34 INSIDE TRADER
The future of gaming
In this issue, ToyNews’ Inside Trader, Steve Reece, looks at the motivations that get consumers gaming and how these and new technologies will influence the industry going forward…
IN TODAY’S whirlwind world, where new gaming formats launch before most consumers have got to grips with the last, we can lose sight of the fact humans have played games for millennia. As far back as Ancient Greece and China, people played games like Mah-jong, Go, Knucklebones and more. Before you yawn at the history lecture, there’s a critical point here: People have played games for so long for a multitude of powerful reasons. Some key motivators make people play games, regardless of technological innovations. Unsurprisingly, gaming formats and game titles, which take account of these motivators, are often the most successful in sales and longevity terms.
Roughly in order of prominence the major gameplay motivators are: competitiveness – the need to
MARCH 2012
compete with others and win, or to have the satisfaction of beating friends, families or anyone else. Those who thrive on competition are much less likely to lose gracefully... I know this as both myself and my wife are of this particular ilk, and so game
other well. For many, the pleasure of gameplay is in bringing the group together, and providing the medium via which they bond. Next is sheer functionality i.e. being bored and needing something to do.
Those of us with children will know this well – hordes of kids can be pacified by
deploying gaming – many a piece of furniture has been saved by shunting the little darlings in front of the Wii.
playing makes for interesting times in our house.
Many gaming occasions are driven by desire for social experience. Games are a fantastic facilitator for people who struggle to make polite conversation or don’t know each
Those of us with wild children will know this well – hordes of rampaging kids can be quickly controlled and pacified by deploying gaming – many a piece of furniture has been saved by shunting the little darlings in front of the Wii.
Aligned with the functional motivation is the desire for immersion – to lose yourself in an experience to pass the time, de- stress, have fun, or to escape a bad day. Immersion tends to be split in two: those immersing themselves in simulations of reality, and those losing themselves in make- believe fantasy. Traditionally, and ever increasingly, gaming is a tool to make education entertaining. Both children and adults engage more fully, with greater levels of concentration, commitment and content recall when the experience is fun.
Other gaming motivators include desire for entertaining physical activity, fitness and fat loss; the desire to perform; desire to nurture life (particularly powerful with younger girls and pre-tweens); the
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