buzzcut

Over the weekend I had a chance to chat with a bunch of people who work in the Colorado ski industry. The key points that stuck out to me included:

• The skiing is a global industry that wants to expand.
• But expansion is often limited by the high cost for new people getting involved in the activity and,
• The marketing and program development tends to emphasize the hardcore over the novice which,
• Is problematic becaue the hardcore is the soul of the sport, but
• More people don’t ski that do.

Sound familiar?

In this short analysis, the ski biz and the game biz share a common delima. Over and over we let hardcore gamers set the agenda and it takes a lot of Wiis or Bejeweled to convince anyone that many more people would play games if they were just easier and more friendly to the first-timer.

To this list of symmetries between videogames and skiing I would add that both are leisure activities very focused on their environments. Where you play is one of the most important decisions you make–Aspen or Vail, Vice City or Norrath.

Beyond that, these features may simply occur as the result of any leisure-focus. Pastimes and hobbies can be defined by their fans, and fans of different abilities and time commitments create a hardcore in opposition to a fringe or casual participants.

From this I still have a couple of questions:

• Is this connection worth noting?
• Can we say anything about skiing or other leisure industries by looking at games. Vice versa, can we say anything about games looking at these industries?