Viral, Hardcore, Vanish

All hobby games (not video/computer games) go viral, go hardcore, or vanish.

Viral – Enough people play that the game becomes a staple of play in gaming settings. Examples include: Dungeons & Dragons, Magic, Pokemon, Settlers of Catan, Risk, Monopoly, HeroClix. Board games don’t tend to go viral with the same energy as collectible games, but I do believe the all the top selling board-games owe their success largely to a viral-type effect. Nowadays many games are designed from the outset to go viral, and if they don't their failure is assured. Games from big publishers that are canceled quickly almost always fall into this category.

Hardcore – Relatively small fan-base, but large enough to sustain the game provided their needs are met. Precarious situation because new fans are hard to attain and the existing fans are hard to keep. Nearly all games (all things, really) have a hardcore following to some degree. Hardcore games are often discussed online far more than they are played (because they never went viral, opponents are hard to find.) When games are designed to be hardcore games, they can be very successful whether or not they go viral. It is more difficult for a publisher to support a game designed to go viral but instead gained a hardcore audience. Hardcore friendly games are easier to create because almost anything can achieve some level of hardcore following. The only question, is the following big enough and spendy enough to support the game? Spendy fans are often important to the Hardcore game. The more you charge, the less you have to sell to make a profit and the smaller your Hardcore audience has to be in order for the game to succeed.

Vanish – Cease to be published. In some cases a game is meant to be a limited run, so vanishing isn’t always a failure. Usually the goals of the publisher haven’t been met and it’s obvious they never will be.

Many games aren’t designed from the outset to ‘go viral’ or ‘go hardcore’, but in hindsight it’s usually easy to see why games had the success or failure they had. TCGs are largely dependent on going viral for success, and tend to be designed with that purpose in mind. Most RPGs, on the other hand, are designed for hardcore success only.

On the other hand, making something go viral is relatively hard to so (despite what the viral marketing books tell you!)

-Adam!!!

The Non-Gamer

Gamers and game designers (and I mean, paper gamers, not video gamers) seem to think they know something the rest of the world doesn't. They don't mean it in a bad way, but so many game reviews on fan sites like boardgamegeek include what a "non gamer" will think of the game, usually in the context of "this game is easy enough for a non-gamer to play it."

Easy.

Gamers=Smart Non-Gamers=Dumb (or at least, unwilling to think too hard)

While there are certainly a few exceptional games, requiring a time or learning commitment that goes beyond what a normal person would endure (gamer or not), I reject the idea that a good game requires some special status in order to be enjoyed.

Gamers aren't smarter than other people. Individuals may be more or less willing to play certain games based on complexity, but I reject that their status as gamers weighs heavily on this willingness, other than to conceded that most gamers fall into the willing category. With everyone else, it's hit and miss.

When discussing rules creation and game design, gamer vs. non-gamer is frequently a topic of discussion. I think the real discussion should be more honest. Complex vs. Simplistic and Good vs. Bad. There's nothing wrong with simplistic, but bad is bad. Trying to label your audience ineffective and possibly foolish. If you must label anything, label the game.

-Adam!!!