I just watched Movie Bob's The Big Picture episode Done with the Dark, (gee, how could you tell) and it got me thinking. He notes that the superficial trappings of adulthood on a franchise previously exclusively aimed at children almost inevitably fall short of expectations. It occurs to me, though, that this is something that happens of pretty much any franchise that tries to "branch out" with superficial trappings of any sort. Movies, books, videogames, comics; whenever someone has a good thing going and they want to expand their consumer base, rather than putting effort into making the title more relatable and appealing to the expanded consumer base, they glue on some stereotypes and add in a few re-skins to the otherwise unchanged product and then wonder why their consumer base didn't expand as expected.
It also occurs to me that this could be a contributing factor to why the AAA gaming industry is so stagnant when it comes to the inclusion of minorities, and why people persistently claim it is less profitable to attempt to expand the consumer base than to keep chugging right along, making games for who they've always made games for, even when the target demographic ages or a new generation (of people, not consoles) comes into play.
Basically, any advice that would come out of this observation is this: If you're trying to expand or shift your consumer base, you should 1) make sure the changes you make have strong ties to the themes already present in your product, 2) set out from the start of a new project with this goal in mind (as an example, do not just glue on some stereotypes and add in a few re-skins at the end).
Questions? Comments? Go!
It also occurs to me that this could be a contributing factor to why the AAA gaming industry is so stagnant when it comes to the inclusion of minorities, and why people persistently claim it is less profitable to attempt to expand the consumer base than to keep chugging right along, making games for who they've always made games for, even when the target demographic ages or a new generation (of people, not consoles) comes into play.
Basically, any advice that would come out of this observation is this: If you're trying to expand or shift your consumer base, you should 1) make sure the changes you make have strong ties to the themes already present in your product, 2) set out from the start of a new project with this goal in mind (as an example, do not just glue on some stereotypes and add in a few re-skins at the end).
Questions? Comments? Go!