Attention Span and Gaming; It's Key to Grow

Hello all!

I mentioned I was going to talk about the growth and development of the morals of gaming, but I decided to switch it up. I’ll write that article next week. Instead, I want to talk about why I think gaming will continue to grow as a media type and is the most adaptable to the trends of consumers. 

My first argument is one I’ve thought about a lot recently. It’s generally accepted that consumers' attention span is getting shorter, and while that’s an oversimplification of many different factors, in terms of leisure I think it’s more about an increase in content expectations and a major increase in options. Before I go into how gaming influences it, I want to go into those two factors. 

Firstly, an increase in content expectations. Part of this goes into the entertainment model social media has created, especially Instagram and TikTok, where the algorithm has built a system where it (with reasonable accuracy) knows the exact types of videos that their users enjoy, and pulls from a massive, mind-boggling database of short videos to serve up what it thinks people will enjoy the most. This model allows people to scroll for hours with a constant, medium level of engagement, few videos set up for disappointment on the next video, and if there is a video that isn’t engaging, it’s easy and consequence-free to scroll past it. 

This model has, in my opinion, set up consumers to expect to be able to skip past parts of entertainment that aren’t engaging or interesting to them, even if they are important to the plot of whatever media is playing. Books are a great example of how this system can adversely affect media types that cannot adapt. Books need relatively constant engagement, or else readers can get lost, and with the constant expectation of engagement, it’s near impossible for books to maintain those levels of engagement. (As I write this, I acknowledge this would at least be more engaging to my audience if it was a YouTube voiceover with footage of gaming in the background.)

But video games are a media format that can adapt. Games can be diverse, can tailor themselves to segmented target markets, and can adjust themselves and make games that are either shorter, or give more control to players to maintain their engagement. Video games are the only media where they are wholly able to be created, customized, and changed with new mechanics, gimmicks, etc. which allows them the unique ability to constantly make themselves over to keep up with short fads or long-term trends. 

The second factor is a major increase in choices, and this is seen across all entertainment industries. From the explosion of streaming sites, the variety of different short form video sites, to even the major increase in content creators on sites like LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. For gaming, not only is there an increase in competition outside of video games, but it’s also never been easier to create games, and the quality of games is based much more on the quality of the idea and play than it is the money put into the game. 

Because of this increase in games produced, it has become harder and harder for games that do not have large marketing budgets to stick out. It’s both amazing for game developers to create their dream games, and more difficult than ever for those games to become sustainable and profitable. 

For companies, however, I think this is the perfect opportunity to make more smaller games that can be diversified to specific markets. We live in an age of near exact information, so it should not be too difficult to find a specific subgroup of gamers who want a specific story, or want to feel more represented, and then make a game for them. That way the companies would have a better view of what the final sales figures will be, making setting budgets and workforce allocation better, and overall produce a product with a good budget to revenue ratio. 

If creating games has never been easier, then it comes down to the content and idea to sell the game. And those factors come down to market research and planning for how to best create games that will sell what they are projected to sell, and not go over budget or over time. 

The two factors of shortened attention span I mentioned were more content choices and higher expectation of engagement. In both of those areas, I believe it is gaming that has the edge over any other industry. Gaming is the only media type where it is defined by giving its users control and allowing them to affect the story they are in, be that they are following along the story and taking an active role for games like Halo, or choosing what to do in games like The Wolf Among Us. 

And that trend isn’t something that the gaming industry can just react to. Gaming is growing, and if I’m right, it will continue to grow bigger and bigger, and I believe it has the chance to become a leader in trend setting both in terms of what is in mainstream fads, and also it can affect the way people think, the opinions they form, and can affect the decisions they make, more so than any movie or TV show ever could. But that is an article for another time. 

My point is, people are still gaming for hours at a time. I still sit down and can play Baldur's Gate 3, Skyrim, Ravenfield, or Starfield for hours at a time and never get bored. Clearly, at least for my ADHD self, who does have a low attention span, it is still easy to get sucked into a game for hours on end, and just have fun playing. It's hard for me to finish a 10 hour show, but I've 100% completed Assassin's Creed: Black Flag three times. I think of all the media types, even short form video content, video games have by far the best chance of keeping people's attention for long times, and have the best ability to adapt to how people change and how society shifts, both for profit and to give people genuine feelings of joy, thrill, and any other emotion while playing.

Next week I’ll talk about how I think gaming can evolve morally, especially in telling underrepresented stories and remaining ethical, and then who knows where I'll want to go next, but for now, see you next week.

 Thanks for reading!!