e-market paper

According to a report by the PEW Internet and American Life Project, 53% of American adults play video games (Lenhart, Jones & Macgill, 2008). Within that segment, the majority of video game players are college educated and between the ages of 18 and 29 (ibid). Men have a slight majority when it comes to likelihood to play video games and people living in urban areas and with at least some college education are more likely to engage in gaming than people living in rural areas or people with no college education (ibid). It was also noted that video game consoles like PlayStation or Xbox are the preferred gaming platform for kids and teenagers while adults are more likely to choose computers as their gaming medium.
Although it is still regarded by many as just a form of mindless entertainment, video gaming today has evolved into a social activity, especially among college students. Roughly 65% of college students report playing video games regularly (“College students and video, Internet, and computer games,” 2003). Many college students said that they viewed video games as a way to spend time with friends and many respondents said playing video games helped to not only strengthen existing friendships, but establish new ones as well (ibid; Jones, 2003). According to Jones (2003), women are significantly more apt to play online role playing computer games than men (60% women to 40% men). Jones (2003) posits that the ability to disguise gender when creating an avatar for online play is a significant factor in women choosing this type of game. In light of these findings, two online role-playing game sites were examined in terms of how they respond to the online gamer target market. The first was a text-based role-playing game, Alliance of Heroes, hosted by play.net (www.play.net/aoh). The second was the popular World of Warcraft Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game produced by Blizzard Entertainment (www.worldofwarcraft.com). Both sites were analyzed for their appearance, ease of navigation and quality of game information.