Not so long ago, only two breeds
of gamers existed: the hardcore and the casual. Hardcore gamer dedicated their
lives to power-leveling their Night Elf druids in Azeroth. And casual gamers…well, they didn’t.
But times are changing.
Marketing research firm Parks Associates recently conducted a survey of more
than 2,000 online gamers, and they concluded that six statistically distinct
gamer types have evolved, including:
– The “power” gamer, or the typical
“hardcore” player who lives and breathes World
of Warcraft/Counterstrike/Guild Wars/etc. Although this group
accounts for 30 percent of revenue for online titles, power gamers represent
only a small portion (11 percent) of the total market.
– The “occasional” gamer, who sticks
mainly to puzzle, word, and board games. Unlike the power gamer,
occasional gamers tend not to spend much money on their pastime.
–
The “incidental” gamer, who plays online games mainly out of
boredom. Despite that, however, incidental gamers still manage to tally more
than 20 hours per month on online games.
– The “social” gamer,who sees gaming mainly as a way to interact or keep in
touch with friends and family.
– The “leisure” gamer, to whom gaming is a
serious hobby. On average, leisure gamers devote 58 hours per month to their
pastime, but mostly stick to casual titles.
– The “dormant” gamer, who loves to game, but because of family,
school or work obligations, has little time to play. As gamers grow older, this
group has gotten bigger; it now accounts for more than a quarter of all gamers.
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2006.
