IGN: Gamers Are Becoming Less Interested in Games With Deep Strategy, Study Finds

[The_J]

IGN has today published an article about a recent study, called "Gamers Are Becoming Less Interested in Games With Deep Strategy, Study Finds".
This study, which was performed by a market research institute, was focused on the motivation of gamers, and has recorded data over the last 9 years. This data is based on a 5 minute survey, which more than 1.5 million gamers have filled in. It contains 12 "motivations", such as following the story or the joy of destruction. Most of them have stayed stable over the last 9 years, but the strategy part took a big dip. This means that compared to 9 years ago, the average gamer takes now less interest in components of games which require you to think ahead or to tackle difficult challenges. This trend seems to apply to men and women, and is visibile world wide (besides China, which was excluded during the analysis).
The study points out that it's not possible to determine the cause of this, but that in the meantime the average attention span of people have decreased. They also mention as alternative explanation that the state of the world got worse, and that people rather prefer to relax than to be challenged.

They also ask the audience at the end a few questions, namely:

What Do You Think?​

• Why do you think gamers have become less interested in strategic thinking and planning? Are there other potential causes that come to mind?
• Do you feel your attention span and ability to think deeply has changed since the emergence of social media and/or smartphones?
• Are there other documented changes in our media-consumption habits or cognitive metrics that you think might be related to this?
• Have you seen similar or related findings specific to gamers and games research?

You can read the article by IGN here, and the original study here.

And obviously... what do you think?

 

[Hygro]

I think it's firstly a supply issue. If someone makes a great strategy game that takes the culture by storm people will rank their preferences higher. We might even see that if the line went node to node instead of being smoothed. With more and more types of people gaming, the strategy lovers probably early adopters of games in general, pushing down the demand side as a percent of total, the remainder is what game devs make and why. Rarely is there a solo Manor Lords type dev. Often are indie rpgs and platformers. Triple A's seeking huge returns would make something more accessible with paid seasons and collectibles.

There's the expected arguments about our attention spans. But nothing keeps my attention locked like One More Turn.

 

[Miniskirt]

I normally play Civ2 and Civ3 mods, and some HOMM2 and HOMM3. I won't change, much. But also, oh look lint

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I think it's firstly a supply issue.

Indeed. This sounds suspiciously like the ever-impending death of turn-based RPGs. Game media reports that players aren't interested in them, then a decent one releases and wins every GOTY award in existence with huge sales.

 

[SemiLazyGamer]

Indeed. This sounds suspiciously like the ever-impending death of turn-based RPGs. Game media reports that players aren't interested in them, then a decent one releases and wins every GOTY award in existence with huge sales.

Square Enix is always confused when one of their non-Dragon Quest turn based single player RPGs does well.

 

[reddishrecue]

Indeed. This sounds suspiciously like the ever-impending death of turn-based RPGs. Game media reports that players aren't interested in them, then a decent one releases and wins every GOTY award in existence with huge sales.

I kind of agree that this is happening to RPGs as well. Sea of stars, a RPG, is a good game but there's something repetitive about it that doesn't let me finish it off...
I was kind of excited for Dragon Quest 12 (because DQ 11 was worth playing) has been in production for as long as since 2020 and still hasn't come out!
As for strategy games, I still have an interest in strategies such as age of empires or civilization 6 I just can't be on them all day though.

 

[InsidiousMage]

While I'm sure part of the issue if the lack of big games right now, I've also gotten a little bored with the genre as well. Its seems a lot of people, players and devs, think (needless) complexity is the same thing as depth and that strategy needs to include a lot of (usually tedious) micromanagement. One of the reasons I really like Old World is that the order system and characters help set it apart of a lot of other games but, even then, I can only play it so much before I get bored of it for a while. I think the genre overall needs some new ideas but it feels like no one is really interested in that, either players or devs.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Note that the recent 'strategy' (4X) games that have been released to 'interest' anyone have been Humankind, Old World, and Millennia. While Old World has its followers, it is much more limited in scope than Civ or the other two recent attempts. Both of those others have not received stellar reviews at the cash register or amongst reviewers.

If they offer mostly mediocre games, they should expect to get indications of mediocre interest.

 

[InsidiousMage]

Note that the recent 'strategy' (4X) games that have been released to 'interest' anyone have been Humankind, Old World, and Millennia. While Old World has its followers, it is much more limited in scope than Civ or the other two recent attempts. Both of those others have not received stellar reviews at the cash register or amongst reviewers.

