He who plays is hardly naughty: What attitude do Czechs have towards computer and video games?

From connecting colourful balloons to the Champions’ League, from Tetris to the Cold War. At the moment, there is hardly any theme that has not yet been adapted to a computer game (do you know the one where one player, acting as a father, tries to babysit a child, while the other player, acting as the baby, tries to kill himself with a number of loose objects and kitchen equipment as fast as possible?). But who all plays games in our country, and how are we doing in comparison to the USA, the videogame Mecca? Stop playing Solitaire for a while and have a look at another analysis of the Czechia in Data!

How many Czechs have at least once a year turned on one of the video or computer games? “According to a survey, it was 56%. However, solely a mere half of them (27%) admit to playing computer games every week. These data follow from the newest comprehensive study “Videogames in Europe” which mapped the Czech game market at the end of 2012. What is also interesting, the players’ community is 44% comprised of women and, according to the survey, people in their midlife, surprisingly, play even more than teenagers. Among women and men, the most gamers belong to the 25 to 44 years of age category,” clarifies Zuzana Lhotáková, Marketing Manager of the SAS Institute Czech Republic. 

Out of the inhabitants of the Czech Republic with access to the internet, aged 16-64 years, 56% play computer games at least once a year. 

Czechs are quite conservative regarding gaming technologies. Almost half of the people questioned use a computer or a notebook to play games, a mere 16% use one of the game consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, Wii or other). Out of the people who considered themselves to be active videogame players, one in four enjoys them regularly also on a smartphone or tablet screen. 

Statistics regarding the other group, ie those people who do not have a liking for computer and video games are interesting as well. Their reasons for not-playing are also covered by the survey: “More than 67% gave the simplest reason that is that they were not interested in computer games at all. If we consider other reasons, the people questioned either do not have time to play (44%), have other hobbies (41%) or consider themselves to be too old to play (13%),” adds Zuzana Lhotáková. 

If I am to play, I play online!

Overall 90% of gamers play online, ie connected to the internet, where they interact directly with other players or at least compare the results achieved. Over half of the players “meet” online with people at random, 40% meet their friends and 27% meet their family and relatives. An interesting sociologic-psychological fact at the end: Altogether, 24% of gamers stated they play online games with friends. However, this is with friends they have never met in real life. 

24% of gamers play online games with friends they have never met in real life. 

Mobile games as the software companies’ main source of income

Games on mobile devices keep cutting themselves a bigger and bigger share of the market. According to a worldwide study Technology, Media and Telecommunication Predictions of Deloitte, in 2016, they should even become the main gaming platform and as for software companies, they should generate income of USD 35 billion. It is anticipated that computer games will end up second, with income of USD 32 billion and third place will be reserved for gaming consoles with income of USD 28 billion. “Mobile gaming enjoys growing popularity which in connection with a great base of smartphones and tablets (estimated worldwide numbers amount to roughly 3.5 billion devices, out of which half have some games installed) enables a 20% growth in comparison to 2015,” clarifies Petr Viktora, Partner in charge of the Deloitte Digital Consulting Team. 

Another difference compared to computer and console games is represented by low barriers to entering this branch. While the development of computer games costs tens of millions of dollars and it even takes a number of years before the game is ready to be presented to the customer, programming a game for a mobile device might take just a few days or even hours. “At the beginning of 2016, virtual stores will offer over 800 thousand titles which is almost 50 times as much as the number of computer and console games. What is more, about 500 new games are being introduced on the market every day,” adds Petr Viktora. 

Half of the overall 3.5 billion devices have got games installed. 

Videogames – a traditional amusement for US mothers?

What can be interesting and what disturbs the stereotype of a gamer – a teenage boy, is the gentle sex’s share in the number of players (even though such characterisation as the “gentle sex” is at least disputable in case of someone who regularly shoots her enemies’ heads off, ravages less developed regions with her monsters’ army or collects red cards for brutal fouls in football simulators). In fact, there are twice as many 18+ women (33%) in the gamers’ community than boys under 18 years of age (15%). In most cases, a woman-gamer is 43, whereas men are usually eight years younger. 

A number of psychology studies have concluded that playing computer games eliminates one’s contact with his or her close surroundings. However, 54% of Americans stated in the survey that videogames help them maintain contact with friends, and 54% of them regularly spend time playing games with their family. More than 15% of the people questioned admitted playing videogames with a partner, one percent more admitted spending time playing with their parents regularly. When we look at the problem from the “other side”, almost 60% of US parents play computer games with their children at least once a week. The majority of them simply like it, about half consider it to be a way to check that the content of the games is “harmless”. 

And how do the players choose with which games to play in their free time? “Games are chosen not solely according to the preferences of the individual players, but also depending on their age. Younger players around 20 years of age tend to enjoy thrilling games the most, where every second counts as it can lead to victory or to an end. Compared to this, 30+ players prefer calmer games where they have to consider the strategy. However, the reason to play is the same with both groups. It is a form of relaxation, a possibility to “turn off” and escape from the worries of everyday rush. With a little exaggeration one could say that gaming is a specific kind of meditation,” explainsBožena Řežábová, the founder of the ambitious Gamee project, a social game application that enables its users to connect with their contacts on social networks and compete with them in simple miniature games. 

Today’s phenomenon? Not more realistic, but more angular!

Today, the environment in which most of the actions take place is almost equal to the real world. However, one of today’s phenomena eludes these trends, as the third most played game in 2015 was Minecraft. The main character, angular as an old TV, builds an angular landscape with angular houses out of angular building blocks, where he breeds angular pigs or angular sheep, is being attacked by angular leopards or angular spiders and has to be wary of zombies and skeletons that are just as angular. Since the first issue in 2011, this world has captured more than 70 million users (talking only about official copies sold). Every second, you could find between one and three million people building their sharply shaped landscape worldwide. In 2014, Microsoft paid for the rights to this game an astronomic amount of USD 2.5 billion. 

“What is interesting about Minecraft is its popularity with children. For me, with its simple graphics, the game bears a touch of 80s or 90s nostalgia. For my 12 year old daughter and about a third of her classmates, it is a virtual world with amazing possibilities to which they travel more often than to any other entertainment. Its worldwide popularity was the reason for the development of a special editionMinecraftEdu, where the Minecraft environment is seriously used at school. With the anticipated distribution of virtual reality means, a growing use of game platforms (also of other types than Minecraft), is to be anticipated in a number of fields of education. The question remains, whether games with educative themes will remain just as amusing for the kids,” says Jiří Svačina, senior consultant at Unicorn Systems, an IT company. 

Sources: Deloitte’s Predictions for the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Sectors; Videogames in Europe: Consumer Study of Interactive Software Federation of Europe 

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