19 Feb 07 Addictiveness = Bad!

Yes, you heard it right.

After reading a thread on people suggesting how they would change the gaming industry, a mobile developer, Flint from Smallfry Mobile, said that he would let go of the term “addictiveness” when marketing a game.

He said that if you market your game as “addictive”, you might lose potential customers. You might be baffled by this statement, but it has its merits.

We, as long time gamers/developers find that a game with an addictive quality is obviously a good thing, but if you look it through the eyes of the general public, it can be detrimental.

The public still see “addictive” as something negative, something that you become obsessed about, something that you can’t put down. An obvious example they connote it to are “drugs”.

I think it still depends to which market you are aiming for. The bulk of the mobile/casual market are clearly not hardcore gamers, so they would still see “addictive” as a bad quality of a game.

This doesn’t say that your game does not need to be addictive. Heck, if a game can be addictive, it should be by all means, just be careful when marketing your game to a certain market as “addictive”.

What is the moral of the story? Be careful what labels you give your game when aiming for a certain market.