Modern Day Gamer

(Kendle) #1

This link has been posted elsewhere, but I thought it deserved a thread of it’s own, so here goes.

http://www.swertcw.com/default.php?c=download&id=483

This is a documentary following UK RTCW Clan 4Kings during QuakeCon. It’s made by an ex-RTCW player called SimonB.

However it’s main focus is on pro-gaming as a whole, and simply uses 4Kings as an example. It features interviews with several leading names in the gaming industry, including ex-pro gamer Sujoy Roy and Paul “Locki” Wedgwood, Managing Director of Splashdamage.

It discusses how gaming in general is big business and yet attracts little mainstream media coverage. It’s extremely well made (for a student still at college) and certainly well worth the download.

(ToeD) #2

edit: i was wrong :frowning:
very nice movie i hope this well get on the bbc :o

(Kendle) #3

Ah, thanks. I thought I read somewhere that he was, my mistake. But it’s top quality work by any standards, and yes I’d love to see this on TV.

(mouse) #4

the refreshing thing about this, is that it could show the (unaware) public the complexity of these kind of tournaments, and online gaming in general. Lots of people have a wrong idea what it takes to form a clan, make arrangements for wars, plan tactics, and actually win a match or two… This small documentary is a good example how big and complicated online gaming is, to show them where not nerds! (well most of ya ;))

(Kendle) #5

And also how “proper” Clans are a World away from those described in this thread and this one.

(puubert) #6

I’d say there’s a stigma amongst the older generation that game player (pro or recreational) are nothing but slack lay-abouts.

It takes money to run game tournaments, and the companies that provide the money aren’t run by people interesting in gaming. Until they are, money for pro-gaming will be very minimal. However, Korea is one country where the pro-gaming is a huge industry, and I can’t see why similar situations can’t arise in other western countries once gamers move into the business side of the industry.

(Kendle) #7

I think part of the problem, certainly in the UK, is that the Media have the wrong conception of what “gamers” really are.

There are a few Cable TV programs for gamers in the UK, but they’re aimed at yound teens and pre-teens, and are mostly console based. They don’t seem to understand that the serious money comes from the older gamer (as in late teen, early twenties onwards) who spends considerably more on his PC than gets spent on consoles.

I was interested by a comment that Paul Wedgwood makes in this documentary, which is that more people play games than buy cinema tickets. Food for thought!

(blushing_bride) #8

there is a common misconception that games are bigger than film/music/cinema etc. According to Seamus Blackley (develope mag issue 32, p6) this is all a load of bollocks. The basic numbers he quotes are (by the way this is revenue generated)

GAMES
US games (actual copies of games) 2002 =$5.5billion
US games hardware (consoles i suspect) 2002 =$3.5 billion
US games peripheals (joypads, memory cards etc) =$1.3 billion

MOVIES
US cinema tickets =$9.1 billion
US video/DVD rental =$8.4b billion
US DVD retails sales =$8.3 billion

MUSIC
US record sales =$12.2 billion

TV
US television advertsisting revenue =$54.4billion

PORN
US Leisure entertainment book sales =$9.5 billion

By the way Seamus Blackley is the man responsible for Xbox who now runs his own games buisness company. While he does not quote his sources he is basically a game buisness man and i doubt he would spread a load of bollocks in his monthly coloumn in a respected UK trade mag.

He also says
“163 million games sold versus nearly two billion served in the (cinema) threatre”

Bear in mind that these are all figures from the US. Howevere i doubt the situation is different anywhere else in the world.

(Kendle) #9

I’d have no idea what the figures are or how they’re arrived at. However I’d imagine people who play games play more often than those who don’t go to the cinema, and probably spend more money doing so as well.

The problem with accounting for the spend on game “hardware” is that it’s hidden in the revenue from PC sales, as PC’s are generally bought for more than the purpose of just playing games, and are not seen as a dedicated games device.

But regardless of whether the amount of money spent on gaming is more or less than this that or the other, the point is it’s a shit-load of cash and maybe it’s time the mass media woke up to the fact. :slight_smile:

(blushing_bride) #10

i suspect hardware revenue does not include PC’s at all. Im in 100% agreement with your last statement and i know that the games buisness is growing fast so it might one day close the gap a bit. However i did find it amusing that the sales of Porno mags is bigger than cinema. :beer:

(ToeD) #11

and how about free games? or illegal copies?
they dont generate income (so they are not in those numbers), but they can generate money if big tournaments are there for them.