If they offer mostly mediocre games, they should expect to get indications of mediocre interest.

And, disappointingly, Aria looks to continue the trend.

 

[TreVor_ish]

If they offer mostly mediocre games, they should expect to get indications of mediocre interest.

Let me use this comment as second like for this line alone.

 

[Kaan Boztepe]

the money demands the continuing quest for the ever elusive general audience for video games . that is why they are currently all in the live service with microtransactions. the "journalist" confuses profits with interest. the worst part might be that money dictates what kind of games are made.

 

[ezzlar]

The average gamer looks very different today compared to 20 years ago?

 

[Hygro]

The average gamer looks very different today compared to 20 years ago?

Less hair, more wrinkles, but still here

 

[Marla_Singer]

I think it's firstly a supply issue. If someone makes a great strategy game that takes the culture by storm people will rank their preferences higher. We might even see that if the line went node to node instead of being smoothed. With more and more types of people gaming, the strategy lovers probably early adopters of games in general, pushing down the demand side as a percent of total, the remainder is what game devs make and why. Rarely is there a solo Manor Lords type dev. Often are indie rpgs and platformers. Triple A's seeking huge returns would make something more accessible with paid seasons and collectibles.

There's the expected arguments about our attention spans. But nothing keeps my attention locked like One More Turn.

Totally agree. It makes me think about the gaming industry that was interpreting the failure of SimCity (2013) to the fact people were no longer interested in city-building games. Then in 2015, an obscure Finnish development studio released Cities: Skylines and its success caught the industry by surprise. What "Cities: Skylines" has done isn't rocket science though, they simply listened to city-builders fan and gave them the product they wanted. On the other hand, SimCity 2013 tried to adapt the genre to the current trend that was online gaming, with small maps to quickly create cities on single sessions, and it failed.

Rather than adapting all successful genre to the current trends of mobile gaming, as if anything needed to look like Candy crush to be successful, developers should really focus on what makes their own genre interesting, and try to grow something original from that.

 

[UWHabs]

Totally agree. It makes me think about the gaming industry that was interpreting the failure of SimCity (2013) to the fact people were no longer interested in city-building games. Then in 2015, an obscure Finnish development studio released Cities: Skylines and its success caught the industry by surprise. What "Cities: Skylines" has done isn't rocket science though, they simply listened to city-builders fan and gave them the product they wanted. On the other hand, SimCity 2013 tried to adapt the genre to the current trend that was online gaming, with small maps to quickly create cities on single sessions, and it failed.

Rather than adapting all successful genre to the current trends of mobile gaming, as if anything needed to look like Candy crush to be successful, developers should really focus on what makes their own genre interesting, and try to grow something original from that.

I wouldn't be surprised if over the last 10 years people have moved a little more casual in their gaming, and are slightly less interested in deep strategy games than they maybe used to. But to quote a famous movie line, if you build it, they will come. Give people a good game, and that can rekindle interest in a genre.

 

[DeutschDachs]

And, disappointingly, Aria looks to continue the trend.

Ara? Hm that one actually looks more interesting to me than any of those previous games. The graphics and scale are something I'd wish for in a future Civ game. The expansive cities feel much more alive than what you get in typical 4X games.

Only complaints I have so far are that you can only have a certain limit of cities and the Dev interviews are really really dryyyy. Though the last bit shouldn't affect gameplay

 

[pokiehl]

The Ara graphics are really ugly to me. I don’t know how anyone think it looks great.

It’s like a generic upscale of Civ 5 with a totally unmatched material-themed UI.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Personally, I don't have the time/attention to get into deep strategy games these days. I still try, but my time spent with Civ is a fraction of what it was in high school and college.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Ara? Hm that one actually looks more interesting to me than any of those previous games. The graphics and scale are something I'd wish for in a future Civ game. The expansive cities feel much more alive than what you get in typical 4X games.

If you hadn't spelt the name correctly I'd have assumed you were talking about a completely different game

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

I don't think a lot of people want to play games which take hours and feel like they're being punished for making the "wrong" decision however many hours back that now becomes inescapable without a reload or restart, and frankly, I can't say I blame them.
I've been wanting games like Civ to have "levels" like many other narrative-type games