Even hardcore-gamers want notgames

[Thomas]

Right now this trailer is getting a lot of attention:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/cinematic-trailer-dead-island/710652

And while a bit cheesy (and about zombies..sigh), I think it is quite nice and gripping. It is also made in a (almost) artsy-fartsy way, reminding me a bit of the movie Irreversible. The violence is not the core or main point of this trailer, and instead of the usual gratuitous treatment, it actually feel tragic and desperate.

What I am getting at is that this trailer contains elements that main stream games are quite distant to. I would even say it is not possible to do something similar to this using the normal game design toolbox. Yet, the trailer is getting a lot of attention in gamers (ugh, hate that word).

My conclusion of this is that gamers do want this kinda stuff! They just do not know it and instead have some kind of bad gut reaction towards statements such as "more artists making games" and "remove gameplay and focus on emotions". So while we still want to be looking for new demographies, the current game buyers is very much a potential audience!

[Michaël Samyn]

Yeah, we probably shouldn't tell them that it's art we're making. Just let that be our little dirty secret among developers.
Or our Mysterious Dark Powers!

[Thomas]

Had to blog about it:
http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2011/02/dead-island-trailer-and-future-of-games.html

[Erik Svedäng]

Yeah, we probably shouldn't tell them that it's art we're making. Just let that be our little dirty secret among developers.
Or our Mysterious Dark Powers!

I like that tactic.