26 replies to this topic

[SpleenBeGone]

There's a decently large market of people who's only computer gaming is facebook and mmo games like farmville and World of Warcraft. I believe this is an untapped market. Most of these people have no idea what it takes to properly run the games they play, and end up buying a computer that is way overkill, or under preforms in some way (normally gpu power it seems). I believe small, mini-itx based computers could be marketed to them, especially if they were combined with a simple theme to their favorite game.

Ideas?

[(V) (`m`) (V) ︵ ┻━┻]

What exactly do you need to run Farmville?

Besides extreme boredom and a low IQ?

[SpleenBeGone]

Decent hardware acceleration I guess. It lags my grandmas laptop.

[(V) (`m`) (V) ︵ ┻━┻]

Ah, I see.

In her defense, she's probably bogged down with all those offers for free ipads.

[SpleenBeGone]

Probably. >.>

[Bowsette]

Farmville lags for me and my laptop is pretty up there as regards specs >_>

I wanted to like Farmville. I love Harvest Moon and farming sims in general, but the whole YOU MUST HAVE 5 MILLION FRIENDS TO PROGRESS AND PLAY THE GAME 27 HOURS A DAY put me off.

[SpleenBeGone]

It's interestingly hard on computers. It's gonna be graphical power though, because my mom's laptop uses an e-450 and runs it great.

[Bowsette]

I forget what mine is, but it can run reasonably high-spec games on max >_> Farmville/Facebook games in general seem to overload it.

[SpleenBeGone]

What browser do you use?

[Bowsette]

Firefox, Chrome, Safari. None are particularly fast for games developed by Zynga.

[SpleenBeGone]

Weird.


So I've been tinkering with stuff. I've got the "Mid Range" model idea hammered out.
Mini-ITX Motherboard
AMD A-6 Processor
4GB of RAM
90GB SSD
In Win case
A massive 18.5" monitor.
Total hardware cost = $410.95

[Wolf]

How do you plan on marketing to these untapped markets?

also, save the big monitor for high enders, remember we have to install win7 on these too, which is costly

but I think it's a good idea

[SpleenBeGone]

One OEM disk can be installed on 3 computers though.

[Bowsette]

What if they need to reinstall for whatever reason? They'd need the disk, right?

[SpleenBeGone]

Most companies don't send a disk anymore, and charge you if you request one.

[Bowsette]

That seems a bit mean.

Thank god for Linux.

[SpleenBeGone]

It's really stupid. >.>
Actually, I could sell "WoW boxes" and basic email/facebook checkers with linux installed instead of windows.

[M_GORILLA]

yeah i'm actually looking for something to play mmo's on but all i can find are ones with chitty graphics cards, i don't need anything super fancy i just need something to run star wars the old republic. any suggestiongs for something under $500

[SpleenBeGone]

So I'm thinking, Sandy Bridge Pentium with a small graphics card, or AMD APU. Total hardware cost needs to be under $300 for the tower, the cheaper the better.

[SpleenBeGone]

Looking at some reviews, an AMD A6 triple core seems more than enough for most people. I've got a system build for $255.99, hoping to be able to go lower.