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General: MMOWTF: The Extinction of the Nerd?
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
This week, Dan Fortier waxes philospohical about the extinction of the "nerd" as he / she has always been known.
Sometime far in the future a group of Anthropologists studying relics of the First Age of MMOs will come upon a very strange sight while investigating a LAN party dig site. Among the debris and filth, one of them discovers an array of strange books inside a primitive tote bag. The pages are yellow and on the verge of collapse, but some ancient American writing can barely be made out on the cover above some pictures of man in armor wielding swords fighting a dragon: Dungeons and Dragons!
The student takes a deep breath in shock as he contemplates what this must mean. Just then another of the scientists calls out from the other side of the room with an urgent yell. The group gathers around a skeleton of a human laid out in front of one of the computers clutching a copy of "PC Gamer" in one hand, wearing a pocket protector and a pair of eroded glasses still perched clumsily on his face.
Read the whole column here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
That's something nobody can ever take away from Blizzard... WoW works, and works well... on all Operating Systems and most hardware.
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
The definition of "hardcore" gamer is quickly changing. In the MMO world a hardcore gamer was basically someone who could invest a ridiculous amount of time in the game. Games like EQ made it essential for players to invest several hours every day in order to access the content with the front runners. We've already seen movement away from this kind of game design.
Moving forward the games that will capture market share will be those that avoid the approach of timesink = more monthly fees=win. Games that focus on actual game play that keeps players coming back because the want to not because they have to will be the next gens. Of course it's easier said then done, but as technology improves and gives more power to indy devs it won't be long until you see a grind killer come along that changes the business model.
Am I worried about the ez mode games coming out over and over again? Not really, demand for challenging games will always be there and will only continue to grow as online gaming becomes a more prevalent source of entertainment. I just hope supply meets the demand before my Alzheimers sets in.
It hurts to get bown up.
This may be true for the large publisher games, but I believe we will see a new paradigm shift in the near future, if not now.
We will see more MMO's coming out by smaller companies and independent teams. The successful ones will be those that will have found a niche market. Right now, the MMO market has not reached saturation as most of the niche markets have yet to be explored.
This extinction of the geek in the computer gaming industry will not happen, for we are in the Silent Film years of MMO's.
Sign off,
Hamilton
This is my sig...
Knowledge is Power!
Stole the words right out of my mouth! As the market expands, you'll see more specialty or "niche" games. You'll see the really all-encompassing classic style MMO, but in a few years gaming will become so main stream and indie devs so prevalent we'll all probably go insane trying decide just which games to play.
The only thing I don't agree with your post is that last sentence. I'd say we are just now getting out of the Spagetti Westrens of MMOs (MUDs were the Silent Fims of MMORPGs)
.....................................
...but time flows like a river...
...and history repeats...
-Leader of "The Fighting Irish" in DAoC on Hib/Kay-
Great article! I have been thinking about how mainstream MMO's are becomming... and I have to say... I think I liked it better when I was a nerd.
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Support Independent Game Developers
The mainstream acceptance of MMOs is merely one facet of the changing of our cultural perception of nerds in general. At one time the "nerd" community was at best a slim minority of those who were on the ground floor of our new culture. Today our culture has a boderline Psychotic obsession with Electronics. For christ sake Apple is a trendy name now. An entire generation is wired nerely everywhere they go. E-Mail , Instant messanging, Personal Webpages, and Forums once the bastions of nerdity, are now available to the masses. You don't need to be a computer science major to know how to operate a website anymore. The term "closet gamer" is closer to extiction then nerd. I imagine the gaming industry taking a similar form to the Beer industry. There will be widely available and affordable games, that a ton of people will play, regardless of quality (Much like Coors, Miller, Bud etc.), and then there will be a smaller market for the "hardcore" which will be less available, and more expensive, but will generally be made to the demanding specifications of thier consumers (Trappist Ale, Microbrews).
This is one of those articles that make me go, "um, so what?" There was absolutely no substance or value to me. With that said, I sign off and hope one of your future articles is about something that matters to the every day gamer.
Hasta
Have you ever paid attention to the media stereotypes of gamers? Now more than ever, gamers are being portrayed as geeks that will probably never get laid. From short indie films like Fear of Girls to Weird Al singing White and Nerdy, you just get more of the same ideas about games and gamers. We're not more "normal" than we were 20 years ago. Less so actually.
In the beginning, games were in the arcades and they were something that kids did. Now, games are on consoles and PC and they're something that people with no social skills do. We went from being kids to nerds. Ain't progress grand?!
Please remember the person above me only represents himself i have no part of his domain of gamers, also most gamers i know including myself have jobs/family/friends, there is really a misconseption about the "nerdy" gamer, i do believe that some people still look abit wierd at the gamer in general but gaming is really getting mainstream and will become even more a parts of dayly lives. Remember 15/20 years ago Hip-hop/rap was more a underground thing, there where some commercial succeses but not like we have today, the same is happening with gaming, just look at "games" like Second Life (don't like the "game" but its populair and talked about in many regular tv program and this will become even more in the future.
