Comments on: Casual games aren’t exploiting the long tail

By: len

len — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:00:06 +0000

If portals were to be applied to educational uses as some have discussed, there is a good reason for power tools: pedagogy. We’ve been discussing this a little bit on X3D-public. Getting grants to develop courseware is pretty easy when the technology is hot and second generation, but by the third or fourth, there is enough deadware that the grant reviewers start looking for checkbox ways to evaluate the proposals. Then it behooves proposers and requirements specialists to be able to point to features an application must have to qualify.

In that sense, where games and game portals have significant churn, recycling elements becomes a normal part of educational worlds.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:13:36 +0000

Interesting point: with ample supply, there’s little benefit to the portal milking its back catalog. It only makes sense to fully exploit each title if there’s a supply constraint.

By: Raph

Raph — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:08:06 +0000

I think it is a bit more complex than neophilia: the most popular analog casual games such as crossword puzzles, sudoku or jigsaw puzzles are serial installments of the same mechanic, meaning that many players do not necessarily want something new as much as they want continued variations on something they already like.

I just meant new content/puzzles/etc. I agree they aren’t looking for new mechanics — that’s a different, and complex, problem.

By: Amaranthar

Amaranthar — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:51:48 +0000

What this needs is a Henry Ford. He started the auto industry by developing the assembly line.

That’s where things are right now, just before Ford put that together.

Yes, Metaplace is the assembly line, or the first one perhaps, or maybe just “one of”.

Raph, you’re about to become ‘Big Auto’. (The question is, will unions be taken over by organized crime =:O )

By: The Long Tail of Casual Games: You’re Doing It Wrong » GBGames - Thoughts on Indie Game Development

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:01:33 +0000

[...] Raph Koster linked to a Forbes article complaining that casual games aren’t exploiting the long tail. [...]

By: Jesper Juul

Jesper Juul — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:55:44 +0000

On the other hand, this may be tricky for games, which are so heavily driven by neophilia: playing old games is a tough sell often, because as the Theory of Fun tells us, if you’ve moved on from a game, it is probably not fun for you anymore.

I think it is a bit more complex than neophilia: the most popular analog casual games such as crossword puzzles, sudoku or jigsaw puzzles are serial installments of the same mechanic, meaning that many players do not necessarily want something new as much as they want continued variations on something they already like. The large amount of free trial content available means that players can often get that desire fulfilled for free.

By: len

len — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:17:26 +0000

“it behooves the portals to constantly feature new content.”

Which means the portals are following exactly the business pattern of nightclubs having to constantly cycle bands and only recycling the ones with large followings where the bands have learned to cycle material. That pattern, by the way, is what forces bands to either break up and reform in new configurations or to become a top-forty cover band over being an all originals band.

And occasionally the portal has to rip out all of the furniture, redecorate and relaunch. Yep… butts in seats is what it is all about.

By: Rik

Rik — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:48:43 +0000

The long tail isn’t about how some products are not very good, but about how some products appeal to a smaller number of people as very very good while most people don’t see any thing of interest. You are unlikely to find content here that speaks to you except by chance or by referal (for example: Someone else on the vegetarian robot forums posts a link to a game he really liked; You might like it too because you share common interests.) So the main portals will never really help with this.

By: Morgan Ramsay

Morgan Ramsay — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:57:22 +0000

Slyfeind wrote:

And then I found out why they’re so buried. (Hint: They’re not very good.)

Are they not very good because the portal’s “sunken ship” has shaped your expectations of products you’ll find in the deep? Or are they not very good because they’re really not very good? Answer: there is no answer. We can’t be sure.

By: Derek Licciardi

Derek Licciardi — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:55:03 +0000

Reminds me of the fabircated demand that Disney maintains for its back catalog of movies. What they do is take them out of circulation for a decade and then when they bring them back in a “new and remastered” edition, people buy them up like they are never going to be there again. I’m wondering if that’s what Microsoft will do with its expired XBLA games that they no longer sell. One would think that the casual game portals could benefit from the same Disney back catalog type mentality.