World of Warcraft is for "hardcore" young male gamers

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Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Humor

Yes. That's right. The most accessible MMO is too hardcore for the standard audience, according to Forbes.com and Rob Hutter of the recently unveiled Gazillion Entertainment. In a recent interview with Hutter, he was quoted as saying that the MMO market could expand outside of "targeting the hardcore gamer demographic," using World of Warcraft as his main example.

Forbes.com paraphrased him as saying, "...Most people unaccustomed to MMOs might be intimidated by complex games like 'Warcraft,' Hutter says trends in technology suggest the audience for simple, well-designed games will grow quickly. The runaway success of Nintendo's Wii proved virgin gamers will try new titles if they are easy to play, while the boom in social networks like Facebook suggests people of all ages are looking for new ways to interact online, he says."

While we understand what he's getting at and can appreciate trying to target gamers outside of the main demographic, we think he might need to pick a better example next time. WoW can be intimidating for first time users, but something must have clicked with the non-hardcore gaming crowd as many of them have stuck around in Azeroth. Unless, of course, all 11 million of the World of Warcraft subscribers have suddenly become hardcore male gaming nerds, and those newbies in our guilds are simply the stuff of illusion.

[Via Hardcore Casual]World of Warcraft is for "hardcore" young male gamers originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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