Research
Outside Perspective on Fantasy Genre
Fantasy is a popular genre, having found a home for itself in almost every medium. While fantasy art and recently fantasy films have been increasingly popular, it is fantasy literature which has always been the genre's primary medium.
Fantasy role-playing games cross several different media. Dungeons & Dragons was the first tabletop role-playing game, and remains the most successful and influential. The science fantasy role-playing game series Final Fantasy has been an icon of the role-playing video game genre (as of 2012 still among the top ten best-selling video game franchises). The first collectible card game, Magic: The Gathering, has a fantasy theme, and is similarly dominant in the industry.
Fantasy in Games
Fantasy games have been one of the major genre publications in the video game industry. With the fantasy genre, game developers have almost no limit on what they can create. The story, characters, locations, items, environment and any other elements of the game can be made adjusted or developed without any restrictions.
Gaming Trends
The Fantasy genre goes back further than games. It has moved from the text based adventure, being restricted by hardware, eventually the text based titles were followed by the point and click adventures and role playing games. With the internet the online RPG’s based in fantasy started to come alive. There’s has also been some fantasy games in the strategy genre and even some first person shooters adopted the theme. But common fantasy games are still either an adventure or a RPG.
Audience Profiling
"In these modern times, where most of us sit at computers or face a bland commute, fantasy offer a chance to break out of mundane moments," says Mark Newton, an editor with the genre publisher Solaris and the author of the forthcoming Nights of Villjamur. "People like to explore greater themes - themes that go beyond the limited palette that literary fiction claims to offer. Anything is possible in fantasy, and the genre can exercise our ability to think, and to wonder."
Defining an audience for the fantasy genre can be as sophisticated as the human psychology. As for fantasy based games, they need a deep and emotional lore (back story), to ‘hit home’ with the player. Fantasy is for the open minded, teens and young adults. Theoretically fantasy is for any age range, but in practise is really depends on the type of person and if the story concept is strong enough to be able to engage the game and be happy with the results. So all fantasy games follow a story or backstory of sorts, so ideally the audience for the fantasy genre are people who like to follow a story in which anything can happen, that’s the essence of fantasy, being able to break the limitations of science. That itself is enticing to the audience, being able to not follow the rules of the real world.
In conclusion, the age range i am looking at is teens to adults. The audience follows a wide demographic; there is no limit to the type of people who can play this game. According from the amount of people I have questioned, I can determine that according to psychographic, the types of psychiatric profiles that will be interested in this, would be, Explorers and reformers. Because the world is vast, it will suite well with ‘explorers’ and as it is an unnatural environment due to the fantasy genre, it suites the ‘reformers’ as well, as they aren’t limited in the world, they can do what they want and not follow social protocol’s.
Primary research
Carrying out my own quantitative research I have gathered the result that 7 out of 10 people like fantasy games while 3 out of 10 prefer not to play fantasy games.
Questionnaire results:
Average age is 17
Do you play fantasy games, 10:1 ratio
Do you submit yourself to other fantasy games, 4:1 ratio with mostly answering films.
Other genres count:
Genres mixed well with fantasy:
None: | Sci-fi: | Horror: || Action adventure: || RPG: ||
Sales
Fantasy
Game Amount of sold units (million)
Dragon Age: Origins
|
4.31m
|
Devil May Cry 4
|
2.75m
|
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
|
10.59m
|
Dark Souls
|
2.14m
|
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
|
14.27m
|
Adventure
Assassin's Creed
|
10.53m
|
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
|
3.05m
|
L.A. Noire
|
5.23m
|
Heavy Rain
|
2.28m
|
Star Fox Adventures
|
1.87m
|
Shooter
Halo 3
|
11.73m
|
Medal of Honor: Frontline
|
8.92m
|
Half-Life
|
4.12m
|
Borderlands
|
5.01m
|
Killzone 2
|
2.88m
|
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