gaming

Behold The Marketer: Your Unexpected Future In Gaming

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So as I watch the fallout from the PS4, watch Kickstarters rise and fall, and eagerly await my Ouya so I can play Sela the Space Pirate since my phone is old, I’m speculating on the games industry once again.

I’m not even sure we can call it one industry anymore.  it’s kind of like lumping Pengiuin, Lulu, Kinkos, and the Canon printer division together and calling it “Publishing.”  Yes, technically true, but you’re really dealing with a pretty broad range of subjects.

But that industry, as broadly as we define a place where Angry Birds and World of Warcraft are lumped together, is one that’s important.  It’s one that’s growing.  It’s one that we professional geeks want a piece of.  It’s just hard to know where to find that piece when Ninjas can fight fruit or each other.

But one piece some of us should look at is marketing.

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Gaming And Your Career: Making Money

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Continuing with my weekly obsession in trying to understand what the heck is going on with gaming, I continue with  . . . more of the same.  After all there’s a chance gaming is part of your career plans, and even if it isn’t, it might whether you like it or not.

Up this week, how the hell will anyone make money in video game?

The video game industry always involved gambles, and as some pretty big stinkers and unexpected hits can tell you, some gambles can get pretty odd.  Some series seem to be able to do no wrong, unexpected hits come, guaranteed ideas fail.  Some of this seems to be despite the actual quality of the games themselves.

Of course that’s the way it is, but in the disrupted world of gaming, I’m trying to get a handle on just how people and companies are going to handle the gamble – and make money.  Here’s my theories – with a caveat.

I am trying to piece things together here from a lot of data, information, trends, experience, and gut checks.  I may be totally wrong here, so call me out and explain why, because I really want to get a handle on this.

So on to what I’ve seen. Let’s start with the big names . . .

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#1ReasonWhy on Twitter And Why You Should Follow It

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I strongly recommend following the #1reasonwhy hastag at Twitter.  It’s about women involved in gaming and why there aren’t more women in gaming.

It’s fascinating (and sad) to read the stories and issues.  It’s heartening to see the positive response.  It’s informative to see the inevitable critics of the women stating their issues, because the critics are, well, lame.  These critics are forgetting that women want to be heard, and they should listen before shooting their mouths off.

I worked in gaming for two years, and the people I worked with were awesome.  I worked with many great women.  Sexism is not integral to gaming culture or the industry, it’s a sad, horrible thing that drags the industry, the art, and the fans down.

As a Project Manager, I have a rule that Status Reports are usually good.  If you see information and pay attention to it, good things happen.  This is about the status of women in gaming – people need to pay attention.

EDIT: The thread started more in traditional pen and paper RPG community.  Missed that.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.