The I'm Bored Thread

"thecatsred;c-17269023" wrote:
It's so strange how the target audience is teen girls when the majority of players I've met over the years have been people in their late 20s to mid 30s and far, far above as the people who have the most game time invested, have the means to buy all the DLC, and actually bother to give feedback.

When I was a teen playing these games, I couldn't buy all the packs, because I had no income. Now I'm nearing 30 and I have been able to buy everything. You'd think they would cater to those long-time fans of the franchise, who are "locked in" to a game with no competition, and the fans who can afford to buy all DLC in the game, not teenagers who have better things to do than play around with a fancy dollhouse.

That's a good point. Most teens (especially these days because of increased demands at school and competition for traditional "first jobs" with adults who lack a college degree or career certification of some kind thanks to the slow death of jobs that allow you to roll right from high school to the work force and make a dignified living) are not formally employed and any income they do have mainly comes from allowance and holiday/birthday money (in both cash and gift card form). In that situation, every dollar you get is precious and you have to think through and prioritize your purchases carefully. I mean, if you're getting $10 a week in allowance, a Stuff Pack is a week's allowance, a Game Pack is two weeks' allowance, and a full Expansion Pack is a month's allowance. And that's not even counting sales tax, that thorn in the side of any broke kid just trying to buy themself something nice. Bring that in, and you add another week's wait to being able to afford your goodies. Oh, and let's not forget needing to get out to get an Origin card for the purchase, because most teenagers don't have bank accounts (I know I didn't as a teenager), and that some parents expect their teenaged kids to spend a portion of their allowance on personal care items in order to teach them about responsibility. Some teens don't get any allowance at all, in fact, and rely mainly on birthday and holiday money as their primary source of income. With all of these complications standing between teenagers and buying...well, anything much more expensive than a couple of shirts or a can of Pringles, I doubt most teenaged players are buying any of their packs full price. Instead, they're all probably buying the custom bundles and waiting for Origin sales to get the most out of their limited finances. That's my deduction based on my own experience as a teenager.

20-and-30-somethings are actually a better group to go for from a financial perspective, if the main goal is to rake in the dollars. Sure, most of us have some kind of crippling student debt to deal with and many of us are still trapped living with our parents for financial reasons (if not being forced to live with room mates whether we want them or not for the same financial reasons...room mates...as a grown-behind adult...ew...), but most of us at least have some kind of income. Whether that income comes from the job we actually went into debt for, the crappy place-holder job that has nothing to do with our degree and doesn't even pay a living wage, or the crappy part-time gig we take up to help pay for school, it's still there. Players in their 20's and 30's who feel like they're in a secure enough financial position or just feel like they've been good that week and deserve a treat are more likely to buy a full-price pack than a teenager, for whom every stray dollar that comes their way is a precious resource.

Middle-aged fans also make more sense to angle for, because even though they have kids to raise and households to run, they are also more likely to not only have a stable income, but an income that allows for a decent amount of self-spoiling leisure spending. Middle age is, statistically speaking, the time of one's life where their earning power is at its peak, after all. It just makes sense that a game like The Sims, which relies heavily on the Gillette Model to make a profit (sell the base unit for a reasonable-sounding price, then make your money on the accessories and add-ons), to market it more toward those customers who can afford to keep buying the DLC for $10-$40 a pop without having to make a huge financial consideration before every purchase. Even if we're talking about a middle-aged housewife, if a woman these days can afford to retire early from the workforce to be a housewife, then her husband must make a substantial enough amount of money to be able to support a family on his own, which means she must have access to a decent amount of discretionary funds to get herself something really nice every once in a while. Otherwise, early retirement from the workforce to tend the house and kids makes little logical financial sense, and it's better for the family for both parents to be working, even if it means the kids are always in daycare or after school programs or just doing the latchkey kid thing. And if Momma is working, she won't deny herself a little treat every once in a while...especially on a week when the kids, the boss, AND the husband have all been working her last daggone nerve!

So, analyzing the likely financial and psychological situation of each group of customers, it makes the most sense to cater to the older players than it does to the teens. The teens are dirt broke and need to very carefully manage what little money they do get access to, while older players have much more financial wiggle-room and are better able to afford full-price DLC. Instead of trying to attract fresh players by watering the games down, they should be playing up what the series has traditionally offered and talking about it in a way that appeals to that younger audience. Softening the game to appeal to a different, less experienced audience is never a good thing for a franchise.

Case in point, Monster Rancher Evo aka. Monster Farm 5. The Monster Rancher series (known as Monster Farm in Japan) was, for the first four installments, a fairly detailed creature breeding and battle sim where you create a monster (either from a CD or DVD or, in later installments, from data on previously scanned or bred monsters from you encyclopedia), train it, feed it, praise and discipline it, and battle with it. The first four titles in the series improved and iterated on the formula and added new monsters, systems, and elements to the game. The fourth game provided the biggest upgrade, with a fully customizable ranch and the ability to raise up to five monsters at a time. Then, the fifth game came around, where they removed all of the intensive monster care elements and the tournament system in favor of playing up the story and dungeon crawling and introducing a performance system where you complete mini-games to ensure your monsters' success in performing circus tricks, which is the only way your monsters gain stats in that iteration. Understandably, long-time fans were miffed about the changes to the game to make it easier for younger, newer players...and the series really hasn't recovered since. A game series should change with the times, but taking a Magic Bullet blender to the game's core gameplay to make it more digestible to an audience that seems too soft for the real deal is never a good idea.