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To: fyodor_ who wrote (37196)	4/24/2001 1:51:36 PM
From: Epinephrine	Respond to of 275872

<although I have to admit that I put that addiction behind me almost a year ago ;-)).> Fyodor, Hehe, me too, then I picked it back up again when I was going through some hard times and needed some oblivion. Short of drugs or alcohol it was the next best thing in fact I have actually heard it referred to as Evercrack before. LOL :) <MMORPGs do represent the "cutting edge" of female and middle aged gaming, though, and I don't think the 40+ (age) group has much representation overall (or even in EQ).> Let's just for a second stipulate mass game appeal as taken for granted (see the PS.) additionally let's say that a family that already has a computer discovers Everquest or a future game like it. The game appeals to more than one family member such as siblings (or since we have been talking about older gamers even children and parents) What is that family to do. They can't play on the same pc at the same time. Maybe they will take turns but then they can't play together. So in the presence of home networking, broadband connections, and cheap pc's they buy another pc. Admittedly this assumes a relatively affluent family with a certain amount of technical savvy. (Proxy server sharing the cable modem etc) But it does illustrate the possibility of continued pc proliferation that mass game appeal could create. I may be naive, I have spent most of my adult years (and all of my years of economic awareness) in the fairly affluent times of the 90's and haven't really seen consumer conservatism, and my view may be slightly skewed (Me and my roommate have 8 pc's and two laptops in a two bedroom apartment) but I don't necessarily think that the pc market is saturated. There is no rule that says single pc households have to be the limit. Depending on how future technology, space considerations, price, applications etc. evolve it may get to the point of one pc per person. Again maybe I am naive though. (shrug) all JMHO, :) Epinephrine PS: In reference to age and mass appeal: Hmm, maybe not 40+ but my impression is that at least half of the people I speak with in EQ are adults, that is just a general impression though so I could easily be way off. But I think that EQ and games like it are just in their infancy. As I mentioned earlier the next one by Sony/Verant will be "Star Wars Galaxies" and from the little bit I read about it they are making specific concerted efforts to broaden the game so that it will appeal to a wider array of game playing styles and game players. For instance they are trying to find a way to balance it so that you don't have to be a power gamer on 18 hours a day to get ahead and can just log on and enjoy the game, they are trying to get away from a purely level based system so that gamers of any level can group together fruitfully (no more not being able to play with friends because you are to high above them), and they are trying to put more gameplay possibilities into the environment so it's not so much just kill and gather like EQ. I don't know how all this will pan out or any of the details of how they will implement their plans (or how well they will do so) but my point is that games are already broadening in scope and that is good for upgrade cycles since we all know that gamers are notoriously at the forefront. (even if they buy low end they will still be upgrading)