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Americans are so Narrow Minded - a GDC report

31 points by sadiq 17y ago

arethuza 17y ago
Speaking as a European - it seems rather ironic that the author is describing Americans as "narrow minded" for only being interested in following the big existing success stories when those are all American! A very silly article indeed.
j_baker 17y ago
I'm calling link bait. A more appropriate title would have been "the Americans I saw at GDC are narrow-minded in my opinion". The title is worded in such a way as to imply that this is some kind of "official" report.
- mixmax 17y ago
  I'm European and I agree somewhat with the author. It appears that Americans are indeed more focused on the one big platform or opportunity, whereas Europeans are more focused on the smaller untapped opportunities. It's a broad and sweeping generalization of course, and should be taken with a grain of salt.
  - ThomPete 17y ago
    I don't understand this. Smaller untapped opportunities are only small until they gain traction. There is no end to browser based games right now. Facebook started small, Twitter started small in fact most companies start small. The difference is just as likely that European companies haven't understood the power of using large ecosystems to leverage their own business. Instead they are puritans who want to create their own companies. When ecosystems like ebay, FaceBook and Twitter appear why shouldn't people take advantage of that? Business opportunity is business opportunity. It is very few peoples luxury to create something truly unique and in that game Europeans aren't really making any dent's in the universe.
    - mixmax 17y ago
      A very American perspecive :-) There are millions of opportunities that will never make you fuck-you money, but will afford you a decent living. They are often less risky because there's less competition. Patio11's Bingocardcreator is an example. No matter how much traction it gets it'll never be the new facebook. Europeans seem to be happier with these kind of opportunities, while Americans go for the homeruns.
      - eagleal 17y ago
        Just my opinion: I don't think this argument applies to America, but only to the Silicon Valley (SV) culture (and all influenced others). Generally people want only to have a decent living, while those exposed to the SV culture (usually), are looking for the big opportunity. EDIT: (Disclosure: I am an European exposed to the SV culture :)
      - jerf 17y ago
        I have to call sweeping false generalization. I can think ten local companies that meet that same criterion without even trying, and "local" for me is not Silicon Valley, either. Maybe some Americans try for the homerun and no Europeans do (I can't judge), but even in America by company-count, which I accept as a reasonable proxy of number-of-people-starting-companies, the "home runs" attempters are the outliers. And of course the VCs are interested in the home runs, that's the VC business model!
      - billswift 17y ago
        Actually, if you want to make a decent living, going with something with lots of competition is safer - at least you know there is already a market for that.
  - yardie 17y ago
    That's a very big grain my friend. :-) I'm not speaking for all of Europe but it seems like the only measurement of success here is if you are attached to a huge company that either invests in you or owns you outright. It doesn't matter what your marketshare is, it's who is paying for you. France and Germany epitomize this, huge conglomerates control 90% of what gets made and marketed. And exert an incredible amount of influence in politics. While there are plenty of opportunities to fill a niche, you won't receive broad support without the blessing of the few gatekeepers.
ThomPete 17y ago
Being an European having lived in the states for five years and coming there often having great friends it's pretty basic. There are morons and fantastic people in the US, just like Europe and everywhere else. It borderline absurd to talk about American vs. Europeans unless you are talking statistics and even there is problematic.
__bjoernd 17y ago
I'm a European and I know there are narrow-minded people over here as well.
dazzawazza 17y ago
It's just an opinion piece, stop getting your knickers in a twist. Of course it's full of hyperbole.
lutorm 17y ago
It seems to me this is how capitalism works. Those that say a free market economy maximizes choice I think are out to lunch. If you want exactly the same thing that everyone else does, then yes there are tons of choices (e.g. 50 different types of toothpaste in the store), but if you want something that's even a little out of the mainstream, forget it. Try finding electronics at an electronics store, where by electronics I mean something that isn't a shrinkwrapped gadget, like a breadboard, for example. Another personal story: I have fairly small feet, where by small I mean 39-40 in European size, which by no means is abnormally small. Finding shoes for me is a frustrating exercise because most stores don't carry sizes that small. And the thing is that every store stops at the same size, so if you don't find it in the first store it's highly unlikely that going to ten more stores will help. It seems to me that what the article is describing is exactly what happens: everyone rushes to the largest market with the largest potential and, while in theory there should be someone establishing themselves in the smaller markets, when deciding whether they want to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond, they go with the latter. It's like when you get to a fraction of the total market (defined in some way) and it's below 5% or something, it's not like only 5% of the actors in the market will offer something for you. Everyone makes the same decision so the selection quickly drops to zero. Thing came out longer than I expected, sorry for rambling.
- arethuza 17y ago
  So there isn't a large enough market in your area for a "real" electronics store - that means you are in the wrong place if you want to buy a breadboard in person, not that there is a problem with the free market.
  - lutorm 17y ago
    Do you really think there are too few people that want to buy a breadboard in Boston that the store would take a loss on having a few in stock? I think it's just not "profitable enough" for them. What I said was that the fanboys claim that the free market will utilize every opportunity of profit, and I'm claiming that's not borne out by experience.
shadowsun7 17y ago
Americans are very narrow minded. They seem to fixate on the “winner”, and pile in to follow the market leader, ignoring the other successful, profitable businesses or platforms that have got quite so big yet. Is this not true for the rest of the world? All industries are prone to fads. Just because the guys in the US - where, arguably, the action is - are caught up in this fad does not necessarily make them narrow minded. It makes no sense to extrapolate this to all Americans. (Note: am neither American nor European.)
teamonkey 17y ago
I see it more as a big publisher trait. The execs at the top are falling over themselves to use Twitter and Facebook and iPhone games. They've never used Facebook or Twitter themselves, of course, and they have Blackberries, but these platforms are making lots of money so it's important to stumble in to the market as soon as possible. Mandate issued.
pnelly 17y ago
as a European (Irish), I can say that it's obvious that Americans are pretty far from narrow minded when it comes to tech given the high percentage of early adopters in the States. Anyone launching a new service would be foolish not to consider America as a key market, if not THE key market.
protomyth 17y ago
perhaps his sample size was too small

