This was my discussion board entry for Week 2, posted on March 19, 2024.
Hello all,
As I said in my introduction, one of my passions in life is retro video gaming. As I just turned 50 yesterday, I have a greater than ever desire to not let go of my youth. That desire has helped me to select my topic…and my targeted audience. Perhaps I’m exceeding the discussion assignment. This discussion assignment has somehow evolved into a rough-draft of what’s due on Sunday, but it does include discussion of my target audience. Please forgive the length. I got on a roll and guess I couldn’t stop. 😀
Picture for attention:
Proposed Topic:
I am going to discuss the features (and the few drawbacks) of retro game replication, which is a relatively obscure and niche platform in the retro gaming industry, as opposed to the far more widely utilized emulation platform. I will explain why retro gamers should choose replication over emulation.
Target Audience:
My target audience for my expert blog post is three-fold:
-Retro gamers who are unfamiliar with replication and are interested in learning more
-Retro gamers who are resistant to converting from emulation to replication technology
-Retro gamers who are curious about replication and would like to know what’s involved in converting from an emulation platform to a replication platform
What makes this worth talking about?
Even though the existence of replication has existed for at least three years now, the technology has been adopted by a vast minority of the retro gaming community. I doubt I’ll be saying anything that hasn’t already been said before. What I do aim to do is put the relevant information in a package that could either convince someone who is on the fence about adopting replication, or to persuade those resistant to change to adopt the new technology.
What makes me the guy to talk about this?
I have been retro gaming since the turn of the twenty-first century. I have done so on a myriad of platforms. I did my homework before converting to replication and did so over three years ago. I am very familiar with replication as well as how and why it is superior to emulation.
Sources and notes about my target audience:
As far as demographics, common interests, etc., to the best of my research no one has ever done a scientific study or poll to learn who passionate retro gamers are. As to age, it varies wildly. I personally recently read a poster in a retro gaming forum who identified himself as 23 years old, and I also found a story about retro gaming on AARP’s website (no joke. I’ll link it https://www.aarp.org/home-family/personal-technology/info-2021/retro-games-nostalgia.html). The closest I could find is the following linked survey of Gen Z and Millennial gamers that says 79% of them do play retro games at least occasionally.
https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/who-spends-the-most-time-gaming/
I do know from my own experience and observations that a vast majority of retro gamers are Gen Xers, those who had experience with these emulation gaming systems when they were new on the market in the 1970’s, 80’s, and early 90’s.
Concerning websites that retro gamers visit to discuss retro gaming, there are a host of them on the internet. Here are a few links to a few of them that will be relevant to my blog entry:
https://misterfpga.org/
https://www.reddit.com/r/MiSTerFPGA
https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming
https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/index.php
While I can find no statistics as to the percentage of retro gamers who use emulation vs. replication, I do know from my own experience in the community that those who employ replication are far fewer than those who employ replication. This will impact my writing style to my target audience as I will assume that most of my target audience will be familiar with the emulation technology, but not the replication. So, for one example, when I make comparisons between the two, I will touch on emulation while I will offer more detailed explanations when discussing replication.
Also, for inspiration, here’s a link to a blog entry that someone wrote explaining why he is a retro gamer, and he has 69 responses of others explaining the reasons behind their passion. I’ll tap into this to get a better feel for the tone I should take when addressing my audience.
https://www.racketboy.com/journal/why-i-am-a-retro-gamer
Some more sources and references:
These are some of the texts I’ll undoubtedly be sourcing through the journey of compiling my expert blog:
-The GitHub page of MiSTer FPGA, the technology that essentially is retro gaming replications
https://mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_MiSTer/
-YouTube Channel “Lu’s Retro Source,” widely accepted in the retro gaming community as the most informative new channel covering gaming on replication technology
https://www.youtube.com/@LusRetroSource
-Terasic’s website, which manufactures the DE-10 Nano board, the board that makes replication technology affordable
https://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=167&No=1046
