The World of Gaming – Who are the people in it? – Part 1

The world of computer gaming is a weird one; to the people inside it, it’s just a way of their life (or is it? We have to explore that), and to the people outside, they are either uninterested or envious (again a supposition which we have to establish in the future) of this entire world. There are various effects which being a member of this highly exclusive club has on people, and not all of them positive! Some of the things which we should ask ourselves is, who are the members of this community in the first place? Let me remind you that the following analysis is being done purely based on personal experience and has no data to support it whatsoever.

The 14 Year old Geniuses

Well, the title which I have given this segment is totally misleading. What it leads you to believe is that all the youngsters who play any kind of computer games are actually good at it, and I don’t want to give you that impression. These can be newbies, average or expert just like the rest of us. What would really knock your socks off would be some of the reasons which these youngsters sit in front of the idiot box and not spend time playing like the previous generation

Lack of time

Try as we might to ignore it, the children of today (10-16 year olds) have much lesser free time than what the previous generations had. They go to school from morning to late afternoon or evenings, and then proceed to the tuitions (which promise to deliver a lot more than they do) and return home only at the time of dinner. This leaves them very little time to go outside and actually play the games which they are supposed to. Instead, they get computer games (of some genre or the other) and start playing them. As soon as they become decent at it, they leave the weekend outdoor sports and instead go sit in a cyber café/gaming parlor and spend their time.

Lack of Friends

Well, we all know that there are basically two kinds of people, those who have friends and those who don’t. So the ones who don’t, generally find themselves in front of the computer at some point or the other in their childhood. Now this does not mean that the children who have friends do not play on the computer, but then it is highly likely that a lot of the kids who do not socialize in their real life are very active in their virtual life.

Becoming one of the Group

Imagine the life of a young kid in which all his friends are talking incessantly about this new game which they have started playing. Obviously, in such a situation, that kid would at least be tempted to have a look at the game if nothing else. Sometimes, even this is an adequate reason for a kid to start playing games.

A genuine interest in this field

Well, pretty self explanatory. This would be the group of kids who would be inherently interested in computer gaming and would be playing no matter what the constraints or available options are open to them. These are the trend setters who influence the other gamers around them. Even if they had the time on their hands, the skill to be doing something else, these are the kids who would still be playing computer games. As far as I can see, these should be the target segment of any game manufacturing company, should they ever decide to focus on any one particular segment in the future.