On Wednesday Penny Arcade revisited the topic of buying used games. Consistent with his earlier pronouncements, Tycho takes the position that buying used games does nothing to support game creators, and therefore anyone who wishes to support creators will buy only new games.

While this has the benefit of clarity, it is too simplistic. It ignores the nature of markets, and the difference between customer and audience.

Markets are More than Money

In the past Tycho has said that “used titles don’t support the people who make games. The sale doesn’t exist.”

This charge could be leveled against used books and used records, and even against sales of used cars. And in every one of those cases it falls apart.

The argument ignores the fact that games, like everything else that is bought and sold, are part of a complex market.  The used-game portion of that market supports the community, industry and artform of games as a whole, and as such it is a vital part of the ecosystem in which game creators earn their living. It is no coincidence that the gamers who buy the most used games also buy the most new games. Rather, it demonstrates that the value of a market is not limited to immediate exchanges of money for goods. And even when it comes to money, the used market is important. The option for a buyer to resell an item in the future increases the item’s value in the first sale. The right to resell is part of what the first buyer is paying for. 

Customers and Audience

On one point I do completely agree with Tycho. In Wednesday’s comic his character says, “You become a customer when you buy something from someone else.” Normally I would hesitate to assume that the comic character’s opinions are also those of the “real Tycho,” but the point is repeated in the day’s news post: “In a literal way, when you purchase a game used, you are not a customer of theirs.”

That is absolutely true. When you buy a game from a used game dealer, or a friend, or a garage sale, in that transaction you are not a customer of the game’s creator.

It is also true that “customers” are not the only important people in the world. If you purport to create art, including mass-market entertainment such as movies, music or games, your attention should go beyond your “customers” to embrace your audience.

Am I a customer of Penny Arcade? No. I don’t give them money for the comics they make. When it comes to their thrice-weekly comics, the customers of Penny Arcade Inc. are the companies who pay to advertise on penny-arcade.com.

Has Penny Arcade paid attention exclusively, or even primarily, to the interests of these advertising customers? Clearly not. If they had, the comic would had turned sour long ago and I would not still be reading it ten years after I found it through a link on Slashdot. No one, including the advertisers, would benefit from that.

An artist who focuses on customers, without concern for audience, will soon have neither. An artist who builds an audience will usually find himself with plenty of customers.

Building an audience means striving to make good work, getting the work out where people can find it, and making sure that anyone who makes use of your work — or at least anyone who uses it by legal means, which very much includes the purchase of a used game — has a good experience. If enough people associate your work with that kind of quality, a number of them of them will come back for more. And when that happens, there will be ways to make money — including selling things to those audience members, or charging advertisers for the opportunity to communicate with them.

This holds true for games as much as for any other kind of art. Used game buyers are game buyers, and those enthusiastic enough to find and buy used games also spend plenty of money on new games. I also suspect that the buzz produced by a game’s continued life on the used market helps promote new sales of the company’s later titles.

One of Penny Arcade’s commenters gets it right when he compares buying used games to buying used cars. Used car buyers know they’re not getting all of the things that a new car buyer gets. But do car manufacturers care about used car buyers and the experience they have? They should, and I think they do. Because the kid who buys a used Ford today and loves it is likely to buy a new Ford in a few years when he can afford it, and quite possibly a new Ford every few years for the rest of his life. The kid who buys a used Chevy and has nothing but trouble with it may swear off General Motors forever, and will definitely be telling his friends why. Neither of these kids was a customer of Ford or GM, but they still matter.

Of course there is a balance to be drawn. Eventually you need to get money from someone, or you can’t keep creating things. But game companies, like others, should try to make sure that everyone in their audience — customer or not — has a good experience. Certainly it makes sense to arrange for those who buy your work new at retail to have an even better experience. But no one who encounters your work should have a bad experience.

Maybe limiting online play to new buyers is a good way to draw this balance. Or maybe it’s a terrible way. I don’t know enough to say. But it is clear to me that viewing the market as split between Customers and Nobodies is no way to succeed.