31 points by sadiq 17y ago

Speaking as a European - it seems rather ironic that the author is describing Americans as "narrow minded" for only being interested in following the big existing success stories when those are all American! A very silly article indeed.

j_baker 17y ago

I'm calling link bait. A more appropriate title would have been "the Americans I saw at GDC are narrow-minded in my opinion". The title is worded in such a way as to imply that this is some kind of "official" report.

mixmax 17y ago
I'm European and I agree somewhat with the author. It appears that Americans are indeed more focused on the one big platform or opportunity, whereas Europeans are more focused on the smaller untapped opportunities. It's a broad and sweeping generalization of course, and should be taken with a grain of salt.
- ThomPete 17y ago
  I don't understand this. Smaller untapped opportunities are only small until they gain traction. There is no end to browser based games right now. Facebook started small, Twitter started small in fact most companies start small. The difference is just as likely that European companies haven't understood the power of using large ecosystems to leverage their own business. Instead they are puritans who want to create their own companies. When ecosystems like ebay, FaceBook and Twitter appear why shouldn't people take advantage of that? Business opportunity is business opportunity. It is very few peoples luxury to create something truly unique and in that game Europeans aren't really making any dent's in the universe.
  - mixmax 17y ago
    A very American perspecive :-) There are millions of opportunities that will never make you fuck-you money, but will afford you a decent living. They are often less risky because there's less competition. Patio11's Bingocardcreator is an example. No matter how much traction it gets it'll never be the new facebook. Europeans seem to be happier with these kind of opportunities, while Americans go for the homeruns.
    - eagleal 17y ago
      Just my opinion: I don't think this argument applies to America, but only to the Silicon Valley (SV) culture (and all influenced others). Generally people want only to have a decent living, while those exposed to the SV culture (usually), are looking for the big opportunity. EDIT: (Disclosure: I am an European exposed to the SV culture :)
    - jerf 17y ago
      I have to call sweeping false generalization. I can think ten local companies that meet that same criterion without even trying, and "local" for me is not Silicon Valley, either. Maybe some Americans try for the homerun and no Europeans do (I can't judge), but even in America by company-count, which I accept as a reasonable proxy of number-of-people-starting-companies, the "home runs" attempters are the outliers. And of course the VCs are interested in the home runs, that's the VC business model!
    - billswift 17y ago
      Actually, if you want to make a decent living, going with something with lots of competition is safer - at least you know there is already a market for that.
- yardie 17y ago
  That's a very big grain my friend. :-) I'm not speaking for all of Europe but it seems like the only measurement of success here is if you are attached to a huge company that either invests in you or owns you outright. It doesn't matter what your marketshare is, it's who is paying for you. France and Germany epitomize this, huge conglomerates control 90% of what gets made and marketed. And exert an incredible amount of influence in politics. While there are plenty of opportunities to fill a niche, you won't receive broad support without the blessing of the few gatekeepers.

