Not really seeing the issue....by and large this IS the gaming community. People from other demographics play and enjoy these games. So by catering for 18-34 year old males, they are basically saying 'target this area, we'll get the most players' and doesn't actually exclude anyone. If the majority of quests are made for the largest bulk of gamers, then surely thats just normal strategy. They aren't asking for your ID before playing the game, they just know who they are aiming the game at....gamers.

This is what I was afraid of.

The original WoW was a game for explorers and roleplayers. Even the PvP was that way, because there was no real reward for battling anyone, you really were just acting out the conflict between yourself and your friends on one side, and an unknown and nebulous enemy on the other. It was "open-ended" at an unprecedented level of quality.

WoW is no longer open-ended, with afk battlegrounds, arenas for welfare epics, lorelol, and raid or die. It doesn't look like WAR will be open-ended either... it will do its job very well, and be a very successful game, but in the end it will still be for 18-34 males who "like to break things".

I'll probably end up playing it anyway >_<

but will be rated Teen

I don't think anyone even makes games for a target audience I fit in, demographically speaking.

Damn. Guess I won't be playing this game, I'm 36.
Sucks to be me.
NOT.

WTF??? That was a fucking whiteboard.

No offense but im glad they're not targetting 10 year olds for this game. I can't express how oddly annoying it is to play with one. Not all kids are bad but there are those few you get that when things dont' go their way they spam the beegeezus out of you (course adults that act like 10 year old are just as bad). Plus it just sort of kills the idea of it being a teen rated game if you start targetting audiences younger than 13 to 14 years of age.

I'm curious to where this picture actually came from, this isn't usually how quest design is done at all. Not to mention that releasing such pictures without permission of the company is grounds for firing in some places. I know if i went around showing off white boards of stuff at our company I'd be on my way out the door with the NSA breathing down my neck no matter how silly the information seems.

Obviously you don't want "lets go make 10 pies and sell them at the market while wearing pretty pink dresses" sort of 'girly' quests (not necessarily meaning a girl will play them but guys and some girls will think of the quest as bizzarely feminine) in a game like WAR. It just wouldn't fit. Most quests from what they've stated previously will involve stuff to do with the war; thats something thats usually personofied as masculine.

Lets not kid ourselves there's honestly no true gender neutrality when it comes to quests. It all comes down to personality and taste, but if they need to put a label on the quest in such a manner most quests for War which would involve beating the beegezzus out of your enemy is best labeled by old world standards as 'male'.

Because we all know that women aren't as vicious, backstabbing, & evilly violent as men are (total sarcasm).

btw GO WAR! I can't wait to beat down some people! hehe

The problem I see is: when the quest designers are told BY RULE that they are to design quests for 18-34 males... Then they will do so. When deciding between a gender-neutral theme or a gender-centered theme for a quest, they'll pick the later.

EA_Mythic wants to access a broad and massive audience with their game, thus they should also design it for a very broad player demographic (10-year-old kid to 75-year-old pensionee).

Writing for an 18-34 audience doesn't mean you're excluding everyone else..Unless you read at an elementary level or below you'll be just fine.

Since this is a screenshot of an internal whiteboard and not a public announcement, I am not going to get pissed. Of course a company talks internally about how to make the bulk of its customers happy.

Had this come from a press release or other announcment, I would have wondered if they were planning on in game advertising or looking for funding because I can't see any other earthly reason for making information like this public in a mainstream way.

Personally if this was my event, (I am assuming this was taken by someone on the community leaders tour of Mythic's HQ on weekend of 8/4 and 8/5) I would have had all white boards erased and have my artists run around and draw special cartoon funnies for my guests. Things that were designed to be photographed and posted.

#1 means keep it simple then, right? *grins evilly*

That's not so much a statement of "we want to have this as our audience" as it is a reminder to the writers about who will be playing their game.

You can say exactly what you want about maturity, "niche market" or whatever you like, the hard facts are that the majority of people who are going to play WAR are going to fit into that demographic. It would be silly, and financial suicide, not to make a game those guys think is fun.

My mother is definitely not an 18-34 Male gamer, and I know she's looking forward to the game! Good target audience, but a good game all around, going to hit more of an audience than what they have planned.

However, the majority of PVPers that I know, fit into this category, so alot of PVP nuts will be coming this direction

To bad all the WoW kids have high hopes for the game. ("But Mr, the majority of WoW players are in their 20s.", did I ask you to speak? No! And obviously I meant maturity wise.)

If EA wants to make a niche game for a niche segment of the market and get niche subscription numbers, they can do that, though they wouldn't get my money for it. However, there are many people who are trying (and failing) to convince me that Warhammer Online is going to kill WoW. WoW did not get as big as it is by only catering to young adult males to the point of exclusion of every other gamer. If EA wants to make Warhammer Online a game with broad appeal, and WoW-league subscriber numbers, then they need to design with a broader target audience in mind.

I'm your not-so-typical girl gamer and post-modern digital diva (http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=9641&cat=677&ppuser=13039)

I defy the MMORPG marketing statistics since I'm NOT an 18-34yr old male, but a 32yr old married female and not hugely obese with absolutely no life. **ck you MMORPG marketing stats, *I* am a girlgamer! (ps. yes my 32yr old husband does game with me but he doesn't count LOL)

That is the MMO gamer demographic for the most part. This isnt surprising at all.

Not an exclusion at all, its just a good marketing strategy. The average MMO player happens to be male, and between the ages of 18 and 34. Not to say that younger/older/females dont play, but the majority are 18-34 and male.

Unless you play WoW, in which case its 12-14 males.

(Btw..that last bit was a joke =P)

Good to know, I guess!