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SOEs corporate strategy and EQN
Sengi
Member CommonPosts: 350
I’ve recently dug up an article that was in the New York Times in 2007 in that John Smedley talked about SOEs new corporate strategy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/business/worldbusiness/11sony.html?_r=0
2007 was an important year for SOE because back then Smedley decided to give SOE a whole different direction and as I see it, they went on with it since then. Back then Free Realms was their new upcoming title.
The point I find interesting is the new target audience they are aiming for and the measures they took to appeal to it.:
At the same time, Mr. Smedley said he wanted to diversify his customer base, which is 85 percent male and 32 years old, on average. Women have become the major driver of the casual games business (games like Bejeweled and Bookworm), and Mr. Smedley wants a piece of that action.
“We want to get our average age lower, probably into the low 20s, and I’d really like to see the gender breakdown go to 50-50 or even slightly more women than men, to reflect real life,” he said.
…
To reach out to girls, Mr. Smedley realized he had to hire more women. The creative director and art director on the game are now women.
“I just can’t explain to a 30-year-old single male why 10-year-old girls like horses,” he said. “We were trying to figure out what pets to put into Free Realms and before, the lead designer was a guy and he definitely wanted things that could fight. And when we got more women on the team, it was like ‘No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there.’ ”
I think Smedley makes it very clear that SOE is not interested in the hardcore crowd anymore. At the moment we don’t know what EQN is going to be like, but it leaves me asking: How much Free Realms will there be in EQN?
SOEs strategy sheds light on the question why they chose that specific cartoony art style for EQN. If teenage girls are their target audience now, it only makes sense to make the art style look kind of girly.
I know I’m walking into a minefield here. I’m well aware that women like all sorts of things, but I do think that this art style is an attempt to appeal to female players. And I think it is no coincidence they brought over a good portion of the art team from Free Realms to EQN.
It is true, female players are a growing demographic and they are very important to build a good community, because most women are socializers. I was playing a MMO with my girlfriend for several years and I was amazed how she was holding together the whole guild pretty much single-handedly.
Nevertheless, I believe trying to market a game to female players by making it cute and casual is actually an insult to women. This is the route that leads to Hello Kitty online. Somehow this sounds to me as if the owner of a football club would say: “We noticed that the majority of our fans are male and we will address this by painting the whole stadium pink."
It is alarming that Smedley somehow thinks MMOs could appeal to people that exclusively play games like Bejeweled. I see that 2007 where the hey days of Facebook gaming and Zyngas stock value was going through the roof, but if the Farmville crowd doesn’t want to play your game you can’t address this by making it more like Farmville.
I’m worried that SOE is falling into a very common trap here, many companies fell for before. Some bigwig at Sony noticed that SOEs customer base was growing older and that they weren’t growing in a new emerging market. This made them panic and they wanted to realign the company immediately by switching all their affords towards a new demographic, abandoning their brand essence and completely ignoring their very loyal existing customers. They thought that they could acquire a whole new customer base just like that, completely ignoring that it took them years to acquire the one they have. In some cases this might work, but more often then not the new demographic will not really bite into it or turn out to be much more fickle then the old one. So in the end this strategy will often turn out to be a failure, especially in a business that requires long term investments like the MMO genre.
I don’t even see how it is a bad thing that the average player is 32. This only means that they are reaching players of all ages.
Comments
in that example he was generally speaking about Free Realms (targetting casual girls)
in the same article he briefly spoke about the Agency's target audience (scifi males)
since that article,
SOE launched DCUO and Planetside2 (there have been others but SOE was the publisher)
neither game targets casual women
clarifier:
article was 2007
FreeRealms PC launch 2009
FreeReams Console launch 2011
DCUO launch PC and console, 2011
Planetside 2 PC launch, 2012
Planetside 2 Console launch, 2014 ?
EQ2 fan sites
Well, I'd be all for the inclusion of trainable battle puppies but they should come with perma-death to punish the inept trainers out there....
The simple fact is that as long as MMORPGs boil down to being about killing things and taking their stuff to advance your character while "having fun doing it" they are never going to have mass appeal to all ages, genders, and people of diverse interests. It happens for the same reason you will never see a great sports car that appeals to minivan needing soccer moms. Different target markets with differing wants and needs. You can't satisfy everyone with one product. To be truly successful you have to identify specifically who you are designing the game for and cater to them without such tokens for everyone else that serves to simply dilute the core of your product. Otherwise you will fail.
In 2001 the average age of an EQ player was 25
by 2007 is was 32
and in 2012 it was 38.
I do not think you understand what average means if you think this represents a diversification of audience members, it represents an aging user base that is well outside the target market for any product but viagra.
If you need Viagra by 38 then there is an entire other problem going on here besides aging...
either you are a teenager and have no idea what age group viagra is targeting or you I apologize and i'm sorry for your penile troubles.
other then that i think it is stupid of SOE to want to target a younger audience since that would alienate their entire aging user base which has kept them in business since 99.
but if it was just for free realms then it makes sense
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes
Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge
Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
I'm glad you broke it down for him.
