France has always been a country of anything near perfection: the best-tasting cheeses, the best museums of high culture, the most romantic getaways, and many more. However when the rapid surge of Computer Age came to the country, it seems like it held steadfast to its old ways while slowly assimilating the benefits of this, in Aldous Huxley’s words, “Brave New World”. While other countries like the USA and Germany stomped the pedal really hard and produced more guilds, games, and monstrous gaming hardware, the French just sat back and relaxed as other countries created better and more powerful gaming rigs almost to the point of Singularity. Although France houses Ubisoft, one of the best gaming companies, and implements a healthy environment for gaming industries to thrive, it is the consumers that are kind of laid back when it comes to gaming. Why are French gamers like this?
1. They have other worthwhile activities to do
Despite the allure of homegrown games such as the Dofus and its sequel Dofus II, the majority of French gamers still don’t spend their whole day in front of computers. Aside from gaming, other forms of recreational activities still top the list of the French, such as reading books, making music, playing Dungeons & Dragons, and poker. This undying craze for poker that the French have is evident in the large number of casinos and poker houses in Paris alone. Aside from this, poker champs like David Benyamine and Bertrand Grospellier pinned the French tricolour in the international scene by winning the biggest events like the WPT and WSOP. Finally, their love for poker doesn’t stop with actual gaming; many of these players subscribe to online poker sites like Partypoker.fr/ to continue high-octane poker action wherever they go. No matter how big video games will be, it’ll take time for them to topple poker as the ultimate activity in France.
2. They are busy people
Video games, especially MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, require more than just financial support; they must also swallow up a huge chunk of your daily time in order to become the strongest or the most ferocious character out there in the virtual space. However, many of these players cannot commit fully to the grave requirements of video games. To them, work goes first, then family, then recreation, then everything else. And judging by their priorities, video games probably belong to the last.
3. They think there is no long-term fulfilment in games
This is the typical scenario with video games: you buy a title, pop it in the console, play it for hours, and finish it in a jiff. What happens to the game after you finish it? Should you get another title to satiate your desire for more games? While games can be used to hone your imagination and open you to an unlimited world of opportunities, they are thinking that a video game’s purpose ends when you see the credits rolling. After that, it’s as pitch black as death.
