Practicum 4 - DCUO Demographic

In my last practicum post I asked the question to the class, "Are the majority of users on DC Universe Online fans of MMORPGs, fans of Superheroes and DC Comics, or both?" Since posting that question, I have decided to do a bit of research into the subject of DC Universe Online's demographic as I believe it is a critical aspect of the games success due to the games attractiveness to both fans of MMORPGs and fans of superheros and DC Comics. Using an app called Raptr, which is a social networking app for gamers, researchers were able to track the users who were playing DC Universe Online and the other online video games these users were playing. According to the statistics, DCUO users were found to be much more interested in other MMORPG games, like World of Warcraft and EVE Online, then other comic book genred games, like City of Heroes.

Prior to reading these statistics, I had fully believed that the majority of users of DC Universe Online were more interested in superheroes then they were in the games MMORPG style. This was because of the lack of games garnered towards the strong communal aspects of the comic book community and the idea that MMORPG fans would have already been too busy dedicating their time to much more popular games like World of Warcraft.

Even though this new information does go against my original thought that the game was primarily comic book fans, I still believe this info adds more validity to my claim that much of DCUO's success comes from the rare combination of multiple demographics; comic book fans and MMORPG fans.