The Business: Normies Just Want To Have Fun

Today, Normies and gaming as entertainment.

Normies play games--tabletop and video alike--for the same reason they play sports, do cookouts, go camping with friends and family, etc.: as a means of providing a structure for socializing. They don't play the game to be good at the game. They don't seek to dedicate hours of their day, or years of their life, mastering the ins and outs of Chess or Go anymore than they want to master Poker, Football (either kind), or any form of RPG. They want to show up, have a good time with the people they're with, and go home feeling happy and satisfied.

None of that correlates to clearing the latest Ultimate raid in FF14, or training hard to push for a Golden Gloves trophy, or impressing Gordon Ramsey- you get the idea. This is the thing gamers often forget--as athletes and fighters often forget--and those folks in entertainment businesses that rely on Normies suffer terribly for making this error.

Making a Normie-friendly entertainment experience means making something they can do as background noise while hanging out with their pals. You want to know why the most popular racing game is Mario Kart? Now you know; it's a party game. Same reason Mario Party remains a favorite across its iterations. It's why you see that the most popular titles in a genre are Normie-friendly ones.

Do you get now why Normiebux means "no commitment"?

This is it. Normies show up at a party, have a burger, chat with the host and some folks they (kind of) know for an hour or so, then leave for another party or for work or go home or whatever. They came, they socialized, they're satifsied, so they're done and they dip out. They may come again, or they may not, depending on how they're feeling that day and if there isn't something more to their liking competing for attention.

Constant auto-saves? For Normies. Automated matchmaking? Normies. Rulesets and mechanics you can explain in their entirety to an average 5 year old child in the time between putting in an order and getting it at Five Guys? Normies. Game designs that keep people in a game for as long as possible? Normies. Game durations of up to 20 minutes? Normies. Player sizes of 3-4 on average? Normies.

Put all of that together. That's Poker Night while the kids are in the other room playing Mario Kart and pizza's being (been) delivered. That's the wives playing Scrabble while their husbands are off in the woods hunting deer or on the water fishing all day.

Make that background noise actually require their full and undivided attention? That's when it becomes work, and work is not fun for Normies.

This is--more than anything else--is what should be considered when dealing in game design. Do you need Normiebux? Then you can't make your game require commitment, focus, or effort to succeed. That's when the game stops being background noise to faciliate socialization and becomes the focus of the activity in itself; it's the difference between being in the stands and being in the arena. You never want the Normie to feel like they're in the shit if you want his money; you want him to feel like he's at the bar, watching it on TV.

Why?

Because the Normie has a real job--be it a bullshit job or not--that require his commitment, focus, and effort. Far more often than not, he hates it and resent having to do it, especially if it's necessary for things to function and yet he receives neither payment nor prestige commensurate with the importance of the position to keeping everything going.

Normies still have plenty of options if you don't satisfy their expectations, albeit that is declining from the institutional sectors, so remember that when you sit down to make your game. Do you want your players to be playing your game while they're socializing at a party? Or do you want them to be work-like locked in, like professional athletes on Game Day?

Then remember why Normies still buy Monopoly and Scabble, why Nintendo remains popular with Normies, and you can find playing cards in gas stations everywhere in the United States. No one goes broke catering to Normies. They want to have fun. Give them more ways to have fun. Don't give them fucking jobs.