(DG) #12

hmm, the figures I have are:

GAMES
US games (actual copies of games) 2002 =$55.5billion
US games hardware (consoles i suspect) 2002 =$35.5 billion
US games peripheals (joypads, memory cards etc) =$13.3 billion

MOVIES
US cinema tickets =$9.1 billion
US video/DVD rental =$8.4b billion
US DVD retails sales =$8.3 billion

Granted I made them up on the spot, but 80% of all statistics are.
btw supposably it is just games that are bigger than just the box office. Revenue is not that important, net profit is - specifically its ratio to investment.

(K:os) #13

Very good film

(blushing_bride) #14

hmm, the figures I have are:

GAMES
US games (actual copies of games) 2002 =$55.5billion
US games hardware (consoles i suspect) 2002 =$35.5 billion
US games peripheals (joypads, memory cards etc) =$13.3 billion

MOVIES
US cinema tickets =$9.1 billion
US video/DVD rental =$8.4b billion
US DVD retails sales =$8.3 billion

Granted I made them up on the spot, but 80% of all statistics are.
btw supposably it is just games that are bigger than just the box office. Revenue is not that important, net profit is - specifically its ratio to investment.[/quote]

dunno just quoting a buisness man

(Fusen) #15

Granted I made them up on the spot, but 80% of all statistics are.
btw supposably it is just games that are bigger than just the box office. Revenue is not that important, net profit is - specifically its ratio to investment.[/quote]

nah its 47.2 % are made up on the spot :drink:

Portable Vaporizer Reviews

(The_Jesus_Zeppelin) #16

thats was a cool film, but is there a modern day gamer 1. the link at top just goes to a search engine when i click it and i havnt cleared my history in about a week so i lost the adress somwhere in there. send me a link to modern day gamer 1 if you can.

(Kerunch) #17

Yes I’d like the media to grasp the idea about older gamers as when you buy a game which is really good and over a pint you mention it (this is only an example).You get this glazed look of WTF are you on about. All your enthusiasm goes down the drain.And that games show on Murdochs
cable company is muck I would love to slap the preseners with a wet fish
my god what are they about. :???:

(Locki) #18

I’m sure I said there were more people playing games than buying movie tickets, not that the revenue was greater. I own hundreds of DVDs and Games myself and am quite clear on which is currently the bigger industry :banghead:

However! Where does this concept of the games industry being $5.5bn come from? Our publisher alone has revenues of $1bn and so do EA - there are a dozen other MASSIVE publishers too. That’s forgetting game-specific hardware which you simply can’t right off as ‘also has other uses’ - like what? Gamecube as a door stop! :slight_smile: Actually come to think of it… my Gamecube is currently a door stop :slight_smile:

Anyway, take a look at the Department of Trade and Industry’s website: http://www.dti.gov.uk/industries/computer_games/ - especially ELSPA’s prediction that the world market for games and edutainment software will grow to $18.5 billion this year.

It’s already over a billion in the UK alone – It’s already bigger than the UK movie industry :slight_smile:

While it is true that total revenue from the movie industry is around twice that of the games industry right now, relying on that statistic alone is dangerous because:

  1. It does not take in to account that while the number of people able to buy and rent movies remains fairly constant year on year, the number of people gaining access to PCs and cheap consoles is rising exponentially. Both EA and Activision are breaking the US$1BN bar. You can buy a TV and play games on it, you can buy an business machine, and play games on it. You can play games on your mobile phone (badly :)) and on your Digital TV set-top box. However, PC’s do not encourage people to watch more movies unless they are DivX and there’s not a lot of profit in those :). Eventually games will sell more than movies. A guy from a company with a monopoly advising people not to get in to the industry is quite funny :). People talk about Counter-Strike having a big player base, but there are probably 75m people playing Solitaire right now!

  2. It does not directly compare the total number of games with movies and the relative profit margins or how long they are played/watched for per purchase and the resulting perceived value. Good games generally sell for £35 in the UK, while good movies sell for £20 each. Despite this, rental of both is equalising and as such the emerging games rental market is growing at a far faster rate than movie rentals. Eventually games will be rented more than movies too.

I love movies - I really do. As I said above, I have a handsome DVD collection, but my point in the interview was that it’s about time the TV broadcasters started to realise how big gaming is and report about it on television properly. After spending so much of my time commentating Quake 3 matches on TV shows (over 150 episodes at a last count!) I just wish a big broadcaster would finally cover multiplayer as an actual sport.

Paul/Locki.

(Kerunch) #19

Wow thats a big post,must have took forever. :banana:

(mouse) #20

If it took forevore to post it, it would have been here :bash: