With the enormous success of online casual games and the Wii, we've seen that there is a huge market of people wanting to play games. We've seen that a game made to appeal to the larger market of people can sell more copies, and gain more money, than those created for the niche market of people with the latest graphics cards. The more universal the appeal of the game the more successful it is.
We know this. This is true for most media.
But we find in other forms of media, the focus on the specific. The home video, the journal entry, the mother's lullaby. Sometimes these are incomprehensible to those outside the intended audience, and sometimes these are universal. What makes the difference?
Is there an equivalent in games?
I don't intend to answer these questions, only to bring them up, and muse upon them.
Generally familiarity with the culture of the work makes the difference. Everyone is a member of several different groups, be it nation, family, religion, political affiliation, etc. Each of these groups have distinct cultural norms, so when presented with a personal piece of media we might understand some of it based our shared cultural groups, and yet miss some of the appeal based due to the lack of understanding context of another culture.
So here are some clips to compare:
Here's one my brother made of my niece and nephew to show the family.
This clip is pretty universally appealing because it features little kids being cute. I think it's just human nature to smile at cute kids. But there are some things that make it more or less appealing based on the culture of the viewer.
For example they're singing the Christmas carol "Angels we have Heard on High" which is known for the long held out "glorias." If you know the song beforehand you anticipate that and you derive more pleasure out of seeing what the kids do with it.
I also derive pleasure from knowing the kids and anticipating their personalities. To me one of the best parts is when Petra (the girl) turns to Charlie (the boy) and says "Sing with me Sharptooth!" To fully appreciate this moment however you must first understand that "Sharptooth" is what they call Tyrannosaurus Rex in "The Land Before Time," that Charlie is always pretending to be a dinosaur, and that Petra gives different nicknames to everyone all the time.
I want to contrast this with a clip made by my other brother, which you probably won't get.
While there are some things here that most people will get, specifically the Hitler clip which is widely spoofed on YouTube, a lot of explanation is needed here.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church) people are organized into geographic regions called "Wards," which are roughly equivalent to the concept of congregations in other churches. These wards are sometimes given numbers, and sometimes names. The ward my brother goes to is the 54th Ward, hence the title of the video.
Within a ward there are several organizations with specific purposes. One of these is the Elder's Quorum, which in this case includes all the men of the ward. One of the jobs the Elder's Quorum has is to do what is called "Home Teaching," where the guys are paired off into companionships and given a list of several families of the ward which they are to visit monthly and be there to help the family when needed. The Elder's Quorum is led by a president, in this case Sam Fox, who is in charge of making the Home Teaching assignments and keeping track, monthly, of how many people are actually doing it.
The other organization mentioned in this video is the Relief Society which works similarly to the Elder's Quorum except that it includes all the women of the ward. The women are also paired off and assigned people to visit. In each ward the Relief Society is also lead by a president who makes the assignments and keeps track of the numbers of people being visited.
In Mormon culture people often joke about how the Relief Society always does better at visiting it's assigned people than the Elder's Quorum.
I could go on a lot longer explaining all the jokes here, but I think you get the idea.
I find this clip absolutely hilarious because I completely understand the culture, and I know all the people who it refers to. But because the clip is so centered on Mormon culture, without the culture it doesn't make sense.
So for my CTIN-534 class I made this game: Danny Boyle's Boat Driver, which mostly appeals to me because I know my Dad and his quirks. But I think there is something universal in it that appeals to others as well.
I'd appreciate some feedback on this. Does the game appeal to you? Why or why not?