ThomPete 17y ago

Being an European having lived in the states for five years and coming there often having great friends it's pretty basic. There are morons and fantastic people in the US, just like Europe and everywhere else. It borderline absurd to talk about American vs. Europeans unless you are talking statistics and even there is problematic.

__bjoernd 17y ago

I'm a European and I know there are narrow-minded people over here as well.

dazzawazza 17y ago

It's just an opinion piece, stop getting your knickers in a twist. Of course it's full of hyperbole.

lutorm 17y ago

It seems to me this is how capitalism works. Those that say a free market economy maximizes choice I think are out to lunch. If you want exactly the same thing that everyone else does, then yes there are tons of choices (e.g. 50 different types of toothpaste in the store), but if you want something that's even a little out of the mainstream, forget it. Try finding electronics at an electronics store, where by electronics I mean something that isn't a shrinkwrapped gadget, like a breadboard, for example. Another personal story: I have fairly small feet, where by small I mean 39-40 in European size, which by no means is abnormally small. Finding shoes for me is a frustrating exercise because most stores don't carry sizes that small. And the thing is that every store stops at the same size, so if you don't find it in the first store it's highly unlikely that going to ten more stores will help. It seems to me that what the article is describing is exactly what happens: everyone rushes to the largest market with the largest potential and, while in theory there should be someone establishing themselves in the smaller markets, when deciding whether they want to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond, they go with the latter. It's like when you get to a fraction of the total market (defined in some way) and it's below 5% or something, it's not like only 5% of the actors in the market will offer something for you. Everyone makes the same decision so the selection quickly drops to zero. Thing came out longer than I expected, sorry for rambling.

arethuza 17y ago
So there isn't a large enough market in your area for a "real" electronics store - that means you are in the wrong place if you want to buy a breadboard in person, not that there is a problem with the free market.
- lutorm 17y ago
  Do you really think there are too few people that want to buy a breadboard in Boston that the store would take a loss on having a few in stock? I think it's just not "profitable enough" for them. What I said was that the fanboys claim that the free market will utilize every opportunity of profit, and I'm claiming that's not borne out by experience.

shadowsun7 17y ago

Americans are very narrow minded. They seem to fixate on the “winner”, and pile in to follow the market leader, ignoring the other successful, profitable businesses or platforms that have got quite so big yet. Is this not true for the rest of the world? All industries are prone to fads. Just because the guys in the US - where, arguably, the action is - are caught up in this fad does not necessarily make them narrow minded. It makes no sense to extrapolate this to all Americans. (Note: am neither American nor European.)

teamonkey 17y ago

I see it more as a big publisher trait. The execs at the top are falling over themselves to use Twitter and Facebook and iPhone games. They've never used Facebook or Twitter themselves, of course, and they have Blackberries, but these platforms are making lots of money so it's important to stumble in to the market as soon as possible. Mandate issued.

pnelly 17y ago

as a European (Irish), I can say that it's obvious that Americans are pretty far from narrow minded when it comes to tech given the high percentage of early adopters in the States. Anyone launching a new service would be foolish not to consider America as a key market, if not THE key market.

protomyth 17y ago

perhaps his sample size was too small