres are clearly structured. We can only distribute "the lady of flowers, children ice cream."

RPG (role-playing game)

Let's start, perhaps, with the most popular, to date, game genre - Role Play (Shut up, gentlemen hussars!). In such games, we are given a computer avatar - a character that we cherish, cherish, dress and sometimes even feed. In gratitude, this avatar is growing, getting older, strength is gaining, and then it’s already done what we want (within the framework of the world defined by the developers, of course). In turn, computer role-playing games are divided into single-player and multiplayer.
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Single RPG (single player)

These are games like Diablo 1/2, Arcanum, Fallout, TES: Skyrim. In such games, as a rule, a huge colorful world worked out to the smallest detail with a lot of friendly and not very computer characters. Simply put, you are the only intelligent creature in the world. All the rest - the result of the game developers.

So who might be interested in such games? It can be both boys and girls. Colorful worlds, wide possibilities for modifying a character, a well-developed social component, which cannot but please the beautiful half of humanity. At the same time, high in the mountains, behind forests and swamps, await terrible villains and dragons, mutated post-apocalypse zombies and other delights of civilization, which no self-respecting hero will pass by. In addition, in such games you can play, say, in the country, where the Internet is tight. Again, you can save, but with a friend for a walk, and then continue the glorious deeds! The genre is suitable for both casuals and lost gamers (although not completely lost), although the latter are only games for one milk tooth. Painfully quickly passed. In general, no wonder this genre has become so popular.

MMORPG (multiplayer)

And the voices of virtual heroes were heard, but the ways of magicians between their worlds were laid by magicians-developers! And saw the light of such games as Linage and World of warcraft. And the mothers began to lose their children at the computers ... Mdja ... what am I talking about? The genre has become so popular that everyone else has faded into the background. After all, such games allow you to create a mighty war, a cunning robber, a beautiful princess and a bold tamer. In such games there is communication with other people. A kind of Matrix. And many players have already pulled into it. Among them are only those who sat at the desk, schoolchildren and successful businessmen, and young mothers. It seems that all this genre is suitable, but not all.

Here in more detail: most of the MMORPG is built with the full immersion of the player in the virtual world. And this time. Not every person is able to devote 5-10-20 hours per game. Yes, a young mother gladly picks flowers to brew a love potion, but at the first call of her child she will abandon the game. This means that in the raid designed for protracted battles you will not see it. As well as prudent businessman. This genre can attract them, but will not be able to tighten it for a long time (yes, there are exceptions!).

Simulators

One of the oldest, but not lost its popularity, genres. He is known to us from the F-29 Retaliator, F22, IL-2 and the sensational "tanks" - World of tanks (although, if I had my way, I would refer to the tanks to the shooters, but once the people said the simulator, let it be a simulator). The genre is quite popular mainly among the male half of 20-25. Although on the battlefields more than once a shell came from a beautiful lady. But girls over 20 in these games you rarely see. Before the tanks, I would say that the game is a genre for casuals, but ... You know, wargame did its dirty business. The social component in such games comes down to battle tactics (true for online simulators).

Shooters

Such games as: Half-life, Battlefield, etc. (I don’t see any sense in separating online and offline versions). Everything is clear here. Beat all that moves, and that no longer moves, move and beat again! The main audience - boys aged 7-25 years. There are girls and tear off, but agree, this is rare. Old-aged fighters (40+) are even less common than the fair sex. True-gamers often play online, but shooters have conquered the hearts of both experienced shrubber and casual hearts.

Sport

The most popular games: FIFA, NHL - simulators. For this genre, I judge only from hearsay, because not a fan of these games. But we can already conclude that this genre is focused exclusively on sports fans, and this is a rather narrow circle of gamers. The majority of fans of such games, if not strange - men in the area of ​​30-40 years of low and middle income (I suspect that wealth does not play a role) and boys in the area of ​​12-17 years (I emphasize, these are statistics). Girls playing sports games are quite rare.

Race

This genre is taken out of the category of sports because of its isolation. This includes such games as Need for Speed, F1, Truckers. This is where the interesting begins: they play “races”, mostly casuals. And the beautiful half in no way inferior to the love of roaring cars, guys! The main audience of boys and girls up to 20-25 years.

Quests

Unfortunately, the dying genre ... Games like Goblins, Brothers, pilots and the like are on the shelves of history. Although the respected pytilovsky pointed to a pretty fresh A Vampyre Story. Perhaps I was a bit early on and got a shovel ... Oh well. This genre has its own audience. And the vast majority of this audience is girls of all ages. Also, men over 40 do not shy away from playing kvestiki. Genre is exclusively for casuals.

Strategies

One of the oldest genres. We know him from Civilization, Age of Empires, warcraft 1/2/3 (and let's add the notorious LOL and Dota here. Though not the strategies already ...), Confrontation. In these games we built empires and in their place created new ones (buying a tear of nostalgia)! Genre was considered masculine. although there were great strategies for which the girls played with pleasure (the same settlers, Stronghold). It is difficult to judge how many girls now play in strategy, but about 7-10 years ago they were about 1/3 of the fans of the genre. Here and casual there is something to do and a tru-gamer has a place to swing. At the moment, the average age of the "strategists" is 17-30 years.

About doters and lolovtsev separately (statistics spoil: D). A disorderly, organized wall-to-wall battle. The bulk of the players are boys aged 7–20 years old (there are rumors that there are girls in lol!). Kazualm on the battlefields is not the place (although the lost ones come across).