The key part to the OP that made the entire article, and subsequent commentary, irrelevant was it was from 2007. Six years can be a lifetime in business (as well as other professions) allowing for a lot of change to occur during that time. Judging by the history of SOE since then, change did in fact occur.
To the OP: Your other threads here, and here, are along the same line. That is, you seem to be convinced that EQN is going to be casual and only suitable to a very young crowd. In those previous threads, you tried to use the graphic style to back up your suspicions, and now you are using this old, dusty article from 6 years ago to attempt to do the same thing.
From all indications in various interviews with Dave and various Dev's, EQN will cater to many different playstyles and not be as simple as you keep trying to suggest. Even in the most recent interviews at Gamescon and PAX, Dave again reiterated that it would be silly to try to cater to a single type of player and that EQN will have content for the hardcore, casual, crafters, etc.
So, OP, your message that you think EQN is going to be an ultra-casual, cartoony, dumbed down mess for kiddies has been heard, but it's not based on anything substantive. Multiple interviews and tweets since the reveal at SOE Live easily counter this speculative assertion.
digging through almost seven year old news reports to try to yet again, post your dislike for eqn's art style is pretty lame..
just saying.
over 20 years of mmorpg's and counting...
+1To OP--- keep trying though you might make them change thier minds. Seriously I thino they almost did because of you.
Got it, you don't like the art style. Do you have a clue as to why they are going this way... I for one would submit that it has ZERO to do with how well a game ages, but that may have been a very minor argument within the dev team. Let's take a history lesson back a few years to a November in which both WoW and EQ2 launched. EQ2 was first and it was buggy but it had steep requirements. SOE claimed that no one was going to be able to play it at max settings for years because they designed it to run best on technology that wasn't out yet. They based that on the CPU speeds. Many of us had to upgrade our machines to even play.
WoW on the other hand, besides designing a game for those that cried and quit EQ because it was too hard, also designed a game that would play and play well on existing PCs. Those two choices led to WoW being huge. It was easy mode and people didn't need to go out and spend money on upgrading their PCs to play.
Now, fast forward to today and let's pretend you are on the dev team for EQN. Are you going to vote for realistic over stylized art style knowing that you could easily make the same mistake again? If you say yes then I can assure you that you would be another statistic standing in the unemployment line. While I'm not thrilled with the direction, I totally understand it. It makes good business sense to go a direction that will allow the most players as possible able to play the game on day one with EXISTING machines. Besides, the last I checked, SOE is in business to make money...
An interview from 2007 can hardly be considered relevant in 2013 when talking about "corporate strategy". That sort of things tends to change every quarter with large companies (and why a gamer would care about that is beyond me)
Besides....what in the world does that have to do with Eqnext? The game wasn't even a glimmer in anyones eye in 2007, EQ2 had only been out for 3 years and chances are they were thinking of what expansions to release for that game and not thinking about the next EQ game.
I think they've done the proper market research that the untapped young female market is bigger than the dark and brooding young male market. WoW is more cartoony than EQN so they figure the young male market will reluctantly come along once the game is launched.
What's more alarming is how many leaps in logic you've made to come to any of those conclusions.
Interest in appealing to a wider audience doesn't mean all products/services will be made to cater to all audiences. Disney didn't add blood and nudity to new Disney movies, they created Touchstone Pictures.
Another thing to note is that the internet in general is so different now from what it was in 2007, that it's rather crazy to think any online entertainment business strategy of 2007 would have any relevance, let alone remain in effect, in 2013.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Everquest Next Debut confirmed that SOE wants this franchise to appeal to a larger demographic, as they should considering their bottomline is their profit margin and networking.
You cannot alienate the emerging gamer, nor can you estrange seasoned gamer, especially in these times with so much going on and many more variables to consider as everything is quickening, so to speak.
One shouldn't feel dismayed at certain features being implimented in Everquest Next based on previous experiences with Everquest amd Everquest 2. SOE has stated very clearly that EQN is more then an evolution of this franchise, it is bringing a more enlightened approach to the Everquest franchise as they all merge into one concentric virtual reality.
Maybe I am seemingly at the other end of the spectrum; As I have no issues with letting things go as there is absolutely no appeal for me to try and rekindle any interest replaying older MMOs through the implimentation of old MMO game mechanics (designed due to technological barriers and to meet the times they were released in).
They say, "timing is everything!" and lets consider MMOs are comprised of players from every demographic regardless of race, color, creed, location, etc...as we all collectively vote as this is more then apparent considering what turned out to be successful, concerning previous MMOs.
Collectively we are co-creaters of our own realities. Ultimately what one chooses to think, say, and do speaks clearly of oneself. Though as we may all have our own path, there is convergence to consider, carefully.
No matter how many negative, critical, judgemental threads come to these forums, or any for that matter...each of us is a medium and the more we start realizing this collectively, the more we will affect our reality.
