Zynga Says Your Mom is the New Hardcore Gamer

[joshuaayt]

I don't care much about labels, but I fail to see how any demographic that plays for an average of an hour a day is in any way "Hardcore". It doesn't even matter what kind of game it is- I'll buy that a grandmother who literally only plays farmville, neglecting all else, fairly fits under the label, but zynga is stating here, that a person who considers gaming, at best, an amusing distraction can be considered a major player.

Also, those statistics are blatantly misleading. Who cares about 55% of social gamers? They don't represent gaming as a whole, I'd say 100% of people playing "Gymea High School Software Class Project" games are males under 18, but that's only because I am that person. I am not suddenly the epitome of hardcore.

 

[minespatch]

I hate to see people play Farmville due to it's blandness of a dev team while Frontierville has a lot of controversy(fictional girls that you can option them as lesbian lovers if you chose to) and always changing gameplay which enrages and engages the player. Frontierville's gameplay should be what Zynga should be striving for, not the bland, missionless gameplay of Farmville.

Sorry if I sound like I'm pandering to Zynga's gameplay. To me, Frontierville is the better game... So, does that make me a wimp?

 

[Vault101]

wait...is he saying the expeerice on angry bird could compete with the experience of a good title like mass effect?

thats just fucking stupid

 

[Verlander]

Que people moaning about "casual" games. The definition of hardcore gamers has changed constantly. There was a time when Halo players were hardcore, and or Final Fantasy players, yet those are now some of the most mainstream and easily accessible titles on the market. Same goes for platform changes-pc and console have been interchangably "hardcore" since they began.

Do I care that I'm not considered "hardcore"? No, because playing games is my hobby and entertainment.

 

[Knight Templar]

I never really cared what Zynga had to say about gaming. Although I imagine I wouldn't hold such a position where I in competition with them.

 

[reachforthesky]

Can someone please define "hardcore" so we can actually move this discussion forward? Are we saying that hardcore means that they play longer than others? That they play harder games? That they play violent, explosion-y games? If longer, do you mean they spend more time on games in general or more time on a single game?

slightly off-topic, I welcome this new demographic into our ranks.

 

[RevRaptor]

I was always under the impression that a hardcore gamer lived the life style was into game culture and tended to play a lot. like 6 to 12 hours at a time.

Also the crap that Zynga produces are more like slot machines but without the possibility of a pay out. Seriously you would have to be an idiot to waste your time on that crap.

 

[Krion_Vark]

I played 7 hours of Dragon Age 2 yesterday.

So err... I win?

[sub]And no jokes, it was a fucking Sunday![/sub]

Honestly though, THEY'RE TWO DIFFERENT MARKETS.

I just played 8 hours of Lords of Shadow.
I go on Zynga games from time to time to kill time then I find something new and better. The only reason that people stay so long on the Zynga games is because they don't know what the hell they can find and they aren't really gamers. Yeah they play a point and click game that is pretty addictive at the time but once you find something new to play you lose interest pretty damn fast.

 

[Iron Lightning]

Zynga Says Your Mom is the New Hardcore Gamer

Heh, you know what I'd like to see? An e-sports style competition based around Farmville. The winner would, of course, be the person who can give the most money to Zynga the fastest, now that's "hardcore."

Additionally:

Oh yeah Zynga, well yo mama's so easy that in the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics I've slept with her in every reality!

 

[Z4N5H1N]

Can we have a moratorium on clueless one-hit wonder casual browser/mobile game developers making sweeping statements about the state of gaming? or at least a moratorium on reporting these sweeping statements as if they're news or mean anything to anyone other than the loudmouth PR reps who spout this kind of hopelessly short-sighted twattery?

 

[Iron Lightning]

Can we have a moratorium on clueless one-hit wonder casual browser/mobile game developers making sweeping statements about the state of gaming? or at least a moratorium on reporting these sweeping statements as if they're news or mean anything to anyone other than the loudmouth PR reps who spout this kind of hopelessly short-sighted twattery?

I disagree, these stories are way too funny to not be reported.

 

[EqualNOpposite]

I LOL'd. 69 minutes? at time of writing I have been gaming for 5 hours and this is not abnormal for me.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I dislike the term "future of gaming", it just feels like the term means "This, and nothing else".

Zynga loves to blow their own horn and would probably love if this was the future of gaming, but they can never ever remove the AAA market.

Also "social" games are a step back in terms of "challenge" if you ask me, and not everyone want the simplistic games.

And another thing, we refer to them as "gamers" and such, but they themselves don't view themselves as such, I think most of them just view games as "something to pass the time" (even though some of these people play more games than me )

So is this the future of gaming? Is this the medium that will give games acceptance? I doubt it.

 

[veum]

All you people lolling at the 69 minutes a day game time please stop, it just shows how little you know.

The 69 minutes is the Average time a player spends in a game, that means they have combined all the players, the ones that play 8 hours a day and the ones that plays 15 minutes a day, you then get an average from that number.
That means that if we would calculate an average gametime on any of the "true hardcore" games you claim to play, divided with all the players who owns the game that time would probably not be considerably higher then the one here.

So please stop making fail remarks

 

[Tomo Stryker]

This is insulting to gamers that take pride in what they do with their free time. Sixty Eight minutes a day? Pfft, don't make me laugh, I spend that much time just buying and selling stuff in New Vegas. I can guarantee that when this fad dies, it will die hard ( If that is even possible, pun wise I mean). Oh, if Zynga keeps dropping "Yo Momma's" on us, I will make it my business to "out" mature you.

 

[DeadAccountMoveAlong]

Thank you Escapist, for posting another Zynga article.

 

[Megacherv]

68 minutes a day is more than the time spent watching TV? 68 minutes can't net you more than 2 shows at most.

And I spend 68 minutes a day re-looking through my Magic deck making teeny-tiny changes to it and then changing it back

 

[MorphingDragon]

Either the casual gaming market is really good at trolling, or the earthquakes have done a lot more damage than we thought.

 

[MorphingDragon]

68 minutes a day is more than the time spent watching TV? 68 minutes can't net you more than 2 shows at most.

And I spend 68 minutes a day re-looking through my Magic deck making teeny-tiny changes to it and then changing it back

My friends life in a nutshell.

 

[Saelune]

Psh. Not mine. My mom has beaten Gauntlet: Dark Legacy tons of times. She also completed the entire sculpture museum thing in Windwaker. Yes, every single one.
Dont offend my mom by compairing her to noob Facebook gamers.