THE CORE DEMOGRAPHIC ENCOUNTER PART 1

For purposes of this rant, and future rants, let us tender a definition of terms: The casual player is going to be defined statistically. Analysis of the Everquest customer base has revealed that the average player spends 20-25 hours a week in the game, usually in 2-2½ hour sittings, and they usually are involved in 4-6 person groups.

This doesn’t mean that **most** people actually play within all these guidelines; it just means that this is the overall average of playing habits. I culled this information from Verant’s own statements and from a couple of studies done that were published online.

From now on I’m going to use the term “Core Demographic Encounter”, or CDE, to refer to the Everquest scenario where a group of 4-6 people have 2-2½ hours to invest in the game. This is the essence of the “casual player” scenario, as I am defining it here. Statistically speaking, approximately 75% of the entire gaming population of Everquest likely falls somewhere either within or below (below meaning “less time invested”) the definition of the casual gamer.

If we roughly estimate that 50% fall within the parameters, then we can also estimate that 25% fall below it’s definition and 25% spends more time than that in the game, balancing each other out. However, I would also like to define, for purposes of this and future rants, another type of player; the professional player.

This player can be roughly defined as he or she that not only spends more time in the game than the casual player, but also is usually involved in larger groups, is usually associated with a large guild, and has available to them greater ability to accumulate information and resources about the game than the casual player.

These are rough definitions, set forth not to engender detailed arguments about their precise validity, but only to serve as a representational framework for this and future rants. Let me state that I have no problem with any style of play whatsoever. What I have a problem with is how Everquest is designed, modified, and what player model they use when crafting expansions and new additions to the game. I will address other things as well (such as the new, sanitized message board system), but I just wanted to be fair and present definitions first.

If the above CDE is generally valid (and I think that the CDE, as defined above, is certainly a very reasonable outline of the actual playing habits of the average Everquest player), then obviously Everquest is simply not designed with them in mind. My personal opinion is that Everquest was originally designed by professional gamers for professional gamers (and this is a rather obvious, logical conclusion, since those who designed EQ were obviously professional gamers and they often stated that they designed the game they would like to play).

The problem is, as it has turned out, that at least 75% of Everquest’s population cannot even remotely be defined as professional gamers, and so the game has not been designed, nor is it modified, nor are expansions generated around their playstyle. Somebody other than who Verant thought was going to make up the bulk of their customer base poured through the floodgates in vast numbers, and yet Verant (or SOE now) continues to ignore them by altering content, or adding content, that can only effectively be enjoyed by professional players. Excluding 75% of your customer base from experiencing the best content of your product is never a good idea, when everyone pays the same amount for the service.

Agree with me here. If you disagree, go to hell.

Next: Who is SOE trying to please? The Core Demographic Encounter Part II