Via the NeoGAF forums, courtesy of HylianTom, we have news today that 1up.com is taking a calculated risk and will not be focusing on Nintendo or those people who own its systems.
You can judge the grammatically challenged exchange (not because of Tom, as you’ll see) for yourself after the jump.
The exchange:
Over at NeoGAF this morning, I read an article about the Dewey’s Adventure review over at 1Up.com.
It didn’t take long for someone to suggest that 1Up hire people who are actually interested in Wii games. I had to throw my two bits in:
“Naaah.. that would make too much sense. I think it would be a fiscally wiser decision for 1Up/Ziff-Davis to continue ignoring/alienating next-gen’s largest userbase.”
This actually prompted a response from Luke Smith himself:
“Wait a second, I thought the Wii was expanding the Market and selling to alpha moms? I don’t think alpha moms are driving traffic to enthusiast websites. Now if the Wii is just selling to the hardcore, then your point is valid, but Nintendo’s market-broadening efforts and success aren’t exactly catered to by the enthusiast press. Some website or start-up should absolutely try and capitalize on that expansion.
“See, even if Ziff was alienating/ignoring the Wii’s userbase (and their [sic] not), but the Wii’s market-fresh expanded userbase doesn’t know they [1up] exist, it doesn’t matter and your attempted point becomes fanboy nonsense.”
Funny that my post elicited a response from him.
It seems to me that, in making fundamental assumptions about the Wii demographic’s composition,
1Up is taking a calculated risk with such a move. (Kinda like many third parties, now that I think about it..)
What we can conclude from this is that 1up.com does not consider Nintendo’s Wii or its expanded audience to be an integral part of gaming. I can say this because of the site’s own tagline: “Where gamers call home.” Can you imagine a legitimate news agency ignoring an entire sect of people simply because they’re new and different? Can you imagine them trying to sustain that strategy if someone who covers the same industry starts covering that group of people?
The thing is, people who have not gamed before, or who were put off from it for the past five years or so, are in fact searching for information on gaming today. Google traffic reflects this, as do small town newspaper articles posted online, etc etc etc. And their numbers increase every day. That a company or web site would actively and condescendingly brag that it is purposefully not addressing them is too much for words. I’d say it’s sad, but it’s kind of funny, so I won’t.