Demographics are probably the most common way for developers to define their audience, but of all the ways of defining your audience listed here, the are also likely to be the least useful in helping you recruit the most suitable players.

Demographics are attributes used to describe a population, the most typical ones used being age, gender, and geography. The issue with using demographics as recruitment descriptors is that people are not playing your game because they are 24 years old and living in the UK, they are playing your game due to factors relating to the game’s appeal (story, character, purpose, visuals etc) and motivators (features, systems, social etc). Not only are demographics not particularly useful for player recruitment, they could even unnecessarily limit who applies. For example, if you send out an advert looking for 18-24 female gamers who like Match 3 puzzle games, would you turn away a 50 year old female gamer who likes these games also? Why do you think the findings might be different by selecting one gamer over the other if age is the only difference?

There may be exceptions of course, for example if you are making a game based around an IP aimed at children, then yes, it’s likely that you might focus your playtest participants in that demographic. However these situations are in the minority, in most cases there is no good reason to limit your potential playtesters by demographic information. If someone on your team insists on including demographic information in the playtest advert, then ask for a solid justification as to why such factors are critical to the selection of participants. Your default should be that demographic information is not used as a way of selecting potential participants.

It’s worth bearing in mind that demographics can have an impact on attitudes - your age, gender, and culture will likely be factors contributing to your attitudes.

Finally, age will be an important factor in playtesting depending on the intended ESRB (US) or PEGI (EU) rating for your game.

Key Takeaway

Demographic descriptors are often not a useful way to select potential participants. Exceptions can occur, but player behaviours, motivations, and attitudes are likely to serve you better than demographics when finding the most suitable participants.

Next: 30. Recruiting Players