One of the mighty tasks in effective marketing is understanding and targeting your specific demographic. In gaming, the face of the American gamer is often stereotyped, erroneously, as a young male, which overlooks a massive portion of the game community that non-gamers may be unaware of. Yet recent conversations within the gaming community may have misled marketers, entrepreneurs and strategists into misunderstanding the reality of who gamers are today. One of the biggest, saddest, and dare I say moronic, reasons in 2014 was the Gamergate controversy. The hate-fueled Gamergate movement stirred such intense vitriol against women within the community that several women gamers and developers were effectively forced out of gaming community for their own safety. I’ve heard of Gamergate...but really, what was/is it? Properly articulating what Gamergate was/is can be a long-winded explanation supported by flimsy rumors. Yet after peeling back the many layers, an explanation of Gamergate necessarily must observe the movement’s beginning as an attack on a woman developer, Zoe Quinn, when she was trying to publish her game Depression Quest. Reviews on the game had little to do with the content of her work, but rather were an invasive look - and attack - on her rumored sexual life. At the core of the attacks were accusations of her sleeping with different men while she was allegedly in a committed relationship. Yet as old fashioned misogyny gained momentum attacking her gender, coital behavior, looks, etc., an entire community banded together with the sole mission to “make her life irreparably horrible.” Vicious ad hominem insults swelled as the pack sent so many death threats she was forced to go into hiding for her own safety. While online aggression continued on Quinn, the more level headed participants in the movement began advocating that the attention Quinn would receive from mainstream media would be sympathetic and paint her as a victim. Therefore, other participants in Gamergate advocated for taking the momentum gained from Gamergate and focusing on other issues which include: An argument for journalistic integrity in game reviewing. This was because, ostensibly, a review written for Quinn’s game was favorable due to the writer’s romantic affiliation with Quinn - a point later proven untrue. A demand for purification in the gaming community, in that gamers should not be bothered with social movement discussions such as sexism or racism - they just want to “play the games.” A defense for the young male demographic, that gaming is their industry and theirs alone. Clearly, the conversation and purpose of Gamergate is muddled at best. However most people walk away from the Gamergate controversy understanding one thing - gamers don’t like women and don’t want them in the community. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Who Gamers Really Are - and the Opportunity Waiting for Developers Savvy developers and entrepreneurs would be wise to understand that regardless of the adolescent cries of the loud and hateful gamergater, women and minorities are bringing their talents - and wallets - to help the industry grow in new and diverse ways. Gender The reality on gender in gaming is that women make up nearly 50% of the gaming world. According to a 2012 report by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), women trail behind men gamers by a marginal 6%. In a study conducted just before the Gamergate explosion in August, Flurry found that women spend more time and more money on mobile games. Women are reportedly also more loyal to these games than men, as well as spend 35% more time in gaming apps than men. Further studies reveal that adult women play video games more than boys. Age Not only are women almost half of the gaming community, adults are just as active in gaming as those under 18. One of the reasons is those who grew up in the arcade era may have grown older, but they failed to abandon their former video game playing ways. The same ESA report put the age of the average gamer at 30, with 32% under the age of eighteen, 31% between the ages of eighteen and 35, and 37% over the age of 36. What developers are afforded in today’s gamer-scape is that while there is still a prevalence of young males, other demographics are just as dominant in the community - and playing a wide variety of games more than ever. The big opportunity in game and mobile app development is that most games are still packed with primarily male protagonists with a heavy dominance of white characters. Given the diversity of the actual gamer - why are we still building most of our games to target young males? Perhaps now is the time to think outside of the box, and build new kinds of games. What do you think? Respond in the comments below.

Lots of apps suck. Just plain, bad products that should fall into the undesirable pits of failure and leave us alone. Don’t let that happen to your idea or your app. There are plenty of ways to ensure your app is used, loved, and could even be the next big thing. Here are some tricks we’ve learned along the way from clients whose ideas went from concept to Steve-Jobs-like success story. 1) Make it stupidly simple. No no, don’t make your app stupid, make it stupidly simple to use. There is nothing more frustrating than taking the time to download an app, only to struggle with understanding how to use it. Provide a simple walk-through guide for first-time users so they understand what they are supposed to be doing with your awesome app. From there, remove complexity in every way possible. Your app should be a tool to make their lives easier or a game to bring joy. Therefore make sure yours is an asset to their app collection, not the complicated monstrosity they will be complaining to their friends about. 2) Avoid a bunch of advertisements. How many times have you downloaded a free or freemium app, and to use it you’re barraged with an unending amount of advertisement pop-ups? Or worse, ads over your listening experience. Take Spotify’s advertising model for example - while we appreciate the freemium version they put out there, users are pretty much bullied into subscribing monthly for the app due to the constant stream of music montage ruining commercials that keep screwing up your workout, especially that one time you were about to PR (personal record). Yes advertising can help fund your app, but remember there are lots of ways to monetize your app. If you choose to go the ad route, try not to overwhelm your user - because that sucks. 3) Keep your target audience in mind - and make them happy. As much as you’d like it to be, your app can’t be everyone’s best friend. Understand the person you are targeting and build your app with them in mind. If you try too hard to imagine every person who could ever possibly use your app, you’re just going to piss off everyone. Focus on the ideal user and make them giddy with your app experience. 4) Make it inexpensive or free. Everyone likes free stuff. That goes for your potential users too. Lower the barriers to entry and if you can, make your app free to download. If you do want to put a price on it, at least keep the cost down to maximize the people who will be willing to pay a buck or two for your app. 5) Learn from your audience. The Internet is filled with people with opinions. If they don’t like something you can be damned sure they are going to tell you about it. Listen to those who complain and yes, sometimes it stings a little. Just don’t forget the haters are always louder than the lovers. It’s therefore helpful to request feedback from your users to get the opinions of those who like your app and can tell you what cool things you’re doing right. You’ll probably need some positive feedback anyway as listening to the complainers and trolls can get downright taxing. 6) Study your competition. It’s helpful to understand your competition because you don’t want to reinvent an already working wheel by making a lamer version of something users know and love. Check out their model to verify that you have something unique that users can gravitate to. Sure, it can be a solution to the same problem the competition is looking to solve, but what’s going to make you successful is having taken a different angle and mastering your own competitive advantage. 7) Do one thing and do it better than anyone else. Sometimes people think their mobile app should be a mobile version of their web app, with all the functionality of the web app on the mobile app. This is typically the wrong approach - your app can’t be everything to everyone. Facebook recently realized this and is actually removing functionality and spinning them out (e.g. Messenger) into separate apps. Do yourself a favor and realize this early and focus on being an expert at that one thing. The point is, your app idea could be great in your head but flop on execution. The last thing we want for you is for that to happen. So don’t be a stranger, let us know how we can steer you in the right direction, whether it’s with us or another team who will help make sure your app isn’t awful.

