If you want a great book on what can influence people you should pick up Robert Cialdini's book Influences. The book is a quick read and goes over six principles he has found while studying social psychology. I had the pleasure of being introduced to this book in college and some of its principles have already snuck into this blog but I am sure it will make its way into many more posts.
One of the principles of influence is liking. It's a pretty simple but powerful principle. People tend to be more influenced by people they like. People that look like them, that act like them, and it doesn't hurt to be attractive. This is a principle that people going into marketing learn and use to try and influence us to buy something. The game industry is no exception but when creating the candidate that we see as "like us" you can't help but give sigh at what they think we are.
It is not a huge secret on how fucking cringy some game conferences can be. Instead of presenting their game to us as if we are regular humans just wanting to see a product they try to reach us on "our level". I mean, isn't EA just so much fun! If you want an example of people showing off products without it being a cringe, look at any tech demo, or any car show. Visually appealing displays, explanations sprinkled in with some buzz words, and the best part is not one god damn meme to choke on because the presenter wants to be cool. You are actually seeing this a lot more from console developers but this has more to do with them also advertising to game companies.
What I think that most publishers miss is the perception of who gamers are and that is the mistake of thinking gamers are anything. Since 59% of people play video games, you're trying to gain consensus of a very large crowd. There is about as much cohesion in gamers as there are people who breathe oxygen. Just because quirky dyed hair streamer has so many followers doesn't mean we all watch or follow quirky dyed hair streamer. All of us who play games are not the same people, we are not the same type, we do not act the same.
I get it. When you go to a convention you will see the loud and obnoxious kids trying to be "individuals". If you aren't paying attention you will miss the thousands of others there looking for their next experience. Confirmation bias has caused a lot of publishers and games media to assert the people they remember as the people they are selling to. What seems obvious is that they have missed the boat on a much older and much more diverse demographic who don't buy into that bullshit.
Although all this evidence is present, a lot of games media and publishers seem to miss who they are trying to be "liked" by. That character you see on stage or hosting the broadcast is what the game company thinks of you as the consumer. That I think is the real cringe factor. Lucky for us and the actual game developers, game critics have done a good job of being the buffer between us and a really dumb presentation.
One of the principles of influence is liking. It's a pretty simple but powerful principle. People tend to be more influenced by people they like. People that look like them, that act like them, and it doesn't hurt to be attractive. This is a principle that people going into marketing learn and use to try and influence us to buy something. The game industry is no exception but when creating the candidate that we see as "like us" you can't help but give sigh at what they think we are.
It is not a huge secret on how fucking cringy some game conferences can be. Instead of presenting their game to us as if we are regular humans just wanting to see a product they try to reach us on "our level". I mean, isn't EA just so much fun! If you want an example of people showing off products without it being a cringe, look at any tech demo, or any car show. Visually appealing displays, explanations sprinkled in with some buzz words, and the best part is not one god damn meme to choke on because the presenter wants to be cool. You are actually seeing this a lot more from console developers but this has more to do with them also advertising to game companies.
What I think that most publishers miss is the perception of who gamers are and that is the mistake of thinking gamers are anything. Since 59% of people play video games, you're trying to gain consensus of a very large crowd. There is about as much cohesion in gamers as there are people who breathe oxygen. Just because quirky dyed hair streamer has so many followers doesn't mean we all watch or follow quirky dyed hair streamer. All of us who play games are not the same people, we are not the same type, we do not act the same.
I get it. When you go to a convention you will see the loud and obnoxious kids trying to be "individuals". If you aren't paying attention you will miss the thousands of others there looking for their next experience. Confirmation bias has caused a lot of publishers and games media to assert the people they remember as the people they are selling to. What seems obvious is that they have missed the boat on a much older and much more diverse demographic who don't buy into that bullshit.
Although all this evidence is present, a lot of games media and publishers seem to miss who they are trying to be "liked" by. That character you see on stage or hosting the broadcast is what the game company thinks of you as the consumer. That I think is the real cringe factor. Lucky for us and the actual game developers, game critics have done a good job of being the buffer between us and a really dumb presentation.
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