Articles
March 19, 2002
THE
NEW UNTAPPED MARKET
By Guest Columnist Mark
Ross
I’m sure you’re wondering
how many more articles there can possibly be on “untapped markets”
before it has been used to death. I assure you, however, this is not
the same old subject with a new twist. All right, I’m lying, but it
is a very interesting, different twist, which may or may not make
you think. You be the judge.
The market I’m talking
about is exactly the market that everyone says killed, or is killing
the adventure genre. I’m talking about teenagers. We are an untapped
market just as much as any other group, when it comes to adventure
games. Yes, I’ll admit that the youth disadvantaged tend to be more
interested in the adventure genre, “as is”, but why should
we assume that teens are there for the action, the blood, and the
killing, when they could be there for the story?
Anyone who has ever had
a teenager knows that our opinions change in about the time it takes
to find the name “Pamela Anderson” used shamelessly on this
site to get hits. Pamela Anderson…. Pamela Anderson…
Pamela Anderson. It’s not a bad thing, like the “Pamela
Anderson” usage, but rather just a fact. Right now, action games
are all the rage. Pamela Anderson Rages come,
and rages go, but adventures live forever. (How many classic books
are there that don’t have adventure?) All teenagers generally
need is a reason to sway their opinion from one thing to the
next. So, why doesn’t the industry give us one? Pamela
Anderson
There are countless ways
to get our attention, and get our money. It wouldn’t be hard. One
quick, easy way would be to find a celebrity that likes adventure
gaming; one that teens tend to look to as a role model. Surely it
couldn’t be that hard, especially if the industry worked together.
A famous teen celebrity, like Freddie Prinze Jr. saying that adventure
games were really his thing, would make several girls I know want
to run out and buy any adventure game ever made. Would this be tricky,
sneaky, and underhanded? Yes, but since when has marketing been an
honest thing? In this way, we might trick some teens who might not
have realized they liked adventure games, into buying them, and then
discovering how great they are. It’s not as far fetched as it sounds.
As far as I’m concerned,
television is horribly under-used to advertise adventure games, and
really, games in general. Chances are, a person that owns a computer,
owns a television. Also, how many teens do you know that don’t watch
television. You can probably count the number on one hand. Why not
throw a commercial on during several teenage TV shows? How about a
commercial for vampire games after “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”??
I realize that many people think that adventure games wouldn’t make
interesting commercials. I say, wanna bet? I think some rapidly shown
screen shots, a deep voice saying something along the lines of, “Have
you experienced the Adventure” in a cool, non-cheesy way, followed
by the game’s title with appropriate music throughout would get some
people’s interest. Am I so wrong? Adventure movies always seem to
have great commercials. “The Lord of the Rings” looks fascinating,
and the ads I’ve seen for “Harry Potter” make me want to
run out and watch the movie. I mean, why not show the cut scenes?
Cut scenes in games always have something interesting going on, something
that can captivate someone’s imagination. Sure, it would be misleading
to show only quick snippets of cut scenes, but don’t movies do the
same thing, only advertising the really interesting parts? The idea
is to sell a product, not necessarily to be honest, just like in the
movie industry. If the game is good enough, word of mouth, combined
with a good ad campaign will result in a hit.
I’ve read a lot about how
the European market is much more willing to buy adventure games than
the American Market. To this I say, fiddlesticks. (Mainly because
I don’t want to offend anyone by using the word I actually wanted.)
I currently live in Spain, and have lots of friends here, just like
back home. All of them have played an adventure game before, and many
own at least one. We can’t really say the same for America. (By America,
I mean North America. I’m Canadian, but I don’t feel like typing America
and Canada, America and Canada a million times.) But why? The people
here really aren’t all that different. Albeit they’re a little more
soccer crazy, but surely that’s not a reason why they like adventure
games more than Americans. What I’m trying to say is that there is
no difference, at least no significant one, between the teens here,
and back home. Advertise to us, and we will come.
I hope I’ve made my point,
and opened a few eyes. Overall, I agree that the adventure genre is
under advertised, but if companies start advertising, and do so only
to adults, they will miss a group waiting for a change. The industry
cannot keep advertising in adventure hating magazines and hope to
come through smelling like roses. When things go wrong, and the you-know-what
hits the fan, the industry doesn’t want to go out and clean it up.
If they advertise correctly, they can get the help they need. After
all, as every adventure gamer knows from looking in their local computer
store, sometimes, in a pile of crap, you can find a nugget of gold.
