You Don’t Have to Be a Nerd

I still get questions every now and then from people looking for advice on how to get their hands on a Nintendo Wii. But more and more, I'm hearing stories from people who've already scored one and are still rhapsodizing about it months after taking possession of the slim white console. The gushing comes from some of the most unexpected people. The grill man at my favorite New York burger joint told me last week that in his household, he mows down zombies in Resident Evil 4, his wife works out using Wii Fit, and he's introducing his son to the classic games of his youth via the Wii's download service. Similarly, a cardiologist friend of mine and his medical-resident girlfriend use Wii Golf to unwind; when they have friends over on the weekends, the same relaxing game turns into a fierce competition.

As someone who covers videogames for NEWSWEEK, I've marveled at how quickly the tastes of nontraditional players have moved from the margins of the industry toward the center. This is happening at the same time that geek tastes have taken center stage in other areas of pop culture: witness the summer movie schedule, which looks like new-release Wednesdays at your local comic-book shop. Hollywood observers may disagree on when the Triumph of the Nerds began (was it with the release of "Blade" in 1998 or "Spider-Man" in 2002?), but 2008 will certainly be remembered as the apex, with a quintet of comic-book-themed movies—"Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk," "Wanted," "Hancock" and "The Dark Knight"—at the summit. Yet while the tastes of the geekerati now dominate the box office (for better or worse), they're beginning to lose sway at home, even as the popular consciousness clings to the stereotype that videogames are the sole province of the same basement-dwellers whose predilections have taken over the cineplex.

Yes, the Halo 3s and Call of Duty 4s continue to sell exceedingly well. But it's titles like Wii Play and Guitar Hero III whose appeal to nontraditional gamers have made them the envy of rival videogame publishers. The fact is that when you walk into a Circuit City or a Wal-Mart, the games you're most likely to see these days are ones that will actually hold the interest of a nongeek. That's not by accident: games are increasingly being crafted with you, dear "average" reader, in mind. Several publishers have created separate divisions for these "casual games," as products aimed at the vast middle are known in the business. "Casual games are accessible, quick-to-the-fun games, with minimal time commitment necessary to achieve success," says Kathy Vrabeck, who heads up Electronic Arts' casual-games label.

A similar principle has guided the development of the wildly popular Guitar Hero franchise. Even though it first became a hit with hard-core gamers, its accessibility enabled core players to turn their more casual gamer friends on to Guitar Hero at parties and in office break rooms, says Kai Huang, cofounder of the game's maker, Red Octane. The subsequent success of Rock Band was a more accelerated version of the same phenomenon: "Since each original purchase needed three more bandmates to realize the full experience, a lot of family members, girlfriends and roommates got pulled in," says Greg LoPiccolo, vice president of Rock Band developer Harmonix.

As you might expect, there's a lot of grumbling right now from diehard players who feel marginalized by this trend. But the word from someone who straddles both worlds—"X-Men" screenwriter David Hayter, who's also the voice of game icon Solid Snake—is "relax." "These games will open up new audiences and new sources of revenue, which, ironically enough, will provide the funding for more-expensive, better-realized games for the geek crowd," he says. Your humble geek columnist approves.

© 2008