Game Player Data
How Many Americans Play Games?
Who Purchases Computer and Video Games?
How Long Have Gamers Been Playing?
Will Gamers Keep Playing?
Who Plays Computer and Video Games?
Please remember the person above me only represents himself i have no part of his domain of gamers, also most gamers i know including myself have jobs/family/friends, there is really a misconseption about the "nerdy" gamer, i do believe that some people still look abit wierd at the gamer in general but gaming is really getting mainstream and will become even more a parts of dayly lives. Remember 15/20 years ago Hip-hop/rap was more a underground thing, there where some commercial succeses but not like we have today, the same is happening with gaming, just look at "games" like Second Life (don't like the "game" but its populair and talked about in many regular tv program and this will become even more in the future.
Game Player Data
How Many Americans Play Games?
Who Purchases Computer and Video Games?
How Long Have Gamers Been Playing?
Will Gamers Keep Playing?
Who Plays Computer and Video Games?
Of course those generalizations will always be there for people who dont understand. But then again..being a "nerd" has become a demographic to pander crap to.
Reklaw - Very useful supplemental information. Thanks for posting it.
Actually there was a very interesting segment on NPR a couple of months back where they talked about 'Gray Gamers'. The segment was about a new gaming market - the growing number of retired people who have large amounts of time and are turning to online games.
They interviewed grandmothers (yes, grandmothers) who were playing Guild Wars. The women said they enjoyed the online game partly for the social aspect but also because they felt it helped to keep thier minds active, something which doctors are learning is very important for the mental health of the elderly. I'll admit it was kind of weird hearing these elderly women discussing how they were going to kill a sea monster as they played but at the same time I think the segment gave us a look into the future of the genre.
The NPR segment would not have possible without some of the points the OP's artcle mentioned. Online games have finally broken through with game mechanics that are actually fun and they are attracting a wider variety of people.
Certainly other online games based on classics like poker or Scrabble are also popular, but I think it would be a mistake for MMORPGs to ignore people who might be quite willing to buy and play their games as long as developers avoid the hardcore game mechanics that alienated the genre so much in the past.
As online games become more and more widespread, they will no longer be relegated to the exclusive domain of nerds, but never fear tabletop D&D will probably be around for a long time
Hmm, I'm not so sure if mmorpgs are mainstream as all that. I go to another forum which is focused around football and that. Mmorpg discussions are reserved to a minority with more discussions going towards PS3 or Xbox360 gaming. So, I'm not really sure. Certainly, WoW has widened that audience though and made steps towards more mainstreamness.
These articles hurt my brain; too much blog prose. Doesn't anyone write normal, professionally written articles anymore?!
I didn't read the article and this doesn't have much at all to do with MMORPG's, but.....
I was talking a few days ago about the Extinction of the Nerd. The nerd used to be the highly intelligent computer dweeb who was one of the few that knew about electronics, computers, and the internet, and was for the most part a dateless shy genius with acne and a sqeeky voice.
Now-a-days EVERYONE is a "nerd". Not in that classic definition though. The Super-Nerds of today are all regular college students. The norm. Every video game I get on is the typical college student who parties hardy, drinks, scores with numerous chicks, and likes to brag about it all on VOIP. Regular voiced white males without glasses (we have contacts now!) who are exactly like the football throwing jock or the finely dressed richie rich.
With the popularization of the internet, electronics, computers, contact lenses, and cell phones, the nerd of yesterday is extinct. Now it seems like any and every Average Joe college student is now a computer nerd.
Instead of the classic nerd and his intruiging conversation and intellectual discussion, today's nerd is a combination of misinformed Wikipedia Knowledge or Ebaums World of the Encyclopedia conversation that loops in circles along with the rest of the morons chasing their own tails.
It used to be that nerds were interesting, intellectual, and in those ways cool friends. Now today's nerds are all the same average Joe womanizing drinking partying sixpack who likes to brag and argue senseless topics they learned from poor sources that lack any valid credits. So sad. Instead of talking about highly developed physics, all that is talked about is the latest episode of Family Guy and how funny it is when they all get naked and eat their own poop.
Perhaps the real nerds are just quiet while the ones on VOIP are the party hearty guys?
Maybe it's just me, or maybe MMO's are now just compeltely filled with these average-Joe morons.
What ever happened to interesting people who weren't a bunch of rude, brainless, humorless jerks who never shut up about Adult Swim? I've heard people talk about Adult Swim and Console Wars (PS3 vs 360 vs Wii) so much, next time I hear it I'm gonna blow up my computer.
Yesterday's Urkle is today's Laguna Beach.
This however, does not mean that they ignore new happenings in the gaming, science, and electronics world, as they are up to date on those as well.
They must have at least a general understanding of the many forms of science and math and theres a good chance that they have a vocabulary much larger than the average person.
Thats what I think a nerd of today is.