Myth Busting; Why Gamers Are Not A Niche Market

So, if I asked you to imagine a "gamer", what is the image that comes into your mind? Nerd? Big glasses? Small kid? annoying? pimples? Lives in their mother's basement? Male? Single?

I will stop there, and I hope the point comes across.

Now from my previous article we knowing gaming is a multi billion dollar industry. It caters to more than 1.1 billion players in the world....Article here.

Can you image a base of 1.1 billion people? Well not really. Little fictitious in my numbers because gaming is a not a whole entity. Like Movies, Books, Television, you don't count one audience with another as one aggregate whole. Just because someone watches football on a TV does not mean that must also watch every other channel all the time. We have built up this idea that if someone calls themselves a "gamer" that they "must" play certain games and play a certain amount of time before they can earn this title.

We all are all really gamers, just most of us don't know it yet. Gamer culture is massive. and for those who are called the casual players look as gaming as a mountain. There is a summit reserved for the king of games.

Where the social aspect of playing games gets miss and how it can bring people together for a new level of social interaction that you do not get from any other medium.

A high percentage of games these days are meant to be a social experience that is mean to be shared with one another. (Could not find original owner of picture)

A crude representation of the world's view of games on video-

This image that people get when they think gamer is what keeps gaming from being mainstream yet very popular. Being a gamer, I can understand that "non-gamers" think that gaming is foreign, and that is a whole different world that no one will understand unless you dedicate hours upon hours to learn what it means to be a "gamer".

"Gamers" themselves can prefer this way though, and help to maintain this rift by having terminology that turn the average person away.

But here is the kicker, everyone is technically a "gamer", and we have all played games before in our lives. Be it video game, board games, outside games, word games, playing pretend. Video games are just an extension of things we do every day.

So why is there such a stigmatism?

For some reason we as a society have added a stigmatism just to the combination of the words "video games". Take either word separately and we have two very strong, personal words.

Games | Video - vs Video Game vs Games on Video vs Games, just Games

Video games are just that, games that are in a video format. The combination of the words should not change the fact that people are just playing a game. That can be anything from playing Words with Friends on your phone to playing in a multi million dollar tournament with the other best players in the world.

When you play games it doesn't matter the scale just the fact that you are having fun. Video games allow people to have fun in a new way.

Now let's take a look at some examples of the broad spectrum of how people react to video games as a whole. Starting with a fun article, which is what provided the sparked that provided me the want to write this response that you are currently reading.

Sorry, nerds: Video games are not a sport

So to sum up this article, which made me laugh several times, is these couple of choice paragraphs- (Also pointing out these factual inconsistencies are that of the writers and not mine.)

In 2016 something called the National Association of Collegiate Esports was established in order to regulate competitions between young adult gamers, taking over a role that had previously belonged to their mothers who needed the garbage taken out.

And the even better-

Two years earlier, a private university in Illinois created the nation's first varsity gaming team and began awarding "athletic" scholarships to skilled players. Imagine being that kid's parents. "Oh, yes, Dylan just got accepted with an athletic scholarship." "That's wonderful. Cross country, right?" "No,  Wario's Woods."

Because I would be here longer than I personally want to if I need to correct other people's work please see below for a accurate representation of the news.

Robert Morris' video gamers enter 1st competition - Chicago Tribune

Also, side comment, my mother has no idea what Wario Woods is, neither did I, before I read this article. I am for sure going to check it out now.

Next is that that in the "Sorry, nerds: Video games are not a sport" which keep in mind was not written years ago. It was written today, the day I am starting this opinion piece. (May 04th, 2018.....May the Fourth be with you.) and that sentiment that gaming is nothing more than a joke carries weight with a large portion of the population.

When we think of gamers we have this image as stated above that pops into our head. That is our children who play games, and at some point, I need to grow up and become more mature and stop playing games. As if playing games is only something a child can do or that only children do.

And let me preface this with, ask any gamer that has a parent who says they are not a gamer.

What is the one thing that you feel other people do not understand about gaming?

"It's not just a game. It's an experience."

We forget that games let us connect, and allow us to better cope with life, and its tribulations.

Gaming is a very social and allows for new friendships to be formed and cultivate over a very long time.

Ask anyone who has played games for a long time online if they still have friends that they talk to that they met playing a game together and a large portion would say yes. (including myself)

I have the perfect example of this of the social aspect of games, and it happened not too long ago.

This was the whirlwind phenomenon that was

Pokemon GO is the rule in gaming that people keep forgetting about because it doesn't fit a narrative, and every time something like this happens detractors love to play it down. And yes, this is a video game. Not what people think about when they think "Video games" but that is the point of this article.

For that person in the audience that doesn't know what Pokemon GO is, it's a game that shattered boundaries and created a fever of events, people getting outside, and people creating long lasting friendships that honestly "nobody expected" to happen. But anyone who knows about the Pokemon franchise and knew how popular gaming is, that there was an under served market before Pokemon GO.

Nintendo has always been in the forefront of those types of decisions and they more times than not are rewarded for seeing the underlying profit margin that was there waiting.

Looking at a chart from 2016 we can see that Pokemon Go broke the boundary of showing women play games. Yet again still the stigma persists that games are only for boys. Only 22% of pokemon go players are between 13-17 years old yet the stigma persists that games are only for kids.

