Assessing a player’s attitude towards a game, genre, or franchise can be useful if you are interested in expanding your audience, or reaching as wide an audience as possible. By understanding the attitudes of players who dismiss games in a genre the same as yours for example, you might be able to market the game differently to such players in order to address any concerns which hinders players from even trying your game.

For example, if you are making a MOBA then you might want to do research (interviews would be recommended to start with) around players who have never played a MOBA, but who are aware of them. What is it that prevents them from trying? Perhaps you game is suitable for such players, but they may never even try your game once they see the genre.

This relates to usability playtesting as you might want to run a playtest with players who have not considered games such as yours before. You should be looking to assess the features, systems, language etc that the team might consider ‘typical’, but might cause friction with this new audience.

Key Takeaway

Understanding players’ attitudes towards a game, genre, or franchise can help you to reach as wide an audience as possible by ensuring your marketing is welcoming all potential players.

Next: 29. Defining Players - Demographics