We all have our heros. Richard Branson taught us why neckties are the worst. Steve Jobs demonstrated that simplicity can build an empire. Bill Gates proved that a diploma doesn’t forecast success - and that sometimes nerds can win the whole game.   Yet today we want to focus on another hero of ours - Ron Swanson.   Fictional character of the hit NBC TV show Parks and Recreation, Swanson is a no nonsense guy’s guy. A meat eating, Europe hating, screw-the-government, breakfast food enthusiast. While much of the humor spouted by the anarchist character is heavily tongue in cheek, there’s a lot to be learned about web and mobile app development from the father of stoic narcissism.   Here are a few nuggets of Swansonian wisdom that can guide you in your iOS and/or Android application development quest:   1. "Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.”     One of the most important things when building an app is understanding that you aren’t building a super robot that can accomplish everything there ever was. You won’t develop the Tweeting LinkedIn integrated CRM with chat functionality throwing Angry Birds that Crush Candy.   Find your niche and get good at it. Not just a little bit, but REALLY good at it. You won’t please every user but if you can hone in on what makes your niche users fall in love with your app, that is how you will experience viral growth.   2. “Turkey can never beat cow.”   A little context, Ron Swanson and Rob Lowe’s health nut character face off in a hamburger cook-off. Swanson simply uses a traditional bloody beef burger with nothing on it. Meanwhile Lowe goes above and beyond with ingredients, fancy spices, flashy decorations, and generally puts far more effort dressing up his burger-mimick than Swanson ever did.   Who won? Swanson with his beef burger.   Regardless of how much effort Lowe muscled into dressing up the turkey imitation, he still was working with the wrong product - and his audience knew it. Your audience is just as aware, and will see right through your product if you don’t do it right. Now there are two things we want to point out here: Be original - don’t copy another application.   While we believe in the idea of borrowing brilliance, we don’t believe in being a copycat. Facebook is the Facebook of all the Facebooks, so don’t build another Facebook. Make sure your idea is different enough to solve a real problem in the marketplace and is the solution people are looking for and can be excited about.   Don’t hire a second-tier development team - go for quality.   As the turkey burger is inferior to the beef burger, so are unproven developers to the experts. In mobile app development, finding the right developer who knows what they are doing may seem expensive on the face of the project. But in our experience, we have had client after client come to us lamenting the hiring poor developers to save a few pennies on the surface, only to pay for their mistakes and go to the experts in the end anyway. Do it right from the start to save yourself time and money.   3. “Crying: Acceptable at funerals and the Grand Canyon.”   Building an app is a long, well worth it process, filled with unexpected roadblocks and sometimes unforeseeable problems. We previously discussed the obstacles you may face in developing your application but in sum, remember to keep a cool head and know there will be challenges. This will enable you to lead your team with patience and end up with the product you all were hoping for. The point here is not to freak out and yes, the development process can sometimes be tough.   Through the same vein, Swanson gives us another good example of demonstrating toughness. During a typical meeting, to relieve an alleged toothache Swanson grabbed a pair of pliers. After moments of shaky tugging and pulling, he yanked out his own tooth. As his colleagues horrified shrieks faded down the hallway from fleeing the room, Ron turned to the camera to state, “It’s always a good idea to demonstrate to your coworkers that you are capable of withstanding a tremendous amount of pain.” Touche Ron, touche.   4. “There’s only one thing I hate more than lying: skim milk. Which is water that’s lying about being milk."   It’s not uncommon for salespeople to over promise what their product can do. However the companies that really get ahead are honest with what they offer and clear about their application’s capabilities. When you get to the final marketing process of your mobile or web application, maintain integrity in your marketing. Being honest about your finished product is what can earn you lifetime, loyal users.   Overall, building a web or mobile application is a process. Many steps must be considered and many people will be involved - but you can do it. And now that you have completed our bacon lover’s guide to app building, may we offer one final blessing from Swanson:   “Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into Swansons.”   Have questions on getting started on your mobile app, or already started and a little stuck? Ping us here and let us know how we can help.   Ron would.