Email: SOE president says only gamers should be in the business

Hello Master Malstrom.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/soe-president-john-smedley-people-that-dont-play-games-have-no-business-in-this-business/

I think this Edge article is interesting, as I am currently playing my first game with SOE, Planetside 2. Now, I know you are not big fan of the genre, and that is cool, but what what SOE is doing with Planetside 2 is amazing in regards to developer listening to feedback. He actually gets on the game and plays it, which is kind of neat when you can see him (I have not).

Anyway, keep up the good work fighting against “creativity”.

PS. Have you heard of Mount and Blade Warband? It is like a modern Sid Meiers Pirates! set in the medieval age with very good arcade combat. Some of my friends have played the multi-player for thousands of hours, though the single player is my favorite.

I’m taking a break from MMO type games. I’ll check out Mount and Blade Warband.

I think the context the SOE president was saying was not that gamers should be in the game business but that ‘people who don’t like gaming’ shouldn’t be in the game business. Regardless, we should ask him, “What is a gamer?” And who gets to be a gamer? Do I get to be called a gamer?

Before the Wii came out, I was playing PC games and old game consoles. At one point, someone I knew came in while I was playing Super Mario Brothers 3. He was a fan of the new Xbox FPS games like Halo 2. He told me, “Why don’t you play a REAL game?”Apparently, Super Mario Brothers 3 was not a real game to him.

The games I like to play are considered ‘not real games’ apparently. I like Wii Sports. I like NSMB Wii. I loved the Virtual Consoles. But apparently I’m not a real gamer.

Lately, I’ve been really enjoying GoG and their games. I suppose playing those games doesn’t qualify me as a ‘gamer’. When I publish this post, I am going to turn on Rollercoaster Tycoon and play that (since I bought it during the sale that is on). Am I a gamer? People keep telling me I’m not. :(

So apparently a ‘gamer’ means only ‘games-that-game-developers-like’. If you were a fan of Wii Sports or NSMB or even Mario Kart, you’re not a ‘gamer’ because people in the Game Industry don’t like those games.