{"id":67,"date":"2007-11-17T15:13:12","date_gmt":"2007-11-17T22:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/?p=67"},"modified":"2007-11-18T13:48:42","modified_gmt":"2007-11-18T20:48:42","slug":"long-tail-of-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/long-tail-of-people\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long Tail of People"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently finished The Long Tail<\/a><\/em>, which posits that the Internet is changing the entertainment business by making the sale of niche products viable. In other words, iTunes can derive significant revenue from the extra million tracks it keeps around compared to a bricks and mortar retailer. This effect has yet to make a significant dent in the gaming market \u2013 although Live Arcade, Virtual Console, GameTap, and Steam are all quite promising \u2013 often because older titles aren\u2019t in a standardized format, unlike older film, music, and words.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, an important Long Tail effect is occurring within the games industry, just along a different axis. It is the long tail of online gamers. For publishers of standard boxed games, the world outside of North America, Western Europe, and Japan<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> \u2013 approximately 5 billion people – might as well not exist because of rampant and accepted piracy (see previous post<\/a>). However, piracy is a near non-issue for online gaming because players have to connect with the game\u2019s servers in order to get the real experience. Further, pricing can be easily adjusted for local markets so that WoW<\/em> costs one thing in China<\/st1:country-region> and a very different thing in the U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> The essence of this shift is that these 5 billion people are now on the map. I\u2019ve personally seen Internet cafes in countries like Lebanon<\/st1:country-region> and Brazil<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> filled with people playing WoW<\/em>. I\u2019m sure this pattern is repeating itself the world over.<\/p>\n

Usually the Long Tail concept describes ignored media or products, which have small audiences but cumulatively add up to a big number. The vast majority of the 5 billion people outside the retail game market are not going to start playing online game, but if a tiny fraction of them does, it would still add up to a big number.<\/p>\n

Take Travian<\/em><\/a>, a Web-based PHP strategy game which has attracted huge international audiences by localizing to as many languages as possible. Checking the “Total Players” category on each country’s server, there are big numbers from some unexpected places:<\/p>\n