EQ and EQ2 both rank OVER 130 on xfire. Planetside 2 is already consolidating servers.
So much for the decision making of Mr Smedely
xfire ranks 176 on tmatch.
Wow, reaching now are we not?
"To reach out to girls, Mr. Smedley realized he had to hire more women. The creative director and art director on the game are now women."
The art director is the same art director from EQ - nothing changed there.
It's kinda sad that you have to pull pieces from a now 6 year old press piece. Six years is a lifetime in the corporate world, and corporate strats tend to change every 6 months. This press release you cherry-picked was about FreeRealms, not about every game they plan to make.
Again, they chose the art style that fit the world they are making, the systems it will be using and features such as SOEmote. The didn't chose it to fit the 'we need more girls playing' strat. That is just flawed logic on your part due to a distaste for the graphical choice. We get it, you don't like it. We also get that they won't change it to suit your desire. So I guess there is really only 1 thing you can do...
Get over it and move on.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Viagra was a bit of hyperbole, but the gist of the remark stands, no one really targets anything at 38 year olds except perhaps luxury car ads and some real estate and time share ads.
I mean what other video game or is wasting its time with an aged player base? Should they focus FPS games to play more like Duke Nukem and have more pixels so we feel more at home? Maybe they can slow down the racing games a bit for the dulling reflexes? UI's can be made larger by default so old eyes do not have to turn up the Scale so much....
No one in this industry is targeting a 38 year old median age level...
*cough* Camelot Unchained *cough*
Even if you ignore the age of this article, it's quite the rhetorical hyperbole to turn target audience of 50-50 gender ratio and median age of 20s into 'teenage girls'.
It's at that point that I knew the OP wasn't interested in honest discourse.
Here is another interesting article.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2011/08/07/females-spending-more-real-cash-on-virtual-goods-in-video-games-than-males/
Basically, women spend more money in cash shops. I only read the first page, but I assume that is the overview.
Women and young gamers are increasing. Video Games in general are not geared towards aging men (sorry guys) as much as they once were.
SOE is a company and money runs the show.
EQ as a whole has always been female friendly (my girlfriend at the time actually got me into EQ in High School), I was still playing MUDs, but she liked the pretty graphics...
WoW was very friendly to a wide audience and did better than any other mmorpg because of it.
My wife is addicted to Candy Crush, like so many other poor souls. She also enjoys puzzle, exploring, crafting type games. She wasn't a fan of the grind in WoW, but has shown interest in trying EQN if it has some mini-game type stuff to waste some time on (crafting, house designing, farming, etc). She'll come along to slay the dragon, but doesn't want to spend 40 hours a week getting read for the fight.
Smedly made the right move. I don't know many older guys that are just now getting into gaming or at least not mmorpgs. Most have an Xbox or PS3 and that is about it. Where a 20 something might find it easier to get a friend addicted to their game of choice. Many women are looking for a hobby to spend a little time and more importantly money on without dedicating their entire life. I'm pretty much in with the ladies at this point.
I've had my years of 8+ hour game sessions multiple times a week. I hoping EQN caters to a slighly more casual crowd and doesn't require it to be a full time job to not be left behind. If that means it has to be a bit more light hearted and more appealing to females and a younger crowd, sign me up. The more girls instead of G.I.R.L.s the better.
Well SOE like most companies are out to make money.. so of course expanding your player base to the female population is a very good thing to do.. more players = more money..
Yes, but you're missing the point. SOE has always 'reached out' to new customers in the most crass, clumsy and alienating ways that have tended to keep new players away and fuck off existing players.
Yea well, by the time that one rolls out it will be targeting 48 year olds.
I'll admit I first came to this site because of the NGE....
Yet I don't really get a lot of the posts I see on this site. While I did originally come here raging about something as many were, in a forum that no longer exists.. most of us got over it or at least moved on.
[mod edit]
The original post of this thread was flawed and that is putting it nicely. It really has nothing to do with EQN... at best it would be some kind of "general" rant about SOE with no real logical thought process behind it...
Which in a way simply highlights the odd moderation methods this website uses.
Hi Sengi!
You made a good observation, but I would consider it obvious. It's obvious that the emancipation of women is leading to a transformation of culture. "EverQuest Next" is targeting women more than "EverQuest" did. The reason is as said, obvious. More women are in higher positions, earning (and spending) more money, making more decisions... it all leads to a "womanization" of culture.
This process is no surprise at all. Just look at "Fight Club" (1999)!
It's more surprising that some people here not only seem to be unaware of the social changes, but – even more silly – try to dissect your point by dumb rhetorical tricks. One thing is to have no clue about society, the other thing is to sell his ignorance as wisdom.
Yours,
Amylion.
Others just shoot the zombies which are chasing us. Whereas I try to talk to them.
If the brainless realized that it is dead, maybe, just maybe, it would lay itself down to rest...