Crafting and life simulator

Who hasn't heard of MineCraft? Perhaps the brightest representative of the genre of crafting. Casual genre, I must say (just do not have to remember the Koreans now!). We build, create, create! It would seem that there should be girls in the top ... But no. Yet the main audience ... Boys 5-12 years old 0_o (Believe me, I myself was in shock ... I collected statistics on more than a hundred forums (diploma in game addiction)). In second place are guys 20-30 years old. But the girls are in trouble here ... They don’t admit that they are playing, or they don’t like glamorous cubes for the truth. Well then ... here to each his own.

But in the genre of life simulators girls undoubtedly leaders. Sole ... of all ages and social status. Sometimes guys come to these games, but do not advertise.

Browser

Browser games broke into our lives with the advent of the Internet and won a very different audience. Why not? Now in the browser, you can play strategy and a shooter and RPG. Not that awesome quality, but still ...

Online

Gentlemen, do not consider advertising! Just as an example: Mist, Wrath of the Gods, Sword and Magic: Heroes Online, etc. As I have already mentioned, it is already possible to create a game in the browser according to the genres described above and, depending on the genre, there will be an audience. But! I want to note that browser games are mostly played (depending on the genre!): Busy people are from 17-25 years old, which means casuals. Moreover, if there is a chat in the game, then 1/3, or even half of the players will be women of different ages.

Casual (Flash Games)

Most often logic games. The main audience is ladies of all ages. Moreover, the prevailing share of all Igomans.

Gender:

Boys (boys, boys, boys, men, uncles, grandfathers)

The male population of the planet prefers to play games where you can compete, stay “on horseback”. We like to strike the enemy on the battlefield with a sword, and driving a tank to take cities. All “usi-pusi” is not for us! We do not need ryrushechek! You do not agree? > :)
Who love to chat, choose a game with chat, who loves blood - a shooter, and so on. Everything is clear with us. All used to play war games!

Girls (girls, girls, young women, young women, young women)

About the attitude of the fair sex to the games is very well described in the article pytilovsky . I can guarantee that this is the view of most girls. Why am I so sure? Due to my profession and hobby I communicate with different people. And in games, girls often reveal themselves. I do not know why. Perhaps they consider that in the game they are anonymous and you can not be afraid to write the truth? But I heard a lot of complaints about the sharpened games for men. Yes, there are exceptions. Lot. But still it is a drop in the ocean.

So, what do the girls need (will there really be an answer to this question?)? A colorful world with a well-designed history and social interactions. It is also very desirable to create a vast and, if possible, unique wardrobe. Interesting puzzle tasks and beautiful partner pets. Oh yes, many people want to see beautiful trailers and screensavers in the game!

Psychological type:

Here I will try to divide the players according to the degree of immersion in the virtual world of games, as well as give the reasons for their immersion.

Casuals

People who do not pay due attention to the game due to circumstances. This may be a student engaged in studies, a businessman / woman, a nursing mother, or just an adequate person who understands that life is there, outside the window, and not on the monitor screen. Such people come into the game to kill a couple of minutes, relax, escape from worries. You will not see them in ten-hour raids. They will not have a heaped tank. No, they don't need all this. But they will have their own house. Maybe not even in the mortgage. Loving family and lots of friends. Not virtual friends, but those with whom this “casual” will go to the mountains.

Gamers

No offense, but it’s all the way through the pierced people who don’t need anything in life except to pump their Persian, keep the mid, etc. True, no offense. These people have pale skin color (they say that negroes are albinos, in fact, Manchiny -_-) ... Hmm ... It often happens that these people have thousands, or even tens of thousands of friends ... Virtual ones. Spending a computer game for 10-20 hours a day, they forget about food, sleep, life. This is a real addiction. Most often, such people grow out of children, whom the parents put at the computer, "let him play a little and not hinder us." Most often, these are people of school age who do not need to think about how to get a livelihood.

Socials

These are the people who are important to the game, first of all, communication. Yes, they collect weed, go to raids, but only in order to support the conversation in chat / skype. Most often, socials are found among girls. And most often in social networks and browser games sharpened for communication. These people, as well as the gameplayers, may have about a thousand friends, and they, like the casuals, may not pay attention to the game.

Socials Trolls

People who play games for the sake of communication, like socials. That's just communication, it comes down to making fun of others and mix them with impurities. The overwhelming majority of such people are schoolchildren 10-17 years old. Mostly male. They spoil the game for everyone and enjoy the screams of gamers. A kind of energetic vampire.

A few words about game addiction:

Increasingly, I notice the fact that young parents, tired of the noisy children, sit him at the computer or buy him a prefix / tablet. Yes, the child calms down. And it seems like he even “communicates” with his peers and classmates. Even at school, he is not called a beggar (yes, children are cruel). But now, after 3-5 years, these parents are clutching at the head “Why doesn’t the chadushka want to go outside and chat with friends? Why doesn't he pay attention to school? ” And all because the time was lost and the basis that the parents had to give the child was not given. And now the child does not know and does not want to know anything other than computer games. Do not dismiss this problem with the words "The next smart man began to advise." Then it will be late, but the past will not return.

The perfect game is fantastic?

What game could be perfect for everyone? The answer is quite simple: it will definitely be a MMORPG genre. That's just the game should be colorful, with the possibility of social interaction between enemies (poaching / recruiting the enemy), and between players and between the player and the computer character (NPC). Characters should have access not only to a huge arsenal of weapons and magic, but also a huge wardrobe of things (perhaps even composite things, for uniqueness). A well-thought history of the world with colorful art (yes, yes! This is also important) with sophisticated and interesting tasks. The best option - the intersection of magic and technology in the Middle Ages. There are, of course, space lovers, but this is already a separate game.