There was talk recently about Blizzard catering to male gamers, one might say, a traditional subset of male gamers. I say, there is nothing wrong with that.
Everything that is bought/sold is geared toward a specific group. If you market to a group of customers and become profitable, you have succeeded in your goal to make a product and turn a profit.
If WOW were a restaurant, one could say they started out selling burgers, fries, and shakes. Now, people want them to sell salads, offer a meatless option, replace the cheese with a cheese alternative, use non-dairy in the shakes, use gluten free buns, use free range potatoes in the fries, add a breakfast menu, change the logo, change the uniforms, and on and on.
If I bought into WOW cause I was looking for burgers, fries, and shakes, and you add all that, I have no reason to stick around, and some other company will see the value of my dollar and they will open a place that only sells BURGERS, FRIES, AND SHAKES
Because they will complain and boycott any product or service viewed as offensive to anyone. You can disagree with the approach, but they will still try to make it happen.
Well obviously you do not pay attention to the food service industry that I have worked in for the better part of 30 years. Diversification is what the food industry has been all about since around 1994. Exclusive menu driven restaurants do not succeed on large scale for a reason in todays market. Your analogy is bad.
Perhaps by changing certain npc models from a natural female shape to one that no woman ever has without surgery? Like, at the end of BfA?
If a burger restaurant decided it wanted to remarket itself for the rich elderly matron market, do you think that would be wise, OP? I mean, look, they’re the real life equivalent of videogame whales. They have unlimited money and don’t mind spending it to get what they want.
As a consumer of overengineered products that have an appropriate price for people who like well made things I can accept your PoV OP
I don’t like cheap crap, I like ‘Buy once cry once’ goods but I know some people follow ‘it’s so cheap I’ll just buy one and when it breaks I’ll buy another as long as it lasts long enough that I feel like I got my moneys worth’ so I get tailoring a product to a certain group.
I was responding to your “what…where?” comment, which was open to interpretation.
How would Blizzard cater to the dude bro demographic if they felt that was their target market and it was safe to ignore other markets? Maybe make more female npc’s look like sex dolls, after years of complaints about female apparel becoming more discreet? And why did that art director quietly go away recently?
Eary 80s in a college class about business economics. Professor brings up how Jack in the Box just blew up the clown head. They were failing against the other food chains.
A guy came up with a long term plan of changing how the company worked and diversifying it’s menu, rather unheard of at that time.
This sticks out in my memory has the professor’s last thoughts on that subject were, “I guess will see if that works in about 20 years, maybe less.”
OP
But more to the point - comparing restaurants to a video game and diversity…or whatever the heck you’re going on about is utter horse manure.
That’s your opinion, and you’re welcome to it. I disagree. There are examples of successfully business that are specialist and generalist. I would argue that what made WOW fun is that is was a specialist that catered to a specific demographic.
I am further arguing that regardless of what is currently popular there is a market for exclusive specialized content. Its everywhere you go. There is nothing negative about it either. I am not saying that there is no place for those that don’t fit the WOW demographic, but that they are better served elsewhere.
If Blizzard becomes something unrecognizable, I will bounce, people in the comments can say whatever they want, but there will be a company to fill that gap, and they will become successful because I am not alone.
