when your target audience are people so devoted to a frivolous activity that they willing buy devices with no other purpose than to consume carefully curated content, it becomes hard to see them as anything other than a paycheck.
Mmmmmm, how deliciously condescending. I wonder if that's how musicians, actors, and iOS developers feel? I make software for desktops, so I respect my target audience (of course, frivolous workstation abuse is quite common, but it's too much effort to maintain a high horse for all those edge cases)
See, I know what you're trying here, but bear with me for a moment.
First, what is condescending about a simple statement of fact?
Games are frivolous (by definition, see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frivolous) activities which are pursued for pleasure; if you would like to argue about professional gaming, I'll posit that that applies to a small enough part of the target audience that we won't need to consider it--everybody else plays for fun.
Game consoles are single-function devices whose purpose is to consume carefully-curated content. They aren't made to write art, games, or software; they aren't made to help you create music; and they aren't made to help you pay rent.
Knowing this--and let's not even go into the absurd and abusive criticism that a lot of games get, for better or worse!--and knowing that your audience will never use what you've given them to create anything, and that you probably (given the deathgrip publishers/vendors have on the console industry) didn't even get a fair shake in the production of your title, why would you think of console gamers as anything else?
Seriously, why? Literally your entire interaction with them is that they buy consoles, buy games for the consoles, play the games, and then praise or damn those games on the internet. Oh, and probably trade in the game as soon as there is a reason for doing so.
Contrast this with, for example, how we treat other programmers. We submit bug reports, we release new code, we do things as a community. I believe that this is so because we know the people who receive our work are using it to do something, and that they are capable of creating their own things which one day we too may use. This is not the consumer relationship that console gamers enjoy with publishers.
iOS or mobile developers I would be hesitant to speculate on. I will, however, point out that a lot of freemium apps are driven by ad revenue, and a lot of games are monetized by clever application of psychology to trap the dollars of "whales"--so, please, draw your own conclusions about the sort of respect they must have for their consumers.
Actors and musicians I'll not speculate on either, mostly because there is a big difference to me between buying a device whose only purpose is consumption and buying a ticket to go enjoy an experience--the goods in question are a great deal different.
Comments
when your target audience are people so devoted to a frivolous activity that they willing buy devices with no other purpose than to consume carefully curated content, it becomes hard to see them as anything other than a paycheck.
Mmmmmm, how deliciously condescending. I wonder if that's how musicians, actors, and iOS developers feel? I make software for desktops, so I respect my target audience (of course, frivolous workstation abuse is quite common, but it's too much effort to maintain a high horse for all those edge cases)
See, I know what you're trying here, but bear with me for a moment.
First, what is condescending about a simple statement of fact?
Games are frivolous (by definition, see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frivolous) activities which are pursued for pleasure; if you would like to argue about professional gaming, I'll posit that that applies to a small enough part of the target audience that we won't need to consider it--everybody else plays for fun.
Game consoles are single-function devices whose purpose is to consume carefully-curated content. They aren't made to write art, games, or software; they aren't made to help you create music; and they aren't made to help you pay rent.
Knowing this--and let's not even go into the absurd and abusive criticism that a lot of games get, for better or worse!--and knowing that your audience will never use what you've given them to create anything, and that you probably (given the deathgrip publishers/vendors have on the console industry) didn't even get a fair shake in the production of your title, why would you think of console gamers as anything else?
Seriously, why? Literally your entire interaction with them is that they buy consoles, buy games for the consoles, play the games, and then praise or damn those games on the internet. Oh, and probably trade in the game as soon as there is a reason for doing so.
Contrast this with, for example, how we treat other programmers. We submit bug reports, we release new code, we do things as a community. I believe that this is so because we know the people who receive our work are using it to do something, and that they are capable of creating their own things which one day we too may use. This is not the consumer relationship that console gamers enjoy with publishers.
iOS or mobile developers I would be hesitant to speculate on. I will, however, point out that a lot of freemium apps are driven by ad revenue, and a lot of games are monetized by clever application of psychology to trap the dollars of "whales"--so, please, draw your own conclusions about the sort of respect they must have for their consumers.
Actors and musicians I'll not speculate on either, mostly because there is a big difference to me between buying a device whose only purpose is consumption and buying a ticket to go enjoy an experience--the goods in question are a great deal different.