Yesterday's USA Today had a piece about Trip Hawkins, the founder of Elctronic Arts and now Digital Chocolate, who has had something akin to a religious conversion. As he puts it, "I realized I had been doing the wrong thing for 30 years." He now thinks the pivotal element of games' attracting and holding onto users is not fidelity to the real-world -- great graphics and so on -- but their support for the social dimension. Aha! People are the heart of the Universe 2.0!
[from USATODAY.com - Tech guru dials into gaming's social side by Kevin Maney]
Hawkins started to feel that something about video games was lacking. Madden Football might be astoundingly realistic, yet it's played by only about 5% of the people who watch the Super Bowl, Hawkins says. Participants in fantasy leagues — a very low-fidelity activity based on statistics from real football games — outnumber video game football players 3 to 1.
[...]
So, Hawkins spent time thinking about what people need, not just want. As we become more mobile, "There's a loneliness we feel in our society," Hawkins says. "We want to grab onto what we've lost."
And that's connection and community. People want to go to Super Bowl parties or interact while playing fantasy football, Hawkins concludes. Fidelity is important to an elite segment of the market, but social connection is important to just about everyone.
"I took the wrong branch," he says. "I thought it was all about fidelity, but what people want is the social aspect."
[...]
In this nascent segment, Digital Chocolate ranks in the top 10 gamemakers, according to research firm M:Metrics. The company has sold about 8 million of its early games. Prices vary, but subscription games can cost $2.99 a month.
Yet Hawkins' big bet is on the low-fi social games, and that's just beginning. MLSN only launched on Cingular and Sprint Nextel subsidiary Boost Mobile this fall. This month, MLSN will launch on Verizon and Sprint. AvaFlirting and a sibling game, AvaCars, won't come out until 2006.
I haven't played these games -- in fact, I don't play video games or phone games, in general -- so I can't comment on the play aspects of what Digital Chocolate is up to. But the basic philosophy is dead on. People want to connect with people, and games are just another means to do that.
