I have labored on and off for the better part of a year trying to describe the idea of the conflict between appealing to hardcore fans and the casual audience, why appealing to the hardcores alone is a recipe for disaster, and explaining how many of today's media and genres are chasing a hardcore audience. I've mentioned these arguments occasionally, but I've yet to formulate them into something concise that those outside the little niches of fandom might understand.
Fortunately for me, Kasimir Urbanski of the RPGPundit managed to do in 140 characters what I couldn't do in 140 pages:
"They decided to bet on the loyal nerds rather than general population. This is always a death-spiral" - K. Urbanski
Once this bet is made, the general population abandons the medium, genre, or franchise, leaving only a handful of rabid fans as the audience. In short, sales drop. We've seen it time and again, from Babette Rosmund steering Doc Savage and the Shadow away from their pulp appeal towards the confines of proper literature in the 1940s, the anime moe boom and crash in the 2000s, "hardcore" post-World of Warcraft MMOs like Rift and Wildstar, and many others. You can even watch it live with Marvel, already publishing in a hardcore genre, as the House of Ideas tries to select just which set of loyal nerds they want to bet on. In each case, the creators bet on a short term solution and the easy money of a small rabid fan base, and cratered the appeal of their products to the general population. And when market disruptions happen, when the otaku propping up the producers' bets run out of money or interest, these media and franchises die.
Literary science fiction has been afflicted by a series of these nerd bets since before the Campbell Revolution. And many of today's scandals, such as GamerGate, Sad Puppies, and the currently brewing ComicsGate, are caused not only be the insertion of politics into entertainment, but also by the various media changing their bet to a "more select" set of loyal nerds. Why do you think that various cheerleaders crow that "Gamers don't have to be your audience anymore"? Or science fiction readers, or comic book fans? More on those subjects later.
"Chemists don't have to be the audience for your Chemistry Journal!", said no chemistry journal publisher ever.
ReplyDeleteSo it goes!
So sad, Marvel. So sad.
That was my argument against appealing to the 1% of the 1%.
ReplyDeleteThere's a false dichotomy at play between appealing to "Normie Joe" and the 1%'s 1% as if they are your only potential customers.
Normie Joe is what these people THINK is the normal fan and who doesn't actually exist. They dumb down and streamline their product hoping to hook all those customers who are only waiting you to speak down to them and allow the poor fools inside.
The 1% of the 1% are hardcore zealots who will buy anything you do, even if they don't like it, just because of the name or genre involved. They are statistically insignificant.
Of course I can't prove any of this, but I do know that a long time ago general audiences had no problem with a lot of the things in "geek culture" until they were destroyed by appealing to one of the two above groups.
I'm adamant that there is a middle ground. We just have to find it again.