"Well it must have not Made Nintendo that much Money" I may guess that detractors out there would say.

So how much money did this make Nintendo, just in stock price alone stocks rose by "25%" in the first years of the release of Pokemon GO. Source

But that information isn't enough for some. There are still those out there who don't "like" or understand gaming, and want to detract from the data. Pokemon Go, a game that is now considered unpopular, still makes a boat load of money, and is still being played and downloaded today.

• Total number of downloads – 100 million (by August, 2017, Google Play market only)
• Total revenue – $268 million (by August, 2017)

Pokémon GO Revenue and Usage Statistics (2017)

So when you have a friend that plays Pokemon GO every single day, and tells you that they are "not a gamer" you can tell them to stop kidding themselves.

The attitude is you must play a certain game like Call of Duty, that is for certain people like children, to be considered a "gamer", and as I keep stating in this article that is the wrong approach to gaming and being called a "gamer".

Imagine if a person saw a child kicking a soccer ball in a field and said something to the tone of that child is such an "athlete", or "they need to realize that can't keep kicking a ball for the rest of their lives."

Or the opposite where these persons see a large amount people playing a friendly game of soccer and say "that what's the point if they are not getting paid?" or "how weird is it to be kicking a ball in the park?"

Games are games and we don't need to prejudge a situation. If someone is playing a game and doing no harm then where is the problem?

(Of course, there are always negatives with anything but I am not a doctor so I will leave that portion up to them and for a possible future opinion piece.)

The Esports Revolution

So I wanted create a direct rebuttal for the end of my article to "Sorry, nerds: Video games are not a sport" and how it's how Esports not a serious sport.

The games we play become the sports we watch and E-Sports is the next real expansion of sports. It will/has changed everything we know about gaming and sports.

Here is the thing about Esports vs Sports, the growth of Esports is outpacing the growth and enjoyment of traditional sports.

Yet still, when think of a gamer we don't think of the market, and that the market is worth it. So lets take notice of that growing market here today.

In terms of viewership the numbers are moving more and more towards Esports. The chart to the right depicts the largest viewing events of the year for particular sporting events. The ones in Red are Esports events. Source

Now in terms of demographics, those all had to be young kid's boys watching those tournaments right?

Do not get me wrong there are large percentage of boys that watch Esports. 11% but that is less than women who watch in both brackets of 21-35 and 36-65, and also less of men who watch it 36-65.

So why do women like E-Sports so much rather than traditional sports? Well let's look at an all women Esports team for the answer.

Team Secret all female CS:Go Team

Esports creates an equal footing where men and women can compete on a equal playing field, and this has begun creating multiple leagues around the world forming where anyone can compete games thus growing the market even further.

The all-female team isn't a handicap as there is not a difference of physical demand that is needed to play certain games.

All that is needed is natural aptitude for quick reflexes. Which allows for natural competitiveness to kick in. No lowered nets, rims, different places to hit a golf ball from, the game is the same and no need for differences to accommodate the different sexes.

Training would also be handled similar if not the same for bother male and female competitors. A game system of your choice and someone to train against.

This helps any women who may be interested in watching the sport to now be involved and participate.

So below is some data from some date from the Limelight networks who analyze sports watch data and we could learn more about demographics of each kind of sport in comparison.

So the data here shows a some interesting things-

1. Men on average spend the almost the same amount of time watching games online as watching traditional sports online in 2018
2. Women on average spend more time watching people play video games online than watching sports online
3. Women and men both watch from about an hour to a hour and a half of Esports a week

Looking at this here we can see that the dynamic of Esports is vast and is growing larger and larger. Of course Traditional sports is going to have much larger base as it been around since.... ever.

Yeah, ever. But even then, the sports with longest history are not the most popular. I know some know this but I am going to take the gable that most people don't that there is an Olympic sport for equestrian, which is not me saying I don't like the sport. It's just me saying that it's not as popular as let's say beach volleyball, soccer or any of the other sport.

(I swear that by me writing this down is going to cause equestrian to be the #1 rated sports at the next Olympics)

Where some see "niche" others see "untapped"

In conclusion we in the gaming community have a certain chip on our shoulder about something that we love.

Look at the Big Bang Theory a multi-million dollar grossing show about people who are nerds and love gaming does not give a whole accurate picture of the culture. Because they don't allow the characters to actually grow, and just be nerds or gamers because they need to fit a mold.

What they look off the show vs on.

My friends and I better relate to the people on the left than we could relate to the people on the right who are just caricatures of what real gamer and nerds are like.

Do these archetypes exist? Of course, but when you have blinders on to only see these types of people. "The kind who live in their mothers basements." You will never see the value while other will keep capitalizing.

Fortnite Battle Royal makes over $134 million dollars of revenue February of 2018

And guess what, it more than doubled that in April.

Fortnite break its own record revenue by more than doubling its previous record

Gone are the days where mothers would regulate gaming tournaments and break up disputes.

Near are the days where gaming is taken as a hobby for everyone, and where Esports competitors will be seen as true athletes who train like the best of them. You can be a part of the spark that will change the world. Or you can continue convincing yourself that it's just a fad for kids.

Thank you so much for reading. God bless.

Updated* 7/06/18 - Spelling corrections